Resident Evil: A thread for the undead!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I guess there are a lot of Gears fans on GF.

[Foggle]

I've seen quite a few posts stating that Jake's 2nd chapter is the best in the game and that Ada's campaign is the worst one aside from her final level.

I suddenly realize why it's mostly niche games that appeal to me these days.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The sad thing is that if the "niche" games that people like us liked were released 1 or 2 generations ago, most of them wouldn't even be considered niche at all, and quite a few of them would probably be deservedly popular games. The "mainstream" games of this generation have just become about the lowest common denominator, in which experimenting or trying something knew is like suicide for most companies and the only way for any games to at least break even in sales is to copy whatever's popular and just go off a check list of the minimum requirements for what's expected in a game.

Naturally, though, this isn't really the fault of modern gaming developers or publishers. Its the fault of modern gaming consumers and critics, but this is the direction that they are pushing gaming in. They automatically find bizarre faults in any game that doesn't try to present itself as some "sophisticated" piece of fiction (in their definition), and more than ever it seems like gameplay doesn't seem to matter as much to anyone anymore. I believe I've seen more games get bashed and knocked down in the past few years for trivial things such as having disappointing stories or average graphics rather than on the merits and faults of their gameplay, and that's truly saddening to me.

[Foggle]

I think I've finally come to grips with the fact that this game is utter shit. GameSpot's 4.5 is accurate, honestly. After struggling through a second playthrough, I've come to the conclusion that RE6 is a bad shooter, and a worse adventure/horror title. I guess I just didn't want to believe it was true because of my personal hype, and the amount of money I spent on it, but in all honesty, even RE5 and Code Veronica are much better games. I'm tired of deluding myself about this. I mean, fuck, just going off of other games released this year that I've played, Mass Effect 3 and Spec Ops, which are known to have mediocre shooting mechanics, still play far better than RE6. In fact, here's my new and improved review:

Resident Evil 6 is a game that desperately wants to be Uncharted. Capcom probably looked at Naughty Dog's success story, watched a couple of gameplay trailers from the trilogy, and decided that they could do better with 1/4 of the budget and 1/8 of the talent. Suffice it to say, it didn't end well.

The first 20 minutes of the game present us with RE2 and 4 protagonist Leon S. Kennedy doing his best Dragon's Lair impression. Do you like gameplay? Because Leon clearly doesn't; he's content with timing his rhythmic button presses, waggling the analog stick, and mashing X to do everything from stumbling slowly on rails through an abandoned building to breaking open a door from the wrong side to piloting a helicopter. From there, audiences will be thrilled to experience another half hour of forced walking through scripted sequences on the slowest roller coaster ride ever created. This is obviously an attempt to establish atmosphere, but it doesn't really work since RE6's horror moments rank about on par with those of Troll 2. Nothing makes a third-person shooter more terrifying than forced co-op between characters who get scared by the sound of thunder (no, seriously).

Finally, after roughly an hour of doing absolutely nothing, you will get the chance to shoot some zombies. Unfortunately, the shooting mechanics are excruciatingly loose and feel about as visceral as those of the original Mass Effect. The dodging system takes a lot of getting used to, and even then it doesn't always work like you want it to. Meanwhile, the (mostly unnecessary) sticky cover system is almost impossible to wrap your head around - it is badly designed, period.

Resident Evil 6 also has an unholy love for quick time events. Be prepared to mash buttons like a madman at least once every 15 minutes (usually more) throughout your 25 hour journey. Nearly every single fucking action has a QTE attached to it, completely missing the point of why certain people may have enjoyed such moments in God of War and, yes, Resident Evil 4. These QTEs are often surprisingly difficult unless you equip the in-game skill designed to make them easier, and even then some of them are almost impossible to pass on your first try. Rest assured that 95% of your deaths during RE6 will be because you failed a quick time event of some sort. And let's not forget the random cheap deaths, such as the ambulance that comes out of nowhere and kills nearly everyone to have ever played this game on their first attempt.

Resident Evil 6 is full of entirely scripted set-pieces, nearly all of which are blatant, poor knock offs of ones present in Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. Because of this, the level "design" is as linear as a rail shooter, highly reminiscent of a ValuSoft PC title from the early 00's. The majority of the game is comprised of straight lines through tight, narrow corridors that try their best to look like gothic versions of the aforementioned trilogy's environments.

Things get even worse in the campaigns other than Leon's (there are 4 in total), when the game starts throwing gun-toting enemies at you. Not only do they pose no challenge at all, their AI is about on par with that of the Strogg in Quake 2. Should they actually manage to shoot you, however, you will likely get knocked down, an utterly horrendous mechanic that slows firefights to a crawl. While the ever-mutating J'avo are surprisingly creative enemies, you will likely get tired of fighting them by the time you finish Chris' campaign... but they're nearly all you fight in both Jake's and Ada's campaigns, as well.

Speaking of Jake's scenario, his portion of RE6 is easily the worst game I've played in years, and I just tried playing Death By Degrees last week. Between the N64-grade stealth segments, the lame recurring boss monster, and the extreme reliance on QTE, there are literally no redeeming qualities in his campaign. While Leon's, Chris', and Ada's levels are merely bad (or, in some cases, mediocre), Jake's are all complete and utter trash. From the awful attempts at Uncharted-style "platforming" to the even worse attempts at classic Resident Evil-style "exploration", there is not a single ounce of fun to be had playing as Wesker's son.

Ada's levels are the least awful, by which I mean to say that the first two are kind of fun sometimes. Not necessarily good, but playable at the very least. Because you do things in them other than shoot everything that moves in 3 yard wide gray corridors, and because they aren't overlong, her chapters are a lot more interesting and actually hold up on replays (if only slightly). It is unfortunate, then, that her fifth chapter is quite possibly the worst in the game.

And while I'm on the subject of Ada's final level, all the boss fights are terrible. Not a single one is interesting, and all of them are devoid of any challenge or strategy. Just shoot them until the next cutscene plays, occasionally dodging their attacks. Leon's (and Ada's, because recycled content) final boss is the worst offender, taking excessively long periods of time to defeat with little payoff. If you're playing as Leon, you get to endure the worst quick time event I've ever encountered, and if you playing as Ada, you get to spend around 30 minutes holding the R1 button and occasionally moving the right stick. Remember Verdugo and Krauser in RE4, or even the giant enemy crab and pre-mutation Wesker in RE5? Yeah, there's nothing like that here. Go home and be a family man.

The overarching story is about

Spoiler

a dude who clones Ada Wong so he can fuck her.

[close]

Yes, that really is the catalyst that kicks off the entire plot, as well as the explanation behind the whole conflict. I mean, Capcom's writing has always been bad, but that really takes the goddamn cake. And yet, somehow, it's still less stupid than RE5 and Revelations. Chris' story, meanwhile, presents a straight-faced interpretation of war being a matter of right and wrong, and asserts that post-traumatic stress disorder can be cured by killing even more people. This in the same year as Yager Development's gut-wrenching masterpiece Spec Ops: The Line, no less.

Without Mikami, Inafune, Kamiya, and Inaba, Capcom just doesn't seem to get it. And at this rate, they probably never will.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think I've finally come to grips with the fact that this game is utter shit.

This is sad to see after you were so hyped for it.

Almost as upset as I was that I have to send my Wii-U for repair to fix the disc drive. Sigh, so much for preorders!

[Commode]

What's wrong with your U? 

[Foggle]

This is sad to see after you were so hyped for it.

I probably should've known better than to have had such high hopes for a modern Capcom game, but Dragon's Dogma was so good... But yeah, upon playing co-op with my friends and attempting a second solo playthrough, I've realized that it really isn't any good at all. And I think I've known that all along, but my brain didn't want to admit it. Somehow, I fooled myself into thinking that it was decent-to-good all the way through my first run. It's amazing what hype and buyer's remorse can do to you.

That said, since there was a similar situation last year, I still think Duke Nukem Forever is pretty okay. Not a particularly good game, but way better than RE6 at least.

Almost as upset as I was that I have to send my Wii-U for repair to fix the disc drive. Sigh, so much for preorders!

Oh wow, I'm sorry to hear that man! Hopefully they'll get it back to you soon. Still, though, at least you were able to get a pre-order copy, so you'll be able to enjoy it before too long!

[talonmalon333]

Rate it now, FOggle.

[Foggle]

3/10.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Eh, I still can't help but feel like all of the opinions I hear about this game either overglorify the shit out of it or bash the crap out of it more than it really deserves. Of all the problems I've heard it has, aside from not being a real Resident Evil game in terms of having survival horror elements to it, the actual action game aspect of it sounds no worse than a typical Gears of War game. In fact the demo I played controlled better than a typical GoW game. If I played it, somehow I doubt I'd love it as much as Foggle initially did or hate it as much as he does now. I'd probably think its pretty much the epitome of mediocrity, which is what I was expecting anyways, based on all of the previews I saw of it.

[Foggle]

The core action is pretty much the exact same as Gears, maybe better or worse in some ways. What's really shit about RE6 is everything else; the level design, the QTEs, the set-pieces, the boss battles, the cover system, and the story all range from uninspired to pure crap.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sounds like a typical TPS from this gen to me.

[Foggle]

Sounds like a typical TPS from this gen to me.

That doesn't make it not terrible. That just reinforces my point.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

All I'm saying is that it still shows the double-standards that most reviewers and gamers in general have these days. If Resident Evil 6 is a bad game, then so are almost every other TPS action game that it has heavily tried to copy that end up doing the same shit, but people gush over all of those games.

Also, for what its worth, I'd probably still like this game better than the Batman Arkham games....since I'd rather play a typical TPS game from this gen than those games....

[talonmalon333]

What's funny, Foggle, is that the transformation of your opinion on RE6 is somewhat similar to mine with RE5, back when that game was new. I hyped it so much, and when it was new, I kinda led myself to think it was awesome despite the fact that, even when I first played it, I found parts of it to be annoying. Once that excitement wore out, I came to see the game for what it is. It's good. It's just not great.

As for RE6, I still wholly intend on getting and playing it someday. But it's not really important to me right now.