Resident Evil 6 is the sixth installment of a
survival-horror franchise that has done it’s time. In this game instead
of following a single storyline there are three separate campaigns and then a
fourth that you unlock by finishing the previous three. They all
intertwine in different ways and it is in that way the makers of this game were
trying something new. The style of each campaign is a bit different each
time as well. For instance- In the Leon campaign it’s more the standard Resident Evil game from
the past, with Chris it’s more shooting and action, with Jake it’s
running away from creatures and situations, and in the Ada campaign it’s
puzzles.
I was not a fan of the different
campaigns. My personal opinion is that one really decent and well-run
story is so much better than four intersecting ones that just glance at one
another and don’t let you care about the characters. The intersections
also mean that you are going to be fighting the same boss fights twice with
multiple characters. It comes off as really lazy on the part of the game
designers. They really needed to attempt to add some more variety to the
monsters. Every campaign faces a creature with the stamina of Jason
Voorhees that you will face countless times and in several forms. It gets
so redundant fighting them again and again.
The game play is okay for the most part. The AI
for the partners has improved a lot more from the last game. A welcome
change I was happy to see that maybe twice I had to take care of my partner in
a fight. Navigating the new version of the inventory was a challenge at
first but I got used to it. The worst part by far is the constant use of
“monkey-see monkey-do” commands. Since Resident Evil 4 for some reason these
commands keep popping on the screen and expecting you to hit the button at just
the right time or die. It brings to mind games like Dragon’s Lair where
the game gets frustrating incredibly fast unless you memorize the button
actions. As if that wasn’t frustrating enough the game added several
death races against the clock sections where a single second off your game will
lead to the character’s dying in an overly long cut scene.
I understood that Resident Evil 4 changed the
series to be more action based. The sequel added a teammate
element. The problem is that the Resident Evil universe has really played
out its story. Capcom should wrap it and Silent Hill up and start a
franchise that is bold and different. There are other really amazing
games that have proven that survival-horror can still be an amazing genre of
game. The two Dead Space games still blow me away and they seem to have
borrowed a lot of the feel directly from Resident Evil. This game is
superfluous. It really ads nothing to the universe other than the side
note that Jake is Albert Wesker’s kid and that is not even a shocking Darth
Vader-style reveal since Jake is a new character himself. Nothing new is
brought to the table.
Resident Evil is okay. It has become a
neutered form of the survival-horror it once was. There are sections of
this game where you fly a crashing plane and have a car chase. That is not the
mood I have at all with a Resident Evil game. That is a mood I have with
an Uncharted game. If you are a fan of the series it’s probably going to
disappoint you in its lack of growth. If you are looking to start playing
the survival-horror genre I’d look elsewhere because this is certainly not that
genre anymore and you can find a lot better.
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