Wiggle the analog stick to not die...
Resident Evil 6 is a checklist game. What is a checklist game? It's a game that tries to take common and popular video game tropes and tries to turn it into something coherent. These games don't have to be bad, mind you. Games like "Darksiders" and even "Borderlands" operate off a checklist and manage to form their own identities.
Resident Evil 6 is a bad checklist game. It operates off a checklist that has almost no semblance of structure. Whereas the aforementioned games managed to build a sound structure in which to show off what they've done with their checklists, Resident Evil 6 is more than happy just to throw every trope they could think of in a blender and hope that something tasty comes out of it. I'm sad to report that the results are pretty damn nasty.
Where to even begin? I feel like I just explained exactly what's wrong with this game in two short paragraphs. I could start off with the abysmal QTEs, which constantly have you mash buttons and shake the analog stick. Or even worse, the slow motion ones where you have to shoot a specific monster or object in order to succeed; these kinds of QTE's require you to have ammo already in your weapon you have equipped, if not, the game does randomly throw down a box of ammo for you, but by the time you've reloaded, you failed.
There are brain dead set pieces with frustrating instant deaths. Your control in these set pieces is tenuous at best, often just requiring you to hold down a button and the pushing the analog stick in a specific direction. There is shooting as well, and it's the best part of the game because it's merely mediocre. The gunshots sound powerful at least and enemies (mostly) react to where you shoot them; but there's little sense of impact or joy to the combat. The melee system is also clunky and imprecise thanks in part to the erratic camera.
I could talk about the story, which is essentially a reject Michael Bay movie. It's not engaging in the slightest and most of the exposition is hidden beneath files that you get by shooting objects in the environment. God forbid they weave this into the narrative somehow, which is a sloppy mess of explosions and one-liners.
There's little joy or fun to be had in Resident Evil 6. Period. That's really all you need to know.
1.5/5 stars
3 Comments