Resident Evil6
Re6 review
Press X if you want to live.
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the expression “I’ll write to a friend about that.” Or “I’ll write to my mother about this one.” When something gets your attention. When you are impressed, or you’ve just watched a great movie or T.v show. When you read a good book or when you’ve been playing a great game, like me you’re probably impatient to tell someone else how great this is. Well, despite some beauty and a couple good things here and there, is Resident Evil6 worth writing about? Barely. But my quick answer is NO.
Have we reached a new level of stupidity with RE6? Only Hollywood could tell but my answer is YES For sure. But even though we are offered 4 campaigns that should take about 4 hours to complete each, the more sh**t you put into something once great, the more it'll stink. Numerous are these kinds of games you’ll say but there’s no story as generic and cliché as RE6 story. Leon is trying to escape an American town while trying to prove he’s innocent for the murder of the president. But of course Leon will have to come across his suspect of choice and find enough intel to prove that the man is indeed guilty. Chris Redfield finds himself getting drunk in a bar, trying to forget about the many teammates he’s lost along the way, once again. It seems we never get enough of the mourning hero in Chris.
And RE6 focuses so much towards action this time that the game is filled with stunts performed on slow motion. That all ending with QTE (Quick time events), that you'll have to perform if you want to stay alive. Press X if you want to live. It feels like watching a big action movie, when you have to press start on the controller to see the rest when things start to heat up. And i dislike having the faith of the characters in hand when i watch movies.
Filled with Quick time events, RE6 is strictly an action based game. A really poor third person shooter if you will. And if there’s something obvious to blame for what RE games are becoming, RE6 clearly shows no interest into telling a story or making the game play enjoyable. It even trades a lot of the fun and freedom of playing for these annoying moments where the players have to mash certain buttons in order to get an action performed. Kind of feels like being back to when i was 8 years old, trying to get something in the brain of my character by stupidly pressing the same button or turning the same stick counter clockwise. Back then, it rarely worked as I wanted to. So I had to learn to master Super Mario, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Batman… But RE6 will force you to do it almost every time there’s a great action scene coming. And this is all there is to recognize in this particular installment. Making the player feel like he’s watching a John Woo flick and nothing to grab and remember about everything else.
The A.I is as stupid as always, or more. Unless you act like the A.I and waste your ammo on 2 or 3 zombies in a corridor instead of using your kicks and knife you should be alright. I was yawning throughout most of Leon’s campaign. Even though it started in a really quiet building that made me think I was about to enjoy a cool survival horror game, the bad action scenes and QTE quickly take over. I didn’t jump once. All that effort in creating the atmosphere for the first building turned to waste. After I found the first dead body on the floor and grabbed the first aid kit lying somewhere near him it made me think so much about why RE used to make my blood run cold and even gave me goosebumps numerous times. That feeling doesn’t last long this time around.:(
There is only one way on that campaign. No exploration or reflection. Even the so called puzzles won't offer you a chance at using your brain since the way to overcome these pieces is written in big letters on the walls. "Ring the five bells and the true path will appear." The order in which you have to ring the bells doesn't even matter.
If Leon's campaign resembles his campaign in RE4, it sadly doesn't match it. You'll have to walk in a cimetary. Hide in a building with survivors to shoot the coming zombies. Find a passage leading underground in a cathedral. Scenes from epic RE games are all recycled here but there's nothing to do to make it at least decent.
If there’s a good point about that first campaign it’s the fact that no matter how much ammunition you have left, you may start to feel like this is a run for your life despite the amount of cheesy and corny action sequences. The zombies won't shoot back but attack you and you can never really hide. You have to face them by standing in the middle of the place, just like in old RES.
Chris Redfield's campaign is all action oriented. It will offer you way more fun than the Leon campaign though. Remember Rambo? Well Chris had to kill a plant in RE1 with guns while Jill could mix up liquids and poison its roots. Yeah, Chris has big and strong arms but can't answer something like 3+5. No matter, if you like the Stallone or Shcwarzenegger type you have to love Chris. You will face large and cool mutants and even chase one while he's killing all your men one by one. Chris follows it by shouting things like "You killed all my men." or "I'll kill you you deep s***." Needless to say that ammo won't match the amount of enemies during this particular campaign so use it wisely. Cause the occasions are a lot. But fighting bosses with only 5 bullets and a knife?? This campaign in particular might have you come back though.
The third campaign, Jake's campaign makes it into the best part of the game. Son of the infamous Albert Wesker, Jake still doesn't know that his blood could be helpful and save humanity from the C virus. All he knows about that virus is that when he injects himself, he turns into something more powerful, almost superhuman but won't transform into a deranged madman or into a zombie like the others. His partner Sherry Birkin knows though and she wants to bring Jake home to her superiors safe and sound. Sherry Birkin was just a little girl at the time of RE2, remember? She's the daughter of William Birkin, the man who injected himself and became the big boss of RE2. Sherry grew up and became a secret agent. Able to fight for her own safety. But this campaign in particular will offer you the best story out of the 4 campaigns in the game. A well calculated dose of action in which our new heroes are entangled a little against their will. And with a creature whose determination and looks reminds us of RE3's legendary Nemesis, this one is the most fun and the better achievment throughout this whole game. It will even offer you a little exploration, almost not heard of in RE games since a long time. Yeah, finally some freedom. And those 2 new heroes have their own well defined personalities. Jake is some sort of anti hero. With a dark and sarcastic side but won't end up giving away his best lines when it's not time, like everyone else seems to do in RE.
And once your 3 campaigns are done, you will unlock a fourth one, solo this time introducing the always mysterious Ada Wong. That campaign, although being the only solo campaign doesn't match the others. This is the worst imo. So if you worry after completing only one campaign, don't bother continuing only for that last one. Problem solved.
A couple cool bosses and great graphics but this all only tries so hard to polish a really boring adventure. Because the game is really beautiful once again in terms of characters designs and backgrounds. The problem is, you still make your way through a cemetery to end up in a church, cathedral or whatever ( Too bad for the fear of the unknown. I saw it all before.) You still are provided with an action sequence in which you will be riding a jeep while your partner is on the machine gun trying to shoot the enemies and prevent one from escaping.
Is this more of the same? That’s all déjà vu. Many past RE’s have been recycled and they spit it all at us once more. The problem is this game’s creators in particular aren’t even ashamed of the fact that it looks like some sort of a game for the first 10 minutes, turns into a different type of game totally and make a U turn whenever they please. That’s actually one of the worst RE games I played so far. They got us used to way better than that even with RE5. Like RE5, Re6 feels like being forced to wash the dishes or mow the lawn. That when a lot of other chores could make you feel way better after you completed the task.
That being said, there are a couple great moments but they sadly don’t breathe throughout all the bad stuff. It has me thinking that this game could have been much better if only talents had been hired to develop it instead of the empty brain zombies they hired.
It results in a lot of fast but short action sequences but once the player takes back controls things fall short of any fun moments. Making many hits seem like enemies are immune to them. One time a zombie will die with one single shot to the head and the other time it will take you 4 or 5 shots to its brains. But they’re no Einstein. They’re less bright than RE1 zombies as a matter of fact so stop in front of them and kick them. Or just leave them be. Most of them aren’t even a threat, except for the ones you’ll have to kill while a group of survivors hidden in a cathedral seem to be indecisive at first about letting you in or not. And they seem to be blind or too stupid to find the door when they finally decide they should let you in.
The bosses, no matter how cool they may look take so much space that you will get tired of fighting them. Some of them are just so relentless that once you’ll be tired or bored enough of fighting the same mutant over and over that you’ll start to have some fun, you will finally be done with it or forced to leave him until you 2 meet again almost randomly. This all while you and the team already have your hands full with infected zombies that weirdly enough are still able to use firearms. You have all the time to run for ammo and turn around in search of the most dangerous threat though. Remember Nemesis in RE3? This big and relentless, cool looking dude that wouldn’t let go until the end? The bosses in RE6 are ALL the same. All that relentless. But I think I’m one of the rare few to think that Nemesis had something ridiculous back then.
Knowing the bosses weak spots at a given time isn’t even a reward in itself. The same damn boss will be defeated and come back 2 minutes later with another form. The boss battles are probably everything this game leans towards. That’s sad.
One more point: Don’t ever count on the A.I to help you much during boss battles even if they’re the ones shooting from a chopper. No way! They seem to ignore the enemy’s weak points so they’ll be wasting ammo those geniuses. It seems the human player is the only one able to hurt the enemy. So you’ll be trapped with bigger than nature bosses, running around in circles, trying to refill your weapons while your team keeps shooting. Because the A.I has infinite ammo, it’s well known. Thanks god though, they’re on your side.
One of the biggest flaws of Resident Evil games has always been the camera. And it doesn’t change with RE6, the camera is really bad at times. During the quick time events or actions sequences, you might even start to get frustrated of dying because of only one single thing that you think you saw, like a continuation of the road but you were wrong, that was actually a hole opening up or a cliff starting to fall around you. The deaths in this one are particularly frustrating. QTE, Bad covering from your partner or a really big moment in which you would have made it easily by paying more attention.
Sadly, Resident Evil games seem to be made only for co-op nowadays, but there are way better shooters out there for sure. That’s only my opinion but RE soon felt in need of an extreme makeover after RE3. And they did hit the nail precisely and wisely with RE4. It seems we are still in desperate need for something else. But in my point of view, the most important thing is the need for a decent solo adventure. Up to RE4, that was what Resident evil was about. I don’t mind the co-op adventure, but when this is the only way one can actually take some fun out of an RE game it’s clearly disappointing. When a franchise that used to show you a door and a black screen, making you wonder what was behind that door becomes a game in which there are mecanisms that only 2 persons can use simultaneously in order to open doors, it's really bad.
They released at least 3 RE games this year that I know of. RE Revelations on 3DS. A game that finally succeeded in bringing back the stressful and claustrophobic feeling of the early RE games thanks god. And Operation Raccoon city. One of many RE games based solely on team play, gaming and action.
The difference between Operation Raccoon city and RE6? ORC was at least much more of a straight forward in your face game. Shooting while hidden behind a box or back to a wall was way easier in ORC's gameplay. Despite being really short, and the justified complaints about the A.I as always, the idea behind ORC was well exploited imo. It stayed with what it was out to do. It’s not the case with RE6. Thinking about that lot of crap they put in, it seems no bad idea was deemed bad enough to be introduced in the game or not. I even wonder if the guys knew where they started from and where they were heading for. RE6 feels like a reception during which my family, relatives and your family and relatives have all cooked something but instead of making something feel different or stand out, or instead of wondering and fearing who’s meal would be the best, they mixed everything together in one bowl. Making some buyers puke their insides out? Well for 70 dollars each, it’s surely worth soiling the rugs. The game is not much more than a lot of spit from different tongues. We don’t know where we’re going, but hey, what if we ever get there? And if there’s some talent behind the team that brought us that last game, it’s clearly not shown this time around.
Long story short, Resident evil6 could have been a nice step forward. Despite really bad camera angles at times and the old cliché being recycled over and over in the script. And if not for these really annoying moments during which that supposed action/adventure becomes a racing game. The climbing parts are also a real pain in the ass. Just screw most of that stuff next time. The game seems so full of these. Too much to be enjoyed fully. It’s Sad cause I kind of liked Jake’s campaign for the most of it.
If you still feel like it after reading this, well as I did I suppose, you should dive headfirst in this one, kill that mutant quickly and turn to something else. If this is worth something, it's not worth much. It's a question of opinion but RE's scripts were never the best out there. But i've had my fair share of hearing or being reminded of the BioTerrorism term with a big T every time i put in a RE.
Because when comes the end of days, will there really be a fool proud enough to open his mouth and admit that of the RE franchise he remembers RE6? Unless he wants to be left to burn alone or locked up in room with a straight jacket, he’ll keep his mouth shut.
Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg couldn’t do worse than that if they were asked to do so.
6.5/10
Would be about time for RE to find itself and its identity in all its mess.
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