Developer: CAPCOM
Publisher: CAPCOM
Platform: 360, PS3
Resident Evil 6 – Review
Resident Evil 6 has been released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and is a part of the popular franchise by CAPCOM. Even though Resident Evil 5 didn’t get the reception the developers expected they keep pushing in the same direction. A wise choice or not?
Introductory remarks:
The developers of Resident Evil are taking a new approach when it comes to the gameplay of the latest Resident Evil game and this has been the cause of many negative reactions. Personally I understand some of them while others seem to be quite moronic. Keep in mind it’s already number 6 (without the side stories or the recent 3DS version) and the developers are trying to keep the game ‘fresh’ or ‘innovative’. As stated before I can understand where some of the complaints come from but most of them are about the fact that not all your enemies are zombies anymore. I honestly can say I’m happy they insert new opponents and that over the years we have seen the virus evolve in to something new outside of the regular T-Virus that we have come to love//hate. (pick whatever you like) Even the gameplay has changed a lot when it comes to controls or even the action inside the game. I loved all the old games and I still like what they are doing with the games (even though they tend to have annoying parts in them) and people who are complaining about the controls or the actual gameplay either hardly played the old games or simply remember them differently than they actually are. I have inserted the first few a while back and I have to say the controls on those things are almost impossible to master after being used to the luxury of having 2 sticks to play with. (sounds so wrong!) One detail I can agree with is that it’s not that much horror anymore compared to the old ones. Those games had you on edge nearly the entire playthrough. During this review I will judge the game when it comes to standards nowadays and not as it used to be. Because be honest, except for the graphics, if we compare old school games to what we get now, nearly all games can be named ‘crap’. I hardly pick up recent games to play them again compared to my collection of retro games which is used almost every day.
Note: The 3DS version inserted a little more of the old horror feel again.
Story:
The world still suffers from the devastation the T-virus has caused it and it seems there is a new virus to worry about, namely the C-virus. Like the previous virus this one seems to mutate the infected ones but tends to keep a decent part of their intelligence intact. The ones responsible for this virus seem to be a new organisation called Neo-Umbrella. The game treats us to a decently filled cast of stars we saw in the previous games, namely Chris Redfield, Sherry Burkin, Ada Wong and Leon S. Kennedy. Ofcourse to keep the game fresh they introduced a decent amount of new playable characters namely Piers, Jake and Helena.
Resident Evil 6 offers us 4 storylines (1 has to be unlocked) which are happening at the same time and with the fair amount of intersections. Basically the game revolves around tracking down the person who released the newly created C-virus on several major cities and most of the story will play itself in and around China. Without spoiling too much of the storyline the game is basically uncovering conspiracies in the government, fighting a new breed of monsters and trying to figure out why Ada Wong seems to have serious mood swings. (or is there more happening here?)
Storywise the game has been done in a great way because if you add up all the storyline you’ll be able to create one great plot. The sad part however is that when you decide to play the game on a higher difficulty level than amateur the cutscenes will be filled with quick time events which make sure you won’t be able to relax to enjoy the story that much. Fun for some, annoying for me. But all in all if you’re still fan of how the story is going since the last Resident Evil games you’ll surely enjoy the plot of this one.
Note: You are able to look at all the cutscenes you have seen before with the dates added to a timeline. This will make sure you can puzzle the story together even better.
Graphics:
Graphically the game is simply said awesome. All the characters we have come to love or the new ones we are getting to know have been animated perfectly and they are true to how the game should be. The environments are filled with detail and are fun to explore. (how far the game allows us, that is) The detail of the enemies are greatly done and they aren’t recycled that much compared to other enemies in action games (yes, I’m calling it an action game) except for some of the bosses we tend to see too much of. And for some reason I felt I was playing Resident Evil 1 and 2 again when kicking in the same door in, over and over and over again.
Each of the campaigns has their own menu and hud style. Yet again a fun detail and also sets the mood that you’re playing a different game//different setting.
A fun detail might be that you actually damage the areas where you aim for. Something that is commonly expected nowadays but still not many games implement it.
Sound:
CAPCOM did their best to be able to present us a great cast when it comes to the voices and a very nice soundtrack aswell. Everything in this department enhances the mood of the game but the old horror feel tends to missing a little bit when it comes to Leon’s so called ‘horror’ campaign. Still all the conversations are enjoyable and not too forced and the music will set the right mood. A job well done.
Gameplay:
Resident Evil 6 is pretty much and action/adventure game with an overdose of quick time events. All the storylines except for one revolve around 2 man teams and thus nearly the entire game can be played co-op. (online or offline) Each of those storylines has it’s own style of playing while in the long run you will hardly notice any different when it comes to the actual gameplay.
Unlike the old Resident Evil games we now have a seperate space to store your weapons and they will not appear in your inventory. Also when you created the right medicines they will also be removed from your inventory and will be ready to use with a single button press. This is an improvement compared to the old games but the downside however is that your overall inventory space is still very limited. So if you’re like me and you like to save up grenades or ammo for a specific gun you will be confronted with having to throw away items to pick up some of the items you really need. On the other side this will create situations that you will actually have to use all your weapons on a regularly base because you will run out of ammo for the weapons you use the most. (because those other ammo types are taking way too much space!) In a way this contributes to the ‘survival’ part as it used to be, that you will need to use all your resources to get through an area. If you’re presented with this situation during a boss fight, things might get a little tricky.
As mentioned before the game has loads of quick time events during cutscenes and the actual gameplay. At some times you might feel there are way too many. (Seeing I hate quick time events, I got annoyed from time to time) Overall nearly every action you perform, every time you get grabbed, or when solving some of the puzzles one of these events will get triggered and may cause instant death if they receive a wrong button input. Great for those who like a Zombie-ish guitar hero?
In Resident Evil 6 we also get confronted with a new skill system in which you can buy several passive skills. You will be able to buy and level up these skills with the skill points you earn during your campaign and/or other modes. Keep in mind you can only have 3 passive skills selected during the actual gameplay.
All of the above has been worked out decently and will not really cause you any problems, but the 2 mentioned next might be causes for a few annoyances.
The game inserted several action scenes in which you have to control a vehicle and you will soon notice that’s it’s pretty much just that: ‘they inserted this action scenes’. Don’t get me wrong they are very playable but they seem to lack the detail of the other normal action scenes and might feel a little odd to control properly. Well I wasn’t able to get the feeling like they actually did that much effort in perfecting these action scenes.
During some of the chapters you will be chased by something (be it vehicle of monster) and you will need to make a dash//climb to freedom and most of the time the controls feel off for these moments too. The controls seem quite unresponsive and most of the time you get the feeling as if these scenes were better inserted as cutscenes instead of actual gameplay.
As usual in Resident Evil games we are able to play ‘The Mercenaries’ mode in which you simply have to score as much points killing enemies in a fixed amount of time. (Time bonusses can be found ofcourse) Like in your campaign you can select 3 skills you want to use. The downside however is that the skills you bought in your campaign aren’t unlocked in this mode. This means you will have to play a lot to actually purchase a decent amount of skills in both gamemodes.
A new mode in Resident Evil 6 however throws you in the skin of one of the monsters that you had to kill during your storyline. This mode is only available online for people that allow you to join their game ofcourse. Playing this mode will also earn you skillpoints.
An extra gimmick the game threw in was the option to earn dogtags and emblems to customise them with. Which is basically a fance way of inserting an avatar.
There is one thing that’s quite unacceptable in the game and that’s the fact you always have to wait for the monsters to spawn or get up from their fixed location before you can actually damage them. Even when entering a room filled with corpses that show a clear indication they will spawn later there is no way for you to dispose of your future enemies except for the moment when they have completely spawned. This will create situations in which you will see several zombies feast upon a body and your bullets will not harm them untill they turn their attention towards yourself.
Conclusion:
Resident Evil 6 is a very good game which tried to take the franchise in a new direction. However this approach caused the game to have it’s fair amount of bugs that may cause a few annoyances.
Resident Evil 6 - Review,
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