Review #480: Resident Evil 6

 It only took me, what? About a year?

That's the ugliest 6 I've ever seen.

 Resident Evil 6 was very polarizing to say the least. Back when it first released, it was subject to either very high scores or very low scores, Destructoid's Jim Sterling even gave it a brutal 3 out of 10. After playing through the game.. I think it's high time people realized that Resident Evil was always about the action first and stop being so harsh on 4, 5 and 6!

 The story... is divided into 4 interwoven, 5-chapter campaigns. First we've got Chris and Piers', who you are told is the most action based... which is a lie, it's got as many chase sequences and vehicle sequences as the rest, and it even has its slow, horrory moments. Then there're Sherry and Jake's, who's campaign follows Resident Evil 3 scheme... except not, the Ustanak, this game's 'Nemesis', is just another element of a bigger setpiece, always appearing when the script says so, and there's always one way of taking him out or avoiding him. There're chase and vehicle sequences too. Leon and Helena have the next campaign, touted as the one focused on horror... which is not true either, the first two chapters are glorious, yes, but the next three feature just as many vehicle and chase sequences as the rest. The final campaign is unlocked after finishing the other three and is the plot dump campaign in which the 'why' and 'how's are explained. There're vehicle and chase sequences too. What I mean to say is... the idea that all four campaigns are focused on different themes or gameplays is a lie, all four campaigns are pretty much the same. As for the overall story.. it's pretty silly, although it tries to take itself more seriously than ever before, there're no crazy scientists, mad dragqueens or weird, pale midgets. Overall, the story was entertaining enough, but not something that moved me or hooked me.

The chaos had never been this much wide-spread before. The stakes are higher than they've ever been in REvil.

 I think that dividing the game into four campaigns was a mistake though. I would've much preferred a more focused campaign, and one that didn't move in a breakneck speed. Y'see, something that will probably turn off quite a few is the fact that the game advances in a set-piece to set-piece fashion. There's never a dull moment, and if the action slows down is because something is about to happen soon. Even Leon's first two chapters, which are rather slow-paced, are like this. Sidenote, the first two chapters in Leon's campaign are exactly what a story-driven Zombie game should be like. Overall, the game is rather lengthy, chapters take about an hour to complete, Leon having the longest chapters(Some going as far as 1:30) while Ada has the shortest(Most shouldn't break an hour).

 As far as gameplay goes, it's pretty much an evolved version of Resident Evil 5's over-the-should third-person shooting mechanics. There're a ton of new maneuvers, not only can you move while aiming, you can also dodge to the sides or even jump back. You can lay on the floor or roll on the floor as you aim and shoot! While characters are as heavy to turn and as agile as a sack of sand, the new abilities do make for more frantic action. Melee can now be performed at will by tapping R1, although the really strong melee moves are reserved for dazed enemies, by hitting their limbs. There's a new stamina gauge that governs how much you can use your melee attacks, so you can't just spam them. Overall, I adored the new additions to the gameplay.

For as many complaints as the camera received, I felt it was just fine.

 One thing I really liked were the new enemies, the J'Avo. These monsters will mutate in different ways depending on where you harm them. Hit their torsos? They might develop an armored body. Hit their legs? Now they turn into half-man-half-flesh-grasshopper-thing. While there's not a huge amount of variety, there was enough to keep things interesting. Leon and Helena get exclusive enemies in the form of zombies, which may mutate into red zombies, as well as fat and screaming zombies, but I didn't care too much about them, same old, same old.

 There's a new Skill system in place too, sometimes enemies or boxes may drop skill points when felled, which can then be used on different passive skills. While you can only have three at a time, finishing the game lets you have up to eight different, three-skill sets to switch around mid-gameplay. A ton of people disliked the new system since 'you may be running out of ammo or health and get skill points instead', but... how the hell did you run out of ammo? Health is restored to full upon dying and restarting on a checkpoint, so being low on life is no excuse, and as for ammo... if you are using your melee attacks, which if you've been playing REvil since 4 you should know how strong and useful they are, you shouldn't be hurting for ammo. I will admit that ammo is limited, but I never, EVER found myself without ammo. EVER.

Some setpieces are shared between campaigns, if you play online, you can have four different players together at times!

 I've heard horror tales about AI Sheva's uselessness in REvil 5, but I found AI allies to be pretty darn useful. They've removed their inventories, so the will never pick up stuff, which is good news for people that play in Single Player, although the real-time menu remains, which is kinda annoying in my opinion. They've tweaked how herbs work, and you must now store them in your pellet case and then eat them as individual pellets? It's kinda cumbersome, since it involves going through a second inventory(Directional pads switches weapons, triangle is your entire inventory) just to put them inside the case. It also doesn't make much sense what your maximum capacity of pellets is, since sometimes it wouldn't let me store them even though I shouldn't be hitting the max. Weird.

 Still, the worst returning offender is, or rather, are... the QTEs. There're way too many QTEs, and they are incredibly annoying, as per usual. And you CAN turn them off... if you set the difficulty to amateur. Seriously??? I read some complaints about the camera, and while it is true that I felt that your character took up way too much screen time, it never got in my way. I always knew what was going on and didn't have issues figuring out where to go, and no, I didn't have the patch that let you zoom-out the camera. My only issue with the camera is during the way too frequent chase-sequences. which have you and your partner escaping from different things while the camera does its best to disorient you. Speaking of disorienting, Capcom thought it'd be cute to give all four couples a different HUD, which can be a bit of a shock until you get used to them.

The game looks amazing, and the framerate is pretty stable to boot.

 Mercenaries return, although there are only 3 scenarios. Mercenaries is a mini-game, unlocked from the start, that has you trying to defeat as many enemies that you can while under a time limit, which can be extended in various ways. There're unlockable costumes for every character, but the guys get stupid, joke costumes and the girls get fetishistic slutty cop costumes, basically, none are worth it. There's a new, online-only, mode, 'Agent Hunt', in which you can invade other people's campaigns and play as the monsters, trying to kill the players. I didn't get to try it out, but it sounds amusing.

 In an era where games had already started to be released incomplete, Resident Evil 6 is quite the package, featuring a very lengthy campaign, with a few neat extras. Look, if you're a die-hard Classic Resident evil fan, this game won't sway you, and the new setpiece-to-setpiece pace will probably alienate a few, but as someone who likes this brand of third person shooters, with heavy and slow characters and the horror elements.... I can't help but like the game a lot. That said, I think I prefer Resident Evil 5 for the simple fact that it had a more focused campaign, and one that had much better pacing. Look, the setpiece-to-setpiece approach makes for a very exciting game, but there's not much build up, and as such, these epic, semi-scripted moments lose a lot of their impact. And as much as I adored the new gameplay elements, the campaigns get very repetitive with the multiple tacked-on vehicle and chase sequences. And the QTEs need to follow in the way of the dinosaurs.
 8.0 out of 10