The small PROS and mass amount of CONS review for Resident Evil 6. Oh dear Capcom.
To be honest I have a major problem with Capcom. I dislike them as a company and it's not since playing Resident Evil 6 or 5 but since they started putting DLC on retail discs. They are by far the most notorious company to milk this cash-in consumer trickery. But before that happened we had Resident Evil 5. The game seemed like an experiment to hone in on what gamers were drawn to and of course what sells. So Capcom saw that COD was basically doing monumentally well, changing very little about it's design, story, presentation and gameplay. Now I hate to say it… and I really do hate to say it BUT I admire the guys behind the COD series. The reason why is because, whilst the series is now more stagnate than a dead dog, they've kept to their guns and pleased their fans. They always had a commercial success on their hands and simply wanted to exploit that success in all its glory. Capcom however, somehow and for some reason got incredibly money hungry. They saw the success of COD and needed to start diverting their most beloved of franchises to the commercial, casual gamers market and make the game a shooter instead of a survival horror. Have they gone wrong? Is that the most stupid question in the world of the gaming industry right now?
I think what annoys me most, other than their stance on DLC is that Capcom are one of the biggest companies right now and their experience is far greater than many of the best companies out there and yet we're "treated" to crap like Resident Evil 6 and expected to believe that this is the best they can do?! Much in the same way of Dragon's Dogma.
Resident Evil 0 right through to 4 and including the fantastic Code Veronica are classics. Simple as that. Incredibly frustrating to play today but still, they were each and every one of them; memorable. When Resident Evil 5 came out things seemed off. The sequel to the hugely successful Resident Evil 4 failed to please and satisfy and live up to the massive 4th game. It seemed shorter, more action, very little in terms of story and far less scary without the haunted house type thing that's so traditional to these games.
For some reason I thought Capcom would go back to their roots and not carry on down the commercial road but how wrong I am and how wrong were they in thinking they could pull it off.
Because Resident Evil 6 covers 4 main characters (including Ada's campaign - unlocked when you finish with all the other main characters), it seems only fair to breakdown the pros and cons with each campaign.
PROS
GAME OVERALL:
* The atmosphere through design still feels reminiscent of the survival horror days.
* Resident Evil is in there somewhere as some moments of gameplay do represent the best things of the franchise.
* Some genuine exciting/ entertaining scenes - edge of your seat sometimes
* Each campaign mingles with the others and creates a story, although not great, that you want to see to the end.
* Extras such as Ada's campaign and Mercenaries are lengthy.
LEON'S CAMPAIGN:
* Easily the most narrative driven of all the campaigns.
* Leon and Haleana are interesting characters.
CHRIS'S CAMPAIGN:
* Most enjoyable out of all the campaigns in terms of gameplay (the least frustrating)
CONS
GAME OVERALL:
* Your "partner" can simply just stand there when a quicktime event occurs only to watch you die and then scream after you're dead.
* If you fail a quicktime event it's more than likely that you WILL die and this can sometimes mean starting from a silly checkpoint.
* Characters reactions to light, smoke etc can basically lead to death as player has no control over shooting or defending themselves
* Regular gameplay can sometimes be fiddly in terms of button layout - running and sliding for example or the quicktime climbing action using the controller triggers.
* Still, with this day and age of games design and the fact that Resident Evil 6 wants to be more of an action game, one button has to be held before you can fire your weapon - great for survival horror, not so great for an action shooter.
* Too many small cutscenes sometimes leave your character vulnerable to attacks and/ or disoriented (facing a different way than before the cutscene).
* Capcom's attempt to make Resident Evil more of an action game is worse than one could've imagined with the inclusion of some very silly and unnecessary quicktime events.
* Much like Resident Evil 5 - I'm confused what the "Residence" is? Or is it the "residents" as in people? Errrmmm…
* Graphics are shoddy for such an experienced company and the CGI looks last gen
* Much respect for Capcom will disperse after playing this game due to their choice of commercial action game over thoughtful survival horror.
* A shame that a partnership between Chris and Jake wasn't focused on instead of so many characters.
* Seems unbelievably easy to die due to either an enemy you know nothing about suddenly being completely dominant over you, a quick time event that's genuinely ridiculous or there's simply too much happening in a small space with a camera that's simply dodgy and annoying.
* Creature design isn't very grounded like the original and seems to have taken on a Silent Hill edge that's not very reminiscent or original to the Resident Evil series.
* How many menus must I go through before starting the game?! Must I really press a button to confirm you've either loaded or saved?!
* In-game inventory system, whilst a good idea, should ideally pause the game around you.
* There seems to be a strong wind everywhere the characters go with their hair constantly flowing around like loose feathers.
* Could've been and should've been way better.
* In glorious Capcom tradition all the endings feel somewhat lacking - not quite a Street Fighter affair but still
* End credit music is undeniably atrocious.
* Too many characters, not enough depth.
* Running, not sprinting, animation on some of the characters (Leon, Chris) seems a bit too much in terms of effort.
* 2 Discs (Xbox version) except all the campaigns are one disc - what's the point of the second disc in the UK? - Wasted money.
* Some set pieces are too "out there" for the series - not much feels realistic making the fantasy of everything alienate the player - one of the last parts to Jake's campaign reminded me Star Wars Episode 3… that's not a good thing.
* Everyone's eyes constantly have a large spec of light in them making them look evil, even when they're in the dark
* Realtime dubbing! Shocking!
* Pause menu doesn't have the expected options to quite game etc - all found in an in-game realtime menu, why?
* Pressing the Xbox button doesn't pause the game automatically
* Doors might as well be invisible as they don't stop gunfire or zombies jumping at you
* Some Sound Effects we've heard before
LEON'S CAMPAIGN:
* The sense of urgency to escape tons of zombies in a car seems oblivious to the calm characters inside it as they check to see if their seat belts are on before putting the pedal to the metal… hmmm realism?
* Driving through China is like driving with an old man
* Final boss battle gets old, fast.
CHRIS'S CAMPAIGN:
* Easily the most balanced out of the three but that doesn't mean that it's individually well balanced
JAKE'S CAMPAIGN:
* Constantly asking yourself "where am I going?" - particularly during the snow cavern part and the motorbike helicopter chase - sometimes frustrating being unable to see and yet get seen.
* A miniature scene controlling a boat is pointless
* Not enough exploration for noobs of Jakes father Wesker.
ADA'S CAMPAIGN:
* The scene on top of a bus in China is confusing and lacks direction.
CONCLUSION
Resident Evil 6 is simply tragic. Far less characters could've made way for a much more in depth, traditional survival horror game. Instead we're given a game that tries to weave various narratives that link into one. Does it do it? Yes but is it good? No. Even after all four campaigns the story comes across as unoriginal, uninteresting and not character specific. There's not one character that stands out in the entirety of the game. Not one true hero of the entire adventure and the same could be said for the antagonist as well. Whilst one main villain is evident, so many different boss fights that are extended beyond the realms of anticipated, expected and predictable scenarios soon get in the way of the one true goal which even now alludes me. This doesn't even feel like an experiment of a game - where the company has deliberately put in all these new ideas and direction for market research towards the 7th installment. It's clearly rushed. A panic attack for loss of money due to releasing crap after crap with gimmicky spin offs and remakes, reboots and re-releases of their most popular titles. If I play a game with quicktime events as poorly delivered as they are in Resident Evil 6, this decade, it will be too soon.
So what will become of Resident Evil now? Is there any going back? Or will we simply see Capcom, cop-out and remake the best of the rest for the next gen consoles? I guess time will tell but my personal opinion right now is that this is indeed the first nail in the coffin for this once beloved franchise and company.