Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

I wasn't expecting much when it came to Resident Evil 6. With so many negative reviews, I figured I would just rent this, say I gave it a shot, and move on to something else. I was actually pleasantly surprised with what I played. While the game is disappointingly simple compared to other titles in the series, Resident Evil 6 is not nearly as bad as a lot of people make it out to be.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is very similar to RE5 and RE6, but a lot simpler in its structure. There is no upgrading weapons here, and your weapons are dependent on the character you play as. You can purchase perks that work across the board like increased damage, faster reload time, etc. But you can only have a few of these at a time. On the plus side, your partner's AI is much better here. There are also certain quick time events during the game that can be troublesome. Particularly one in Chris's storyline where you fight a giant B.O.W. Just getting past it requires some serious finger-work, and there are a couple of other parts in the game where these become equally ridiculous. There are also some other sequences where you are running from a big monster or are in a car chase that you may fail a few times before you get past them.

As for the storylines themselves, each has a different feel to it. Leon's feels like vintage Resident Evil; limited ammo, lots of zombies, and dark areas. Chris's feels a lot like Resident Evil 5 with big firefights and nonstop action against a new enemy type called J'Avos. These enemies are highly intelligent zombies that use firearms and almost always morph into something else after they are defeated. It doesn't make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things, but it makes for a harder game. Finally you have Jake's, which felt a lot like Resident Evil 4 to me. The best way I can describe it is being non-stop suspense. It's not so much jumpy scares, but heart-pounding scares that keep you on the edge of your seat. Too bad it is by far the shortest of the three storylines, though Leon's was probably my favorite since I'm an old-school fan of the series. There is also an additional storyline to unlock once you have beaten the other three. When it comes down to it, this game does suffer from some identity crisis. It's not sure what incarnation of Resident Evil it wants to be. On the other hand though, if you're a fan of most of the series like me, this feels like a greatest hits CD. There may be eras you like for better or worse, but on the whole it's a mixed bag of all the stuff you love. It's just too bad that none of it is as great as the first time you heard it...or played it, in this instance.

And on a very big plus side, I absolutely love the melee combat in this game. Between that and the shooting while on the ground (which I thought would end up being just a gimmick...boy was I wrong) made the combat so much more fun for me. On a very big negative, however, the cover system is horrible. I don't know how people manage to make it through parts of Chris's campaign on the hardest difficulty. - 8/10

STORY - This was what I felt was this game's strong suit. The story itself wasn't amazing, nor was the ending all that satisfying, but the way it was presented made it a necessity to keep going to see what happens. It's kind of like Pulp Fiction. If it was played out chronologically, it probably wouldn't be as good. But as it is, however, you choose to play the game through one perspective, but meet characters from other perspectives as you go along. What makes this cool is that there will be certain parts where two groups of two playable characters will be fighting the same boss fight. The part that makes it the most compelling is that characters will mention certain things that make you go "Wait...what?", because you haven't played through their perspective yet. This makes experiencing their side of the story so desirable it kept me hooked until I was through with the entire game.

As for the story itself, a new virus called the C-Virus has been unleashed in parts of America and Eastern Europe, which causes all the characters involved to all head for China, where the responsible party is. Not every perspective gets that big boss fight in the end (in fact, only one really has a compelling final boss), but each one does leave you feeling satisfied. Unfortunately I think that Jake's storyline and the secret storyline are mostly useless except for one or two pieces of information that get revealed...though you can probably guess at what they are by the time you're done with Leon and Chris's perspectives. For the best experience, I would recommend going Leon, Jake, and then Chris in order to keep the story interesting, but that's just my opinion. So on the whole, the story isn't an A+, but the way it is told makes all the difference. And a story that is as compelling as this one is just as good as a well-told story to me. - 9/10

GRAPHICS - The graphics are pretty awesome for this game, with one major gripe. Some areas, particularly with Leon's storyline, are incredibly dark. Even with the gamma turned all the way up, it's very difficult to see in some of his environments. There aren't many instances of this, but it makes you wish he was carrying a flashlight in more areas than just the subway scene. - 8.5/10

SOUND - The voice acting for the major RE games is always really good, and there isn't any difference here. Some of the dialogue is questionable ("Is he always this awesome?"), but the voice acting never feels cheesy or unrehearsed. The music, while totally absent in some areas, is always appropriate. So mostly good things here. - 8.5/10

LENGTH/REPLAY VALUE - This is the one area the game unfortunately suffers badly from. There isn't much reason to replay this game unless you want to get 100% completion or you simply want to. I feel that the lack of being able to upgrade your individual guns makes for a less-replayable experience. The length of each perspective varies. I think Jake's is the shortest at roughly 4 hours, and Leon's the longest at around 6 hours. That makes for about a 20-hour game altogether, which isn't too bad. - 6/10

BOTTOM LINE - Overall this game was a lot of fun to play through. Seeing all the storyline perspectives unfold the way they did kept me hooked despite the lack of gameplay depth. The considerable differences between the 3 perspectives also kept things from becoming monotonous. But while this isn't the best Resident Evil, I don't think it's the worst either. I felt like the story was much better than 5's. I'll only remember 5 for the final fight against Wesker. This game actually kept me compelled all the way through instead of trudging along to the end like in 5. I just hope with the next installment that we start to see more complexity in the weaponry, and for the series to start to come to a close. As much as I love this series, I don't see it continuing to be enjoyable for much longer. It would be great to see it go out with a bang in #7 or #8. As for #6, it was some of the most fun I've had playing through a game all year, even if it doesn't give you much of a reason to go through it multiple times. - 8/10