Now before I begin I just want to clarify this:
This is strictly my own opinion. If you disagree with me, more power to you. Just keep the comments civil and respectful.
!THIS IS A RE-UPLOAD OF AN ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED ON LETTERBOXD BACK IN OCTOBER 2021!
Hello and welcome back.
This is PART 6 of
SEASON OF THE EVIL!
And now, we are at the point where the franchise gave birth to the straw that broke the camel's back. Resident Evil 6.
The very game that pissed off fans everywhere. The very thing that completely disregards everything that gave the series it's identity. The very moment that many gamers consider to be the worst thing Capcom has ever done to this franchise since dumping George A. Romero's movie script in favor of Paul WS Anderson's fanfic bullshit.
It's quite the messy title we're dealing with here and for understandable reasons. It basically does away with the survival-horror aspects(almost) completely in favor of being a full-blown action game to the point where many people often wondered if Michael Bay suddenly barged into the studio and took over development. It's that insane.
While it is no contest that Survivor and Umbrella Corps are considered the worst RE games, this one is considered the biggest letdown of them all and it would only take five years for Capcom to give the series the redeemable comeback it needed.
For the record, I don't think this is gonna be an easy one to get through considering the kind of game we got to work with. However, I am a firm believer that there has to be at least something that makes up for whatever problems there may be.
So can Resident Evil 6 truly offer something valuable... or were the fans justified in shitting on it so much? Let's find out.
STORY & CHARACTERIZATION:
Bio-weapon terrorism is officially threatening to go worldwide as a new strain known as the C-Virus has been unleashed which will send the Earth spiraling into an undead hell.
With familiar and fresh faces taking on all kinds of horrific threats, it's gonna take a miracle to finally put an end to every single deadly force they come across and hopefully bring a grinding halt to everything that Umbrella started.
In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom didn't make any more mainline titles after this because it does feel like a finale of sorts to the series. The stakes are at their absolute biggest, many characters are brought back for possibly one last go-around and there's even a poetic sense of irony in regards to a couple of the characters which I'll talk about soon. It's such a big and bombastic game where our heroes set out to truly put an end to all the shit that would never have happened in the first place had it not been for the actions of Wesker, among others.
But what I like about the story is the arcs the characters go through. While it is disappointing that fan-favorites like Claire and Barry didn't return, it was nice to see certain folks both old and new get some meaningful substance. This time, we get four different intertwining campaigns, three of which where you get the option of picking one of two playable characters. We have Leon teaming up with US agent Helena Harper to expose the National Security Advisor's involvement with Neo-Umbrella, we have Ada chasing after a doppelganger, we have Chris overcoming his PTSD while chasing after "Ada" alongside Piers Nivans and we have Sherry Birkin, now an agent of the Division of Security Operations, escorting Jake Muller to safety so that they can create a vaccine from the antibodies in his bloodstream. Each campaign offers enough satisfying content to make you want to keep playing and there's plenty of solid fan-service to boot. Not only do we finally see Chris and Leon meeting up in person but zombies make a comeback and there's even certain moments during gameplay where the camera shifts to the fixed angles similar to that of the classic games.
If I have to pick my favorite out of the four, it would have to be Jake's. I really did enjoy the chemistry between him and Sherry and I found it very poetic that the children of the people responsible for these outbreaks would be the ones to put a stop to them. That, and Jake himself is a solid character. He's funny, his struggles with the knowledge of who his father was are engaging, it's honestly hard not to sympathize with the guy.
Same goes for Helena. I think she and Leon share a good dynamic and it's hard not to understand why she would seek vengeance against the man who did her and her sister dirty. Speaking of which, Derek Simmons, the National Security Advisor, is another one of those slimy scumbags that I would never, ever regret putting a bullet through, he is that much of a total douchebag that honestly deserved everything that came his way.
The only new character I didn't think was that engaging was Piers. He may have his moments but other than that, he's a pretty bland character. Not much about him sticks out to me.
So yeah, the story has alot of cool shit going for it. However, when it's not focusing on these solid arcs, it goes full-blown explosions and shit. I'm gonna come out and say this: I take back everything I said about the last two games getting ridiculous even by RE standards. This game has gotten really fucking absurd in terms of action. There's so much shit going on that it's practically easy to see where the Michael Bay comparisons are coming from. Gone is the sense of dread and fear, gone is the feel of loneliness and isolation and gone is the subtlety and shit like that. Now all we have here is: SHOOT DA BAD GUYZ!!! BLOW DAT SHIT UP!!! HOLY FUCKIN' SHIT, IT'S A DINOSAUR!!! It's gotten so bat-shit insane that I honestly couldn't help but laugh at how incredibly overblown this all is. Even Call of Duty with it's everlasting train crashes couldn't match up to the ridiculousness of this game.
But like I said before, the story does have moments of greatness that makes it all the worth playing through. It's just that you have to get through alot of laughably-overblown set-pieces that get so carried away with it's over-the-top nature, it borders on Zack Snyder territory... if Snyder ate too much pizza laced with cocaine. In other words, total insanity.
GAMEPLAY & CONTROLS:
As you'd expect, Resident Evil 6 completely discards most of the classic mechanics in favor of becoming your typical third-person action-shooter. On one hand, it is the best one of this era in terms of controls. On the other hand, it's still your typical modern action game.
In fact, the only classic mechanics that remained are the limited item slots and the healing herbs(which now act as pills). Other than that, the tank controls are completely gone, you can now carry as many weapons as you want and auto-saves and checkpoints are the new norm.
Now to be fair, I wasn't kidding about before when I say that this game does, in fact, control rather well. Moving your character around, performing actions and shooting enemies are pretty responsive as far as I'm concerned. That, and when it's not fucking you over with moments of cheapness, the game does provide a fair challenge from time to time. Some of the bosses were tough but satisfying to battle nevertheless, the multiple C-Virus enemies are very freaky and fun to shoot and there's even the occasional puzzles spread throughout.
But like I said, there are moments of cheapness. I've played through all four campaigns on Normal and each have their fair share of parts where you have to put up with foes that just love to either pin you into a corner or deliberately waste your ammo. There's these leech-like fuckers that become more dangerous after you split them in two, there's the obligatory chainsaw guy that, what else? kills you instantly and then, there's the snipers. I'm gonna come right out and say that the snipers are easily the worst enemies to fight in this game. It never mattered how hard you tried to fight them off or how occupied you are with other shit, these bastards will never care one bit and will put you down in one hit thus wasting alot of time and health. I hate these fuckers every bit as much as the Hunters from RE3, the executioners and chainsaw dudes from RE5 and the dogs from RE4. In fact, I hate them so much that I am willing to cut the quick-time events some slack this time around.
But again, it still has it's moments when the challenge is genuine as opposed to bullshit.
Though, to be fair, the most fun you'll truly have with this game is sliding into multiple crates and vases. I'm shocked that I didn't get a medal that reads "Stop Sliding into the Fucking Boxes!"
Speaking of which, after each level, you earn medals based on whatever goals you managed to achieve throughout your playthrough which then add up to your official ranking. After that, you're given the option to build up one of multiple skill sets which you can only put on one at a time. With the skill points you collect throughout, you can spend them on skills or even upgrade them to enhance your experience like stronger chances of critical hits, better chances at collecting more ammo, stronger melee attacks and so on. Each set can only hold three skills at a time so pick, choose and upgrade wisely.
In total, I managed to complete the game in about 21 hours officially making this the longest of the Resident Evil games I've played and, of course, like before, there's plenty of additional modes and unlockables for all you hardcore completionists out there. Keep in mind that I bought this game along with RE4 and RE5 in a special bundle that was on sale for 15.99 so you can pretty much tell that the amount of content throughout all three games pretty much made the purchase all the more worth it.
PRODUCTION & VISUALS:
Out of the RE titles that were out during the seventh generation of gaming, RE6 definetly stood out as one of the better-looking ones. It's a visually-pleasing feast with detailed environments, solid character and facial animations, badass creature designs and many more. Also, as laughably overblown as the action maybe, there are some rather cool set-pieces that keep the blood pumping.
The sound design is nice and crisp, the music by Akihiko Narita is appropriately over-the-top and overall, I was barely able to notice any game-breaking bugs aside from enemy and partner AI gawking around like fuckin' chickens. It ran as well as it possibly could on my PS4.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
In the end, Resident Evil 6 is your average overblown action movie disguised as a video game slapped with a recognizable name on it. It does have a good story with some great characters and a real sense of finality but overall, it is incredibly overblown, sometimes tedious and far too goofy to be taken seriously.
Is it as bad as everybody made it out to be? Not really, no. Yes, it is far too silly and ridiculous for it's own good and it does get a little tiring at times but overall, I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun playing it. It is good for a few ironic laughs but don't get me wrong, I do understand the hate for this game. It's the ultimate far cry from what the series originally was and it may not have the same everlasting impact as the earlier games did. But again, I did enjoy myself. It's not a perfect game, let alone a great game in general but an enjoyable one nonetheless.
With that in mind, does that mean the world of Resident Evil is done and over with? Is there nothing anybody can do to bring the franchise back to it's former glory?
All that and more will be answered as the SEASON OF THE EVIL concludes with a look at Resident Evil 7.
AFTER-NOTE: ...... Almost..... at .............. the home-stretch.
................................... Any... day... now.................
This is strictly my own opinion. If you disagree with me, more power to you. Just keep the comments civil and respectful.
!THIS IS A RE-UPLOAD OF AN ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED ON LETTERBOXD BACK IN OCTOBER 2021!
Hello and welcome back.
This is PART 6 of
SEASON OF THE EVIL!
And now, we are at the point where the franchise gave birth to the straw that broke the camel's back. Resident Evil 6.
The very game that pissed off fans everywhere. The very thing that completely disregards everything that gave the series it's identity. The very moment that many gamers consider to be the worst thing Capcom has ever done to this franchise since dumping George A. Romero's movie script in favor of Paul WS Anderson's fanfic bullshit.
It's quite the messy title we're dealing with here and for understandable reasons. It basically does away with the survival-horror aspects(almost) completely in favor of being a full-blown action game to the point where many people often wondered if Michael Bay suddenly barged into the studio and took over development. It's that insane.
While it is no contest that Survivor and Umbrella Corps are considered the worst RE games, this one is considered the biggest letdown of them all and it would only take five years for Capcom to give the series the redeemable comeback it needed.
For the record, I don't think this is gonna be an easy one to get through considering the kind of game we got to work with. However, I am a firm believer that there has to be at least something that makes up for whatever problems there may be.
So can Resident Evil 6 truly offer something valuable... or were the fans justified in shitting on it so much? Let's find out.
STORY & CHARACTERIZATION:
Bio-weapon terrorism is officially threatening to go worldwide as a new strain known as the C-Virus has been unleashed which will send the Earth spiraling into an undead hell.
With familiar and fresh faces taking on all kinds of horrific threats, it's gonna take a miracle to finally put an end to every single deadly force they come across and hopefully bring a grinding halt to everything that Umbrella started.
In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom didn't make any more mainline titles after this because it does feel like a finale of sorts to the series. The stakes are at their absolute biggest, many characters are brought back for possibly one last go-around and there's even a poetic sense of irony in regards to a couple of the characters which I'll talk about soon. It's such a big and bombastic game where our heroes set out to truly put an end to all the shit that would never have happened in the first place had it not been for the actions of Wesker, among others.
But what I like about the story is the arcs the characters go through. While it is disappointing that fan-favorites like Claire and Barry didn't return, it was nice to see certain folks both old and new get some meaningful substance. This time, we get four different intertwining campaigns, three of which where you get the option of picking one of two playable characters. We have Leon teaming up with US agent Helena Harper to expose the National Security Advisor's involvement with Neo-Umbrella, we have Ada chasing after a doppelganger, we have Chris overcoming his PTSD while chasing after "Ada" alongside Piers Nivans and we have Sherry Birkin, now an agent of the Division of Security Operations, escorting Jake Muller to safety so that they can create a vaccine from the antibodies in his bloodstream. Each campaign offers enough satisfying content to make you want to keep playing and there's plenty of solid fan-service to boot. Not only do we finally see Chris and Leon meeting up in person but zombies make a comeback and there's even certain moments during gameplay where the camera shifts to the fixed angles similar to that of the classic games.
If I have to pick my favorite out of the four, it would have to be Jake's. I really did enjoy the chemistry between him and Sherry and I found it very poetic that the children of the people responsible for these outbreaks would be the ones to put a stop to them. That, and Jake himself is a solid character. He's funny, his struggles with the knowledge of who his father was are engaging, it's honestly hard not to sympathize with the guy.
Same goes for Helena. I think she and Leon share a good dynamic and it's hard not to understand why she would seek vengeance against the man who did her and her sister dirty. Speaking of which, Derek Simmons, the National Security Advisor, is another one of those slimy scumbags that I would never, ever regret putting a bullet through, he is that much of a total douchebag that honestly deserved everything that came his way.
The only new character I didn't think was that engaging was Piers. He may have his moments but other than that, he's a pretty bland character. Not much about him sticks out to me.
So yeah, the story has alot of cool shit going for it. However, when it's not focusing on these solid arcs, it goes full-blown explosions and shit. I'm gonna come out and say this: I take back everything I said about the last two games getting ridiculous even by RE standards. This game has gotten really fucking absurd in terms of action. There's so much shit going on that it's practically easy to see where the Michael Bay comparisons are coming from. Gone is the sense of dread and fear, gone is the feel of loneliness and isolation and gone is the subtlety and shit like that. Now all we have here is: SHOOT DA BAD GUYZ!!! BLOW DAT SHIT UP!!! HOLY FUCKIN' SHIT, IT'S A DINOSAUR!!! It's gotten so bat-shit insane that I honestly couldn't help but laugh at how incredibly overblown this all is. Even Call of Duty with it's everlasting train crashes couldn't match up to the ridiculousness of this game.
But like I said before, the story does have moments of greatness that makes it all the worth playing through. It's just that you have to get through alot of laughably-overblown set-pieces that get so carried away with it's over-the-top nature, it borders on Zack Snyder territory... if Snyder ate too much pizza laced with cocaine. In other words, total insanity.
GAMEPLAY & CONTROLS:
As you'd expect, Resident Evil 6 completely discards most of the classic mechanics in favor of becoming your typical third-person action-shooter. On one hand, it is the best one of this era in terms of controls. On the other hand, it's still your typical modern action game.
In fact, the only classic mechanics that remained are the limited item slots and the healing herbs(which now act as pills). Other than that, the tank controls are completely gone, you can now carry as many weapons as you want and auto-saves and checkpoints are the new norm.
Now to be fair, I wasn't kidding about before when I say that this game does, in fact, control rather well. Moving your character around, performing actions and shooting enemies are pretty responsive as far as I'm concerned. That, and when it's not fucking you over with moments of cheapness, the game does provide a fair challenge from time to time. Some of the bosses were tough but satisfying to battle nevertheless, the multiple C-Virus enemies are very freaky and fun to shoot and there's even the occasional puzzles spread throughout.
But like I said, there are moments of cheapness. I've played through all four campaigns on Normal and each have their fair share of parts where you have to put up with foes that just love to either pin you into a corner or deliberately waste your ammo. There's these leech-like fuckers that become more dangerous after you split them in two, there's the obligatory chainsaw guy that, what else? kills you instantly and then, there's the snipers. I'm gonna come right out and say that the snipers are easily the worst enemies to fight in this game. It never mattered how hard you tried to fight them off or how occupied you are with other shit, these bastards will never care one bit and will put you down in one hit thus wasting alot of time and health. I hate these fuckers every bit as much as the Hunters from RE3, the executioners and chainsaw dudes from RE5 and the dogs from RE4. In fact, I hate them so much that I am willing to cut the quick-time events some slack this time around.
But again, it still has it's moments when the challenge is genuine as opposed to bullshit.
Though, to be fair, the most fun you'll truly have with this game is sliding into multiple crates and vases. I'm shocked that I didn't get a medal that reads "Stop Sliding into the Fucking Boxes!"
Speaking of which, after each level, you earn medals based on whatever goals you managed to achieve throughout your playthrough which then add up to your official ranking. After that, you're given the option to build up one of multiple skill sets which you can only put on one at a time. With the skill points you collect throughout, you can spend them on skills or even upgrade them to enhance your experience like stronger chances of critical hits, better chances at collecting more ammo, stronger melee attacks and so on. Each set can only hold three skills at a time so pick, choose and upgrade wisely.
In total, I managed to complete the game in about 21 hours officially making this the longest of the Resident Evil games I've played and, of course, like before, there's plenty of additional modes and unlockables for all you hardcore completionists out there. Keep in mind that I bought this game along with RE4 and RE5 in a special bundle that was on sale for 15.99 so you can pretty much tell that the amount of content throughout all three games pretty much made the purchase all the more worth it.
PRODUCTION & VISUALS:
Out of the RE titles that were out during the seventh generation of gaming, RE6 definetly stood out as one of the better-looking ones. It's a visually-pleasing feast with detailed environments, solid character and facial animations, badass creature designs and many more. Also, as laughably overblown as the action maybe, there are some rather cool set-pieces that keep the blood pumping.
The sound design is nice and crisp, the music by Akihiko Narita is appropriately over-the-top and overall, I was barely able to notice any game-breaking bugs aside from enemy and partner AI gawking around like fuckin' chickens. It ran as well as it possibly could on my PS4.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
In the end, Resident Evil 6 is your average overblown action movie disguised as a video game slapped with a recognizable name on it. It does have a good story with some great characters and a real sense of finality but overall, it is incredibly overblown, sometimes tedious and far too goofy to be taken seriously.
Is it as bad as everybody made it out to be? Not really, no. Yes, it is far too silly and ridiculous for it's own good and it does get a little tiring at times but overall, I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun playing it. It is good for a few ironic laughs but don't get me wrong, I do understand the hate for this game. It's the ultimate far cry from what the series originally was and it may not have the same everlasting impact as the earlier games did. But again, I did enjoy myself. It's not a perfect game, let alone a great game in general but an enjoyable one nonetheless.
With that in mind, does that mean the world of Resident Evil is done and over with? Is there nothing anybody can do to bring the franchise back to it's former glory?
All that and more will be answered as the SEASON OF THE EVIL concludes with a look at Resident Evil 7.
AFTER-NOTE: ...... Almost..... at .............. the home-stretch.
................................... Any... day... now.................