Is the golden age of Survival Horror over?
Any fan of Capcom’s infamous Survival Horror franchise
Resident Evil, will be more than aware of the recent injections of action which
have been pumped into the veins of what was once viewed as the pinnacle of
Survival Horror. Whilst this appealed to a new set of fans who gained a sudden interest in the increasingly action-based style, many veterans didn’t
agree with the direction of where the series was heading. However, Resident
Evil 6 claims to cater for fans old and new with a variety of campaigns and
characters to play through. Let’s start with Leon’s.
Leon Kennedy. Old schoolers will remember this fringed cop
from Resident Evil 2 and 4, two of the best from the series and his appearances
in the very meh CGI films, Degeneration and Damnation. Leon was always one of
the strongest characters in the series and his personality was evidenced in his
confrontations and cheeky remarks with Saddler and Salazar in Resident Evil 4. Character
personality, or more accurately, the lack of, is one of many flaws to mention within Resident Evil 6.
All the characters appear to be incredibly one-dimensional.
The dialogue (which has never been a saving grace for the series) fails to
outreach being predictable and explanatory. With the sheer amount of cut scenes
in this game which are beginning to creep towards Metal Gear Solid extremes, this
leads to some pretty lifeless moments and as to be expected, you can guarantee
an overdose of one liners and leaping from explosions. The new villain in the
series, Derek Simmonds (replacing the now demised Albert Wesker) doesn’t oppose
much of a threat across the 4 campaigns and just appears as a generic bad guy.
The same goes with most of the sub-characters in the game who seem to be
included solely for co-op purposes.
Back to point, Leon’s campaign is far better than the
others. It’s the closest grasp to ‘Resident Evil’ that you’ll find in the game.
The return of zombies is something I have been waiting for since Code Veronica
X came out over 10 years ago and they’ve brought them back in style. Zombies
are more threatening than before; some even come armed in this adventure. They
can leap at you, spit at you, there are even Rick Waller sized ones which can
crush you – It’s a great feature to bring back and it’s a shame they didn’t
stick with this theme throughout the game. This campaign isn’t scary but the
mood and atmosphere sits right at places, especially when you explore through
the catacombs and prison areas later on.
On the first play through of Resident Evil 6, I attempted
Veteran mode where I didn’t struggle anywhere near as much as I did with RE5
(which brought me close to a mental break down at times). There’s an abundance
of ammo, and the new combat system where you can move whilst shooting, kick,
punch and charge makes defending yourself a lot more fluid within the gameplay.
However, Survival Horror is meant to be about surviving to your wit’s end and
this is something I never had on Resident Evil 6. It is generally an elongated
sequence of battling mutated monsters. Let’s move on.
Jake Muller (who is better known as Albert Wesker’s son) is
the main new character in the series, aided by a matured Sherry Birkin. Sherry’s
return is a great, as it was never explained or even touched upon what
happened to her since the events in Racoon City. She now has increased
regeneration skills as a side effect of encountering the G-Virus back in 1998
and is one of the few characters in this game who didn’t feel like a temporary
asset. It’s a big disappointment that the same cannot be said for Jake who
doesn’t really go much further than his ridiculous combat skills. So ridiculous
that you don’t need to use any firepower with him as his hand to hand skills
beat anything, even bosses. Whilst this is fun for the first few scenarios it eventually
becomes too easy, nothing is a challenge, he is simply overpowered. Sherry
doesn’t possess these skills so she’s a little more balanced but with a stun
gun that kills a majority of the J’avo in one charge hit, this campaign was a
breeze to walk through.
Now, I should talk about Chris Redfield’s campaign but this
had the intentions of a Resident Evil 6 review, not a half-arsed-Gears-of -War-copycat review.
Honestly, I really didn’t like this segment, allow me to re-enact it for you:
Shoot some enemies, kick a door down, get
shot, kick a door down, pick up some ammo, kick a door down, lather, rinse,
repeat. HOW MANY FUCKING DOORS DO YOU HAVE TO KICK DOWN!?
I get it, Capcom are making a shit load more cash by
appealing to more gamers out there, but it is sacrilegious to have this section
of the game under the title of Resident Evil. No zombies, just nothing other
than a long and dreary shooter and a lot of kicking doors down. Most of the
enemies don’t even feel like scientific experimentations as the original theme
suggests, but more an excuse to shoot a lot of meaningless bad people who are
shooting you. Newcomers and the braindead may enjoy this, but I don’t see the
point. By any game’s standards, this would be looked at as scraping the barrel.
The cover system simply does not work and the whole gameplay of this system is inferior
when compared to say the latest Call of Duty or Killzone. Yet, this is treated
as an evolution of the Resident Evil series and this section really lets the
whole game down.
Finally, we come to Ada’s solo section which is unlocked if
you still want more after all of those campaigns. Let me add, this is a big
game. Each of these campaigns lasts around 8 hours if you watch all the cut
scenes and have a little exploration. By the time I got to Ada’s, I was lagging
big time. I’d seen everything the game had to offer, and I spent about 2 weeks
getting through this section simply because it wasn’t really any different.
I’m glad that Ada’s section is solo – It makes the game more
challenging when you don’t have somebody else taking out a majority of the
enemies for you and healing you when dying. But as I mentioned, this does not
offer anything really worth the time it takes to complete. I felt pretty mugged
off when the credits appeared at the end, especially as all you get for
completing the 4 campaigns is a one-minute epilogue cut scene which adds absolutely
nothing to the general picture and that’s a very good way of describing this game. Nothing major happens, there are no big twists or anything of
any real significance. If you took this game out of the Resident Evil timeline, it wouldn’t make any real difference.
Resident Evil 6 provoked an array of reactions from me. And
like this review, there is no coherence. It doesn’t flow together; the
campaigns are like 4 different games which makes addressing these issues even
more challenging. I guess the best way to describe this game, is quantity over
quality. Overall, Leon’s section is worth a play, but don’t expect old
school horror. The entire game is action, more so than Resident Evil 5 and if
you didn’t like that, chances are you won’t get on with this. However, the
single player AI is far easier to get on with as you can blow your teammates up
without any repercussions and the Co-op is definitely more slick and enjoyable too.
VERDICT: The experience
is average; don’t come in with high expectations and you should enjoy it. It
just becomes short-lived after one campaign or so as once the thrill of blowing
up a multitude of different creatures gets old, Resident Evil 6 doesn’t have a
great deal else left to offer.
