Resident Evil is widely considered as one of the best horror survival franchises out there largely due to the fact that its terrifying atmosphere and wide variety of zombie and other enemies gave players very memorable encounters and great gameplay.

For the next title in the series, Resident Evil 5, the development team at Capcom decided to make quite a lot of radical changes in regards to the design and the whole story of the game. The nighttime setting has been swapped with a day one, and the characters are now battling in an African country, where its inhabitants are the host of a strange virus.

But one of the most interesting aspects of the game is that it will be a direct sequel to the first release in the series, as it will feature Chris Redfield as the main character. The action takes place ten years after the events in the first game, and in RE 5, Chris will be accompanied by an African woman called Sheva, who will aid him in his adventures.

Jun Takeuchi, the producer of the game, recently talked about the character design, and stressed that Sheva comes to complete Chris' character. She is smart and fast and will prove a good companion throughout the game. Takeuchi added that Sheva would act as a guide for Chris, especially in the confusing surrounding of the African country.

“While designing Chris, we decided that since it's been 10 years since the original Resident Evil, he would be buffed up a bit. He's a little bit more burly, more of a tough guy than he was before. So when it came to making the secondary character, we wanted a character who would play off that and be different. So the most obvious difference was to make that character female. We also wanted to make a character who would be from Africa, now the area the game is taking place in, and be a guide to Chris, telling him about the different parts of the world he's not familiar with. So these are the kinds of reasons Sheva developed the way she is now.”

These are very interesting statements which give more insight on the whole development process of this upcoming game. For those of you who don't know, Resident Evil 5 is slated for a March 2009 release. Let's just hope Capcom will do a great job with this title and will deliver a high quality horror experience.