What's the deal with Resident Evil 6?

Resident Evil 6 came out just a while ago, at the beginning of October. At first I was pretty apprehensive about picking it up, because the folks at Capcom have been a bunch of assholes lately. They've made some horrible choices with DLC distribution, rehashed multiple games multiple times for a quick dollar, and canceled every single Megaman project under the sun, seemingly throwing the Blue Bomber to the curb. Resident Evil 6 looked okay to me, but had gotten some very negative press when the demo first arrived.

I kept an eye on things however, and lots of good information started to crop up. Word of a 30-hour campaign spanning 3 different characters started floating around, making this the largest main-line Resident Evil game to date. Afterwards, a 4th campaign was mentioned as well, adding more and more to the meat of the game. The controls were apparently tightened up, some camera issues were fixed, and overall it seemed like this game was in good shape after a fairly rocky start. I decided to pick it up...that's a lot of game content and well-worth a purchase.

After being released, a lot of absolutely scathing reviews popped up around the internet. It really caught me off guard to see RE6 getting scores such as 3's and 4's out of 10. I began worrying that maybe I wasted my damn money...but then realized that there are a good number of games that I've played or even own that've gathered some bad reviews, but I still managed to have fun with them. I decided to stick to my guns and play through it after all.

Leon's just pissed because Chris' campaign has better structure!

And you know what? It's not as fuckin' bad as those review sites are making it out to be. Yeah, there are some really odd design choices and sometimes the camera's a bit more loose than it should be (likely a byproduct of having so much control in a Resident Evil game, for once), but I had a fun time for the most part as I went through the campaign. Reviews cracked down on RE6 for being disjointed and lacking the ability to find an "identity" because of its different campaigns centered around different characters and play-styles. I fail to see how switching things up is a problem, and found myself having the most fun playing through Chris Redfield's action-heavy campaign, oddly enough...because for the most part, it was well-structured. The other campaigns, which star Leon Kennedy and Jake Muller (he's a n00b to the series), were not as strong, but it wasn't because the play-styles were different...it was because some of the content was retarded.

There are things you just shouldn't have to deal with when you play a video game like this...and there were a few occasions where Capcom made you do them in RE6 that really bogged everything down. I'll just list a few of them off:

• Fighting the same boss 4-5 times, sometimes directly in a row, is a major instance that sticks out at me. I love bosses more than anything...but don't make me blast the same fucking creature for an obscene amount of time to pad out the campaign! This actually could have been rectified if the player switched between characters at the end of certain chapters...which also could have helped to present the story in a more cohesive fashion (although I do see the advantage of having it broken into 3 separate story arcs.)
• There are also a shit-ton of quicktime events, and a lot of them are completely unfair. Some seem to be unwinnable without the use of a special perk that you need to buy (which is an AWFUL game design choice), others have horrible button prompts and don't really illustrate what the player has to do very well...and still others are just boring as fuck. Case in point: don't make me climb a fucking rope by alternating pressing the right and left triggers for more than 30 seconds. Oh, you're going to make me do it for 5 minutes? SWEET!
• Instant deaths that you can't even see coming...what the hell is with that? A few times I just sorta...went the wrong way and my character was crushed by a falling roof with no prior indication. This sort of thing is acceptable in the right kind of game...but not in Resident Evil. BAD!
• Tripping over bodies...in an action game. Maybe this would have been acceptable if Resident Evil was still a survival horror series, but it just isn't anymore, and tripping over a random body that's propped up against the wall in the middle of a firefight with a flood of enemies is just plain stupid and unnecessary.
• Drawn out battles is another issue. In particular, I'm thinking of a fight in Chris' campaign where these enemies that are ALL the same just keep pouring out of the scenery and a nearby helicopter. You're supposed to kill them all, but by the time you're done, you're so bored of it that it's not even thrilling anymore. This segment could have had one third the number of enemies...just make them more interesting to fight and beef them up a little bit.
• Entire MAJOR GAME MECHANICS that aren't even explained except for in quick bursts during load screens...and only if you're lucky. You can take cover in this goddamned game...but they sure as hell don't tell you how to adhere to walls or anything like that, and there's no information in the damn manual! How about dodging and rolling? Figure it out yourself, apparently. All they had to do was explain these features ONCE, and then let the player decide how much they want to use them.

To me, it's not the big differences between campaigns that irritated me. The diversity in campaign structures and the recurrences of past iconic characters all in one big cohesive experience are pretty sweet features, really. It's the problems that reside within those campaigns that cause problems, and they just really needed to be refined and tightened up. Sure, RE6 may have a lot of gameplay hours in it (particularly with The Mercenaries, as well)...but a lot of those hours could have been shaved off to make a much tighter, cohesive experience that doesn't make you sigh in disbelief when you see the same enemy AGAIN, or perform a ridiculous QTE AGAIN.

It made me recall the days of the old Resident Evil games...like, 1-3, the GC REmake, and even Resident Evil 0. The structure of those games was just so damn solid! The enemies were what you were afraid of encountering, rather than a shitty QTE or an instant, unfair death. When you fought boss monsters, it didn't feel drawn out...it was just tense the whole damn time as you did your best to avoid getting sliced open while unloading magnum rounds at every possible opportunity. The puzzles weren't just fuckin' shoehorned in some vain attempt to appease the old-school fans...they were actually well-integrated and clever.

This is what happens when you wank too much.

Bah. Anyway, I would personally give RE6 around...maybe a 6.5. It doesn't deserve a score as bad as a 4, though...Capcom just tried some different things and it wasn't as well-received as they'd hoped. It's like Zelda II or Metroid: Other M...at its core, it's not a terrible game. It just so happens to have design choices that people didn't appreciate. Hell, RE6 actually made me realize that I liked Resident Evil 5 more than I thought...and I really didn't think it was a strong entry in the series until now. In that respect, it's funny how certain games can help you put others into perspective.

RE6 is still enjoyable if you're a fan, particularly with its extremely well-delivered story and voice acting which brings the characters to life very effectively. It's also a beefy game which will give you your money's worth...just be prepared to deal with some frustrations, hiccups, and redundancies.

Keep gaming!