I decided to write this up a blog first because when I started, I couldn't actually post it as a user-review yet. Then I got so far in that even though I now can, I figured I'd still post this as a blog anywhoo! So.. hear it is. Also I'm hardly what you could call a talented writer, so just an FYI if anyone should bother reading this but hasn't read any of my previous user-reviews before.

Oh boy. Where to even begin? I've been a fan of this franchise since the very beginning back in 1996; Resident Evil was my childhood, and the very original just so happened to be one of the first games that I played. I adored this stuff during the 90s and early oughts. However, once came Resident Evil 4, things changed. Now I'm not going to lambaste Resident Evil 4 as some evil mark of damnation--it's a great game by all means--but it's not why I personally came to this series; it's not why I was so stuck in from the moment I entered the Spencer Mansion.

Yet still I persevered! Then Resident Evil 5 came along and all that I hold dear within the series continued to slip away even further. I was losing more and more of what I enjoyed about Resident Evil, and still did I stand by its side. Like some abused housewife who couldn't bear to let go out of loyalty or something... And now we have Resident Evil 6. And now, I feel that I may have just reached my limit.

Resident Evil 6 is a shooter. There's no getting around it. The adventure elements of what was once an action/adventure series have now been squeezed out of the equation almost completely. There's a cover system, there's a down but not out system, there's set-pieces galore, and more than half of the game consists of you fighting against enemies who can shoot you back. But the hilarious and most depressing thing is Resident Evil 6 isn't even a very good shooter; after squandering so much in favour of a broader market, this is what I've been given in return? Now I'm not going to slam down on Resident Evil 6 at every turn, as there are certain elements that I thought were at least... creative. Like the story structure for starters.

Featuring not one, not two, and not even three but four campaigns, Resident Evil 6's story mode is vast. As is the cast of protagonists that make up the story as well: including the likes of Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield canonically starring together in a Resident Evil game for the first time (though not as partners, I regret to say) along with ultra-mysterious femme fatale Ada Wong, and even the likes of Sherry Birkin returns since her last appearance all the way back in Resident Evil 2. It's not just old faces, however, as we have Secret Service agent and drop-kicking aficionado Helena Harper, B.S.A.A. sniper Piers Nivans, and buzzcut sporting badass mercenary Jake Muller. Oh, who is by the way the legitimate son of one Albert Wesker.

The multitude of characters and their respective campaigns were supposed to allow Resident Evil 6 to have a little 'something' for everybody, though they really don't diverge quite as much as CAPCOM would have you believe. What separates them the most is what enemies you'll be facing; Leon's campaign sees the return of zombies, Chris' and Jake's has you doing battle against the J'avo--a B.O.W. shock trooper who sorta function as RE6's replacement for the Ganado/Majini--and Ada's will have you doing battle against both (not simultaneously, however) as her story progresses. Each of the campaign's are usually happening concurrently with another at that, and each cast of characters will inevitably meet up with the other. It's pretty cool to be playing through Leon's & Helena's campaign only to run into Chris & Piers, and then play through Chris' campaign and see that same scenario from the other side.

However, what all four campaigns suffer from is the over-abundance of terribly scripted set-pieces and an exhausting amount of quick time events. Even though the general combat isn't very satisfying on its own, the game really begins to drag once you're forced to just run towards the screen while the camera awkwardly transitions around you, or to play through some tame vehicular segments like riding a bike or a snowmobile - all of which are incredibly strict in what you can and cannot do, and mixed in with a lot of surprise QTE's will invariably force you to try most of them multiple times. They're not exciting nor thrilling in any way and it's just another swing and a miss for CAPCOM trying to turn Resident Evil into something so completely out of the realm of what the series used to be. There's even the occasional stealth segment in here that's like right out of something from the mid 90s. Oh, and underwater segments... Seriously. You couple that with the general design of levels having a slew of conveniently placed red barrels everywhere and Resident Evil 6 starts to look the kind of bad action game pulled right out of 90s twisted with some of the worst trends of the current generation. Almost like how Duke Nukem Forever is an amalgamation of everything that sucked about 90s first-person shooters but also with a modern day shooter weapon limit.

OK, so for a bit of positivity just to balance this out a bit more, Leon's campaign is... OK in spots. Intended to evoke 'nostalgia' for the Resident Evil 4 era, Leon's isn't quite as action-packed as his compatriots. In fact there's some pretty decent pacing during certain early portions of his campaign, and traversing through the lightning-covered skies of a graveyard, or attempting to survive along side a small group of survivors inside a gun store, made for some fitting scenarios. The majority of Leon's chapters situated within Tall Oaks overall have some great atmosphere, and the moment when you hit the zombie-infested streets and are greeted with fiery chaos made for an excellent thrill. Playing straight from Veteran mode, the zombies were surprisingly durable and actually left me panicking in some spots, and there were even some situations that ask of you to choose flight rather than fight.

However, issues such as how you can't shoot the 'corpses' on the floor that you just know are going to eventually wake up and attack (which they do) persist throughout. In fact there's a lot of really hokey attempts at 'scares', like how so often when you near a corpse laying up against a wall it will slump down on to the ground, or a section where you're trying to find the keys to start a car; it'd be pretty tense if there was some kind of fail-state to it, but no, you can literally just leave it there and it'll continue on in a loop. Leon's campaign also features the odd puzzle here and there, though they're laughably basic and don't really require much thought. Once Leon's travels takes him to China, it takes a complete nosedive with a significant increase in QTE-fueled set-pieces, eliminating the tone and style of the Tall Oaks sections.

The boss battles--most notably the final few nearing the end--are also horrendous, and not just in Leon's campaign but across the entire game, with very little feedback as to whether what you're doing is even working - punctuated by many who also have attacks that can come out of nowhere and completely empty your entire health bar. The camera is just far too close to the character mode as well, and as such can make trying to traverse through some of the more enclosed environments an absolute nightmare

Chris' and Jake's campaign is where it all really starts to fall apart, however. Posing as some sort of Gears clone, Chris' has you going against the J'avo, who basically function like brain-dead Lambent Drones. To start things off, the shooting isn't especially satisfying, and in fact with the added ability of melee attacks that you can now utilise whenever you like, you can often just run up to most enemies and start wailing on them. But the melee itself isn't incredibly intuitive either, and can be awfully sluggish sometimes leaving you kicking thin air as a J'avo walks past. You do have a stamina gauge that wears down with every melee attack so you can't be roundhouse kicking forever, but then you only need to fall back on your guns and tear right through everything. The J'avo have terrible AI, and even though much like the Ganado and Majini will go through some pretty disgusting transformations, for most of the mutations your tactics don't diverge too much and you need only just keep shooting. Or you could even just run past most of them.

There's also cover system in play, but it's cumbersome to perform; basically you just press L1 (which is also how you aim your weapon) and you'll automatically line up in cover if a wall's close enough... but you have to hold on to L1 while you're doing it. In some of the enclosed spaces during Chris' campaign there were many moments where I was fighting the terrible camera as much as the J'avo, as I accidentally kept taking cover when I just wanted to aim my gun. The cover system isn't even all that helpful, either. Because you basically shrug off bullets (up to a point, until you awkwardly fall to the ground) you can sometimes just charge in while the J'avo kinda flutter about looking all confused. There's also a dive you can do by pressing the cross button and a direction, but only while you're aiming first. Should you keep a hold of the aiming button after the dive, you can stay laying on your back and fire from there. It takes some getting used to, but it actually works well enough.

Jake's is more or less the same as Chris', though his features a tad more lame set-piece moments and isn't quite as plentiful in ammunition as Chris', promoting the idea for you to rely a little more heavily on melee attacks. Once you've completed the main three, you then unlock Ada's campaign, which mixes in a bit of everything; every shade of shit is on display for Ada's. Nah, that's a bit harsh. Ada easily takes 2nd place, and while by virtue of it being more Resident Evil 6, it isn't great, but there are some memorable moments here and there, and Chapter 4's boss battle in particular is legitimately kinda decent

The story is incredibly bombastic as it spans multiple countries and ratchets up the amount of explosions tenfold. And while I can understand that many don't exactly hold much regard for any of the Resident Evil game's story, I have inevitably grown an attachment to the fiction and its cast. Unfortunately, a lot of it doesn't really pay off; despite portraying itself as a much more melancholic and serious tale in the marketing, there's just about as many corny one-liners and now a whole lot of slo-mo to rival a Michael Bay flick. Chris' story and his deteriorating mental state doesn't quite go as far as I'd have liked, either. I wanted more from these characters; I wanted Chris in particular to perhaps grow beyond being the typical 80s action hero Mary Sue. And there are certainly times where Chris is clearly thrown to the edge, but it's largely of no consequence. The voice acting is at least pretty decent, with Roger Craig Smith carrying on as Chris and Troy Baker nicely fitting in to the role of Jake perfectly.

While the overall story begins to make some sort of coherence once all of the four campaigns are behind you, there is a startling amount of history and backstory to the events that, instead of being given centre stage within the main game, are delegated to out-of-the-way files you can read in the ''Special Features'' section. Once you piece it all together, it's infinitely more fascinating (though it's still not that great mind you) and it's a crying shame that so much of the narrative is cordoned as text that can't even be found as memos or something across the main game.

Unlike Resident Evil 4 and 5, you're no longer buying weapons, and you'll instead find weapons as dictated by the campaign. And instead of upgrading them, now you purchase Skills which you can equip three at a time. They all have predictable buffs like increased firearm damage, increased defence, more ammunition drops and so forth. You can also set eight different combinations and then choose between mid-game to help you adapt. Though because the gameplay is so shallow anyway, I never found much incentive to experiment with different combinations nor do I have a drive to grind out chapters to afford better Skills.

Resident Evil 6 at least makes for a more accessible single player game than Resident Evil 5, however. Now your AI squad-mate is primarily there as a tag along for the story; there's no inventory management between characters, and your partner is invincible with infinite ammo. It's also surprisingly capable and can take down enemies efficiently enough while is also always there to help you up should when you fall into the 'dying' state.

Cooperative play is of course still available, though Ada's campaign is surprisingly enough a solo affair. Ordinarily, though, it's just two players. Until the stories coincide with one another that is. Now once two characters from one story meet up with another, you can then head into matchmaking and pair yourself with another two players to usually fight a boss battle or something. Which is at least a rather interesting twist for cooperative play, even if adding another two players to the mix doesn't make the shooting nor boss battles any less unsatisfying. There's also a lot more splitting up between partners this time around and more situations where each player takes on a different role; such as one character playing guardian angel to another ect. Though they don't always necessarily work. Nearing the end of Leon's, there's a boss battle where Leon is down below on a bridge whereas Helena is up top. Problem is there's not a whole lot of ammo there, and while the game is... 'generous' enough to continually respawn enemies to drop ammo whence killed for you, playing as Helena for that part was incredibly boring.

Frankly that's pretty much a decent way to sum up a lot of Resident Evil 6's gameplay - it's really boring. Generally mediocre at best and absolutely frustrating at its worst, playing Resident Evil 6 quickly became nothing but a chore. And while I wouldn't consider it an absolute mess, there was a point where I was piloting a fucking Jet and I asked myself: Is this really what Resident Evil has become? This is what it's all lead to?

As I stare at the screen after finally completing the entirety of Resident Evil 6, I'm given pause; it occurs to me that I actually feel really rather depressed about this outcome. Maybe it's because I know this is the end? Resident Evil 6 could very well be the finality of the series, and frankly it deserves better - much better. After 16 years of following and obsessing over this series, even when the reasons why I loved this series to begin with started to slowly dissipate, I must now face the possibility that Resident Evil ends not as any kind of survival horror game nor even as a fun action horror game, but as a boring and clumsy set-piece driven shooter.

I decided to write this up a blog first because when I started, I couldn't actually post it as a user-review yet. Then I got so far in that even though I now can, I figured I'd still post this as a blog anywhoo! So.. hear it is. Also I'm hardly what you could call a talented writer, so just an FYI if anyone should bother reading this but hasn't read any of my previous user-reviews before.

Oh boy. Where to even begin? I've been a fan of this franchise since the very beginning back in 1996; Resident Evil was my childhood, and the very original just so happened to be one of the first games that I played. I adored this stuff during the 90s and early oughts. However, once came Resident Evil 4, things changed. Now I'm not going to lambaste Resident Evil 4 as some evil mark of damnation--it's a great game by all means--but it's not why I personally came to this series; it's not why I was so stuck in from the moment I entered the Spencer Mansion.

Yet still I persevered! Then Resident Evil 5 came along and all that I hold dear within the series continued to slip away even further. I was losing more and more of what I enjoyed about Resident Evil, and still did I stand by its side. Like some abused housewife who couldn't bear to let go out of loyalty or something... And now we have Resident Evil 6. And now, I feel that I may have just reached my limit.

Resident Evil 6 is a shooter. There's no getting around it. The adventure elements of what was once an action/adventure series have now been squeezed out of the equation almost completely. There's a cover system, there's a down but not out system, there's set-pieces galore, and more than half of the game consists of you fighting against enemies who can shoot you back. But the hilarious and most depressing thing is Resident Evil 6 isn't even a very good shooter; after squandering so much in favour of a broader market, this is what I've been given in return? Now I'm not going to slam down on Resident Evil 6 at every turn, as there are certain elements that I thought were at least... creative. Like the story structure for starters.

Featuring not one, not two, and not even three but four campaigns, Resident Evil 6's story mode is vast. As is the cast of protagonists that make up the story as well: including the likes of Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield canonically starring together in a Resident Evil game for the first time (though not as partners, I regret to say) along with ultra-mysterious femme fatale Ada Wong, and even the likes of Sherry Birkin returns since her last appearance all the way back in Resident Evil 2. It's not just old faces, however, as we have Secret Service agent and drop-kicking aficionado Helena Harper, B.S.A.A. sniper Piers Nivans, and buzzcut sporting badass mercenary Jake Muller. Oh, who is by the way the legitimate son of one Albert Wesker.

The multitude of characters and their respective campaigns were supposed to allow Resident Evil 6 to have a little 'something' for everybody, though they really don't diverge quite as much as CAPCOM would have you believe. What separates them the most is what enemies you'll be facing; Leon's campaign sees the return of zombies, Chris' and Jake's has you doing battle against the J'avo--a B.O.W. shock trooper who sorta function as RE6's replacement for the Ganado/Majini--and Ada's will have you doing battle against both (not simultaneously, however) as her story progresses. Each of the campaign's are usually happening concurrently with another at that, and each cast of characters will inevitably meet up with the other. It's pretty cool to be playing through Leon's & Helena's campaign only to run into Chris & Piers, and then play through Chris' campaign and see that same scenario from the other side.

However, what all four campaigns suffer from is the over-abundance of terribly scripted set-pieces and an exhausting amount of quick time events. Even though the general combat isn't very satisfying on its own, the game really begins to drag once you're forced to just run towards the screen while the camera awkwardly transitions around you, or to play through some tame vehicular segments like riding a bike or a snowmobile - all of which are incredibly strict in what you can and cannot do, and mixed in with a lot of surprise QTE's will invariably force you to try most of them multiple times. They're not exciting nor thrilling in any way and it's just another swing and a miss for CAPCOM trying to turn Resident Evil into something so completely out of the realm of what the series used to be. There's even the occasional stealth segment in here that's like right out of something from the mid 90s. Oh, and underwater segments... Seriously. You couple that with the general design of levels having a slew of conveniently placed red barrels everywhere and Resident Evil 6 starts to look the kind of bad action game pulled right out of 90s twisted with some of the worst trends of the current generation. Almost like how Duke Nukem Forever is an amalgamation of everything that sucked about 90s first-person shooters but also with a modern day shooter weapon limit.

OK, so for a bit of positivity just to balance this out a bit more, Leon's campaign is... OK in spots. Intended to evoke 'nostalgia' for the Resident Evil 4 era, Leon's isn't quite as action-packed as his compatriots. In fact there's some pretty decent pacing during certain early portions of his campaign, and traversing through the lightning-covered skies of a graveyard, or attempting to survive along side a small group of survivors inside a gun store, made for some fitting scenarios. The majority of Leon's chapters situated within Tall Oaks overall have some great atmosphere, and the moment when you hit the zombie-infested streets and are greeted with fiery chaos made for an excellent thrill. Playing straight from Veteran mode, the zombies were surprisingly durable and actually left me panicking in some spots, and there were even some situations that ask of you to choose flight rather than fight.

However, issues such as how you can't shoot the 'corpses' on the floor that you just know are going to eventually wake up and attack (which they do) persist throughout. In fact there's a lot of really hokey attempts at 'scares', like how so often when you near a corpse laying up against a wall it will slump down on to the ground, or a section where you're trying to find the keys to start a car; it'd be pretty tense if there was some kind of fail-state to it, but no, you can literally just leave it there and it'll continue on in a loop. Leon's campaign also features the odd puzzle here and there, though they're laughably basic and don't really require much thought. Once Leon's travels takes him to China, it takes a complete nosedive with a significant increase in QTE-fueled set-pieces, eliminating the tone and style of the Tall Oaks sections.

The boss battles--most notably the final few nearing the end--are also horrendous, and not just in Leon's campaign but across the entire game, with very little feedback as to whether what you're doing is even working - punctuated by many who also have attacks that can come out of nowhere and completely empty your entire health bar. The camera is just far too close to the character mode as well, and as such can make trying to traverse through some of the more enclosed environments an absolute nightmare

Chris' and Jake's campaign is where it all really starts to fall apart, however. Posing as some sort of Gears clone, Chris' has you going against the J'avo, who basically function like brain-dead Lambent Drones. To start things off, the shooting isn't especially satisfying, and in fact with the added ability of melee attacks that you can now utilise whenever you like, you can often just run up to most enemies and start wailing on them. But the melee itself isn't incredibly intuitive either, and can be awfully sluggish sometimes leaving you kicking thin air as a J'avo walks past. You do have a stamina gauge that wears down with every melee attack so you can't be roundhouse kicking forever, but then you only need to fall back on your guns and tear right through everything. The J'avo have terrible AI, and even though much like the Ganado and Majini will go through some pretty disgusting transformations, for most of the mutations your tactics don't diverge too much and you need only just keep shooting. Or you could even just run past most of them.

There's also cover system in play, but it's cumbersome to perform; basically you just press L1 (which is also how you aim your weapon) and you'll automatically line up in cover if a wall's close enough... but you have to hold on to L1 while you're doing it. In some of the enclosed spaces during Chris' campaign there were many moments where I was fighting the terrible camera as much as the J'avo, as I accidentally kept taking cover when I just wanted to aim my gun. The cover system isn't even all that helpful, either. Because you basically shrug off bullets (up to a point, until you awkwardly fall to the ground) you can sometimes just charge in while the J'avo kinda flutter about looking all confused. There's also a dive you can do by pressing the cross button and a direction, but only while you're aiming first. Should you keep a hold of the aiming button after the dive, you can stay laying on your back and fire from there. It takes some getting used to, but it actually works well enough.

Jake's is more or less the same as Chris', though his features a tad more lame set-piece moments and isn't quite as plentiful in ammunition as Chris', promoting the idea for you to rely a little more heavily on melee attacks. Once you've completed the main three, you then unlock Ada's campaign, which mixes in a bit of everything; every shade of shit is on display for Ada's. Nah, that's a bit harsh. Ada easily takes 2nd place, and while by virtue of it being more Resident Evil 6, it isn't great, but there are some memorable moments here and there, and Chapter 4's boss battle in particular is legitimately kinda decent

The story is incredibly bombastic as it spans multiple countries and ratchets up the amount of explosions tenfold. And while I can understand that many don't exactly hold much regard for any of the Resident Evil game's story, I have inevitably grown an attachment to the fiction and its cast. Unfortunately, a lot of it doesn't really pay off; despite portraying itself as a much more melancholic and serious tale in the marketing, there's just about as many corny one-liners and now a whole lot of slo-mo to rival a Michael Bay flick. Chris' story and his deteriorating mental state doesn't quite go as far as I'd have liked, either. I wanted more from these characters; I wanted Chris in particular to perhaps grow beyond being the typical 80s action hero Mary Sue. And there are certainly times where Chris is clearly thrown to the edge, but it's largely of no consequence. The voice acting is at least pretty decent, with Roger Craig Smith carrying on as Chris and Troy Baker nicely fitting in to the role of Jake perfectly.

While the overall story begins to make some sort of coherence once all of the four campaigns are behind you, there is a startling amount of history and backstory to the events that, instead of being given centre stage within the main game, are delegated to out-of-the-way files you can read in the ''Special Features'' section. Once you piece it all together, it's infinitely more fascinating (though it's still not that great mind you) and it's a crying shame that so much of the narrative is cordoned as text that can't even be found as memos or something across the main game.

Unlike Resident Evil 4 and 5, you're no longer buying weapons, and you'll instead find weapons as dictated by the campaign. And instead of upgrading them, now you purchase Skills which you can equip three at a time. They all have predictable buffs like increased firearm damage, increased defence, more ammunition drops and so forth. You can also set eight different combinations and then choose between mid-game to help you adapt. Though because the gameplay is so shallow anyway, I never found much incentive to experiment with different combinations nor do I have a drive to grind out chapters to afford better Skills.

Resident Evil 6 at least makes for a more accessible single player game than Resident Evil 5, however. Now your AI squad-mate is primarily there as a tag along for the story; there's no inventory management between characters, and your partner is invincible with infinite ammo. It's also surprisingly capable and can take down enemies efficiently enough while is also always there to help you up should when you fall into the 'dying' state.

Cooperative play is of course still available, though Ada's campaign is surprisingly enough a solo affair. Ordinarily, though, it's just two players. Until the stories coincide with one another that is. Now once two characters from one story meet up with another, you can then head into matchmaking and pair yourself with another two players to usually fight a boss battle or something. Which is at least a rather interesting twist for cooperative play, even if adding another two players to the mix doesn't make the shooting nor boss battles any less unsatisfying. There's also a lot more splitting up between partners this time around and more situations where each player takes on a different role; such as one character playing guardian angel to another ect. Though they don't always necessarily work. Nearing the end of Leon's, there's a boss battle where Leon is down below on a bridge whereas Helena is up top. Problem is there's not a whole lot of ammo there, and while the game is... 'generous' enough to continually respawn enemies to drop ammo whence killed for you, playing as Helena for that part was incredibly boring.

Frankly that's pretty much a decent way to sum up a lot of Resident Evil 6's gameplay - it's really boring. Generally mediocre at best and absolutely frustrating at its worst, playing Resident Evil 6 quickly became nothing but a chore. And while I wouldn't consider it an absolute mess, there was a point where I was piloting a fucking Jet and I asked myself: Is this really what Resident Evil has become? This is what it's all lead to?

As I stare at the screen after finally completing the entirety of Resident Evil 6, I'm given pause; it occurs to me that I actually feel really rather depressed about this outcome. Maybe it's because I know this is the end? Resident Evil 6 could very well be the finality of the series, and frankly it deserves better - much better. After 16 years of following and obsessing over this series, even when the reasons why I loved this series to begin with started to slowly dissipate, I must now face the possibility that Resident Evil ends not as any kind of survival horror game nor even as a fun action horror game, but as a boring and clumsy set-piece driven shooter.

I'm one of those people that HAVE to finish a game once I start playing it. And if this game is as awful as people are saying... can I really handle 4 campaigns?

I love Resident Evil just like you, and this stuff is breaking my heart.

It isn't actually breaking my heart

@Yummylee: Thanks for the write-up!

Though, I don't think you have to worry about this being the last Resident Evil game. I'm pretty sure this will still sell decently, and it will be enough for at least another one and perhaps some more spinoffs.

As far as there being another "Resident Evil" game in the vein of the quality survival horror RE games, well... then I have a strong feeling that ship has already sailed. May it rest in peace in the Undying Lands of Valinor, surrounded by the most beloved horrors of its time.

@TruthTellah: Cheers! And to be perfectly honest with you, after how RE6 has shaped up, I'd more than happy if I just got another RE5... at least the gameplay was good. They certainly can't make the series even more action packed after all right? The series can only go up from here!...

@Yummylee said:

@TruthTellah: Cheers! And to be perfectly honest with you, after how RE6 has shaped up, I'd more than happy if I just got another RE5... at least the gameplay was good. They certainly can't make the series even more action packed after all right? The series can only go up from here!...

haha. You would think, but I said that last time. Heck, I keep saying that after every RE movie. If we're lucky, we'll get a spinoff that returns to its roots. The main titles will probably only continue to descend into madness until even COD is put to shame next to their bombast.

Reading this, this is pretty much the summation of my feelings on RE6 and The franchise as a whole.. also yes Ustanak was the worst

(Just skimming) It's weird how there's a dissonance between people saying Leon's campaign is back to the slow paced, low ammo consumption game we loved (RE4 and before) and then on the other hand people saying, like Brad in ILM, that Leon's campaign is the worst. From what I've seen in videos Leon's looks more like what we want/remember from Resident Evil and I almost wish I could buy that separately to give it a go.

Hey guys. Dead Space.

Great write-up by the way. I'll never understand the appeal of Resident Evil but you've at least managed to put a lot of why people love the series into writing so my feeble brain can understand it. To me RE6 looked like hot mess right from the start, I don't like 4 or 5 but I can respect them for what they do and the direction Capcom chose to take with those games.

Nice right up, as a guy who was looking at buying RE6 today I gotta say it worries me along with almost every other review of the thing I see. I liked 5 okay, it was definitely action based, maybe too much so, but it still felt like a natural progression from RE4 which was a great game and I feel felt like a RE. This doesn't sound like a natural progression that went too far though, it sounds like they just tossed everything that made RE good out the damn window and decided to make COD zombie mode into an entire game.

I'm enjoying RE6 from afar. Way too much, I might add. Kinda makes me want to grab it at full price, just to be part of 'it' - for lack of a better word. Looking forward to today's BombCast so much!

Yummylee, as another fan since the 1996 original, I would just like to thank you for writing this review. It's hard for me to grasp why Capcom has consciously taken this beloved series, which ironically helped pioneer the survival horror genre, and reduced it to a mediocre shooter, at best. I've only the played the demo (which I was not impressed by), and have a copy en route from Amazon due to arrive today. Is it even worth keeping the game, or should I just return it and wait for say, Dishonored? It breaks my heart to consider giving up on Resident Evil, but if it's as bad as the critics and user reviews are making it out to be, would I really want to play through 20+ hours of crap? Thanks again!

Such a bummer to see that this game kind of sucks.

I love your style, but its a shame to read this. But not unexpected I suppose.

@Yummylee said:

@TruthTellah: Cheers! And to be perfectly honest with you, after how RE6 has shaped up, I'd more than happy if I just got another RE5... at least the gameplay was good. They certainly can't make the series even more action packed after all right? The series can only go up from here!...

RE7 will be an 8 hour loop of an explosion.

Thanks to all who commented!

@ShaggE said:

@Yummylee said:

@TruthTellah: Cheers! And to be perfectly honest with you, after how RE6 has shaped up, I'd more than happy if I just got another RE5... at least the gameplay was good. They certainly can't make the series even more action packed after all right? The series can only go up from here!...

RE7 will be an 8 hour loop of an explosion.

And you'll have to mash the X button for the entire 8 hours... Oh God I can see it now.

@RazielCuts said:

(Just skimming) It's weird how there's a dissonance between people saying Leon's campaign is back to the slow paced, low ammo consumption game we loved (RE4 and before) and then on the other hand people saying, like Brad in ILM, that Leon's campaign is the worst. From what I've seen in videos Leon's looks more like what we want/remember from Resident Evil and I almost wish I could buy that separately to give it a go.

It's probably because Leon's campaign's earliest chapters are some of the hardest and the zombies can be pretty tough to kill. Which is part of why I actually liked it...

I'm actually getting excited. Waiting to drive up to Gamestop. Got Darksiders 2, Sleeping Dogs and Spec Ops. Might just see if I can't snag an archives version.

this is so depressing to read. it really is. i mean, what happened? i was thinking of buying this because i, too am pretty into the RE fiction but hearing that even that's not good this time around (if it ever was) pretty much means i have no reason to ever get this at full price. even my co-op partner opted out because it looks like poop.

thanks for the write-up. if anyone was going to deliver bad news about RE6, i'm glad it's the dude with the Barry Burton avatar.

It's a sad day for veteran fans of the series, for sure.

@Yummylee: I don't know why but this whole time I thought your avatar was the dude from the Witcher.

Hmm, the reaction by some reminds me of how I felt about Demon's Soul. It broke my heart when I saw how it did some things very well but did other fundamental things badly so I get where people are coming from when they vocally complain about what has happened.

Damn this is sad to read. If a dude so into RE as you is not diggin this game then it must have some serious problems. After RE 5 I'm not that surprised by this but still it bums me out. Hopefully it will drop in price soon because I am curious to check it out.

@Yummylee: I hear Resident Evil 7 is going to be a first person shooter and it's getting outsourced to Infinity Ward.

@laserbolts said:

Damn this is sad to read. If a dude so into RE as you is not diggin this game then it must have some serious problems. After RE 5 I'm not that surprised by this but still it bums me out. Hopefully it will drop in price soon because I am curious to check it out.

If it were that blatantly bad the scores wouldn't be so diverse. Tim Turi at GameInformer is also a huge RE fan and he loved the game.

On a unrelated note I'm really digging the contextual melee stuff. Shoving dudes heads into walls or pushing them over railings is great. =D

@DeShawn2ks said:

@Yummylee: I don't know why but this whole time I thought your avatar was the dude from the Witcher.

Ha, well OK then.

Also I feel like I was a little harsh towards Ada's campaign. Like Leon's, there is some shit in there, but it also has some memorable moments. Chapter 4's boss battle is... fucking crazy, but the fun kind of crazy. Her story is also somewhat enjoyable as you watch events from all of the other campaigns through her perspective.

Really, this can all be blamed on Resident Evil 4 being awesome. If they had kept the version of the game where leon was fighting that hook-handed shadow monster thing, or the version before that where he was infected with the progenitor virus, then the series probably wouldn't have become super popular and we wouldn't be where we are today and so on and so forth. But if Resident Evil 4 wasn't so critically acclaimed, would I have played it in the first place and thus established my fandom for the series? Hmmmm... No, let's blame this all on Code Veronica because I hate that game.

Regardless, thanks for this review. I was already planning on waiting for the price to drop (because I am a poor student and such is life), but thanks to your criticisms I will make sure to get this game for as little money as humanely possible!

"But the hilarious and most depressing thing is Resident Evil 6 isn't even a very good shooter; after squandering so much in favour of a broader market, this is what I've been given in return." This is the most damning line in your entire piece, @Yummylee. Capcom has not only gone afield from what people love about the series, it's done a shitty job at it. Nice work on the review.

sad read. it sounded pretty exciting to hear about a new resident evil game coming out but it just seems bad. the weird thing is that it's getting mixed reviews. one reviewer will give it a 2.5 like you did and another person gave it a 7. i don't really know if i am going to get it as it has mixed reviews.

I wanted to like it and I'm clutching this $60 in my hand in some crazy attempt to convince myself to just say fuck it and play it despite the reviews and seeing just how bad it is...but I can't. RE 4 is what made me jump onto the series and I didn't mind 5 at all. I was looking forward to playing as Leon again but I don't have the free time to invest in a game with bad controls when I can use that time for other better games. Fuck.

Wait, that's Barry Burton? I thought it was a Mass Effect character.

Unfortunately, that's all I have to say on the subject, since I haven't played RE6 and all that.

I feel like people want to hate this game regardless. All the positive comments about the game are just being drowned out by everyone being all negative nancy about the game.

@Yummylee: @Demoskinos: Hmmm, I have the package from Amazon right here next to me and between the two of you I can't decide if I want to open it or return it. If it really is just an average console-shooter with an RE skin maybe I should forego since I hate playing shooters with dual analog sticks. The RE5 pacing and mechanics were perfectly suited for a controller but I've played almost every "amazing" console-shooter this generation (Halo 3, Gears trilogy, Uncharted trilogy) and found them all to be frustrating and boring. Actually Alan Wake and Vanquish were alright.

HMMMMMMMMMM

@StarvingGamer: You might as well give it a go and see for yourself. Though there are plenty of people who loved RE5 about as much as you do (most notably Brad of course) but still loathe RE6, so perhaps set your expectations as such just in case.

@Yummylee: Yeah, I think I will. It's here anyways and since I like yelling at people on the internet so much, I'd hate to miss out on the forum shit-fest this is probably going to end up spawning.

Thanks for the great write-up btw. I'll definitely temper my expectations.

I don't know. I mean, games are going in this direction. Action, set-piece driven games where control is out of your hand for a lot of the time. I can't blame them for trying that. I also can't blame them really for fucking it up from the other side of the sea. But I have to ask... is this what any Resident Evil fan wants at the baseline desire? An Uncharted-style action romp? I can't blame them for wanting to rake in Uncharted and Call Of Duty-style numbers. Even if it was done right, is it what's needed?

Thanks for the write up. Really enjoyed reading it. I've also been following your updates the past few months, and they've been both entertaining (thank you for taking this bullet for me) and fair/informational. It's a shame that it seems the games have gotten closer to the movies rather than the other way around. Oh well. I still have never played RE2, so at least I have that to look forward to.

Through reading your piece, you made me start thinking about what the hell went wrong with this series, and I'm starting to think that it might be due to the overpowering of their main characters. If you look back at the first game, despite being military dudes (Military? Police? I have no idea what S.T.A.R.S come under) they we're in way over their heads and they knew that. Leon and Claire definitely knew that in 2 as well. Jill became more of a badass in 3, as does Leon in 4, but nothing about their characters, from their dialogue to their design, made me believe them that they totally had it covered and was confident in succeeding.

Everyone in 5 or 6, (bearing in mind I've not played 6 yet) seem to exude this asuredness that they we're going to kick everyone's asses and save the day, and when they threw in the 'no really guys, this a tense situation that you might not make it out of!' moments, it felt lame and fake and totally against the staples of great horror. You can't make a super strong character and then expect us to fear for their lives, that's not how it works.

As much as I kind of hate the phrase, because it sounds like a poor fanboy excuse, but tank controls really do make this scarier. Physical, metaphorical or otherwise.

@Yummylee: Random question: Is there any order of playing the campaigns that you feel would be "ideal"? I'm seeing Chris > Jake > Leon recommendations.

Y'know, somewhere along the line to this game's release, OP's opinion became the most important for me to hear in order to get the skinny on this game. No other review matters more then yours sir, so thanks for the write-up!

@Akrid: @CrossTheAtlantic: @stryker1121: Thanks!

@Napalm said:

I don't know. I mean, games are going in this direction. Action, set-piece driven games where control is out of your hand for a lot of the time. I can't blame them for trying that. I also can't blame them really for fucking it up from the other side of the sea. But I have to ask... is this what any Resident Evil fan wants at the baseline desire? An Uncharted-style action romp? I can't blame them for wanting to rake in Uncharted and Call Of Duty-style numbers. Even if it was done right, is it what's needed?

We already have games that are made for that purpose, so even if RE6 was at least a well made one of those (while it'd still be preferable of course), I'd still be left feeling confounded with where the series has gone. Resident Evil isn't supposed to be a power fantasy filled with all kinds of vehicular shit, and yet that's exactly what CAPCOM are driving for. Given the recent popularity of stuff like Dayz, and all of the hype surrounding Last of Us, I think that implies that people are finally starting to get a little fed up with overly scripted, set-piece riddled campaigns, or at least are now ready for something different. I mean Uncharted 3 wasn't as well received as its predecessor because this style of game is lowering in popularity ever so slightly. CoD of course still sells ridiculous numbers and it serves its purpose; it's pointless for CAPCOM to actually try and compete because they'll never reach that high anyway, as demonstrated by their other attempts at wrangling in a western shooter audience like Lost Planet 2. And even if they do... hurray? You made a CoD knockoff that will still be completely overshadowed by CoD.

RE6 is still most likely going to sell pretty well, but what about the next, if there even is one? After where RE6 has lead the series, and with a much more divisive response than even RE5, it makes you wonder if CAPCOM will still test their luck and try again. It's the end of a generation anywhoo at this point, so who knows what to expect if there ever is another Resident Evil. A reboot must surely be in order by now. Though the 'final' ending of RE6 implies that Jake Muller is the new leading guy, I'm pretty sure CAPCOM didn't anticipate this sort of reception when they were setting up where to go next.

@biggiedubs said:

Through reading your piece, you made me start thinking about what the hell went wrong with this series, and I'm starting to think that it might be due to the overpowering of their main characters. If you look back at the first game, despite being military dudes (Military? Police? I have no idea what S.T.A.R.S come under) they we're in way over their heads and they knew that. Leon and Claire definitely knew that in 2 as well. Jill became more of a badass in 3, as does Leon in 4, but nothing about their characters, from their dialogue to their design, made me believe them that they totally had it covered and was confident in succeeding.

Everyone in 5 or 6, (bearing in mind I've not played 6 yet) seem to exude this asuredness that they we're going to kick everyone's asses and save the day, and when they threw in the 'no really guys, this a tense situation that you might not make it out of!' moments, it felt lame and fake and totally against the staples of great horror. You can't make a super strong character and then expect us to fear for their lives, that's not how it works.

As much as I kind of hate the phrase, because it sounds like a poor fanboy excuse, but tank controls really do make this scarier. Physical, metaphorical or otherwise.

I don't necessarily think limiting one's control prowess needs to be a factor in making the situation more scary or is a focal part of survival horror. I mean many people I'm sure have forgotten that the Outbreak games actually brought in the option to play with more traditional analogue control (whichever direction you push the stick, you'll move in that direction) and File 2 even allowed you to move and shoot. But at the same time those games were the absolute definition of survival horror, with a limited amount of ammunition, melee weapons that degrade and so on. What's more impressive is that along with the previous examples, the game was also built around having multiple characters working together at once.

Though I understand that not many people liked the Outbreak games, I personally adored them for that very reason of how they're quintessential survival horror. The first one is one of my overall favourite RE games. But you're right, though, RE5 and of course RE6 falter by turning the games into power fantasies. I think it's more down to the abundance of ammunition and, of course, the cooperative aspects. I believe a very effective horror game could still be created using the RE5 control scheme, or Revelations just to use the most modern iteration. Hell, even RE6 had some semblance of survival horror during Leon's scenarios as the zombies are surprisingly durable and ammo is pretty scarce; I was running away during a lot of the situations in Tall Oaks. In any case the change in priorities to incentivising you to kill everything in sight in RE4 (being rewarded with gold, and even more ammo to kill even more stuff) from actually reserving ammo, and the trade off from exploration to a more linear approach, is why RE4 is such a different game from the series and why it's where I suddenly started to wonder for the future of the franchise; it's the point where the series became a completely different genre.

And then when they knew that of course peopled loved the more action-y aspect of RE, they continued in that direction with RE5, and then turned the back half of that into a crummy third person shooter. Then RE5 becomes the highest selling game in the series, so naturally they decide that everybody must want more action, more fast-paced in-yo-face CRAZY... And we have RE6, which has more of everything RE5 had and then some. Though of course it faltered just a wee bit on the execution... Still, while so many people consider RE4 to easily be the best of the series, RE4 is also the very reason RE6 is what it is... sort of. And yet without RE4 who knows how long the series would have even continued? it's a weird sort of double-edged sword situation. But even still, I firmly believe that RE has the potential to become a genuinely scary, slow-paced, survival horror game complete with the same modern controls of the series. They actually attempted this and succeeded, somewhat, with RE5's Lost in Nightmares. Take out of the coop, and the always rubbish Wesker Boss battle, and it would have made for an even better example at showing the series succeeding in combing both aspects of the old and new.

God, rambling all over the place. I should say now that it's currently pretty late so, apologies if I'm not making complete coherent sense or if I'm contradicting myself here and there ect.

@StarvingGamer said:

@Yummylee: Random question: Is there any order of playing the campaigns that you feel would be "ideal"? I'm seeing Chris > Jake > Leon recommendations.

You've probably already started by now, but juuust in case: I'd recommend you start with Leon's first since as I've said I think he's got the best of the lot. I would say Jake's the worst as well, but that's primarily because of the disappointing story; both jake's and Chris gameplay speaking are both about on par with each other. Chris' has the most intriguing story of the lot, though, and the ending is pretty solid. Though Jake I'd say also has the best ending boss... but only because it's really easy.

Anywhoo the order I done them in was Leon > Jake > Chris, but when it comes down to it all I'd really recommend is you start with Leon's first, and... flip a coin for Chris and Jake's :P

So.

I actually think RE5 was a great game even if it wasn't necessarily a very scary game. The gameplay in RE5 has such a specific and responsive touch to it, there's depth and variety, set pieces, interesting locales to fight dudes in.

The combat in RE6 is awful. The best parts are when it kind of resembles RE4-5 and you're going for headshots into souped up melee finishers.

The story in RE6 is probably the worst the series .... actually, wait. The story in basically every Resident Evil game except for 1 and 4 is completely bugfuck nonsense.

The game looks incredible. It is probably the best looking console game I've ever seen that doesn't feature Nathan Drake in it.

Sounds alright.

But it controls so poorly it's not even a game. There is nothing fun here.

@Yummylee: If Leon's is the best then I think I'd want to save that for last. Without knowing anything about the story, Chris > Jake > Leon seems like the most logical path to take in terms of continuity. Chris carries the torch from RE5 into RE6, then we spend a little time with some random dude, then wrap it all up with Leon who's become the heart of the series for me.

An hour in and I'm using the laser dot to aim. It feels like an RE game so far, just a little punchier than usual. Combat feels a little more loose though and I think that's because there's some sway while aiming. In RE4/5 Leon/Chris had rock-solid robot aim. Also I'm not sure how I feel about all the enemies having head armor by default. I'll dive back in tomorrow.

@Brodehouse: What did you think about RE5 when it turned into a quasi-third-person-shooter with all of the gun-totting Majini soldiers, though? That's where that game really started to crumble for me. RE5 controls worked perfectly fine against the villagers and even those tribal bendy-back guys, but the limited manoeuvrability (ugh, and that cover system! it's even worse than RE6's) really hindered a lot of the combat portions against the guys with AK's and RPG's for me.

And while I wouldn't consider it an absolute mess, there was a point where I was piloting a fucking Jet and I asked myself: Is this really what Resident Evil has become?

I hate to break it to you but the live action Resident Evil movie franchise is becoming more and more AMAZING*, especially in the way it re-appropriates scenes from the games to hilarious effect:

*This user is in no way responsible for any persons who misinterpret sarcasm as being genuine.

I've only had time to play the prelude and some mercenaries but....... I like the combat in the game. Guess I'm weird

@Sackmanjones: Where the hell is mercs at? Did I totally miss it on the menu? O_O

Also, Played 2 of Chris' chapters and One of Jake and I'm really liking it. I think I might like the Jake stuff more. Having a "nemesis" like creature chasing you through the whole game seems awesome.

@Yummylee:Was still largely fine, though you had to know how to work cover points for the soldiers with the RPGs. You had pixel perfect aim and they didn't juke around so much. All you had to do was be patient and accurate and it was largely the same. Now your guns are largely weaksauce and dudes run all over to make up for your increased mobility.

The camera is the biggest weakness. Even when the controls seem well suited to what you're doing, the camera being randomly stolen from you or operating with no clear disitinction makes the game largely unplayable. They're trying to bring back the cinematic quality of fixed angle and seemed to have forgotten that tank control was the solution to the unwieldiness of 2D control in fixed perspective scenarios.

is jill in this game at all or even mentioned??

I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, will probably do so later. The consensus seems to be Capcom went to far. I will decide for myself later but with as busy as I have been with school I have not really had time to be hyped for anything. As a person with a Barry Burton avatar you owe it to yourself to at the very least watch this clip of Barry from the new RE movie. Also spoilers for those of you who have yet to see it but still plan to.