Let me preface this by saying that I've only finished Jake's campaign to completion. Leon's I left off at chapter 3, Chris's I've only just started, Ada's I haven't touched.
And one disclaimer which might discredit my opinion on the game for some of you: I've never owned a Resident Evil game before, I've never beaten a Resident Evil game to completion before, and most I haven't touched at all. I did play 5 almost all the way through twice, but both of my split screen companions took a break and never came back, but I'm familiar with what I imagine is the large majority of the game. So, bear in mind that I am writing this as a person who has only played Resident Evil 5 and liked it quite a bit. Still, I'm not without empathy for the situation, and I'm not clueless about the nature and style of the older games. I've seen 'em, I've just never played them myself.
So, because I've heard tell that Resident Evil 6 is a bad game, I've avoided it for a while, despite being intrigued by the demo. However, I sighted an opportunity to procure a brand new PS3 copy for no more than $6, and jumped at the chance.
Since it's release a year and some months ago, I've heard several differing opinions on RE6, which probably helped in going into the game. I had an opened mind, eager to enjoy what the game did right, and try to understand what it did wrong, and why it did these things.
Coming away after one campaign finished, I'm impressed. It's an action game with horror elements, and it has clearly strayed from it's roots, but I don't think it's awful by any measurement except--again--against the same elements that make up the older titles. Compared to other action games, it has a lot going for it and a lot unique to it as well. The controls are great, (outside of, perhaps, QTEs), the environments are interesting, the enemies are cool, the gameplay design is very good once you understand it, the story is eh, the scenes can be really corny in a supremely Japanese way, the graphics are gorgeous and the framerate is solid, and the animations are smooth. Oh, and there is a lot of content to be had.
The control scheme and the player's abilities in combat aren't very well explained, but with sufficient knowledge, they're excellent and extremely fun to use. The dodge abilities and tricks give the player a freedom of movement rarely seen in most third person shooters, but it actually works quite well with the rest of the game's design and isn't just a response to all the complaints of "tank controls" and "standing still to shoot". Enemies eat a lot of bullets, and the player is generally given a lot of bullets to work with, so you want to take every opportunity you're given to fill those enemies with said bullets. This means that once you learn the visual cues of an enemy about to attack, you can use every available second to take a shot at an enemy, and then dodge out of the way of--or past--the enemy's attack and resume firing, or give yourself some strategic distance. This all happens very quickly and very responsively, which gave me a really good feeling of being in control. I don't recall a single time I felt frustrated because I was "stuck in an animation" and couldn't move the way I wanted to.
The combat gauge is also neat, serving as a throttle to the new dedicated melee attack button, which--while not completely replacing the old knives and other assorted killing sticks--provides a quicker and more intuitive way to deal with close threats or vicious loot boxes. It's fun to use, and very useful, but not overpowered because of it's limited use, which makes sense too, because, you know, you're exerting yourself (unlike rolling around and throwing your body like a ragdoll). The combat gauge also enables another close-range tactic, the quick-fire. While removing some of the panic of frantic aiming and firing on the horror side of things, it's inclusion furthers the more action-movie flavor that this game seems to be shooting for. Many a friend was maddened by the fact that I could brilliantly no-scope zombies in a Resident Evil game.
The environments of this game (Having witnessed Jake's journey from beginning to end and Leon's journey from beginning to deep beneath the cathedral) are wildly varied, and very interesting. It's one of those games where, at the end, I think back to earlier parts of the journey and become a little wowed with how many places we visited. I got that feeling with Resident Evil 5 too, and I love it. It's a good sign of a real, well-made journey and not a three hour stint in Afghanistan.
I already kind of touched on this, but the unique enemies are a lot of fun. You've got the typical mutations here (flying thing, big-armed thing) but then you have frilled lizard monsters crawling out of cocooned corpses, eel-men whose body parts split apart and still try to kill you and never die, Nemesis wannabe Ustanak, and a few others. In a time when more and more I find games to have too few enemies or too many uninteresting enemies, these guys are a lot of fun to fight.
The story is serviceable from where I'm at, so long as you don't examine it too closely, though it's full of Japanese zaniness. The scenes fare a little worse though, with touching moments and quiet words shared on an extremely fast moving transport platform, or Jake roaring at Chris and then shooting at the wall next to his cheek because he killed his father who Jake never knew and had always assumed was a deadbeat before learning that he actually had tried to take over the world. Scenes like those I just sort of roll my eyes at. I've never heard of Resident Evil having storytelling descended from heaven though, so I just chuckle.
I'm really impressed with the game's visuals. For running on the crotchety old PS3, it's quite pretty with great lighting and a framerate that I don't recall ever stuttering (though maybe that's just because I'm not playing right now). I remember feeling the same about Resident Evil 5's graphics (perhaps even more stunning at the time in '09), and I kind of wonder why Capcom doesn't use this engine for more games.
Lastly, this game is long, and there's a lot in it. There are 4 campaigns all of similar length, each with unique moments and enemies and characters that are more than just reskins, and weapons and themes. Plus all the extras, like Mercenaries, and the DLC stuff that I haven't got but might get. Still, it's impressive to see a game like this ride off the success of a previous entry (5) and try to one-up what that game offered. Even if it misses that old Resident Evil spot by a mile, it's occupying a new spot that isn't exactly bad. Different, but not bad. If they do move back to something more traditional, I hope they keep the gameplay from Resident Evil 6 alive somewhere else. It's not horror, it's not classic Resident Evil, but it's too good to go to waste.
There's a lot more that I'd like to say, but I'm getting disorganized here, and I'm losing the feeling of what I wanted to write in the first place. So I'll leave it at this. Having finished less than a third of the game, I like Resident Evil 6, though it may have missed what fans of the series wanted. I'd say that if you liked Resident Evil 5 because of what it was and not despite what it was, you'll probably find something to enjoy here.
And one disclaimer which might discredit my opinion on the game for some of you: I've never owned a Resident Evil game before, I've never beaten a Resident Evil game to completion before, and most I haven't touched at all. I did play 5 almost all the way through twice, but both of my split screen companions took a break and never came back, but I'm familiar with what I imagine is the large majority of the game. So, bear in mind that I am writing this as a person who has only played Resident Evil 5 and liked it quite a bit. Still, I'm not without empathy for the situation, and I'm not clueless about the nature and style of the older games. I've seen 'em, I've just never played them myself.
So, because I've heard tell that Resident Evil 6 is a bad game, I've avoided it for a while, despite being intrigued by the demo. However, I sighted an opportunity to procure a brand new PS3 copy for no more than $6, and jumped at the chance.
Since it's release a year and some months ago, I've heard several differing opinions on RE6, which probably helped in going into the game. I had an opened mind, eager to enjoy what the game did right, and try to understand what it did wrong, and why it did these things.
Coming away after one campaign finished, I'm impressed. It's an action game with horror elements, and it has clearly strayed from it's roots, but I don't think it's awful by any measurement except--again--against the same elements that make up the older titles. Compared to other action games, it has a lot going for it and a lot unique to it as well. The controls are great, (outside of, perhaps, QTEs), the environments are interesting, the enemies are cool, the gameplay design is very good once you understand it, the story is eh, the scenes can be really corny in a supremely Japanese way, the graphics are gorgeous and the framerate is solid, and the animations are smooth. Oh, and there is a lot of content to be had.
The control scheme and the player's abilities in combat aren't very well explained, but with sufficient knowledge, they're excellent and extremely fun to use. The dodge abilities and tricks give the player a freedom of movement rarely seen in most third person shooters, but it actually works quite well with the rest of the game's design and isn't just a response to all the complaints of "tank controls" and "standing still to shoot". Enemies eat a lot of bullets, and the player is generally given a lot of bullets to work with, so you want to take every opportunity you're given to fill those enemies with said bullets. This means that once you learn the visual cues of an enemy about to attack, you can use every available second to take a shot at an enemy, and then dodge out of the way of--or past--the enemy's attack and resume firing, or give yourself some strategic distance. This all happens very quickly and very responsively, which gave me a really good feeling of being in control. I don't recall a single time I felt frustrated because I was "stuck in an animation" and couldn't move the way I wanted to.
The combat gauge is also neat, serving as a throttle to the new dedicated melee attack button, which--while not completely replacing the old knives and other assorted killing sticks--provides a quicker and more intuitive way to deal with close threats or vicious loot boxes. It's fun to use, and very useful, but not overpowered because of it's limited use, which makes sense too, because, you know, you're exerting yourself (unlike rolling around and throwing your body like a ragdoll). The combat gauge also enables another close-range tactic, the quick-fire. While removing some of the panic of frantic aiming and firing on the horror side of things, it's inclusion furthers the more action-movie flavor that this game seems to be shooting for. Many a friend was maddened by the fact that I could brilliantly no-scope zombies in a Resident Evil game.
The environments of this game (Having witnessed Jake's journey from beginning to end and Leon's journey from beginning to deep beneath the cathedral) are wildly varied, and very interesting. It's one of those games where, at the end, I think back to earlier parts of the journey and become a little wowed with how many places we visited. I got that feeling with Resident Evil 5 too, and I love it. It's a good sign of a real, well-made journey and not a three hour stint in Afghanistan.
I already kind of touched on this, but the unique enemies are a lot of fun. You've got the typical mutations here (flying thing, big-armed thing) but then you have frilled lizard monsters crawling out of cocooned corpses, eel-men whose body parts split apart and still try to kill you and never die, Nemesis wannabe Ustanak, and a few others. In a time when more and more I find games to have too few enemies or too many uninteresting enemies, these guys are a lot of fun to fight.
The story is serviceable from where I'm at, so long as you don't examine it too closely, though it's full of Japanese zaniness. The scenes fare a little worse though, with touching moments and quiet words shared on an extremely fast moving transport platform, or Jake roaring at Chris and then shooting at the wall next to his cheek because he killed his father who Jake never knew and had always assumed was a deadbeat before learning that he actually had tried to take over the world. Scenes like those I just sort of roll my eyes at. I've never heard of Resident Evil having storytelling descended from heaven though, so I just chuckle.
I'm really impressed with the game's visuals. For running on the crotchety old PS3, it's quite pretty with great lighting and a framerate that I don't recall ever stuttering (though maybe that's just because I'm not playing right now). I remember feeling the same about Resident Evil 5's graphics (perhaps even more stunning at the time in '09), and I kind of wonder why Capcom doesn't use this engine for more games.
Lastly, this game is long, and there's a lot in it. There are 4 campaigns all of similar length, each with unique moments and enemies and characters that are more than just reskins, and weapons and themes. Plus all the extras, like Mercenaries, and the DLC stuff that I haven't got but might get. Still, it's impressive to see a game like this ride off the success of a previous entry (5) and try to one-up what that game offered. Even if it misses that old Resident Evil spot by a mile, it's occupying a new spot that isn't exactly bad. Different, but not bad. If they do move back to something more traditional, I hope they keep the gameplay from Resident Evil 6 alive somewhere else. It's not horror, it's not classic Resident Evil, but it's too good to go to waste.
There's a lot more that I'd like to say, but I'm getting disorganized here, and I'm losing the feeling of what I wanted to write in the first place. So I'll leave it at this. Having finished less than a third of the game, I like Resident Evil 6, though it may have missed what fans of the series wanted. I'd say that if you liked Resident Evil 5 because of what it was and not despite what it was, you'll probably find something to enjoy here.
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