Resident Evil 6 is a survival horror, third person shooter game, developed by Capcom. However, it feels like more of a thriller-suspense, third person shooter. It is the 6th official entry in the series, excluding the many Resident Evil side-story and spin-off games. You control multiple protagonists which include Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Jake Muller, and Ada Wong through their own campaign modes. Throughout the journey of each character, you will find that their stories are intertwined...and you get to see the unique perspective of each character as they fight against the C-Virus infection. Each of these protagonists are also paired up with a side-kick, whom you can also choose to play as.
The graphics in Resident Evil 6 look polished, with detailed shadows, elaborate character models, and epic cinematics. On the topic of cinematics...there is a lot of it in this game. Players who do not like being interrupted during the core gameplay, may find this to be a big problem. Also, the game's atmosphere is not that horrifying compared to titles such as Dead Space, which captures the meaning of survival horror a lot better than Resident Evil 6 can. The game's setting takes place mostly in China. You will be traversing through swampy areas, church graveyards, Chinatown markets, apartments, underground chambers, snowy peaks, and submarines just to name a few.
Right at the start of the game, you are thrown into a quick time event, which leads nicely into the first aspect I want to talk about. Quick-time events. This is good, if you get a thrill from pulling off spontaneous button inputs in the nick of time. If not, then you may feel these quick time events that fill the game, to be repetitive and constantly breaking the pace of your experience. To be fair, if you enjoy emotional and action packed cutscenes, you may find joy in watching the many found throughout the game. Now, getting down to the core gameplay. Resident Evil 6 follows the style of its past two predecessors, Resident Evil 4, and 5. The camera is located behind your character, except the game tries to give you a feeling that you are watching an action movie, by placing the camera near the ground when your character is running, or placing the camera in front of your character during enemy chases. This can be the cause for some cumbersome controls due to an awkward view. This 6th instalment has also added short arcade-like driving sequences, on-rail shooting, and occasional stealth modes, throughout the campaign.
The in-game menu is represented by a unique high-tech phone that each character has. However, the game is not paused when you bring up the menu. The reason for this, is to give the player more of an urgency when combining medical herbs or selecting weapons. Adding to that, this device also acts as a prompter in order to point you towards the correct path.
There are a number weapons you will acquire throughout the game, which include pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, and knives. The game often forces you to use all weapons, because ammo found in crates or dropped by enemies come in all types, and are more scarce depending on the difficulty you have chosen. Need not worry though, you can perform physical attacks to conserve your ammunition. Once an enemy is stunned, the game will give you the option to do a special physical attack. Between each chapter, the game will give you the ability to upgrade attributes such as attack and defence, by spending skill points collected during the chapter.
Sliding and crawling on the ground will also be a frequent action that you will find yourself doing, because of the vents and the tight spaces located in different areas of the game. In the crawling position, you will be able to bring out your weapon to defend yourself while in the limited space you are given. This can call for some suspenseful moments when you are being pursued by zombies underneath swirling blades, or unexpectedly confronted by one inside a vent.
Aside from shooting zombies to ashes, the game will give you puzzles to solve. The amount of puzzles varies between characters. For example, Ada Wong's campaign has more difficult and a larger amount of puzzles, opposed to Leon, Chris and Jake's campaigns. The puzzles range from collecting multiple items to access the next area, to unlocking a door by matching symbols. Through a majority of these puzzles and the gameplay, your partner...either controlled by an AI or human, will be of huge aid to you...Whether it be reaching high places, pulling levers simultaneously, or just giving you an extra hand with the zombies. There are two types of general enemies in this game, who are zombies and J'avos. J'avos are genetically enhanced humans, who can rationalize as opposed to zombies. You will find J'avos to be more difficult to take down, because they possess firearms and know how to use cover effectively. There are also a few special enemies such as, zombies that can break into parts, obese zombies, morphing flies, On top of normal enemies, of course, there are the bosses. There are a few interesting and epic boss fights throughout the game. But aside from those, most of the time you will be required to find and attack weak spots repeatedly until they are eliminated.
The game has two extra modes called agent hunt, and mercenaries. Agent hunt is an online mode where you are able to hop into other people's game as a monster and attack them...only if they have the setting enabled. As for mercenaries, it is pretty much the same feature offered in some of the past titles, where you will have to fight off waves of enemies until the time runs out. You choose from three characters and each of them have their own unique weapon set. Also, you are able to extend that time by collecting hour glasses.
Overall, the game offers an emotional and engaging story, plenty of content and replay value, and unique characters and personalities. However, the game is filled with so much cutscenes and quick time events that it may feel like too much of a movie rather than a game. Also, bad placement of the camera in certain parts of the game may lead to awkward controls.