It’s been over three years since we last saw a numbered entry in the series that popularized survival horror. Left 4 Dead 2, Dead Space 2, HD rereleases of Resident Evil Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4, along with the 3DS exclusive Resident Evil Revelations have helped to fill that gap, but now Capcom has finally given us Resident Evil 6. An extremely ambitious game, RE6 tries to simultaneously return to its survival horror roots, push ludicrous action, and tell multiple stories; all in the same game. Keeping these moving parts from dissolving into a muddled mess is a tall order, but a crew of Raccoon City alums and a fresh batch of characters might just be up to the challenge.
Design
Resident Evil 6 features 3 campaigns that each star a character from past games paired with a newcomer. Resident Evil 5 introduced cooperative play into the series and it looks like partners are here to stay. Even while playing alone you will be accompanied at all times by a computer controlled companion who will lend supporting fire and even help you up when enemies knock you down. Mercifully, you don’t have to worry about managing your partner’s inventory. They are pretty good at handling themselves and I never once had to protect or pick up a downed ally. I do wish I had the option to play completely by myself, though, as having someone (A.I. or otherwise) tagging along kind of crushes most opportunities this game might have had for instilling real horror. Familiar Resident Evil trappings are here as far as green and red herbs, limited ammunition, and grotesque monsters; but this game feels very different from those that came before.
Characters move more briskly, chase sequences are more frequent, and puzzles are few and far between. In some segments it feels like Capcom is trying to ape Gears of War with big shootouts and a fully (though clumsily) implemented cover system. In other sections you might find yourself running toward the camera in a fashion eerily reminiscent of Uncharted. Now I know Resident Evil 4 featured tense running segments well before Uncharted came out and that Cliff Bleszinski has named RE4 as the inspiration for many of the game mechanics in the original Gears of War. Capcom did over-the-shoulder third person shooting and tense chases way back in 2005. They simply haven’t innovated that much here. Shifting camera angles and less than perfect controls frequently make hurriedly escaping danger a tedious game of trial and error. Thankfully there are very frequent checkpoints; so you won’t have to slog through long sections repeatedly just to have another shot at getting past a hazard that kills you instantly. Likewise, the cover system works well sometimes, but often left me popping unexpectedly in and out of cover while sometimes still unable to line up a shot on an enemy. I may be nitpicking, but RE6’s shift into action heavy sequences seems somewhat sloppy to me. Even when you do need to solve a puzzle, keys are highlighted with waypoints and you are constantly bedeviled by enemies that, in some cases, seem to endlessly respawn. Zombies popping unexpectedly out of closets might be a tired mechanic, but I prefer that to constantly fighting. Moments where this game could build tension are discretely separated from those where you’re being attacked, so you never get a chance to really be afraid. Each of RE6’s campaigns do feature different feels, though, and that’s much appreciated.
Leon and Helena’s story feels the most like a classic Resident Evil and marks the return of the series’ (once) trademark zombies. Chris and Piers go on a combat-heavy adventure that feels more like a military shooter with horror elements. That leaves Jake and Sherry, whose tale sees them pursued by the seemingly unstoppable Ustanak; harkening back to the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. All of these stories weave together in a clever fashion and you will be able to switch between campaigns whenever you like. Sections of each campaign will intersect with the others and help fill in all the bits of the story. It’s a very cool system that kept me interested even when playing through some of this game’s more ridiculous moments. There are parts of this game where everything will come together in just the right way, leading to some very fun and tense moments, but that’s not the case most of the time. Horde mode style enemy onslaughts and some less than stellar driving segments seem like they’re just padding this game’s length and mar what could have been a truly exceptional entry into the Resident Evil franchise. I love the three campaign idea in theory, but in this case it simply makes this feel like a game whose good bits have been spread a little thin.
Audio
Creaking wood, shuffling footsteps, and groaning monsters all sound creepy and help set a great mood in RE6’s slower moments. Most of the time, though, you’ll be hearing gunshots, explosions. . .and shrieking monsters. All of these sound effects are well mixed and definitely sound great. Music changes appropriately; shifting from creepy and subdued to tense and percussive as each moment dictates. There were some strange moments where the music would go away completely during a shootout, but these were pretty infrequent. I really enjoyed this game’s soundtrack and it’s clear Capcom paid a lot of attention to each track’s quality. The voice acting here is actually pretty good, too. The lines these characters say can be overly campy and sometimes inappropriate, but I think that’s more due to the dialogue’s writing and/or translation. RE6’s audio package is great and goes a long way toward setting a tone that keeps this from being just another action shooter.
Graphics
Visually, Resident Evil 6 is a mixed bag, but not in the typical sense. While there are occasional bad textures and goofy looking enemy designs, almost everything you’ll see is polished in a way that’s rarely seen in current console games. Light and shadows are used to great effect, character models are highly detailed, and facial animations in particular are often exceptional. It’s the way this game moves that proves the most problematic. Enemy animations are pretty good until you attack them. Sometimes they’ll flip through the air, clip through each other, or generally move in a strange, stilted way. This has been the case since Resident Evil 4, but I was hoping it would be remedied here. It just sticks out against how detailed every other part of this game looks. Also, while I feel there’s some validity to complaints about past RE games featuring “tank controls,” in Resident Evils 4 and 5 restrained character movement let designers have some control over what you would be looking at. While there are parts of RE6 where fixed cameras with classic Resident Evil angles are used, most of the time you will be able to move and look freely. Unlike in most AAA third person shooters, however, your character will jerkily rotate and it’s often difficult to fix your view on what you want to see, breaking the otherwise great visual fidelity. There are some amazing looking moments in here, but seeing a character switching weapons or run in place, among other things, really hurts an otherwise phenomenal-looking game.
Gameplay
At the risk of starting a flame war, I’m going to say that Resident Evil games have never been particularly great shooters. Much like the Metal Gear series, shooting is important, but it’s handled in a more methodical way that makes just using guns while running around seem like a bad strategy. I think that’s great. I don’t want every game to feel like Gears of War, Halo, or Call of Duty. While you can earn skill points and use them to level up attributes like recoil control and firearm power, Resident Evil 6 still makes using guns a little trickier than its third person shooter peers. This makes moment to moment gameplay particularly tense because your life will frequently depend on making tricky shots that are more difficult here than they would be in other games. Running and shooting feels a little more loose than I would prefer, but it works well enough. A great deal of the time you will need to execute Quick Time Events that require you to swirl a joystick around or hit an appropriate button in response to an onscreen prompt. You’ll see some of these context sensitive events more often than others when you need to shake off an enemy or jump across small gaps. Some of the prompts can be confusing at first glance, but required button presses or joystick motions always seem appropriate. Moving through this game requires basic navigation, shooting, running from danger, and even some driving segments. The last two don’t work so well all the time, but they can be very exciting nonetheless. Certain unique moments that require stealth or rudimentary puzzle-solving will arise from time to time and these are the points where Resident Evil 6 starts to shine. Also, the boss fights here are very engaging, feature multiple stages, and harken back to past Resident Evil greatness. I had a lot of fun playing this game, but I’d only say about a third of it was remarkable. The rest isn’t bad, and maybe I was just hoping for more from a franchise I love, but large chunks of this game feel merely mediocre. I would still recommend playing RE6 overall, but I couldn’t help wondering how I would feel about its gameplay if it wasn’t a Resident Evil game.
Replay Value
Beating the three campaigns, along with the fourth doing so will unlock, takes around twenty four hours on normal difficulty. That’s a good chunk of game, but, as I said before, it feels like there’s a lot of padding in there. The fourth, unlockable campaign, while shorter than the others, was my favorite. You can play any of the first three campaigns with human controlled partners on or offline, and sometimes your game will intersect with another player’s letting you help them tackle tough moments or boss fights. Mercenaries mode returns, letting you earn skill points and generally just have fun seeing how many enemies you can take down by yourself or with friends. One unique addition is Agent Hunt where you can enter another player’s game online as an enemy and try to take them down as they play through the campaign. This can be fun in small doses, but I doubt it will have much staying power with the online community at large. Resident Evil devotees will no doubt love the plot twists, multiple ways to play, and the myriad collectibles to find by shooting blue medallions scattered throughout the game. There is a lot of content here, but I’m not sure this game will have what it takes to keep newcomers to Resident Evil or “purists” (who think the series peaked with RE2 or 4) playing once they’ve beaten the four campaigns. Personally, I plan on playing a lot more of this game. Capcom took some big risks with Resident Evil 6 and, while they don’t all pay off, the ones that do are refreshing and remind me why I keep playing this series.
Design – 7.5
Audio – 9.0
Graphics – 8.5
Gameplay – 8.0
Replay Value – 7.0
Overall – 8.0
