Resident Evil: A thread for the undead!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Now, here's what I don't get about the extreme negativity towards RE6:

I get that hardcore RE fans who already hated 4 and 5 would loathe this game, and even many who liked 4 would be disappointed with this one as well, but in terms of other people rating this game so badly, I see it get a lot of criticisms that quite frankly are flaws present in A LOT of modern action games, those same games somehow getting away with doing all of the same things (Gears of War being among those sorts of games). Also, conversely, I don't see anyone giving the game credit for being more than just your standard 8-hour run-of-the-mill shooter. The game is 20+ hours long on a single playthrough and jam-packed with content beyond that. How is it that a game like Uncharted can have a shorter and shallower campaign that this game with even less replay value and content and somehow be praised out the wazoo. Are the graphics just that good that it excuses the lack of content? Or is the multiplayer what gets it such a high score, a multiplayer which I have actually tried in Uncharted 3 and find to be fairly stale and boring, personally.

I can understand not liking RE6 for not being a true RE game, but judging it on its own I highly doubt that its this abysmal game that so many critics and angry fans are painting it out to be.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I finally got around to trying the demo....or 2/3rd's of the demo, to be exact. I tried Leon's and Chris's campaign demos, each of which took me roughly 10-20 minutes to complete. I'll get around to Jake's sometime tomorrow after I finish studying in the evening. As for my thoughts:

Leon- Too scripted. That said, it pretty much plays like any other standard action game, and nothing I played seemed horribly broken or badly designed. The QTEs weren't a big deal in the demo (though having a QTE to have to look for the car keys was beyond ridiculous, even if you like QTEs), but my main gripe would just be that I felt way too constricted while playing through the demo level. I've heard that Leon's actual campaign in the full game has some more open environments and while they aren't meant for exploration they give you a bit more freedom to move around and check for secrets and stuff. Overall, Leon's demo just felt like a generic shooter....that said absolutely nothing about it gave me the impression that it was significantly worse than any other games in the genre. In fact I'd say that I got about as much enjoyment out of playing that demo as I would out of any Gears of War game, and those games somehow get ridiculously high scores, so unless the full game is just a drastic decrease in quality, I don't know what some of these reviewers were smoking when they scored this game so low for what's apparently supposed to be bad design.

Chris- Here's a shocker, I liked this one better than Leon's demo. I say this because while Leon's gameplay tries to fool you into thinking you're playing an RE game, Chris's campaign is more honest and doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is....which is another generic action shooter, but one with a lot more intensity and focus put into its action sequences. The cover system was weird because admittedly I'm used to the Gears of War system of cover, but it took me all of 5 minutes to get used to it and then I could pop in and out of cover just fine like in any other game that has that feature, so I have no idea what so many people are complaining about if it was that easy to get used to. I died one time in Chris's campaign against that mid-boss fight because I was a moron and stood in one place shooting blindly at it for too long. Its really easy once you realize that you just need to shoot it in the back a lot until it dies. I did find the melee to be a bit too overpowered, and the enemy AI could have been much better. I mean I know that these enemies aren't supposed to be much smarter than regular zombies, but its kind of ridiculous when I can run into a swarm of them and just melee away without any consequences except for maybe getting hit or shot myself once or twice in the process. Even so, I still had fun doing it, so I can't complain about that.

Honestly, based on what I've played of the demo, its clear to me that this is not a Resident Evil game, but where in the hell does anything that I played equate to a bad game? Like I said, maybe the main game has a lot more aggravating segment that takes up more than half of the experience, but I honestly think that most gaming critics are hypocritical ass-holes who have no consistency in their reviews. Were you to take this same game with its same level design and enemies and just change the character models, take out the Resident Evil title and put in something else, and remove any references to past RE games and just replace them with generic shooter dialogue (basically making this the same game except tweaking it so that it was not released as an RE game), then I guarantee you that it would not have gotten nearly as many lower review scores and general criticisms as it got. Also, for the record, I found what I played of this demo alone to be far more enjoyable than what I've played of any Uncharted game. Maybe I'm biased, but those games aren't all that fun to me, personally.

[Foggle]

Leon's campaign gets significantly better once you leave the college campus. That first bit is definitely the weakest part of his scenario. You didn't even play the worst of it.

Also, you almost never need to use the cover system in Chris' (or Jake's) story unless you're playing on Professional. At least, I only had to a couple of times.

[talonmalon333]

Are all 4 scenarios multiplayer?

[Foggle]

Are all 4 scenarios multiplayer?

Ada's isn't, but they're going to patch it so that it will be. It's definitely designed around solo play, though, so I'm not sure how well it'll work.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I wish Capcom would release more ports of the classic RE games for the XBOX360. I'd easily hit those up if they were made available via XBLA. Either that or if Capcom had at least made decent PC ports of their games instead of the crap ones that we ended up getting, then I could easily run them even on my crappy computer.

[Foggle]

I'd recommend getting a PS1 emulator for 2 and 3. As long as you have a wired Xbox controller, they should play just fine. Then play REmake next time you have access to a GameCube or Wii.

[talonmalon333]

RECV is available on XBLA, right?

I still think that game is better than RE3.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

For whatever reason I can't ever seem to get a PS1 emulator to work on my computer.

Also, one thing I have to admit that kind of gets to me about the classic games is the whole ink ribbon saving system. I get the idea and it makes sense in order to stop players from just saving all of the time, which forces you to use your saves wisely and sparingly and can make the game scarier in the sense that you don't know what kind of enemy encounter you might be dealing with next but if you die then you could be set back a long way. The problem with me is that I'm just so used to being able to save frequently in games, and while I wouldn't mind using my saves more sparingly, I wouldn't know when would be the right time to save or not since I don't want to end up saving my progress too early and using up a valuable ink ribbon in the process if it turns out that I still have a lot more stuff to do and I won't be getting any more ink ribbons for a while.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

RECV is available on XBLA, right?

I still think that game is better than RE3.

It is available, but I've heard people (including Foggle, I believe) say that its not the best starting game to get into the classic style RE games. I've heard REmake and 2 are the best ones in that regard (and the best ones overall according to most fan consensus).

[Foggle]

Also, one thing I have to admit that kind of gets to me about the classic games is the whole ink ribbon saving system. I get the idea and it makes sense in order to stop players from just saving all of the time, which forces you to use your saves wisely and sparingly and can make the game scarier in the sense that you don't know what kind of enemy encounter you might be dealing with next but if you die then you could be set back a long way. The problem with me is that I'm just so used to being able to save frequently in games, and while I wouldn't mind using my saves more sparingly, I wouldn't know when would be the right time to save or not since I don't want to end up saving my progress too early and using up a valuable ink ribbon in the process if it turns out that I still have a lot more stuff to do and I won't be getting any more ink ribbons for a while.

Ink ribbons are only really an issue in the original RE1 and Code Veronica, if I recall correctly. RE2, for instance, gives you 30 ribbons per scenario (if you manage to find them all, that is), meaning you could potentially save once every ten minutes and still have quite a few left at the end.

It is available, but I've heard people (including Foggle, I believe) say that its not the best starting game to get into the classic style RE games. I've heard REmake and 2 are the best ones in that regard (and the best ones overall according to most fan consensus).

It's by far the hardest classic-style RE (other than Outbreak and maybe 0). I also don't like it much. Definitely not recommended as your first foray into the original series.

[talonmalon333]

It is available, but I've heard people (including Foggle, I believe) say that its not the best starting game to get into the classic style RE games. I've heard REmake and 2 are the best ones in that regard (and the best ones overall according to most fan consensus).

Gotcha. In that case, Foggle's right. REmake's definitely the best place to start, followed by RE2 (or REmake 2, if all goes well and they do make that game someday).

Ink ribbons are only really an issue in the original RE1 and Code Veronica, if I recall correctly. RE2, for instance, gives you 30 ribbons per scenario (if you manage to find them all, that is), meaning you could potentially save once every ten minutes and still have quite a few left at the end.

It's also worth mentioning that some of the games, RE2 in particular, have recommended saving times in neon lights. Like, if there's a boss up ahead, the game will frequently put a typewriter or a lot of ammo in the room before it.

It's by far the hardest classic-style RE (other than Outbreak and maybe 0). I also don't like it much. Definitely not recommended as your first foray into the original series.

I still think the original RE1 is the hardest. At least, when you put them all on their hardest difficulty mode. On normal mode it's not so hard. As for CV, I think the only parts that are actually hard are simply cheap, rather than genuine challenge.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Was Outbreak the co-op RE game (still in the classic style, though) for the PS2?

I never played those classic style co-op RE games, but just the concept of the co-op in those games sounds far better than what Capcom is doing now. If Capcom really wants to make a co-op RE game, they should make another spin-off series for it rather than forcing it into the main games, and the co-op would be MUCH better if they had you and your partner work together but also have to frequently split-up into different rooms, so you'd still have that feeling of isolation and uneasiness. It could also create for some great moments in which you and your partner scare each other by running in on each other around a corner for a quick startle.

Actually, now that I think about it, that doesn't even have to be an RE game. SOME developer should just make a game like this, period. I'd totally hit-up a game like this if it were ever made, as long as I had someone to play it with.

[Foggle]

Goddamn this game has shit replay value.

Leon - Overly scripted, only gives the illusion of being a real RE title 1/4 of the time
Chris - Linear corridor shooter; a well-done and creative linear corridor shooter, but still a linear corridor shooter
Jake - Total garbage
Ada - The shortest one

Because of the way RE6's chapter system works, the only part of the game that actually has any replayability at all is Ada's campaign, and even then her fifth chapter is trash. Outside of a few scattered segments in the other scenarios, Ada 1-4 are pretty much the only levels that are enjoyable a second time (for me, anyway). I really wish the whole game had been like that - which is to say, single-player, puzzles, jump scares, good atmosphere, (mild) exploration, fun (but rudimentary) stealth.

Contrast this with REmake, 2, 3, and 4, which I can literally play twice in a row and still love every minute. Much like Revelations' Jill/Parker levels and RE5's Lost in Nightmares, I can't really see myself ever revisiting any of RE6 outside of Ada's campaign in the future.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sounds like pretty much every modern 3rd person shooter out there, which all rely WAY too heavily on scripted events and flash rather than in-game substance.