Evil Resides...Again: RE6 Review

The Resident Evil franchise has become one of video games most notable.  Popularized by its innovation in introducing the world to the survival horror genre of video games, Capcom has created a solid following and an extremely fun, in depth, and frankly scary universe to immerse yourself in.  Resident Evil 4 revolutionized the franchise when we were brought to the over the shoulder view of Leon's predominately Spanish adventure, and it definitely had the most revolutionary gameplay implementations the game had seen until that point.  5 did not...it was far from a bad game, but it basically just built on what 4 wanted to establish...not a bad way to go about doing things I guess, but they were slowly removing the survival horror aspect from our game and throwing us into a sort of Chris vs. Wesker action title.  Still, we are not here to talk about whether or not I think RE5 held true to the Resident Evil roots, we are here to talk about RE6, and man is there quite a bit to talk about.


Chapter 1: Story

Resident Evil 6 starts off with a prologue/tutorial of Leon Scott kennedy and the new flavor of the month, Helena Harper.  It's a pretty dramatic and intense opening for the game, and it looks cool as hell, but it doesn't really immerse you into the game to really feel resident evily...it just kinda happens.  Once the curtain pulls back all the way you can see that there are 3 campaigns to choose from.  The suave, pistol toting, chick-magnet Leon "mother fucking S" Kennedy, the beefy OG and mama's boy, Chris "the dependable alcoholic" Redfield, or as the up-and-coming fresh from the acadamy, Jake "I came from Wesker's balls" Muller.  Each campaign offers a different outlook and/or relevance to the overall story (as in no story is complete without the others), so if you want the full experience, you are going to have to play through all of them.  It's a good plan, adds additional hours of gameplay to what would otherwise be one short as fuck game.  

Leon's story is probably the best of the 3.  He is often treated as the poster child of the Resident Evil world nowadays.  He is the most popular because he is the most engaging, and...well...he's just cool as shit.  But his appearance isn't why his story is the best, it's because his story is the most "Resident Evil" of the 3.  When you play him, you get the true feeling of crisis, a few actual scares, and a lot of actual zombies (something the games had been lacking since 4).  A lot of scenes feel ripped right out of the best zombie moves.  Escaping a haunted college campus after having just shot the president in the head, holding fort at a gun store and trying to escape the city with other survivors, and surviving the outbreak in the middle of china as countless die on all sides.  It's an intense and fun campaign to play, with some very memorable boss fights and a pretty engaging view point of the calamity that ensues with this new virus strain.  Leon brings it back to the feeling of RE4 as well as plenty of actual zombie fun and excitement to recreate some of the better moments of the PS1 era along with it.  Unfortunately those moments are short lived, and overall his campaign doesn't last nearly long enough to keep you feeling like this is how the game was meant to be before you step into one of the other of the trio's shoes.

Chris Redfield has been with the game since it's humble beginnings in an old mansion secluded in the wilderness.  But ever since he returned on steroids to the full on boner-inducing action RE5, we haven't exactly felt "scared" while playing as him.  So one would hope after playing Leon's campaign especially, that this would be a return to form.  Unfortunately, the game almost immediately feels like RE5, and thus more like some sort of Tom Clancy game.  Along with J.V football captiain Piers Nivans, you embark on missions brimming with military jargon and fully equipped squads to lead the way into dealing with the now gun-toting terrorists/j'avo as if they were insurgents from the middle east.  The campaign feels so much more at ease than a zombie thriller because of the constant contact with the military base and no real shortage of supplies. It just isn't a zombie game at it's core when you are playing Chris.  It is still fun to play (thanks in no small part to the on point combat engine), it just isn't Resident Evil to me.  It's probably bias to think that Capcom isn't simply recognizing that the franchise has moved beyond cheap scares and is now into the intense action business too, but I still can't help but morn the loss of some potentially interesting directions for the game to take.  


Enter Jake Muller, the hand to hand combat in-tuned Wesker Jr.  Jake's story revolves around the background of both Leon and Chris, his relevance is literally none before Sherry Birkin arrives on the scene (the same little girl from RE2 all grown up and looking for trouble).  Jake's body, like Weskers, is immune to all of the mutant strains of, well of everything, and so Sherry is tasked with extracting the antibodies so that a vaccine can be found for the new C virus strain.  So embarks the fairly peaceful journey to wherever.  Terrible handling on snow mobiles, terrible melee combat controls, and extremely awkward love interest scenes all kinda pile up toward mediocrity.  There is some metal gear sneaking and a huge recurring boss named Ustanak.  He is basically this games nemesis (and probably the only interesting part of Jake's story).  Jake's campaign tries to meld both types of game together, but it just doesn't feel right...and neither does the character for that matter.  Sherry's new look and feel is perfect for the franchise, Wesker Jr. seems to detract from it...all opinion so feel as you will on the matter, I think Jake sucks.

Ada is unlockable after defeating all 3 other stories, and soon will just be playable via a free online patch coming up in the near future.  It is also currently a solo campaign, but once against Capcom claims that she will have a partner once the free patch is up.  I liked her story mode way more than Chris or Jake's, much more RE feeling and because she keeps close tabs on Leon, you get to see all the cool parts of that campaign again from a different perspective.  I'd say there were 2 complete successes and 2 particular failures, if the game could exist as any one of these separately, it could be great, but because it is all 4 as a whole, it is brought down by Capcom trying to do too much with too little.

Chapter 2: Gameplay
The gameplay feels better than ever to me.  You can finally move while aiming, and you also have access to your very own command dodges in all 4 cardinal directions.  Not only do they look cool as all hell doing them, they will save your ass time and time again (and since health is hardly a consistent resource, keep moving).  You are still guided by a laser (with a color of your choice) and an arsenal of familiar weapons.  The only weapon that felt new throught the whole game was Ada's crossbow.  Melee combat has been altered greatly from the days of headshot -> suplex -> repeat.  You are now limited by a combat gauge that uses stock everytime you use a quicktime melee attack or utilize your own static melee that can be used anytime on anything (the substitution for the knife for characters that don't have one...also looks really cool most of the time).  You also have access to a "quickshot", this is done by pressing both trigger buttons at the same time, you will fire at the closest on screen enemy at the cost of some combat meter and usually it auto-stuns so you can get in a melee follow up (super useful in mercenaries).  Also introduced is the new sprinting mechanic, you no long jog at a peaceful pace, you simply book it for as long as you wish with escaping with your life in mind.  You can melee out of sprint or do a kick ass slide under obstacles or into dudes.  With also getting through annoyingly long hallways, this was by far the best addition to the game.  Menu's are real time with all item combining or sharing having to be done on the fly, thankfully it is extremely streamlined and once you get it down you'll be mixing herbs inbetween bullet shots.  Health is now done in "tablet" form.  Your health is split into 6 segments with 1 green herb able to heal one segment.  Combining 2 green herbs gives you 3 and 1 red with 1 green gives you 6.  You can use any number of tablets by hitting the right bumper/r1 button that number of times, but you can also donate them to a downed ally to keep them alive (useful when your co-op partner is as death prone as mine was).  All in all combat is quite engaging and easily the best part of the game.  It takes away from the scary feel with all that power at your finger tips, but you just have so much fun killing the already dead that it doesn't matter.  Makes for the mercenaries survival mode one of the easiest good times to be had.

Chapter 3: Result

With 4 story modes, Mercenaries survival mode with plenty of unlockables, free DLC expansions, and 3 new multiplayer modes on their way (with more mercs maps) via not-on-disc DLC, this game can keep you occupied for quite some time.  It clearly warrants multiple playthroughs on multiple campaigns and co-op is fun as all hell, the game represents a good time to be had for a long while after the purchase date.  Even still, the game is far from perfect, bad story lines, cheesy levels, a few underwhelming boss battles, and no where near enough scares rips the game away from it's roots.  There are a few issues with the network that i had but ultimately considering what it is, it was passable.  I just can't in my heart of hearts give it an A because of what i know it could have been.  But this game is still worth taking a spin on and I highly suggest you see what has happened to these unforgettable characters in this unforgettable universe.  The game awards itself with an 84%.  But there is any number of post DLC goodness that could make up the difference, and I myself am excited to see what is in store for us.  I enjoyed my playthrough of the latest installment in the groundbreaking series, hopefully you will too.