Anyone know when the embargo lifts?
October 1st. I'm really expecting to see reviews go all over the place, in earnest.
I think I have shared this before, but I honestly think this game is going to be one of the most polarizing games that have come out this generation, and definitely within the Resident Evil series, even more so than Resident Evil 5 but for completely different reasons. There's a few reasons for this...
The controls are controversial.
This is one of the single biggest things that a person will first notice about RE6. The controls are different, very different from about any game out there. It's really hard to explain, the game LOOKS like it plays like Resident Evil 4/5, but it really doesn't. Trying to play it like RE4/RE5 actually doesn't usually have good results. The best way to describe it is that this game controls like a fighting game third-person shooter... Which sounds completely strange, but it is the best way to describe it. The characters actually have a lot of depth, but all that depth is hidden away in button combos and one part of the game, like a fighting game, is mastering the controls. This is going to be one of the single most biggest turn-offs for the game for most people initially I predict, and leads me directly into my next reason...
This game has one heck of a learning curve.
Not just in the controls, in everything. How enemies respond to things, how your character shoots, how you navigate the environment... Everything has familiarity to other Resident Evil games, but also feels completely different. Initially when I first started playing the game, I didn't like it. I was taking so much in at once and while I was trying to play it one way, it's like the game wasn't cooperating with me. I would get hit with bullets from random directions, I was really clumsy in fighting things, everything just seemed so chaotic and I couldn't get immersed in it at all. But as weird as it sounds, as I played more I began to start to play better, I started to understand and actually appreciate how the game was designed, which leads me to my next point...
There's a moment where everything just clicks.
I can't describe it easily, but there's a moment when playing when everything just clicks. If you play the demo long enough it may happen for you (and seems to have happened for a few people here), but I think it's far more evident if you play more of the game at once rather than a select area over and over again. The game actually has a lot of variety, but your enjoyment of it almost comes directly from having the game just click with you. They have a prelude tutorial chapter to help you with this, but things that seemed really annoying initially, or things that seemed badly designed start making a lot more sense and more fun after it all just clicks with you. It is an extremely difficult thing to explain, but this isn't the only game to have this moment. It essentially has a learning curve, and over the learning curve you start to enjoy yourself a lot more, as...
The game is really addicting and has a lot of content to offer
This won't be evident in the demo I know, but this game really is rather addicting. The game throws really varied and interesting gameplay moments at you, and has a good stride and pacing in my experience between moments where you're essentially locked in battle fields, exploration and puzzles, slower more story-driven or ambient moments, and the likes. You'll be chased by invincible monsters in stealth segments, slowly walk around a church as you talk to people and solve puzzles, fight among a great army of enemies trying to stay alive and utilize your characters abilities to the fullest, and lot's of other things through the course of the game. You unlock skills, there's a lot of different modes, each campaign has quite a different feel to it, and there's lots of hidden secrets in each level. It's incredibly addicting in my experience, and I can only imagine it being more so in a full copy of the game.
...But what is it trying to be, exactly?
Maybe at the price of variety there comes the question of identity. What is this game trying to be, exactly? My answer is that I think it's trying to be everything, which seems like it's what the developers intended. The games has elements of an action game, a survival-horror game, an adventure game, it seems to have drawn direction inspiration from every single Resident Evil title in different areas of the game, it has RPG elements, it has party game elements, it tries to make a stronger single player presence but also a stronger multiplayer presence, but it tries to confine itself well enough within some boundaries so all of it at least feels familiar enough to each other. Mastering the games foundation is essentially the key to playing the game, but past the foundation it seems the game is trying to appease everyone, which we will have to see attracts more people or repels more people.
The enemies are amazing.
I don't know how evident this was in the demo for you, but the enemies in this game are amazing. They all have really good AI, and respond differently to a lot of different situations. From boss fights to just normal enemy encounters, they can go in completely different directions depending on how you play the game like. They can work in groups and you can sometimes see them visually cuing to other enemies to hold back, go in, etc. The zombies can collect in groups and really circle you into a bad situation, some will try to sneak up on you while others will suicidally charge in at you when you have to reload or take cover. They can be difficult, but by mastering everything at your disposal are also manageable. They have great variety too, with each enemy having different strengths and weaknesses. They also have pretty good reaction to how you shoot them. Playing more extensively, I think the part of the game that has impressed me the most is the enemies. They're very interesting, varied like everything else, and actually quite intelligent.
Graphics are both better and worse.
This is a strange thing, but the graphics are both better and worse than RE5. First of all, the lighting and shadows are much better, and the game has an excellent attention of details in the environment... But it also looks a bit worse, yet better. Some things have very shoddy texture-work, or some things look a bit low-poly, but then other things are really impressive and breath-taking to see. It's really hard to explain, but I think many know what I mean by this, but this game looks both better and worse than RE5.
There's some other things I can talk about, but I think all of the above is true. I think this game is really different, and has a learning curve. I don't think everyone will like it, but I think others will absolutely love it. This will be, I am sure, one of the most polarizing game experiences this year, I expect this game to end up some of peoples favorite RE game, and other peoples least favorite, with everything in-between.
This is going to be an interesting ride.
