Resident Evil 6

Overview

Resident Evil 6 is the next entry in the popular Resident Evil series, announced by Capcom on January 19th, 2012 for an October 2nd, 2012 release. Set in 2013, four years after Resident Evil 5 (and 10 years since the downfall of Umbrella), Resident Evil 6 brings back the two most prominent leads Chris Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy to canonically star together for the first time in Resident Evil history.

Shying away from a linear progression like the most recent Resident Evil titles, Resident Evil 6 allows players to select from any of the three available campaign stories--Leon, Chris and the new character Jake Muller--in whichever order they so choose, somewhat reminiscent of the first two Resident Evil games. Despite this freedom of choice, it was suggested by RE6 director Eiichiro Sasaki that Leon's story be tackled first.

Development

Resident Evil 6 has been stirring within the public's mind for a while. Rumours and small tidbits referencing the game's development began circulating during E3 2011, when a logo for Resident Evil 6 was posted, along with the date to the same year's TGS show. Nothing Resident Evil-related occurred during the TGS show, however a trailer was released on September 16th, implying that Resident Evil 6 was to be set in Canada. The trailer was soon shot down by CAPCOM as a fake.

The next batch of rumors began pointing towards China, after a voice actress' resume was found to state she would be portraying a ''Chinese zombie'' for Resident Evil 6.

In a similar move during Resident Evil 5's marketing, CAPCOM began a purposely shoddy looking viral campaign called NoHopeLeft.com, which sprinkled random blogs and notes much like for some sort of conspirators website, detailing how the entire world is under siege. Only one day before the début trailer, the site posted a movie of a greatly distressed Chinese woman making a vlog for a loved one, under the guise of a civilian currently in the midst of whatever catastrophe is going on. It cuts out as she is seemingly attacked by something. Soon afterwards, another video is posted just with the date and time of ''01.19.12 14:00 PST''. Without fail, the site then posted a link to the début Resident Evil 6 trailer at 2pm Pacific the next day with the words ''This explains a lot!!!!''.

Continuing the viral campaign, on February 21st the nohopeleft website was ''seized and put under investigation'', with a logo not seen before within the series at the bottom of the page linking a downloadable audio file titled ''praying audio''. Much like the title implies, it plays a short 14 second clip of a young Chinese woman (possibly the same one from the vlog) praying in her native language.

While originally slated for a 11/20/12 release, come the Captivate trailer in April, the date was pushed forward to 10/02/12.

Despite only being announced early 2012, CAPCOM have stated that development for Resident Evil 6 has been going on since 2010. It's also stated to be the ''largest'' Resident Evil game to date, and the CAPCOM team working on it is the biggest one they've had working on a single game--approximately 600 people. CAPCOM have also said that with Resident Evil 6, they want to combine the series strongest elements of horror and action; executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi has coined the term ''dramatic horror'' to best summarise their ambitions.

Gameplay

Resident Evil 6 will feature a "totally new control scheme" allowing much more manoeuvrability, including the ability to move and shoot similar to the 3DS Resident Evil games, Mercenaries 3D and Revelations, and characters can now utilise a roll ability to help dodge incoming attacks. Characters are also now for the first time able to quickly dive into prone and fire their weapon, and RE6 will see the return of cover mechanics along with the newly introduced ability to sprint. Dual wielding is purported to be making a return from Code: Veronica, as it was briefly shown during the debut trailer.

Characters can now use weapons from their environment

Melee combat also appears to of been given a larger focus as well, with Jake Muller's campaign in particular looking to feature a steep reliance on hand-to-hand combat. Cooperative play is also to play a part in the game, with each of the three storylines featuring two or more characters. Leon has Helena Harper at his side, Chris is teamed with BSAA markman Piers Nivans, and Jake Muller is paired with Sherry Birkin.

For the first time in the series characters will be able to make use of weapons beyond just knives and guns; weapons that apparently can be grabbed from the surroundings. In the debut trailer, it shows Leon grabbing an axe and sticking it in a zombie's head, implying that they have a very limited use. Environmental dangers will also be present during some scenarios, as shown when an incoming train runs over some zombies.

Characters

Leon S. Kennedy

After surviving Raccoon City and saving the President's daughter, Leon isn't ready to retire just yet. In fact he now must go back into the heart of the nightmare as his employer and the man he believes in most, the President of the United States, has turned into a zombie and another American City is overrun with infected.

Helena Harper

Helena will be Leon's partner in the game. She's a new character and not much is known about her yet, other than that she is the one who is accidentally responsible for the zombie apocalypse that is spreading across the world and she'll do whatever she can to stop it.

• Voiced by Laura Bailey.

Chris Redfield

Chris still with the B.S.A.A. works alongside B.S.A.A. marksman Piers Nivans amidst their excursion in China, to uncover the plot revolving around the latest strand of B.O.W. virus, the C-Virus.

• Voiced by Roger Craig Smith.

Piers Nivans

A BSAA sniper, Piers is one of the few survivors left after Chris' team is massacred in China.

Jake Muller

An all new character, Jake Muller is the third protagonist of Resident Evil 6, who is directly related to previous series antagonist Albert Wesker.

• Voiced by Troy Baker.

Sherry Birkin

The daughter of deceased Umbrella scientists, William Birkin and Annette Birkin, Sherry finally returns into the fold with Resident Evil 6 working alongside Jake Muller.

Ingrid Hunnigan

The calm and rational voice on the other end of the line in Resident Evil 4 returns to help Leon through his new nightmare as she monitors the outbreak.

Adam Benford

The President of the United States, Adam visits the small town of Tall Oaks to give a speech, only to be quickly swept up in the latest B.O.W. outbreak.

Plot

RE6 will feature a return to stronger horror elements.

The story of Resident Evil 6 comes in three parts that are believed to eventually intersect. The first features the return of Leon Kennedy, still working under the order of the President of the United States. It's been ten years since the events of Raccoon City, and the President has decided it's time to reveal the truth about what happened there in an attempt to raise awareness of Biohazard warfare across the world. But before he can do this he suffers an attack from a new virus, turning him into a Zombie along with 90 percent of the population of Tall Oaks, creating 70,000 new infected victims. This puts Leon back into a situation very similar to his days in Raccoon City. With this we will see a return to the more classic survival horror gameplay from previous incarnations of the RE series, going back to slow zombies rather than the more mutated Ganados of RE4 and RE5.

The second protagonist of the game is returning hero Chris Redfield, who once again is dropped into a warzone that is being overrun with B.O.Ws, and he is once again tasked with bringing them down. This time though he has a wider range of weapons, including a tank at his disposal, and more members of the B.S.A.A there to back him up. The gameplay from his portions of the story, which take place in an unnamed Asian city, will be similar to his last adventure in RE5.

Wesker's son is the final protagonist, and is a new character to the RE series. Not much is known about him yet, except that he used to be a mercenary and that his blood is apparently immune to the zombie outbreak, and he is willing to share this cure with the world, but only if the price is high enough. He is joined by Sherry from RE2, who wants to make sure he survives, but will be difficult since they are being chased by a series of powerful infected, including many creatures who are reminiscent of Nemesis, making the gameplay more about running and survival, reminiscent of the gameplay of RE3. Their initial location appears to be very similar to the Spanish village from Resident Evil 4.

All three of these stories are intended to give fans the a range of experiences that show off the history of the Resident Evil franchise. The storyline will also have a far more global reach than any previous game in the series, as rather than sticking with one location this game shows the infection spanning through America, China, and Europe.

Enemies

The zombie outbreak in Resident Evil 6 shows a wider range of infected than previous games, with the return of some old classics as well as some fresh faced monsters.

Common Zombies

Resident Evil 6 sees the return of the "classic" slow zombie that hounded the heroes of the series up until Resident Evil 4. This particular iteration of the zombie is meant to be more advanced over the usual zombies from the past; they're much faster, agile, and can even leap a small distance through the air to attempt to grab the player by surprise.

J'avo

These multi-eyed monsters appear to be the newest version of heavily mutated common enemies, such as the Ganados from Resident Evil 4 and 5 that weren't simply mindless zombies, but rather mutations that would grow and change, sprouting tentacles to fight the heroes. The Javo have been shown to attack with long arms that can counter Chris's cover system in the game, and those infected have been shown to wear a mask to cover up their mutated eyes.

Multiplayer

Besides the cooperative campaign, there is also to be an alternate cooperative mode allowing up to six players, and a competitive mode for up to eight players.

Logo controversy

The purposely abstract Number ''6'' logo for Resident Evil 6 went under some scrutiny, shortly after it was revealed within the debut trailer, for its appearance - which has been said to resemble a giraffe, whilst wearing a boot, receiving fellatio from a woman. It sparked a lot of talk on many forums across the internet (most notably 4chan) and was subjected to parody and even drawings to better illustrate the ''hidden image'' within the number 6 logo.

While CAPCOM didn't go as far as to acknowledge the fellatio comparison, they were open to admitting and making fun of the similarities the logo shares with a giraffe via a Facebook update.

Dragon's Dogma tie-in

To coincide with CAPCOM's other equally invested IP, Dragon's Dogma, CAPCOM slotted in a code to unlock a demo for Resident Evil 6 for players who buy new copies of Dragon's Dogma. However, there is a large interval regarding the activation dates between the 360 and PS3 versions because of Microsoft paying for temporary exclusivity; the 360 demo is available to download on July 3rd, whereas for the PS3 it's September 5th.