Resident Evil 6

Announcements of new entries in long running Capcom franchises are often met with fear and concern from fans, so dedicated are they to their beloved games that they seem to hate the idea of any change to their often archaic blueprints. So what makes a Resident Evil game? The combat? The puzzles? The setting? I’ve always thought it was the characters and perhaps that’s why I don’t have a problem with change. I was fully ready for Operation Raccoon City to be the best game ever made. Alas this dream was not to be. Being made up of three core campaigns, Resident Evil 6 has a pick-and-mix of gameplay styles on offer. Leon’s campaign  covers fans of the fourth game, Chris’ the fifth and Jake’s is the ‘something new’. Controls have been refined and expanded with the addition of new evasion moves and generally feel much more refined and responsive, although I did keep forgetting that I had new moves at my disposal. It seems that Capcom have realised they can’t please everyone so why not spread the love around a bit with three stories that form a whole.

While I fully understand that some would regard it as a lot of nonsense I’ve always found the narrative of Resident Evil games to be very engaging and the same holds true here. I want to know what is going on, who is controlling who and why they wanted to unleash hell upon Earth. The criss-crossing stories of the three protagonists builds the story well as you play each one in order and while there are always going to be some some cheesy and odd moments in this kind of game, it drives the game forward with conviction. Following tradition Ada’s motivations are as confusing as ever and the promise of playing her campaign will move any fan to complete the initial three stories, something that is well worth doing as it’s a real treat.

After a short prologue you are presented with with your choice of the core three campaigns. Being the good little boyscout that I am I played them in the order they were presented, followed by the unlocked Ada campaign. My initial hopes that Leon’s campaign would be ‘just like Resi 4’ were shaken at first. For the first hour or so it seemed very different but as I entered the second chapter, opening in a graveyard, I felt very at home right through to the end of his story. As I mentioned, Chris plays the ‘Resi 5 game’ and is far more focused on action, with that action ramped up even more than in his last outing. He also has the most compelling arc of the story but in contrast the least interesting co-op partner. Jake is the new boy on the block, Wesker’s illegitimate son. Playing a little bit down the middle and with some added stealth, Jake’s campaign is all about him being a really tough bastard. His toughness is offset by his partner Sherry, a rookie agent sent to rescue him whose backstory ties in neatly with Leon and Chris.

The big question is does the gamble work? Can you really mix these different styles into one game and form a cohesive gameplay experience? The answer is of course, yes and no. Or more specifically, it depends. The criss-crossing story is great, cheesy and stupid in places but great, it’s pure Resident Evil nonsense. Grabbing a potted plant from the back of a Humvee to save your injured partner nonsense. Hunting and shooting zombies, B.O.Ws or infected villagers is still great fun and doing so slowly with Leon, excessively with Chris or dramatically with Jake all the more so. The problem with this game is when you aren’t shooting things or solving puzzles. While QTEs are more prominent in Leon’s campaign they are present throughout and are almost always frustrating and unnecessary, occasionally causing instant death at a moments notice. When not killing you without a chance they can be poorly explained leaving you baffled as to what is being demanded of you. Checkpointing is fair throughout so while having to replay QTE sections doesn’t lose you much progress it can become a seemingly endless loop of death until you work out what’s going on. Other instances of non-core gameplay ruining the game come in the vehicle and underwater sections, I cannot understand why games still used these mechanics, if you must include them keep them short and easy, here they are long and frustrating and stand in stark contrast to the challenging and rewarding combat.

What does this all mean for the game, is it enjoyable? Very much so. Is it often annoyingly clunky and unfriendly? Most definitely. It’s by no means perfect but it is a game that offers a huge amount of enjoyable content for those that can overlook its short-comings. Every part of the campaign is playable in local or online co-op and this should not go understated, that is a huge amount of co-op action with a large number of options on offer for lobbies and drop-in play, even in an adversarial role through the new Agent Hunt mode. Mercenaries mode is back again offering a huge amount of replayability for high score chasers. I’d urge Resident Evil fans to put aside their concerns and jump in. There are some fantastic set pieces and scenarios to see and some great variation in the enemies thrown at you.