Curiosity killed the cat they say...I'm going to dive into this Resident Evil franchise with a clean slate. Having never completed a single game in the RE franchise before.

The only RE game I touched briefly was RE2. Here's literally all I remember about it (without looking at the wiki or Google, etc): There's a guy named Chris Redfield or something and there's a girl. They get into a car accident (I think). Chris is a cop who is trying to find out what happened to the rest of his cronies at the police station. I also shot at a scary monster with a big tongue with my shotgun that I got at a gun store. I believe the owner dies via a zombie.

That's it...That's all I remember. I've played no other game in the series and I know nothing about the fiction other than there's an evil corporation named Umbrella who made a virus or something.

My knowledge of RE is obviously slim to none and I would like to know if there's any back-story anyone can fill me in on so I can understand what the hell is going on and what I need to know before going in (if anything). Try to avoid spoilers for RE6 if you can.

I know there's also a topic of posting your impressions, but I might post mine here. This topic is mainly made to give me a taste of the fiction. It might also be interesting to some to hear an outsiders opinion on the game.

Picked a great game to start with!

That guy you are talking about was actually Leon S. Kennedy, not Chris.
 
As for the back story, this is all you need to know about Resident Evil:
 
  

@shivermetimbers: So, you want the backstory without spoilers? hm.

Well, crazy things happened. Then -crazier- things happened. And this game ignores most of the past, introduces some new characters, and gives you little initial guidance on what in the world is going on, who anyone is, and why you should care. You will find hints to the story along the way. It will still not make any sense, and that's okay. RE6 wasn't made to make sense; so, don't feel bad if it makes no sense. If you like flashy flash and razzledy dazzle and can push through the rest of the game to find the little nuggets of fun, the story won't matter anyway and the explosions will be all you'll care about for twenty hours.

Switch off your brain and standards and just have fun! :)

I won't be playing the game for another 1268 minutes, I'm nervous and excited at the same time! I just have to hold this feeling for 21 hours!

This wasnt a smart idea.

@TruthTellah said:

Well, crazy things happened. Then -crazier- things happened. And this game ignores most of the past, introduces some new characters, and gives you little initial guidance on what in the world is going on, who anyone is, and why you should care. You will find hints to the story along the way. It will still not make any sense, and that's okay. RE6 wasn't made to make sense; so, don't feel bad if it makes no sense. If you like flashy flash and razzledy dazzle and can push through the rest of the game to find the little nuggets of fun, the story won't matter anyway and the explosions will be all you'll care about for twenty hours.

Switch off your brain and standards and just have fun! :)

Oh goodie! Finally a game that allows me to switch off my brain while shit I don't understand happens.

@Landon said:

This wasnt a smart idea.

Good, because I'm a lover of dumb ideas. :)

@shivermetimbers said:

@TruthTellah said:

Oh goodie! Finally a game that allows me to switch off my brain while shit I don't understand happens.

Glad to hear you're up for it! While many may dislike the game, some have certainly gotten some enjoyment out of it. Since you've already bought it, I hope you'll be someone who enjoys it. :)

@Sackmanjones said:

@shivermetimbers: Its kind of silly you don't want spoilers to prior games and still want us give you backstory, that's a little insane. Anyway, if you change your mind about the spoiler thing this video explains the whole series pretty.

Indeed you kind of HAVE to know spoilers if you want filled in there isn't really any other way to do it.

Resident Evil: There's a mansion and terrible voice acting

Resident Evil 2: There's a city and it hasn't aged gracefully

Resident Evil 3: You get chased by the titular monster, whom I won't spoil. Instead, Dictionary.com:

1.something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.: The performance test proved to be my _______.

2.an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.

3.(initial capital letter) Classical Mythology. the goddess of divine retribution.

4.an agent or act of retribution or punishment.

Resident Evil 4: The game you should have bought, has nothing to do with anything else.

Resident Evil 5: Racism.

I would highly suggest picking up RE2 off the PS Store. Its $6 and is still an excellent game, I have literally beaten that game at me and my friends most conservative estimates 50 times over the last 14 years. The best in the series. RE3 is pretty good as well. The original on the other hand is a dinosaur at this point. It was rough playing that game by the time 2 even came out. Code Veronica X and RE4 are both on the PSN but I would only suggest 4 for anyone just getting into the franchise.

@RAMBO604 said:

I would highly suggest picking up RE2 off the PS Store. Its $6 and is still an excellent game, I have literally beaten that game at me and my friends most conservative estimates 50 times over the last 14 years. The best in the series. RE3 is pretty good as well. The original on the other hand is a dinosaur at this point. It was rough playing that game by the time 2 even came out. Code Veronica X and RE4 are both on the PSN but I would only suggest 4 for anyone just getting into the franchise.

I definitely agree to some extent about the original Resident Evil. The amount of invincible frames the monsters can go through (especially annoying are the hunters..) is ridiculous, but I'd still say it holds up well for the most part, even though it's completely redundant what with the remake. Still if *hypothetical person* is able to play RE2 without any fuss, then the original shouldn't be too taxing, either. I just fairly recently completed the Director's Cut's Advanced mode for the first time, and I was surprised at how well I could still play the game.

@Fredchuckdave said:

Resident Evil: There's a mansion and terrible voice acting

Resident Evil 2: There's a city and it hasn't aged gracefully

Resident Evil 3: You get chased by the titular monster, whom I won't spoil. Instead, Dictionary.com:

1.something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.: The performance test proved to be my _______.

2.an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.

3.(initial capital letter) Classical Mythology. the goddess of divine retribution.

4.an agent or act of retribution or punishment.

Resident Evil 4: The game you should have bought, has nothing to do with anything else.

Resident Evil 5: Racism.

Only stating the RE5 game. Honestly though, Who doesn't love a little racism? Only game in the franchise i owned and Beat. Was pretty fun and I dont regret only putting 20$ for it months back when it was super cheap at gamestop.

Lesson learned, never buy any big release off the PSN because it takes a LOOOOOONGGGGG time to download. It randomly signed me off the PSN when I was at 77% and had to redo the download again.

I'm going to go ahead on a limb and say that backstory isn't important to RE unless you've been playing these games since 1998(?). There are zombies, you shoot them. Here's what I'm expecting from the game: QTEs, cheesy set-pieces, pretty cutscenes, and mediocre shooting. If I'm missing anything, let me know.

But you know what, I can actually get on the bandwagon with all of that. If the game provides me with enough camp, I very well might enjoy it.

Oh, as for avoiding spoilers, I was referring to RE6, not the other games. Lost in translation.

@Yummylee: Man that really reminds me, been thinking about replaying Director's Cut and going through Advanced Mode on and off for like months now. Its been ages since I went through the game and I don't think I've ever played all the way through Advanced either. Should definitely dig out my copy after I wrap up 6.

God, I love hearing people recall games that they don't remember or haven't played and watch as their imagination fills most of the blanks.

That's why this is pretty much the greatest comic ever.

Well you sure picked a winner to start of your RE relationship with....

Resident Evil 2 is a classic it's a good way to start the series off. If you can get a Gamecube or a Wii hunt down the Resident Evil on that. It's a remake of the first PS1 game and it's incredible and worth playing.

If RE6 doesn't gel for you, give RE4-5 a try as they are a bit more solid as far as the general gameplay goes. After hearing Brad on the quick look, review & bombcast talk about this latest one, it's a rough one to get into due to most of it feeling like things were tacked on at the last minute or without much point to it. And with RE6, just fyi the rope climbing quick time event sucks.

So I just finished the first 2 chapters of Leon's campaign on the normal difficulty.

*It controls just about how I expected, but the camera can be a bitch at times (actually most of the time) and the melee is very hit and miss. I'm sure I'll get used to it, though.

*I've died to a couple of frustrating environmental crap that the game gave me little or no warning as to when it's going to happen. This happened during the railroad sequence where Elena yells "TRAIN" about a half a second before it hits me and there were a couple of times when cars and an ambulance would come out randomly and hit me.

*Brad was right about the boss battles, the one with Debrah(sp.) just wouldn't react to my shots and there's no health meter or anything indicating that I'm doing any damage. It pisses me off when I'm unloading on a boss (actually, this has happened when I'm fighting regular zombies too, which has gotten me killed) and randomly a cutscene happens which transitions the action. There's also one with the monster with the boobs that took forever to kill.

*Shooting is mediocre with little sense of impact. The audio does give it a much needed *omph* though.

*For the most part, the lighting and the environments look great, though the camera does it's best to not allow you to appreciate it.

*There's been some camp here, though it's not great or even good camp like I was expecting.

I'll finish the game (hopefully) and write a review on the site (again, hopefully). So far, not so good. Everything feels flimsy and frustrating rather than tense and exciting.

@shivermetimbers said:

My knowledge of RE is obviously slim to none and I would like to know if there's any back-story anyone can fill me in on so I can understand what the hell is going on and what I need to know before going in (if anything). Try to avoid spoilers if you can.

LOL

@Jrinswand said:

@shivermetimbers said:

My knowledge of RE is obviously slim to none and I would like to know if there's any back-story anyone can fill me in on so I can understand what the hell is going on and what I need to know before going in (if anything). Try to avoid spoilers if you can.

LOL

Glad you're so easily amused....

Anyway, I'm at the most fucking abysmal quick time event in history, the rope climbing QTE. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Can someone fill me in?

@shivermetimbers said:

@Jrinswand said:

@shivermetimbers said:

My knowledge of RE is obviously slim to none and I would like to know if there's any back-story anyone can fill me in on so I can understand what the hell is going on and what I need to know before going in (if anything). Try to avoid spoilers if you can.

LOL

Glad you're so easily amused....

Anyway, I'm at the most fucking abysmal quick time event in history, the rope climbing QTE. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Can someone fill me in?

Yeah. Listen to the Bombcast.

@SuperWristBands said:

That guy you are talking about was actually Leon S. Kennedy, not Chris.

As for the back story, this is all you need to know about Resident Evil:

This is Chris by the way. (Seriously though the Resident Evil lore is actually quite deep. I don't even know it all myself and I've played most of the main games)

Aww, now I wish there was some sweet boulder punching in Resident Evil 6.

RE2 was the best title for me.

@shivermetimbers: If you insist on only playing the worst game out of the 6 with no prior knowledge and the plot points already wrapped up in 5 then you'll get no sympathy nor help from me.

@FLStyle said:

@shivermetimbers: If you insist on only playing the worst game out of the 6 with no prior knowledge and the plot points already wrapped up in 5 then you'll get no sympathy nor help from me.

That's fine because I need neither your sympathy or your help. I don't insist on /only/ playing this game of the series. I might try out RE4 someday. I also mainly bought this due to the polarizing critical reception, and I wanted to take a risk.

*Brad was right about the boss battles, the one with Debrah(sp.) just wouldn't react to my shots and there's no health meter or anything indicating that I'm doing any damage.

I've never finished an RE game before, and the only one I've played for more than an hour is RE 5. I happen to have a copy of Resdient Evil Outbreak (a buddy gave me a pile of random PS2 games the other day) and other than having seen Brad Shoemaker's hilariously bearded face perform the video review for gamespot, I kinda know nothing about it.

Now my question is... who has the worse time ahead of them, me or the OP?

@fox01313 said:

If RE6 doesn't gel for you, give RE4-5 a try as they are a bit more solid as far as the general gameplay goes. After hearing Brad on the quick look, review & bombcast talk about this latest one, it's a rough one to get into due to most of it feeling like things were tacked on at the last minute or without much point to it. And with RE6, just fyi the rope climbing quick time event sucks.

Or you can just follow this man's avatar and just fucking play One Unit Whole Blood. My god. So good.

@SuperWristBands said:

@shivermetimbers said:

*Brad was right about the boss battles, the one with Debrah(sp.) just wouldn't react to my shots and there's no health meter or anything indicating that I'm doing any damage.

It's funny you say that as I felt that boss was one of the few that actually gives you good feedback in spots. She has large glowing weak points that burst after being shot enough. There are far worse boss fights in the game. Like the one that starts right where you left off in the prologue of Leon's campaign. It gives you explosive barrels that lead to cinematic melees but then the barrels just run out and you are left to shoot at it until it dies... with little indication that you are doing what it wants you to do. Or the boss-like monster in the cathedral that seems to be unaffected by bullets and hurts you and others when you shoot it if you are too close. Also there is dialog that tells you to run but there is no where to run and you do in fact have to kill it. Man, a lot of the bosses I've fought in RE6 suck.

Yeah, as far as they go, Deborah is the one of the 'best' bosses in the game. Though Ada's Chapter 4 boss battle is actually pretty neat and, even by RE standards, is kinda disturbing.

@MikkaQ said:

I've never finished an RE game before, and the only one I've played for more than an hour is RE 5. I happen to have a copy of Resdient Evil Outbreak (a buddy gave me a pile of random PS2 games the other day) and other than having seen Brad Shoemaker's hilariously bearded face perform the video review for gamespot, I kinda know nothing about it.

Now my question is... who has the worse time ahead of them, me or the OP?

I bloody love Outbreak - one of my favourite RE games. Despite that, I can still picture you having a brain aneurysm in trying to work with the AI's. Outbreak was most certainly not a game for everyone even on release, and it's probably aged poorly.

Yeah, as far as they go, Deborah is the one of the 'best' bosses in the game. Though Ada's Chapter 4 boss battle is actually pretty neat and, even by RE standards, is kinda disturbing.

@mr187uk said:

RE2 was the best title for me.

You ever play the RE1 remake on the Gamecube? That one has to be my favorite by far. It was everything I remembered about the first one with more than a few new surprises thrown into the mix. To me that is how a remake should be done. I was really hoping they did the same with RE2, RE3 and Code Veronica.

@SuperWristBands said:

@Yummylee said:

Yeah, as far as they go, Deborah is the one of the 'best' bosses in the game. Though Ada's Chapter 4 boss battle is actually pretty neat and, even by RE standards, is kinda disturbing.

I'm looking forward to that campaign so much but I have to play through Chris' first. Not really super interested in the style of his campaign.

I take it you're otherwise enjoying the game, though? Either way you should know that Ada's campaign is basically a mixture of all the three previous, combining zombie combat, brain dead puzzles, J'avo combat, and more of those shitty set-pieces. Hers also opens with a God awful stealth section and most of her boss battles are ones you've already beaten in previous campaigns, just maybe from a different perspective... Still, Ada's a fun character to follow (though I don't think Courtenay Taylor does as well a job as Sally Cahill) and her campaign makes for an intriguing perspective as you basically safeguard all of the other characters at one point or another.

I take it you're otherwise enjoying the game, though? Either way you should know that Ada's campaign is basically a mixture of all the three previous, combining zombie combat, brain dead puzzles, J'avo combat, and more of those shitty set-pieces. Hers also opens with a God awful stealth section and most of her boss battles are ones you've already beaten in previous campaigns, just maybe from a different perspective... Still, Ada's a fun character to follow (though I don't think Courtenay Taylor does as well a job as Sally Cahill) and her campaign makes for an intriguing perspective as you basically safeguard all of the other characters at one point or another.

@SuperWristBands: Wait, you actually enjoyed Jake's stealth segment?? Well then... yeah, you're probably going to have a lot of fun with Ada's campaign.

And on its own, the big ''twist'' doesn't mean much, but if you read up in the files (EDIT: That is if you've hopefully shot enough blue medallions... such a stupid constraint) in the Special Features menu, it's further expanded and explained in better detail. It's a shame RE6 couldn't have implemented all of the story, relationships, and history from the files into the campaigns themselves. It would have made for a significantly more intriguing story to follow. It's almost like we missed an entire Resident Evil story in the process. They could have very easily built one up with the story presented in the files, and then used what we have in RE6 as the direct sequel.

Good luck with your adventure OP. I've also thought about getting this as the mixed reviews were stirring my curiosity but I've just bought 5 new games and should really get on with these first.

Just to add my two cents about RE games:

RE1:DC>RE2>RE5>RE3

@SuperWristBands said:

@Yummylee: I guess I should say I enjoyed the one

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

after they were captured but I didn't like the one with the bugs.

Ohh, of course, I forgot about that part. I played it as Jake, and... yeah, that part's kinda creative as you use the cameras and unlock doors for one another. Though what did annoy is how

Maybe it's unfair to be harping against the story so much, but it's just so bad. Like, I know most people don't give a single shit for the fiction so it probably shouldn't matter, but as someone who generally eats all of this up... even by RE standards, RE6's story is a mess. And it's all the more disappointing because Eiichiro Sasaki has said that they were actually trying this time; they were actually trying to put forth some human drama. Then there's all of those trailers devoted solely to the story and... They really built it up so much, and as it turns out, the story is one of the worst things about it.

@SuperWristBands: I really liked what they did with Chris actually. At least it felt like finally he was starting to exude a bit of realistic emotion about it all. In fact that's why I've always liked Chris, because he actually shows off a bit of emotion here and there. Leon by comparison is completely unflappable (well, besides in RE2) and is more so concerned with making dumb one-liners all the time.

...Might as well just put every post in spoiler-tags. Though like it really even matters anyway, but for the sake common courtesy:

I'm.....actually...enjoying Chris' campaign. There's more of a focus on the shooting instead of stupid quick time events this time around and Chris is at least a semi-interesting character. I've completed chapters 1-4 today, though from what I'm reading 5 is frustrating. As long as I'm not fighting 15 forms of Simmons' again, I doubt it'll be as bad as Leon's final chapter.

The story is a convoluted mess...It can't decide whether to be a mystery, a thriller, or an action/horror movie. Though I didn't come here for plot, I came here for action and camp.