OK I have sunk in almost 3 hours into this demo so lets get right to it. Leon's demo is so boring, in the actual game I am sure it will work great as it is very atmospheric, almost old school RE. The camera was moving around too fast so I adjusted that. It is a bit too close to the character but i got used to it. Normal classic third person controls in RE is kind of weird but I played enough games like this for it to work but the close camera mixed with this control scheme does make things a tad bit hectic.
The graphics are generally gorgeous but small objects on tables and such look really simple, like blocky cups. Screen tearing everywhere in this demo, hopefully fixed for release. So I move through the boring slow opening Leon section and finally get to the part with the girl where I notice how cinematic the camera is. There are moments where the camera shakes, or zooms in or out to give you one hell of a cinematic view, this could work very well. I noticed how current gen this game is with its slick hud and that radar cell phone mode, feels like Batman, splinter cell, ass creed, basically every game this gen. The item screen is different, seems like limited inventory is a thing of the past, booo but everything is easy to navigate.
Once the zombies came and I could shoot I noticed how loose the aiming was. My shots clearly dont have the same impact they do in RE4 or RE5. I shoot zombies in the leg and they sort of simply absorb the bullet. Shoot them in the head and a chunk of their skull comes off but they slowly die, so slow that I thought I had to keep shooting them. The melee works well as it is not context sensitive so you can use it a lot more and damn is it effective. Leon's action is over before it even begins so I couldn't get into it much.
Chris' demo is where the action is at. Here enemies with guns are constantly shooting at you but dont worry you are bulletproof it seems. i hope the difficulty is in super easy mode cause there is no need to take cover, which is nice cause cover in a RE game is stupid, still I want a challenge. Here the enemies mutate into flying guys or big armed dudes. A mix of shooting and melee make quick work of them, I started to use dodge a bit more as well. It all seemed a bit sloppy to me, just a lot of shooting.
Then I tried Jake and wow is he cool. It starts with a cinematic run, I hope the game has segments like this where a little more control is needed, platforming in RE would be cool. Jake as an option for fists so I chose that and went at bad dudes Wesker style, so awesome. This demo has a boss battle, a classic red barrels around the room you lead the big giant dude into them boss fight. Amazing effects going on here as the roof is collapsing, the barrels explode really nice and the big monster has some great animation.
I started to try the other characters out, Piers in particular is fantastic cause he gets totally different guns than chris. One is a sniper rifle with thermal mode, this comes into play when he gets separated from Chris and you have to cover for him. His machine gun as different fire modes which is nice. As a played as Piers it felt the closest to RE4/5. I tried Sherry as well and damn is she quick and badass, this girl went through some training. Oh and I switched to classic laser sight mode, huge improvement.
After many playthroughs everything just clicked, this is NOT just a RE like shooter. The dodge and melee attacks change the action dynamics completely. It wasn't until I was diving all over the place and running meleeing, and shooting that it all became amazing. This is like Vanquish meet RE meet god hand and it is AWESOME!! When enemies come out run full speed at one, smash him in the head, dive roll around and shoot the next guy, get up roll back, get a punch in dive around again, shoot a barrel, dive back throw a grenade. That is how the game is meant to be played, the action is fantastic!
I was worried at first but now that I see the light I am super excited. The core gameplay mechanics are there for something really special, now it is up to the game design to live up to the last two games.