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Today's Bonus:
There's too many glowing/bad reviews from people that only played the demo and reviews that...aren't even reviews but just a paragraph of praise or hate.
I'll try my best to help out any potential buyers.
It would take all the room on the page to go into detail about all the gameplay changes but basically, if you've ever played Gears of War, the gameplay is very similar to it.
Pros:
You can change your characters handedness on the fly. Don't like having to play as Helena on the right side of the screen? Just press R3 and she'll switch to the left side.
Dark atmosphere. Even though it isn't scary they at least tried.
Smooth controls.
Inventory is better to accommodate the action. You just use Up/Down on the d-pad to switch weapons and Left/Right to switch items. You have little restrictions now except you can't swap items with your partner.
The skill system is nice. You can pick up skill points that drop from enemies and customize your character however you'd like upon meeting the requirements for the skills to unlock. There's skills that increase gun power, reload speed, melee power, recoil, accuracy, skills to not have to rely on your partner, increased ammo pickups, etc.
Cons:
Melee feels overpowered. Why waste tons of ammo on a zombie when you can just beat them up?
Zombies are back... but now they're faster, carry weapons like bottles and guns, and they're only in Leon's campaign. The majority of the enemies are J'avo, which are like soldiers that are half dead, smarter, and carry guns. The rest are your typical BOW monsters.
A lot of Quick Time Events and even some cheap deaths.
Turning off Waypoints turns off your HUD. This may be patched.
You can only restore one block of health at a time per pill. Any herbs you find have to be mixed to make more pills. It can be annoying in a heated fight.
Scripted events and lots of setpieces. You can no longer shoot zombies laying or sitting still like in the older games. You have to wait for an event to happen before you can harm them.
Pro/Con
There's 4 campaigns and 4 hours worth of cutscenes. Each campaign is around 5 hours long.
Chris' campaign is very action heavy and is like a constant warzone (Well he IS in the military now...), Jake's has just as much action, and Leon's campaign tries to be more atmospheric but it doesn't take long for the action to ramp up.
The 4th campaign is unlockable after finishing those 3. I won't spoil it for anyone reading.
Some people may like that this game is a lot longer than previous ones. I personally felt it dragged on because the gameplay is much faster paced and there was a lot of QTEs.
Too much action. Think of all the enemies in mercenaries mode in RE 5 + enemies shooting at you and you have this. Some people like it, some don't.
Final:
Honestly, I think this is what Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City should have been.
I love the classic Resident Evils more but still enjoyed RE 4, 5, and 3ds exclusive Revelations. This latest one is just too much of a change for me. It feels like it tries to appeal to everyone but doesn't quite accomplish it.
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Resident Evil 6 is not a survival horror game. Period. It's a top notch third-person shooter involving zombies, monsters, and biological weapons. The only reason I did not give this game five stars is because no matter how hard I try I cannot help but feel a little disappointed that it's nothing like the previous ones. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just my own personal opinion.
If you're reading this, then chances are you've already read much longer reviews outlining the pros and cons, the new innovations, and the gameplay mechanics. The only reason I'm writing this is so anyone who's still on the fence about buying this game can get a simple, calm review. A lot of reviews (good and bad) are so heated on this game that it's hard for me to read more than one or two at a time.
What eventually drove me to write this is going back and reading reviews of RE1 and 2. The complaints for those games are:
1. The camera
2. The aiming
3. The pacing (too slow)
4. The controls (move like a tank)
5. The "stupid" puzzles
6. Not enough ammo
7. Can't move and shoot
Now the complaints for RE6:
1. The camera
2. The aiming
3. The pacing (too fast)
4. The controls (move like an action hero)
5. The lack of puzzles
6. Too much ammo
7. Moving and shooting is lame
8. Zombies body parts fall off and can't shoot them in the same area anymore (someone actually complained about this)
I'll be the first to admit, RE6 is lacking big time as far as the "throw back" factor is concerned. However, I appreciate what they're doing here. I personally love the whole lay-on-your-back-and-frantically-shoot-enemies feature. I also like that I can actually melee instead of swipe the air in front of me with a knife hoping to make contact. I agree that having to wait for the zombies to move before I can shoot them is lame, and I had a bit of a struggle adapting to the assault rifle zombie (though he really just holds down the trigger in sporadic bursts that go all over, mostly hitting the ground). The J'Avo are NOT zombies. They are bio-weapons, superhumans if you will. They sometimes transform into other creatures. This I can accept. I had to adapt to RE6's gameplay. I do things like turn on a high difficulty and pace myself. Do I HAVE to walk down that hall with my gun drawn? Well, no. But I do because that creates more tension and I can take in the atmosphere more.
I was skeptical at first about Wesker's son Jake. It seemed pretty cliche and silly to me. Then I remembered that the entire story of all of them is. Again, this is not to say I don't like all the others, I love them. But honestly, the dialogue and voice acting has always been pretty bad. That's just one of the things that I fell in love with back then (along with tank controls!). Jake's story even has a Nemsis theme throughout, but that still isn't enough for some folks. Also, by the time I got to the second chapter of Leon's campaign (three hours in) there was some extensive puzzle solving. However, they do baby you through them via pop ups and quest markers. My solution? Turn off the HUD. It clears the screen up and makes the game more approachable. I don't feel like I shouldn't have to do that, rather I appreciate the option to do so.
It's things like these that I think offend some old school RE fans. I downloaded all of the previous ones a few months ago, and even got Archives for Wii. Those games are great, but they're not RE6. I guarantee the last time 90% of the people complaining about the new gameplay mechanics played RE1, 2, or 3 was at least 3 years ago when they got upset about RE5, if not longer. The point I'm trying to make to you, the potential buyer, is that Resident Evil has changed. Not for better, not for worse. It's just different. If you're hoping for a survival horror experience, it won't be found here. If you're expecting an RE revival, forget about it. But if you're interested in a quality, A-list third-person game with some horror elements, a lot of gore, and a plethora of fight-for-your-life situations (which typically involve ACTION, regardless of the game) then go pick up a copy. If nothing else at least rent it, and draw your own conclusions. Like I said in my Dead Island review, if you're this far into researching it, you're probably going to get it anyways. Thanks for your time.
Buy Resident Evil 6 Now
The Good:
+It's a rather good looking game
+The atmosphere in some of its moments are great
+Some creative set piece moments
+Fairly decent voice acting
+A less frustrating AI to deal with
+Some neat little gameplay mechanics make it in such as the melee combat
+Four different campaigns keep things going for a long time
The Bad:
-Far too many quick time events
-Inventory management is a pain
-It's easy to suffer cheap deaths due to poor setups, unless you know the danger is coming you might not be able to do much about it in time
-Despite four campaigns the game has some unusual pacing; there are definitely moments where the game is padding out its length and they're clearly noticeable
Resident Evil has a long and varied history. As gaming moves on Resident Evil has spent quite a bit of time trying to find it's footing. It's not necessarily an identity crisis so much as it is that the gaming landscape has changed so much that Resident Evil has to keep up in an area it used to dominate. The approach with Resident Evil 6 seems to be trying to mend as much as they can to give you what may be one of the most varied gameplay experiences you'll find in the entire series. In part because there are times Resident Evil 6 just isn't sure what it really wants to be. It's not really survival horror at this point, but that's far from some of the questionable choices made with Resident Evil 6.
The story is rather simple this time around. There's a big virus outbreak only this time it's of epidemic proportions. It's been a long time since the outbreak in Raccoon City and the President believes it's time to let everyone know the truth. Unfortunately, someone doesn't want this to happen. And before long the President is infected and Leon has to put him down. Beyond that the game mostly spans a narrative that tries to weave everything together. The cutscenes themselves and the narrative actually aren't bad. As it's easy to be taken in by some of the games cinematic moments. The writing, however, isn't very strong at all. There are moments that are quite laughably bad. This is to be expected from Resident Evil but some of the writing moments are bad even for Resident Evil. The voice acting isn't too bad, however, and overall the story can be satisfying--even if it feels a little overly long. There are four different campaigns to play, each consisting of five chapters. There are the three standard characters: Leon, Chris and Jake. Each of them has a partner. Leon works with a woman named Helena, Chris works with a member of the BSAA named Piers and Jake works alongside Sherry Birkins, who hasn't been seen in a Resident Evil game since the second installment over fourteen years ago. Complete these three campaigns and you'll be able to play as Ada.
It's the three campaigns where it seems Resident Evil 6 is unsure of what it is. As each of the campaigns plays drastically different. Leon's campaign feels more survival horroresque as the mood and tone of it recall a few things from Resident Evil's past. The lighting is done in such a way that you can't always see. You don't always know if you have enough ammo to survive what's around the corner and the audio is sometimes eerie. Chris, on the other hand, feels incredibly like an action shooter through and through. Jake's campaign, however, focuses heavily on set piece moments and quick button presses. It's a strange mesh of things that helps each campaign feel almost like an entirely different game. Playing through one campaign doesn't prepare you for what you'll face in the next.
Resident Evil 6 tries a few new things and tries to revamp others. The gunplay is perhaps the most noticeable difference right off the bat. Resident Evil: Revelations had a targeting system similar to that of Resident Evil 4 and 5 but the sixth installment does away with that entirely. It's a new system that makes aiming slightly easier and less problematic, although there's a lot one can do. You can finally move and shoot at the same time, although you walk kind of sluggish when you're aiming. Likewise, you can be knocked to the ground and shoot while you're on the ground. When you're on the ground you can also roll or shift away from the enemy or slide past them. There are also moments when you can take cover behind objects, though the game's cover system is incredibly clunky and almost not worth utilizing.
A lot of the controls may take time to get adjusted to as it's all been reworked from the previous game. Some things work out fantastically while others haven't been worked out well at all. Melee combat, for instance, is better here than it's ever been before. You can perform melee attacks much more easily now. Instead of them all being relegated to button prompts when they appear, you can now use melee attacks any time you do not have a weapon raised. Just a simple tap of a button and you can start performing combos. You can also go in for stealth attacks or change up some of your power depending on the weapon you've got equipped (for instance, with a rifle you may actually hit the enemy with said rifle). It's simple and at times can be more helpful than actual fire power as these attacks are incredibly powerful.
The same cannot be said about the inventory system at least. Inventory management is needlessly complicated in Resident Evil 6. One does not simply pick up an herb and use it, they must assign it to their case to be able to use them. While it's great to be able to heal at the simple press of a button once it's there, it's hard to be able to manage say your healing items in the thick of combat. You'll also find weapon and ammo. It's pretty easy to switch to your weapons as you can cycle through easily, and even getting to first aid sprays is pretty simple (but strangely not the same as using an herb), once you really start filling your inventory out you may find you'll spend quite a bit of time combining herbs and the like. But once your inventory is full you'll find yourself having to dump things from your inventory a lot. Once that item is gone it's gone for good. The problem isn't that Resident Evil 6 has a very limited inventory. It's actually that it's hard to manage in the thick of combat. You'll love to get some downtime to be able to requip some herbs or to use a first aid spray or rearrange your weapons and dump things you don't need. It's just odd that in 2012 inventory management is one of Resident Evil 6's shortcomings.
Combat is often satisfying, but CAPCOM hasn't exactly gotten rid of the partner aspect. You'll always have someone at your side. This time around you don't have to babysit the AI by any means. They'll never take ammo away from you or waste your resources and they will never be in danger of dying on you because they're pretty much invincible. Meaning you can have them soak up damage if you want. So it's unusual, then, that the AI is still fairly useless. They'll shoot enemies more here than they did in Resident Evil 5 or Revelations, but a lot of the time they'll still be off doing dumb things. You can praise or thank them for saving you and they'll start to use more powerful weapons as a result, but the point is that the AI is still mind numbingly bad. It's just that this time around you don't have to worry about it. Nevertheless, having a human partner is still better. And luckily you can play online or locally. You can set it so people online can join you or keep it private. You'll also be able to invade other players game as the enemy if they've allowed for you to do so. The downside to a human partner, though, is that the game can be mind-numbingly simple. Not that Resident Evil 6 is too hard, but most of your enemies aren't very smart. When you're on the brink of death they strangely take forever to take that final blow. A lot of enemies will stand there and simply let you wail on them with physical attacks while the zombies around them strangely sit around and watch. Even when hordes of zombies are around you'll find the game is pretty relaxed in most moments. That's not to say you won't die... it's only to say you may die unfairly.
In 2005, Resident Evil 4 introduced the concept of Quick Time Events into Resident Evil and since then you get the feeling that the games should probably do away with them by now. You'll never feel this to be more true than Resident Evil 6. It makes more use of quick time events than just about any game in recent memory. The quick time events come around constantly and are sometimes longer than you expect. Certainly it'll keep you on your toes, but it'll also cause you to die constantly because you simply aren't aware they're coming. It's not just quick time events that can cause cheap deaths in Resident Evil 6. Some moments you may needlessly die at because the danger just isn't pronounced. Meaning, if you don't know what's around the corner you might die first (but at least you won't die a second time). Early on in Leon's campaign, for example, I was busy fighting zombies underground that I simply had no way to prepare for the train that killed me. And my AI partner simply didn't warn me fast enough. It's not that I wasn't warned it's that it came too late for me to get out of the way on account of me fighting zombies so that I wouldn't, ya know... die (But I guess that really didn't matter, did it?). It was easier the second time because I knew it was coming, but it seemed like I died needlessly just to prepare for it.
These moments are pretty constant throughout the campaign. Bad setups and quick time events run rampant throughout. When the game gets on a good flow it can actually be rewarding. There is just a bit of a learning curve to it and a bit of patience required on behalf of the player. Some of Resident Evil 6's set piece moments are actually really good and shouldn't be missed.
The only problem is that going through all the campaigns sometimes feels rather long and unusually paced. You'll have to play through all of them to get the full story, but there are some excellent moments that are marred by slower paced moments that you wonder why they're included in the first place. There are definitely moments of padding in Resident Evil 6 that are used to make each campaign last. And by that I mean, each campaign is about the same length, which means there are moments when each campaign is given moments JUST to make sure they're all roughly the same length. At least the moments of fun and progress outnumber the moments where the game is clearly padding.
Graphically a Resident Evil game has hardly looked better. The environments are really detailed and sometimes there are little things worth noticing. When you slide across a table filled with papers, for instance, they go flying everywhere. The lighting is especially good here as you'll traverse moments that are brightly lit and go down hallways that are dark with very little light to see. It makes good use of technology. The audio is also very good. The screams and groans of the baddies you'll face are pretty good. The sound effects are amazing and even the voice acting isn't too bad (though they haven't exactly been given the best script to work with). If there's one thing that will always remain true, it's that CAPCOM will never skimp on the presentation of a Resident Evil game.
It's a shame then that Resident Evil still can't manage to be scary, however. The atmosphere is sometimes there with the lighting and eerie noises. There are even moments when Resident Evil 6 will honestly try to be what it was at the height of the franchises popularity. Of course, Resident Evil can't really be scary anymore when the fans are so used to all of the tricks it tries to do. So it goes a more action oriented route. Resident Evil 6 manages to take some steps forward with some of it's melee combat mechanics and even some of its gunplay. But it takes some steps back with it's unusual amount of quick time events, clunky cover system and poor inventory management. Players may certainly have fun with Resident Evil 6 but it isn't going to come without some frustration that could've easily been avoided with some slightly better game design.
Read Best Reviews of Resident Evil 6 Here
"In order to cure, you must first understand."
28 Days Later
THE FRANCHISE IN A NUTSHELL:
In the beginning there was a mansion, its surrounding property, and a laboratory underneath it. That was it. The game relied on mystery, environment, it's slow-paced, high tension, moody atmosphere. You had to save ammunition (the knife is your friend) not just for stronger enemies, not just in case of a horde of zombies, but because you don't know when you will REALLY need that ammunition; in fact, you were scared to use it. Hence, the genre Survival Horror was born (some people consider Alone in the Dark the first, which may be true, but Resident Evil was the first huge success). Resident Evil 1-4 relied on this Survival Horror system. Actually, it was more or less an attitude.
Yes, I did include Resident Evil 4 as a Survival Horror game because at the beginning you have a basic handgun and a janky shotgun--which belonged to a farmer, most likely--against these people that are not acting entirely normal (yet they're not zombies, which was SO refreshing--at the time) and a gigantic ogre like boss. In Resident Evil 4 there is a real sense of John Carpenter's The Thing-esque paranoia about the odd acting residence (which is essentially very true to the title "Resident Evil" in the sense that you're going against these residents that are, indeed, evil; and the Japanese title still concurs with the game, too). The deeper you go in Resident Evil 4, the less scary it becomes, but that's because you've figured out the mystery and now you're trying to solve the problem. But, the first half of the game is pure horror (the first time you go into the village is probably the scariest the franchise has ever been before and after)--and then even toward the end of the game, there are still some moments of horror that will get you.
Then there was Resident Evil 5: it was about a guy who killed a bunch of angry people infected with parasites and Star Wars' misfit monsters and Agent Smith from The Matrix made an appearance, but he dyed his hair blonde. Okay, I'm joking as you know, but that doesn't mean it isn't the truth. It was a decent action game (and Mercenaries was really fun with a partner) but not a very good Resident Evil game. This was always my comparison: If Resident Evil 4 was the Casino Royale of the Resident Evil franchise (a reboot which saved a dying franchise and breathed new life into it), then Resident Evil 5 was the Quantum of Solace of the Resident Evil franchise (gimmick after gimmick and an exploitation of the previous title's changes: what that means is that Resident Evil 5 said to itself, "Resident Evil 4 changed a lot of things, so I'm going to change even more things." A decent action game, but a horrible Resident Evil game from almost every aspect except for its dazzling graphics.
RESIDENT EVIL 6:
I thought that Resident Evil 5 was the Quantum of Solace of the franchise . . . but I was wrong.
The game starts off without explanation: Leon and an injured girl (Helena) are in a ravaged city--zombies are everywhere and a helicopter is seemingly shooting at you. You make your way through the city only for you to realize that it was just a very interactive title and credits sequence. At the end of the gameplay you see a monster's foot and Leon says something smart like usual and then we see the title--Resident Evil 6--and now you're in the menu where you can choose your campaign or its multitude of special features.
You can initially choose from Leon's campaign, Chris's campaign, or Jake's campaign, but choose wisely because once you pick one you have to see it through to the end. But, before getting into the campaigns, I'll discuss my general thoughts about the game.
The general critiques about RE6 have been quite consistent. Imagine that you have a person with ADHD that loves action movies--but is trying to throw in horror to appeal to the fan base--and is trying to put together a very elaborate plot without the necessary skill for storytelling to tell it. The game is very unfocused; you're not sure who's the main* villain--in fact, not even the villains know who the true villains are. And when you beat the campaigns, only the least important details are explained--and even worse--in mundane manners.
THE C-VIRUS (some spoilers in third paragraph): 1/5
From the very start of the franchise what interested me more than the mutants or the zombies or the ganados/majini, was the virus or the parasite used to create such monstrosities. Resident Evil was about the T-Virus (Tyrant Virus) and, if you take Lisa Trevor into consideration, the origins of the G-Virus as well. Resident Evil 2 was about the effects the T-Virus and the G-Virus (which resulted in a form of unstable biological immortality at the cost of the human soul or consciousness); Resident Evil 3--which takes place at the same time as Resident Evil 2--continued to lay down the foundation of the T-Virus, but as opposed to showing the G-Virus (which only Leon was going against), the game focused on to what extent the T-Virus could be used for biological weaponry. For instance, the Nemesis-T Type was designed by a European branch of Umbrella to prove that T-Virus test subjects could still retain most of their intelligence. And to test out this hypothesis: Go kill all the S.T.A.R.S. members in Raccoon City so we could kill two birds with one stone. Resident Evil: Code Veronica was about the T-Veronica virus (which is a little harder to explain, but it's important to know that it's a variation of the Progenitor Virus which is the basis for all the previously mentioned viruses). I'm going to skip explaining the biological agents in Resident Evil Zero because it's essentially the same as in the first game, and finally go into Resident Evil 4, which was a game changer. The T-Virus was mentioned; Luis said that he had scene a sample at some medical center: that means that the T-Virus has been ultimately erradicated from the world; domesticated, you could say. Resident Evil 4, however, brought in a new type of biological weapon--the Las Plagas. Although many of the Las Plagas experiments in RE4 were accidental and experimental--such as the big salamander in the lake; it was just a byproduct of the experimentations taking place. And then Jack Krauser (who has a previously unknown history with Leon, but was later explained in Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles), who was previously working for Wesker, pretending to work for Saddler, actually did take a gift from Saddler--the Plagas, which he injected into himself--and became more powerful (although I think the arm injure he had obtained against Javier in Darkside was a motivating factor). At one point, he mutated his arm. The point being, all the mutations in Resident Evil 4 made sense. And then we go into Resident Evil 5: the Uroboros makes perfect sense in a biological standpoint, because such a virus would need biological matter to grow in size; but it was the Las Plagas that didn't make sense. Ricardo Irving, for instance, injected himself and became a giant sea monster . . . oh, and he just happened to be on a boat . . . how convenient.
Now, in Resident Evil 6, we have the C-Virus. Unlike in Resident Evil 1-5, I have no idea what the origins are, I have no idea how its biology works (other than it is a conductor of heat in many ways); I have no idea, partially because there are no in-game documentation about this virus or the B.O.W.'s designed from it. That's frustrating, because I don't know about you guys, but in previous games I made sure I collected every single document and I read them. At the time I didn't even like reading books (now I do, but that's not the point), but I still enjoyed furthering my experience. Is it realistic that there will be documents lying around? Probably not, but it's more realistic that some of the insane, ridiculous action sequences in this game which makes the motorcycle majini in Resident Evil 5 look like Christopher Nolan realism. Does CAPCOM think we are illiterate and can't read or don't want to read? Or, are they* the ones becoming illiterate (by the way, the game does have documents, but they can only be accessed through Special Features; I read some of the documents on the B.O.W.'s and they're not really explained intelligently, and the explanation for some of them, like the Chainsaw mutatant, was downright laughable--appearing that a thirteen year old fanboy wrote it without a sense of what they were righting would be perceived as humorous)?
The C-Virus, oh the C-Virus. The C-Virus makes zombies; the C-Virus causes zombies to become obese, causes zombies to grow strange screaming organs in their throats, causes some zombies to become Liker-wanna-bes, and causes some zombies to still wield weapons--guns and bats and golfing clubs--and to still turn cranks occasionally to hinder your process (come on!); the C-Virus causes zombie dogs--which are identical to the T-variation (but what about cats? what about deer? what about raccoons? what about birds? what about animals that escaped from the zoo?); the C-Virus creates gigantic shark mutants, mutants that are three times as large as 4's El Gigante, mutants that somehow--through a C-Virus mutation--grow a chainsaw for a hand which has its heart inside of it (I don't think Neo-Umbrella designed this one through any scientific proceedure; I honestly think it just created itself by a naturalistic evolution of the C-Virus), mutants that are ripoffs of the Iron Maiden Regenerators from Resident Evil 4, or a snake that can turn invisible; the C-Virus causes hosts who inject themselves directly to still keep their intelligence, but to grow a lot stronger and to become mutated--they're called J'avo; the C-Virus causes a J'avo to mutate into a dozen different things, ranging from Bee-headed men that can send bees at you, spider-bodied men, the growth of wings, the growth of two long legs for super jumping, the growth of explosive larvi for their entire body, and more; the C-Virus causes some J'avo to caccoon themselves and then spore new horrors--lizard things (or, you can just say its the dinosaur that killed the fat guy from Jurassic Park), bunky bohemoths with rocks for skin, flying creatures, or a swarm of insects; the C-Virus is responsible for the coolest B.O.W. since Nemesis, Ustanak, the bio-mechanic super freak . . .
But how? The game never gets into the scientific aspects of the virus. That's something that I always loved about the franchise until Resident Evil 5. Now, granted, a lot of these mutations are very cool--but hardly any of them make sense. Unless of course they went through the effort of trying to make them make sense. Why couldn't one of their campaigns have been about figuring out how ONE virus could do all these things? Another big problem is this: the C-Virus is TOO GOOD. It'll put the T-Virus, G-Virus, T-Verinica, Las Plagas, and the Uroboros out of a job. Especially since Ustanak is one of the hardest B.O.W.'s in the series. You see the problem here, don't you?
They're trying to please the fans in unintelligable ways. I'm sorry CAPCOM, I'm not that stupid. And I know there are a lot of other fans who feel the same way.
GAMEPLAY: 2/5
Those of us who were good at RE4 were probably good at RE5; both games essentially had the same gameplay mechanics, aside from RE5's clunky inventory system. Well, RE6 throws that out the window in almost every way. The gameplay is what wounds the entire game fatally. I don't mind about walking while shooting, but I do mind about the unfixed camera behind the character. It feels like I'm playing a videogame adaptation of a movie in some points of the game. The weird thing is, the creators probably thought they were helping out the player by having a fluid camera behind them at all times, but really it gives me a headache and it's hard to aim my character when I need to run somewhere. The old system had its flaws, but this new-and-supposed-to-be-improved system creates even more.
Oh, and get this. You know how you could shoot enemies in the legs in RE4 and RE5 and they fall to their knees so you can do some interesting melee attacks? Well, in RE6 you can't shoot enemies to their knees--hence, creating less melee variety. I wonder which one of the creators said to the others, "We should definitely get rid of shooting enemies in the legs." It's a really strange decision they made that I don't understand the point of which.
And quick time events. There are tons of them, but none of them are as good as the Leon vs. Jack Krauser scene from Resident Evil 4. A lot of people have complained about this, but I didn't mind. I was just never blown away, aside from the final Ustanak battle at the end of Jake's campaign. That was innovative, I must say.
LEON AND HELENA: 4/5
Have you ever read an over bloated novel that could have been a whole lot better if the author cut out at least 25% of it? Well, that's what Leon's campaign felt like. His campaign is deliberately designed for the Survival Horror Resident Evil fan--you know, the gamers that likely hate on RE4 and RE5 because they have no Survival Horror (or a lack of); "zombies" return only* in Leon's campaign, and it also features some really cool zombie-variations (although I couldn't help but compare most of them to Left 4 Dead's super zombies). Leon's campaign starts off in an intense situation without much explanation, then travels through a zombie infested Tall Oaks, goes to a church which happens to have an underground laboratory underneath (there is sort of* a reason for this), then goes to China (which he randomly and too conveniently reunites with an old acquaintance immediately after the rough landing of the plane, which will undoubtedly make the player giggle with how unlikely the by-chance meeting really is).
Leon's campaign is the heart of Resident Evil 6. Leon knows Sherry, Leon knows Chris, Leon has a thing for Ada (who seemingly is/isn't the villain in the game), and by theory does the most important things in the game. The game's creator(s) deliberately did this because Resident Evil 4 was the most successful in the franchise.
The highlight of Leon's campaign is the atmosphere; the flaw is its overly bloated length (this campaign feels as long as Resident Evil 5 as a whole, and yet there are still two other campaigns--technically three more--to go).
CHRIS AND PIERS: 2/5
The first thing that you will ask is: what the heck happened to Jill Valentine? And who the heck is Piers? The game never answers those two questions, but it only hints at the fact that Chris never gave up the fight against bioterrorism after he saved the world from the Uroboros. It's a little jarring when we first see Chris Redfield; he's lost his memory and he acts like a depressed Tony Stark drinking and smoking himself to death in a bar in some country. Piers was his old partner and he recruits Chris back into the force (why didn't they just have Jill Valentine instead? I really don't know). Piers is one of the least likeable characters in the franchise just because of how bland he is and really has no purpose in the story or the history of the franchise. I would have at least liked some references to what happened to Jill Valentine, but I was left unsatisfied.
To say the least--and without spoilers--Chris's story is structured oddly; but, moving on from that, there is only one strength to his campaign. And that's when he and his team go into a building to chase a snake B.O.W.. It did not contribute to the plot at all (which is good, because RE6 is soooooo plot heavy that it gives me a headache); nope, Chris is just in a frenzy to chase down this snake B.O.W. at all costs (and it's no doubt a shout out to the first Resident Evil game). It's actually when Chris is walking the "screenwriters" path to keep the plot moving when I care the least about what's happening. The problem with Chris's campaign is that they--the creators of the game--forced his purpose in the game (I'd like to say more, but that would include spoilers) by giving him personal vendetta instead of just doing his job. A BSAA operative's purpose is to kill B.O.W.'s and to rescue civilians--it would have been a lot simpler if that's what Chris's purpose in the game was, instead of being so plot driven.
Ultimately Chris's campaign is a narrative mess. They tried way too hard with his personality, his past (by ignoring a lot of it), his purpose, etc.. Instead of just letting him do what he does best . . . kill B.O.W.'s and then--and ONLY then--discover what's going on in the grand scheme of things. The ONLY redemptive quality about his campaign was hunting the snake: that felt like survival horror. Although, on that note, I wish that Chris could have been able to save more of his team. There's no reward in inevitable cutscenes killing off the team. In that sense, CAPCOM is the monster, not the snake. In this Skyrim day and age, players need to be rewarded or punished for in game choices.
JAKE AND SHERRY: 3/5
Let me say this right off the bat. Only one element to this campaign makes it worthy of playing: the Nemesis-esque bio-mechanical B.O.W. which was designed and programmed for one thing and one thing only: to capture Jake Muller. Why? Well, if it hadn't been for most of the trailers of the game, then it would be a spoiler, but since everyone knows, it isn't a spoiler anymore. Jake Muller is Wesker's son. That's why he's important. Sherry Birkin magically finds him in a European country (she wasn't--but somehow was--trying to find him from the beginning. It's hard to explain. It goes back to a similar awkward narrative that the Chris campaign had). And she knows that he has rare antibodies that can save the world. Talk about taking it slow and letting the player discover the mystery on their own, which is a huge problem the game has in general . . . it treats the audience like everyone is a Michael Bay fan and doesn't care about story and characters, but only the spectacle and thrilling events. I think the usually-good-reviews that RE5 had sort of enforced this ideology that not-everything-has-to-make-sense-because-the-fanbase-doesn't-care-too-much-about-logic (why CAPCOM? Are you saying I'm stupid or just complacent with the mundane?)-just-give-them-zombies-and-they'll-be-satisfied. Honestly, I wish the creators took care in their story as if I was watching a Christopher Nolan film instead of a Michael Bay film. I think the Resident Evil fan base is too smart for some of the very illogical "moments"/plot elements in RE6; a lot of which are in Jake's and Sherry's campaign.
What I found most annoying about this campaign is that I thought it would answer the most questions, such as what "Ada Wong" is up to, and Jake's origins and what about the crazy awesome Ustanak B.O.W.? As cool as these questions are, none of them are really answered at all. They're half-baked ideas that never really formed.
When I played the Leon campaign, I thought that Chris's and Jake's campaigns would make sense out of a lot of random B.O.W.'s and plot events; when I played the Chris campaign, nothing was answered, so I was thrilled that the Jake campaign would answer everything. Nope. Not at all. His blood is important and that's all that you* need to know.
CONCLUSION:
There are moments in the game that are better than any moments from any of the other games. In fact, if they had trimmed anywhere from 25% to 50% of the game, then maybe this game would be just as good--if not better--than Resident Evil 4. But the problem is this: think of RE6 as a buffet, but you can't choose what you eat; you have to eat in a random--but set--order. If green beans are first, you gotta eat them. Then cheesecake could be next (AWESOME), and then . . . you gotta eat piss and snot soup (EEWWW), and then some tasty Chinese food, and then fried poop. You see, it's the highs and lows of the game which makes it so disappointing. I could have forgiven the clunky controls and awkward inventory if they cut out all the mundane aspects of the campaigns, making them more to the point, even if each campaign was cut in half. Then it would have been an amazing game.
But it's all the crap (no pun intended) that you're force to eat which makes it so frustrating at times; for instance, in the Leon campaign, there's a part where you have to chase a zombie dog around a graveyard (spooky, right? You're in a graveyard, so it HAS to be spooky--and there's lightning, too) because it has the key . . . and somehow it's smart enough to know that you need it and it runs away and doesn't attack you. And it's all the illogical inclusions of B.O.W.'s (that are cool, mind you, but without purpose) which makes me feel like I'm watching a Paul W.S. Anderson adaptation. Then there are all the pacing issues too. It's such a fast paced game that you can't stop and smell the flowers and enjoy--and be disturbed by--the horrific terrain and scary atmosphere. CAPCOM tried to do way too much. They cannot make this the scariest game in the franchise and a high octane thrill ride at the same time. They need to get off the fence and decide what they want to do. And I hope it's the former, and not the latter for the next game.
WAYS TO SAVE THE DYING FRANCHISE:
In the beginning of my review, I referenced 28 Days Later. The reason is, CAPCOM is trying to cure the franchise without truly understanding. Yes, they listened to some complaints, but ignored others. Yes, Ustanak is an amazing B.O.W.; yes, Chris isn't so bulky anymore; yes, zombies have returned (sort of); yes, they tried. But they weren't very smart in the sense that they don't understand their own franchise and they exploited beloved characters to the point of ridiculousness. Must they deliberately hire a few fans to be the creative directors in the next game? Does it need to come down to that? At this rate . . . absolutely. If they want RE7 to survive. Otherwise, there's no hope left.
Resident Evil is not Uncharted, it's not Gears of War, it's not Call of Duty, it's not a racecar game, it's not an on-rails shooter. Resident Evil, from 1-4, has always been about exploration and horror, stumbling onto a mystery and trying to solve it, and survival. While Resident Evil 5 was not a Survival Horror game, it did attempt to stay true to Resident Evil 4. It didn't take enough risks, mind you, but it didn't step backwards either (the only* gripe I have with RE5 is some of the story decisions and how Wesker could teleport).
Resident Evil 7 needs to take a step back. No they need to take a couple hundred meters back and objectively and subjectively look at the franchise. What works? What doesn't work? Horror works. Too much action doesn't. RE6 had so much environmental action to the point of predictability--such as walking across a bridge, you knew it would fall--but the thing about predictability is that it isn't scary. Actually with the environment going haywire while playing the game, it could be looked upon as a Final Destination videogame adaptation too (really). RE6 failed to understand that having awesomely grotesque monsters doesn't make it a scary game (such as being in a graveyard while there's lightning). Pacing is what makes games scary. Why were the first few games so scary? Not because of what happened, but because of what didn't* happen. In RE6 too much happened.
Resident Evil 7 needs to be shorter (gasp!) and to the point. There needs to be a clear cut villain or two or three (like in RE4), and a sense of exploration and difficulty. If Resident Evil 7 took some RPG elements and throw in Dark Souls-esque difficulty and strategy, it could be the greatest game of all time; but--and this is probably scary for CAPCOM--they need another reboot. They must if they want to survive, because for RE7, I'm going to be smart enough to read the reviews first, and if it's not a good game--and if it's not a horror game--I'm not going to buy it. And I consider myself a diehard fan. I've beaten Resident Evil 4 20+ times and can't think of any flaws; I played Resident Evil 5 twice before realizing it was a little bit of a disappointment; I played only the Leon S. Kennedy campaign to realize that Resident Evil 6 was simply not a great game. RE6 felt like it was essentially an on-rails game: there's no straying from the path and no sense of exploring the area. Why not have a few houses available to go through to see if there is anything of use?
And for the love of God, bring back the merchant. I hate "buying" things on a screen. It might not make a whole lot of sense how he can transport as quickly as you can, but at least the buying/selling process makes sense with the merchant. Also they could give him a backstory too, because clearly he isn't entirely human. And if your character learns skills, then why not have random BSAA operatives around the city which know skills that you can learn from? Maybe Erickson with a broken leg and hiding on a roof can teach you a move or give you a gun if you find him crutches in the city (but without any cookie crumb trail system to lead you the way; let the players find it themselves), and the possibilities could go on forever. Kind of like in Skyrim. And speaking of which, it needs to have a lot more RPG elements.
All in all, CAPCOM needs to slow it down for Resident Evil 7. Resident Evil fans (unless they're fans of the films, too) generally are patient people: that's why they're Resident Evil fans. In the first five or six games, there was a lot of walking around, not knowing what to do exactly; there were a lot of puzzles and a lot of backtracking. So why are the creators treating us like we have ADHD and no attention span and no intelligence at all? Seriously, Resident Evil fans don't need (and generally don't want) non-stop action; we don't need the cookie crumb trail system to tell us where to go (we like finding our own way); we like to play a Resident Evil game and have a sense of accomplishment afterward, like the effect that Dark Souls has--with difficulty comes rewarding accomplishment. Come on CAPCOM. Know who your fans are. Don't assume that we're all Paul W.S. Anderson fans. Some of us expected a Christopher Nolan-esque tale, not another Schumaker game where the characters have rubber nipples on their suits. The creator of the series mentioned recently that the fans and the creators have like two parents trying to do what's best for their kid, and that they're going to disagree with one another. Come on, CAPCOM! That's a very unfair thing to say, because we're the ones who made you successful, and we are--for the most part--flat out telling you guys that you're going too far. If the fans and the creators are like two parents that disagree with one another, then CAPCOM is trying to make our broad shouldered son into a dancer instead of a football player, which is what he does best. Resident Evil is not meant to be as ridiculous as its Paul W.S. Anderson film counterparts, end of story.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Pros:
1) Great dialogue
2) Terrifying creature designs
3) Enemy variety
4) Atmosphere
5) Really great moments
6) The partner system is fixed (although I'd prefer without one)
7) Imaginative boss battles
8) Fantastic cutscenes
9) Ustanak
Cons:
1) Inventory (a step down from RE5)
2) Melee is too convenient, and thus not rewarding
3) Controls are clunky, camera fluidity is irksome
4) Mundane tasks (chasing a zombie dog around a cemetary)
5) Forced plot (they meet up in the darnest spots)
6) No in-game documents (which would help make sense out of some random B.O.W.'s)
7) No typewriters (but it's such an on-rails game, why would it matter?)
8) No treasures (which makes buying skills VERY difficult)
9) No point in exploration (BECAUSE THERE ARE NO TREASURES OR DOCUMENTS!)
10) No merchant (come on, CAPCOM, bring the man back)
11) The C-Virus (the T-Virus has children to feed; you're putting it out of a job)
12) Too long (with too many mundane moments in all the chapters to even revisit)
On that note, the campaigns are so long that it would be a task to replay any of the campaigns.
13) Not scary (although it had its moments)
14) Confusing plot elements
15) Too much action (seriously, this is Michael Bay's Resident Evil; I'd prefer Christopher Nolan's or Frank Darabont's)
16) Vague B.O.W. origins (a chainsaw arm, really?)
Want Resident Evil 6 Discount?
I want to be clear about something from the start : This is not a Resident Evil game. It looks an awful lot like one, and it has a lot of characters who look like RE's characters, with the same names and everthing, but it is not a resident evil game. This is some second rate action shooter with negligable story arc's , quick vanishing tutorial instructions and an inventory system that will make you want choke yourself to death with your controller (but silly you, you bought a wireless one so your SOL).
When you first begin the game you might want to start familiarizing yourself with the new games menu screen, health tracker, ammo counter, map and inventory , neverminding anything they may have changed about core things like pointing and shooting. And if you want to learn these things I hope you're a big fan of self educating because they don't tell you and the icons for all those crucial things are so tiny that not even playing on a big screen tv is much help when you're trying to figure out what's what. My brother and I spent a solid half hour trying to figure out which minscule bar was health and which was ammo. In the rare instance that some in game help does pop up it flashes on your screen and vanishes in a half second so you haven't got a prayer of reading even half of it before it's gone. The inventory system is all new, with no tutorial on how to use it and is an utter mess. We were completely baffled by it.
Combat was also redicuous. See a zombie on the ground and figure you better get the jump on it before it starts chewing on your leg? Go ahead and unload every round you've got at it, it is untouchable until you get close enough for it to 'activate' and start trying to kill you. Only when you've put yourself in danger of being eaten by it can you shoot and kill it. Otherwise you might as well be tossing your ammunition out the window, becuse the sneakily laying down zombie is absolutely invincible. Now, I peronally liked the overpowered melee for myself, because I am a TERRIBLE shot, but the truth is that it was overdone. Why bother with guns when you can just kick the zombie in the face? They finally enabled you to move and shoot and then rendered that improvement obsoltete in the face of your extrodinary punching ability.
Storyline was awful. In the arc where you play with Leon you encounter a man who is obviously very much injured and also hacking and coughing profusedly. Any reasonable person might assume he's been bitten so you might expect Leon, who's sort of an expert at this point, to be well aware of this man's condition just by glancing at him. The dude's infected. But they don't check the guy over for bite's, hell they don't even go for the honor system and ask if he's been bitten. They just take him along for the ride, not even bothering to keep an eye on him in case he changes. Then they find his daughter, covered in blood and also OBVIOUSLY infected, don't bother worrying about the trivial matter, and proceed to get into a tiny elevator with the pair of them. Then they are shocked and saddened when they both turn into zombies and try to eat them in the small enclosed space. Because apparently Leon had no idea that could happen. What's a zombie again?
Rounding it off was the liner play stayle, no exploration, not even a cheap attempt at puzzles. I understand that the traditional puzzle solving element has faded over the evolution of games that are not specifically about that, but there are ways to intelligently incorperate it if you put in a little effort.
The whole thing was an utter travesty that spit on the fan base that has made this label strong, but then again that seem's to be Capcom's MO lately. I will not be investing in any future products from them, not unless they turn thier s*** around big time. We don't need Zombie Call of Duty. If that's what you're looking for, there are pleanty of place's to satisfy that need, that audiance has been adressed and cared for already. What we needed, what we wanted and what we put our money down for was a Resident Evil game. Not another dime from me.
FORGOT TO MENTION
There is no opening menu for the game. You are forced directly into the opening scene with no warning, and the scene only allows for one player, which was very confusing. My brother andI have played RE together since way before it was a co-op game, but since this was supposed to be one we couldn't figure out why I couldn't play the scene along side him. We restarted the game three times before we shrugged and decided to wait it out and see if I could join in later. And that scene dragged, and dragged, cutting me completely out of arounf fifteen to twenty minutes of game play while I worried if our disc was broken or something.
Also being able to PAUSE THE GAME is a laughably standard requirment in any video game since the dawn of time. Not in RE6. If you want the luxury of pausing you better damn well make sure to A) figure out how to get to the control options and then B) turn off the online play before you start the chapter. By default the online is on and therfore, also by default, you cannot pause. So if you didn't know that (and why would you? There's no game tutorial or instruction manual) you are super SOL if you need to piss or if (God forbid) you happen to be an adult with responsibilities and need to take an important phone call or maybe put the kids back to bed.
