I gave this game a second chance...

...And you know what, I actually don't completely regret doing so.

Playing the PS4 version, it actually looks quite good in 60 FPS. It's not an amazing looking game at all and there's a fair share of graphical and animation glitches, but it plays okay. This is in no small part to the changes they did to the camera, which you can now get a decent FOV and have your character moved all the way to the side while aiming, which is a nice touch.

So what inspired me to play through this again? There's been this idea on the internet that people who don't enjoy this game didn't play it correctly. Looking back on my first playthrough back in ye olde 2012, I could actually see that. I barely if at all used the dodge and roll mechanic, didn't use the quick shot, and played pretty aggressively on the melee side of things cause I was afraid of losing ammo and such. Why didn't I use these techniques? Cause the game does a piss poor job at communicating a lot of the time.

Look, call it my fault all you want, but the game doesn't really teach you the importance of these techniques. Heck, you only learn of some in them in the mid-late section of Leon's campaign with the saw blades. I relied on my old school TPS instinct of running and aiming cause the game doesn't really care to give out a decent tutorial. There's figuring out things on your own and there's being annoyingly obtuse.

It's not just game mechanics either, this game will thrust people into scenarios in a rapid pace without giving the player enough time to figure out what to do. I just finished Leon's campaign, but I died at the helipad 3 times because the prompt to pick up the rocket launcher and shoot the big fly (Simmons) wouldn't show up (and I had no idea the rocket launcher was there). And this is just one example.

I also complained about the QTEs. Did you know you could rotate both sticks to make that particular QTE easier? I sure as hell didn't, cause the damn game didn't tell me. So knowing that made these a bit more tolerable and that annoying rope QTE in Leon's campaign is now just violently tapping R2. But you know what, if you're going to implement quick time events, at least make me pay attention to the prompts on screen, which this game does (most of the time). It's not the most egregious use of QTEs in a game (I actually think some God of War games are worse), but they can be annoying. Luckily you can turn cutscene QTEs off.

You know what, I kinda grew on this game's combat. It's not quite tactical, but there is a certain strategy to paying attention to the environment and dodging at the right time. Speaking of that dodge, it's really stupid looking and lying on the ground prone and rolling around will always look silly to me in games. There's actually some interesting nuance to the controls. You can sprint melee and slide on the ground. And it's all stupid.

But this whole game is stupid. Really stupid. We went from a cool horror conspiracy story set in a mansion with crimson heads to a globe trotting action-mystery with a T-rex. And I can see why that would piss fans off. As someone who doesn't have much stake in the RE lore, however, I can kinda accept it for what it is. It can be kinda endearing. Heck, I got a chuckle when Leon referenced that merchant from RE4. So I can pretend to be somewhat invested.

When the game tried to be a RE game with its shooting in environments and light puzzle solving, it can be passable entertainment. I can understand the hate for the set pieces and annoying boss fights, but if I were to take the bad with the good, I'd say it comes up slightly on the good side. I can also sympathize with fans for what direction the game took. However, the game left me with a rictus grin on my face after today's play session. I felt like I was watching The Room. I mean how many games can you say that you punched a man who turned into a T-rex who then turned into a fly? It's stupid, but I found it kinda endearing. So this game at least has somewhat of a "personality" in some aspects, whether intentional or not. I can't say I was bored. Occasionally frustrated, yes, but not bored.

I rated this game 1.5/5 back in 2012. Let me up that to a 2.5/5. I wouldn't really recommend it, but if you see it on the ground and want to put it in your machine, I'd say go for it. Maybe I'm crazy. Is that all stranger?

In regards to how the game is and how the property has changed...

I am always fascinated by how some producers talk about past games they have made. Often we will hear producers talk about elements that they felt were important and we say to ourself, "What game are they talking about?" It is from such discussion we being into glean that when we talk about a single objects, not matter what its is, there is always a different view between any two people.

I think with very high profile games that are hits the difference in view can be vast. After all in the first Tomb Raider for instance what is the meaning of Lara Croft being Lady Croft? Some players might say, "Err, nothing." And to other player it might imply different contextual meanings. Moreover, even for people that agree their is a context meaning, some might say, "Well, being an member of the English aristocracy, and the link between 19th century archeology and the scientific movement in Great Britain means...." While other might say "Much like Bruce Wayne, Lara's own personal wealth and her use of her mansion as a training facility means...." When we then consider the people making the game and what that means to their understanding it becomes easy to see that what a developer might think and what any single player might think about a game can encompass a wide gulf of understanding.

I never played RE5, I should probably do that.

I kinda want a game that mixes up a beat-em-up with a shooter. I guess that's what Capcom was going for in a sense with this game? I dunno.

I want to stress that this game isn't good, just that I enjoyed it more now that I got a firm handle on the controls and found some cornyness with it. That's the TL;DR version.

Also a lot of grammar and word choice errors in the OP.

Resident Evil 5 is REALLY good, people hated it back in the day only because it wasn't survival horror. Yes its an action game but its fun as hell even more when playing co-op.

I'm also trying to play this game though sadly on 360, I bought the game a few months ago out of curiosity.

So far I really hate it though and not because of that stupid reason I mentioned before about RE5. The aiming is fucked and movement is also very weird. It reminds me of Operation Racoon City, it's just shit. Why am I playing? I guess it's because I like the story, it's so batshit crazy I just have to see it through.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine and Devil's Third kind of do that. While I wouldnt clasify either game as good they're both ridiculous b-movie gore fests that you might be into.

I didnt like RE6 but I wasnt the biggest fan of 5 either. I heard they're both much better in co-op.

I love RE6, in some ways i wish it was more like RE5 but that doesn't take away from how much i enjoy the game.
I first played it on the 360 and it was dreadful, i gave it another try when the PC version came out and it's amazing how big a difference frame rate and some FOV options can make, it's clear the production values are very high in RE6 but the original release obscured them behind some unresponsive controls and poor performance, which are both fixed when playing on PC.
I've finished the game 3 times, twice by myself, and i look forward to my next visit.

I really liked RE6. You're absolutely right about it, too. The game did itself no favors by not explaining most of the mechanics. I enjoyed it but absolutely understood the reaction it got.

The combat actually feels really good once you get used to it. It doesn't fully explain itself, and it's weird compared to others in it's genre, but once you get good at it, it has a great level of mobility. Which is really ironic for a Resident Evil game.

From my point of view this game was never bad, just completely uninspired and stupid story wise.

@boozak: I'd say Space Marine is legit good. My biggest knock is the last act is a bit too shooter-heavy. Otherwise though, it walks a pretty tight line of balancing offense and defense and the enemy variety makes each battle something to look forward to. The times they let you loose with the jetpack are incredibly satisfying as well.

I bought this game in the hopes of playing through it again and then subsequently writing up a monster blog picking apart everything about how awful it is - or to at the very least see how my opinion in general fairs towards it nowadays. But I just couldn't do it... this game is still complete trash and even though my distaste for it had lessened over the years, going back to it now has reinvigorated how much I detest this game. Though what really surprised upon going back is this game really doesn't look very good. The character models are OK, but artistically speaking it's all really bland and muddy. This isn't something that really stuck out to me until now (maybe because it's still the least of its problems), so maybe it's because the higher resolution has helped to reveal just how crummy this game looks, especially in relation to RE5 which still looks great. Looking forward to jumping back into that when that comes out on PS4.

I still really want to one day write up this hypothetical article about it, but I quickly moved on once actual good games started getting released. Maybe when i find myself in a lull I'll go back to it... I have to justify the purchase.

Also, for your enjoyment:

Kinda surprised this thread got bumped. Anyhoo, I'm not participating in the RE6 defense force (if such a thing does exist). In fact I'd be more sympathetic towards those who disdain it. This game is kinda like a clown that's trying his hardest to appease every one in his audience by doing every trick in the book, but ends up falling flat on his face and crying. The clown was stupid to try and do such a thing as he shouldn't have spent all that time and money for nothing, but the clown was also just stupid enough to be somewhat endearing. It's not like his performance was completely unwatchable, it's just not very fun and can be construed as somewhat tragic. Hopefully this convoluted analogy makes sense. :3

I could see someone who jumped into this as their first RE experience having a mediocre-to OK time with it but that's not the case for me. I've given it three chances and all the frames and resolutions in the world via my PC won't save this true horror show of a game.

Fuck everything about this game.

It just feels like shiiiiit man. I can't get over how just poor the movement and shooting feels. Enemy AI being terrible, and they don't react properly (if at all) to getting hit. Janky ass melee, getting stunlocked after being downed, horrible QTEs, buggy terrain. FUCK THIS GAME DAMN

I don't even hate the story stuff, or the spectacle. It's stupid yeah, but I kinda like the way Resident Evil turned stupid. It's amusing in some really dumb ways. I just could not get over how this game played at all.

How did they fuck up so bad when both 4 and 5 felt great? I might even go so far to say those might be my favorite third person shooters. AND THEN 6 HAPPENS!?

EDIT: @yummylee That hurts to watch dude. God damn.

This gives me hope. For some reason its a game I WANT to like but the 360 version performs like ASS. I guess the Xbox One version is kinda like the PC one where these things are fixed as well?

@tobbrobb: I have been asking myselft the SAME damn question over and over again while playing this mess. It all went to shit because I think they used the Operation Racoon City engine. That game felt the same and is also shit.

I had a ton of fun playing 6, but I did play with a friend through the entire thing and we fucked around a lot. Also being Ada's Imaginary Friend was constantly hilarious.

RE6 was developed on the MT framework engine they used for RE5, DMC4, their Monster Hunter games ect. RE6 is in no way related to Operation Raccoon City, which was basically just a Resident Evil skin draped over a mediocre SOCOM foundation. They're both terrible (ORC is even worse than RE6, though), but are still wholly distinct from one another as shooters and really don't feel alike at all.

How do you fix the controls on PC? Is there some kind of AI trainer that plays the game for you that I don't know about?

Bland is the word to describe the experience I had with RE:6. The plot, the characters, the bosses, and the setting nothing left much of an impression. I vaguely remember fighting a zombie T-Rex thing (in a construction site?) and that is about it. Everything else about it felt like a dreary, gray slog through mediocrity marred by combat mechanics that felt awful. The only other thing that I remember apart from the Z-Rex is being unarmed as Jake in a lab and my punch constantly knocking guys out of range of my follow up strikes meaning I could never combo and wound up getting shot.

Also, did they ever patch the Ada Wong co op stuff. I seem to recall one of you ends up as some goober, no-name soldier and you are not able to go up ladders or open doors. Which seems startlingly lazy for a game with the amount of time and money behind it as RE:6

They added the coop to Ada's campaign post-release - it was originally single-player only. However for whatever reason they did of course end up adding in coop, but as you said the coop partner is just some faceless nobody who can't actually interact with anything outside of combat and it's been that way ever since. It was such a lazy and cowardly gesture for them back to down from actually having at least one of the campaigns be single-player, and such a weird and misguided decision like that makes for a pretty good representation of RE6 as a whole.

I acually played this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Finished the Leon campaign and got towards the end of Chris till other things started coming out(Uncharted 4, Doom). And I actually really liked it! Though I'm in a weird position, I player/beat RE4 last year for the first itme and only put a couple hours in coop in RE5 a long time ago(I also watched a lets play later on). Not a long time fan, as you might have guessed. Also I saw a fanmade manual on Neogaf that explained a bunch of things about the game. So I went in with reasonable expectation and a good idea of how to play.

I had a fun goofy time with the Leon campaign. I was surprised at first, by how little it cared to be a survival horror game. Then I got into the groove of melee, diving, countering, headshots, managing stamina, etc. and I was all for it. The constant set-pieces and the faster pace of that game really helped. Its weirdly technical in a way that I find a lot of Capcom games to be and then moreso. A different control scheme would have been great, since it feels like they just added too much to their existing template. This is most notable in the Chris campaign, where it almost turns into a cover shooter, but the controls aren't there and its far easier ,and more ammo efficient, to be aggressive. That campaign has some really bizarre fights, that I'm still kind of into. Which is how I feel about it as a whole.

RE5 is one of the best co-op games OF ALL TIME. Also, it's very replayable with its new game plus type system, grinding is actually kind of fun, and you can get unbelievably overpowered. Imagine wielding an infinite ammo, automatic fire RPG while wearing a safari suit. It's so incredibly good.

@yummylee: In a weird way, I guess it makes sense that it was a post-release patch though that really isn't an excuse for them putting in so little effort. I mean from what I remember, there are narrative grounds for Ada to be running around with an Ada clone so why wouldn't you just do that?

I liked RE6 from the get-go. I got the remaster, and it's the same game just with a higher resolution and fps. It's still fun, but playing a bunch of it on Xbox 360 kind of lessened my excitement to get through the remaster, as it is the same experience, and I feel like I played it relatively recently. I'll finish it at some point. I'm at the end of Chris' campaign. I stopped playing it when Quantum Break came out, and when I finished Quantum Break, I didn't really care to go back to RE6, so I played through all of the Souls games, and now playing Dark Souls 3 (and played Uncharted 4 as well). Oh, something that is incredibly dumb, is that on PS4, you can't play splitscreen co-op with two profiles, so no progress can be made for two files and no trophies for both either. It's like RE on last-gen on PS3.

@darkeyehails: Adding co-op to Ada's campaign is a nice way to have fun with a friend/sibling, but in the context of the game, it's dumb no matter what. That said, putting in a clone Ada just because there are two in the campaign makes no sense either. I disliked that they updated the game by putting co-op in, as well as being able to play it at any time.

Ok now I'm confused. I'll stick to the 360 version as I am not willing to spend full price on this game. If they didn't fix the controls and its pretty much the same game I might as well suck it up and finish the version I have.

@eder: It is the same game, yes. It's just higher resolution and frame rate. What were you confused about?

@shivermetimbers: If you go back and play RE5, do it coop with a friend. With someone else it's actually a decent game, but by yourself it's kind of a piece of shit.

Resident Evil 6 suffers from the same issue Devil May Cry 4 has, it's really fun gameplay stuck in a pretty poor game.

It really highlights the strengths and weaknesses of japanese game development. Often the mechanics and the nuts and bolts of the gameplay is the first thing that gets made, while designing the actual campaigns and story is secondary.

This is super evident in RE6, where mechanically there is a ton of potential, but it's held hostage inside 4 campaigns that are cramped, poorly paced and riddled with overbearing set pieces and quick time events.

I kinda liked Resident Evil 6.

I played it again on PS4, had a bunch of fun playing co-op with Random people. its not Garbage, but Definitely has some serious flaws. its videogame junkfood, Real bad junkfood, but that kind that's also sort of good at the same time?

The RE6 quicklook on this site is..... not my favorite video. Brad seems to have already decided that the game is terrible, and he appears to not care enough to try using the game's mechanics (Dodge-roll, Quickshot mostly. hot damn the Quickshot is GODLY). its somewhat infuriating to watch. (Though to be fair, the game does Not do a good job of teaching its' mechanics. it does have a control screen though..) But my favorite thing is that Jeff and Patrick actually call Brad out on his shit a couple times in it, in a way that shows they actually give a damn about properly critiquing the game, so that's fun. (Love you Brad, but still...)

I liked RE5 WAY more, and didn't really like RE4, for context.

Edit: You can make those control stick twisting QTE's go faster by twisting BOTH sticks?!? Dammit RE6... I try to defend you... but can't you just teach players your mechanics smoothly and clearly?? I think I turned off QTEs. Could you do that? Maybe i'm thinking of a different game.

Edit Edit: oh yeah! Mercenaries mode was pretty fun! and so was Agent Hunt, where you invaded people's worlds Darksouls-style. If only more people played the game, then I could've done more of that stuff.

Ehhhhhh... Its Mercs mode makes a case for what RE6 could have been if its gameplay was put to better use, but I still don't consider it to be particularly great or anything. RE5's gameplay is vastly superior.

I'm glad to hear that there are at least a few other people who liked RE6. I understand the why's, but it still kind of bums me out whenever you hear people (relentlessly) bag on it.

@bill_mcneal: I completely understand why so many people don't like it but I love RE6.

@bill_mcneal: It's the Dark Souls of Resident Evil.

I'm not going to do us any favors here, but I've found that I enjoy games that don't explain themselves well.

I've played a fair amount of Souls games, which are expertly designed, but I avoid reading forums, guides, etc. about them, which can make things a real chore sometimes (I've never finished a Souls game).

RE6 drops you on your head without explaing the moves at your disposal at all.

Battleborn is a recent one I've been enjoying. If you don't know anything about MOBAs (and I don't), a lot of that games modes, mechanics, and stats are not at all readily apparent.

Perfect Dark Zero had some serious issues, but I thought the poorly explained Dark Ops mode was a blast. For every cheap weapon that seemed like an imbalanced mess, there was a solution.

Maybe it's being older coupled with being a coop guy, but I kinda enjoy beating my head against something obtuse and discovering something new about it. I remember playing the Virtual Pro Wrestling series (all the US and Japanese AKI N64 wrestling games) with a group and discovering all these nuances (stealing finishers, quick splashes from the turnbuckle, team moves, etc).

@yummylee: that video holy shit o_O

I was just wondering if they did anything to fix the aiming and movement. I guess those other things like resolution and frame rate do indeed help.

@eder: I personally had no issue with those things. When did you play it last? Did you play it before or after updates? It does let you change sensitivity; it always has, but after an update, as well as it being brought over to the remaster, you can change the FOV. You can also (which I don't recommend changing) change the view from the side when you aim, so it can go farther left, or farther right.

@ntm: I played it last week on my 360. It did update and I did play around with the sensitivity. It does play ok but compared to 4 and 5 it's still trash. There are times when I manage to get some good headshots and its great but most of the time I just can't land good shots. I will keep going like I said it must just be me that I have to get used to it.

There is a skill system that seems to improve the aiming I think once I get into that it will be better.