Resident Evil 6 (Amended Review)

So, Resident Evil 6; it appears I have yet another moment where I enjoy a nice big plate of crow for going by my earlier judgments and not really giving the title a chance. Resident Evil 6 managed to win me over, I wouldn’t have even attempted the game again had it not been for the praises of a good friend. So swallowing my pride I purchased it again and took Resi6 on one more time. There’s a couple things I want to get out of the way first, many of my earlier complaints still stand, and like with Alpha Protocol it is not a point in the game’s favor that it takes some time to get used to before you actually have any real fun with it and its convoluted control scheme. I would only suggest that you give it some time to get used to and you’ll be pleasantly rewarded with a very fluid very fun time. If it still puts you off it’s only the developers fault. Not all of us are willing to re-coordinate ourselves to learn weird control schemes and it shouldn’t be expected.

Anyway, on to the title. Once everything is figured out and you feel comfortable with the game (if you try I suggest setting your camera to 10, 10, 5, it’ll greatly improve the experience and the FOV) it’s an intense and extremely satisfying shooter. Sliding and just dominating the combat area is always a blast and mastering the combos and counters just helps add to the fluidity of the game.  While each campaign has its own style, the controls and gameplay remains consistent throughout.

Where the game succeeds in the gameplay is the clever mixture of modern third person combat and aesthetics, with the sensibilities of character action titles like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. While the mixture of styles is (I’m guessing) the reason the controls are confusing, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fluid and satisfying shooter once you’re used to it all.

Each campaign offers up nice variety, having four different play styles altogether. Leon’s campaign is more survival/horror focused and is the closest we get to the series’ roots. Chris offers us the Call of Duty experience, with some Resident Evil flavor and a surprisingly affecting story. Jake’s campaign is more focused on chase sequences than all out action, and has the most touches of the character action style I mentioned above, given that Jake is the gifted (obviously) son of Albert Wesker. Ada’s bonus campaign (now automatically unlocked) is more stealth focused and is the only solo campaign.

Altogether each campaign offers the player a great amount of variety and are about six to seven hours on initial playthrough. Meaning altogether the game can max at around twenty or so hours, depending on player skill of course. It definitely gives the game some high replayability, and that's not counting the mini-games and the multiplayer.

The story, while not all that great (it is a Capcom game after all) is surprisingly good and some of the best Capcom has done in a while. As stated above Chris’ campaign is surprisingly affective, even if it is bogged down by the very cliché, very inaccurate portrayal of military operations and lingo. They try to get it right, but it’s obvious the writers have no clue how military units communicate or how they speak during operations. For a campaign obviously inspired by Call of Duty and other modern military shooters, it’s rather jarring how out of place and cartoonish some of the military dialogue really is.

Among the occasional crap dialogue and the fake military speak it's Resident Evil’s comic book-ish story in top form, complete with some: memorable lines, characters and events. It’s flashy and at times absolutely ridiculous, but it’s a helluva ride.

As for complaints I still have some of the same and a couple I failed to mention.

For starters, the pause system is still counter intuitive bullshit and the player should not be punished for their batteries dying or the controller disconnecting mid-gameplay, as I stated in my earlier review there’s a reason every game pauses when the controller is disconnected. The cover system while cool looking when you slide into it, still feels unnatural and doesn’t always work as the player wants. Luckily cover isn’t exactly a necessity so it’s not a major issue.

The new menu, while neat with its real time fun, is still a step back from the hotkey menu of Resident Evil 5. I shouldn’t have to fumble through three different weapons before I select my shotgun. It’s cumbersome and often slows down an otherwise fluid game.

An entire block of health should not be gone every time a zombie grabs me. This is incredibly annoying and takes away health more than any other factor in the game - yes even bosses. Not only is the loss of a full bar a cheap way to challenge the player, the zombies themselves are extremely cheap. While you’re taking on a few, you may not notice the one crawling that you’d swear jumps right out of Leon’s ass and tackles him to the ground. Some like to jump from off screen and then there’s the Bloodshots. Big time assholes who jump great distances, always from out of your field of vision and tackle the ever living fuck out of Leon. This does not offer challenge, it is a cheap way to limit the player and make the game harder than it really is. You’d think with Capcom being the same company responsible for Devil May Cry, they’d find better fairer ways to actually challenge the player.

But the biggest complaint would be in regards to the “search for X” sections and the stupid regenerating leech monster thing that they totally stole from RE0 and Outbreak. The sections are already tedious as is, given that you run around a pretty good sized map while searching for random keys. But Capcom thought it would be a good idea to throw in an enemy that endlessly pursues you, keeps on regenerating and apparently multiplies. It makes the already tedious sections that much more tedious. When I’m doing a "search for X" section of a video game I should be left the fuck alone so I can search thoroughly. You want to throw in a couple enemies in some of the rooms that’s fine. But having a stupid regenerating monster constantly pursuing me, means I don’t search as thoroughly and I dump ammo into the damn thing when I get cornered or it happens to be blocking the way.

In the end I’d give Resident Evil 6 a solid 8 out of 10. I’d give it a 9, but it loses a point on the grounds that the controls are damn near counter intuitive and the cheap lazy design decisions they use to “challenge” the player are… well… cheap and lazy.