I have busted my way through most of the game. Level 50 in raid mode, but I haven't replayed the campaign yet on New game Plus. My initial impression still hold, A very solid RE game second only to RE 4.
The one problem is that the game is more stat based than skill based. Not to say there isn't any skill in it, let me explain. In RE 4, the Grando are a very responsive enemy, they flank, they talk and most importantly, they react to injury in a very predicable manner. Blow away a kneecap, they drop to the ground, shoot them in the face they stumble backwards, both allowing you to do a wrestling move. R:R doesn't have this as a predicable gameplay element. You can still do a charged melee attack if you unload enough shots into the head, but that element is now controlled by a hidden stat in the weapon called Daze. There is also another hidden stat called stopping power which determines how much firepower it take to cause a knockdown. Shooting them in the legs is different than a knockdown as they still have the ability to move and attack, while knock down means they stay down according to an internal timer.
It now means that you can't place a single shot in the head or the knee to save ammo by preforming a melee move for large amounts of damage, then breaking out the knife to cheese the kill. In fact, ammo is mostly a non-issue unless you are just spamming the one weapon ammo type. Not to say there isn't any skill involved, there is a dodge move that will save you from a a lot grief which is entirely skill based. but once you find how much of it is stat based, it does take some of the wind out of it. I think it was done to make it more compatible with online play in order to deal with latency which isn't very skill friendly. Go ask the traditional arcade fighter about lag. It's more like a very light action RPG than a normal straight up action game. The one weapon type that doesn't really work is the rifle due to how close the spaces are more of the time, there are nearly no long range shots worth taking. You can quick scoop making it a mangum lite, but rifles remain my least used weapon type compared to RE4 where I found all weapons to be useful.
Reinforcing the stat based quasi RPG approach to the game is the random drops with the custom weapon mods found with the scanner or as fixed drops in Raid mode. There isn't really any inventory management besides picking 3 weapons of any combo and weapon mod slots.
All said and done, very enjoyable game, some of the dialogue is the groan inducing cheese that you expect from an RE game, the plot is as convoluted as ever with plenty of melodrama. The one hilarious thing I have noticed is that they have remodeled Jessica's breast size to something more realistic since she was first seen virtually busting out of her wetsuit in an trailer. She was busting out so much it went from sex appeal, to plain comedy. She is more reasonable now, in fact she is smaller than Jill! Err, how do I know that?, there is a character viewer in Raid mode. The models are very detailed. The graphics are gorgeous. The sound design is adequate simply due to the fact, unlike the not-Spanish, Zoidbergs don't make much noise. The voice work is good and includes the Japanese track making it a very cool option for the language purist out there. The music is appropriately nautical themed, orchestral set pieces that Capcom does so well. The controls take some getting use to since the pad just isn't as good as a real stick. I don't have a CPpro, but people online that have it can use it to spam soundbites as a very limited form of communication, they can also control the game more fluidly allowing them to shoot move while correcting their aim to the recoil where as I have to stop to correct my aim. CPpro is a nice addition, but by no means critial in anyway. It's such a shame that Zoidbergs don't have any personality to them besides some bosses.
There are some online connection issues, but that is more to do with Nintendo's still poor understanding of online and the underlying firmware than a Capcom problem. Mario Kart 7 is far more aggravating with it's connection issues. The 3DS just doesn't deal with firewalls too well for games and until I know the port numbers, I have to ungracefully place the 3DS in DMZ mode on the router. There is a buffer somewhere that fills up after a couple hours play online that crashes the connection on the game that some of the time requires you to reset the DMZ on the router or the game itself to get working again. MK7 is still much more aggravating and unlike R:R, there is no simple fix like restarting the game, it's just very random.
Score, with RE 4 a 10, this is an 8.5. A 9 if it was more skill based, a 9.5 if it had more personality and charm to it. But in the end, I wanted RE 4 and I didn't quite get it, not to say R:R is a bad game by an stretch of the imagination, RE 4 is just that good.
Final score 8(Compared to all games)