Capcom Has Betrayed Their Fans. (Detailed Review)
Story 7/10
Resident Evil 6 takes place 10 years after the Raccoon City incident. After 10 years, the President finally decides it's time to go public about the events that occurred there in hopes that it will help calm down the resurgence that is taking place with all the bioterrorism. His personal friend and also one of the protagonists of the series Leon S. Kennedy is meant to be at his side during this announcement. As usual something goes wrong and the President is transformed to a zombie and Leon is faced with a very difficult decision. After being wrongfully accused of the Presidents death Leon and his partner Helena Harper embarks on a quest to clear their names and find out who is behind the new C-Virus outbreak and put an end to it all. Meanwhile another protagonist Chris Redfield is across the globe in China. He was retired and an alcoholic after the events in Edonia. Fortunately for the world's sake he has been convinced to come out of retirement by his partner Piers Nivans. He is tasked to save hostages and eliminate the threat of the C-Virus. Jake, a new protagonist to the series, is son to long time villain Albert Wesker. He flees authorities during a bioterrorist attack and is teamed up with Sherry Birkin. Old school Resident Evil fans may remember her as a kid from Resident Evil 2. Both Jake and Sherry are on a mission to make contact with the presidential aid, Derek Simmons. After completion of this story you will unlock Ada Wongs campaign. The story is well told and is easy to comprehend. Unlike other games in the series the story takes place on a much larger scale. It takes place across the whole world instead of just one area as usual. Even with the huge scale of the game it is still an extremely linear adventure. Make no mistake this is an action based plot. The story does absolutely nothing to make you feel like you are in a scary environment. This time around cinematic action and explosions are abundant. Overall the story is arguably the best part of the game and that's not saying much. Maybe the underwhelming story can be overshadowed by the gameplay right?
Gameplay 5/10
The gameplay portion of the game is nothing short of mediocre. There isn't really anything unique or special about it at all. There are a few things worth mentioning though. After 14 long years you are finally allowed to run and shoot at the same time. This has been a long wanted feature in the game. The inability to run and shoot before was implemented because it was supposed to add to the horror feel of the game. So I'm not too surprised that it has finally been added because as I said before this is not a horror game by any means. They have also added a new skillpoint system. You no longer use merchants or anything like that to upgrade your weapons or player. Now during the story you collect skillpoints from enemies you kill. At the end of each chapter you can spend these skill points to upgrade weapon damage, defense, ammo capacity etc. This is an unneeded feature because Capcom system used in the past was superior in every way. For example in Resident Evil 4 it was more in depth as you can upgrade your weapons more specifically and even purchase new weapons, more ammunition, health, inventory space etc. You can't purchase any new weapons at all. You basically are stuck with what they give you and there is no way to get other weapons unless the story dictates.
The whole game is playable in co-op if you so choose to play with a friend. They have improved the co-op from RE5. Now you can jump in and out of players games much easier. Pickups are not shared which is always good. With that said co-op shouldn't be in the game at all because it takes away from the horror experience. Nothing says horror like having a friend there to back you up right? Back again is the Mercenaries mode. Mercenaries' mode is basically a game mode where you are put up against hordes and hordes of enemies to kill. It's a decent mode but nothing new. If the main story was scary, Mercenaries would have been nice to get a change of pace but seeing as the main plot has just as much action, Mercenaries loses a little bit of its lure. A new mode called Agent Mode has been added. This mode is unlocked when you complete the campaign. In Agent Mode you can play as one the zombies. You can try to take out of the main characters by coordinating with others. Sounds good in theory but not in practice. This mode seems rushed. The camera angles are really weird and it feels like it is broken. Controls are weird when playing with the zombies. This mode actually makes you want to play Mercenaries. There is also a broken cover system as well. A cover system in a horror game to start off is kind of odd. The controls of it are really frustrating. The jump and roll feature is actually pretty useful. You can jump to the ground and roll around to dodge enemies. This comes in handy a lot. Overall the gameplay is nothing to special and easily forgettable.
Graphics & Sound 8/10
Resident Evil 6 is beautiful. Graphical speaking the visuals in this game are spectacular. Explosions are great, so are the character models. It is a dark toned game so the colors don't really shout out at you but still do look nice. I didn't run into any graphically issues either. No game freezes, framerate drops or graphically popups. So the game does run pretty smooth. The sounds effects aren't as great as the visuals unfortunately. Gun sounds don't have that bang as you would expect. Explosions definitely look better than they sound. Voice acting on the other hand is pretty good. The dialogue sounds good and lip syncing is pretty decent. Unfortunately even though the music does sound good it is the wrong type of music for what is supposed to be a horror game. The music and sound effects gets you immersed into the firefight more than it gets you scared. Overall while the game definitely looks great it could use some work in the sound department.
Playtime & Replayability 6/10
The 4 campaigns take roughly 20 hours to beat. That is pretty long for a singleplayer game nowadays. After you beat the game there is really no reason to go back and play it again. You do have the other game modes you can play to extend your playtime but as I said before they aren't that great. Capcom has not done enough with the campaign or other game modes to actually make you want to keep playing the game.
Final Verdict 5.5/10
Pros
+ Spectacular Visuals
+ No Glitches
+ Comprehensible Story
Cons
- Not Scary
- Lackluster Gameplay
- Underwhelming Sound Effects
Closing Comments
Resident Evil 6 has abandoned its roots. These are the same roots that made the franchise as popular as it has become. It was advertised as being a survival horror game. Unfortunately it is an action game. The gameplay is not up to par. Hopefully Capcom goes back to the drawing board, realizes its mistakes, fixes them for its next entry and gives the fans of the series what we wanted and that is a true Resident Evil game and not an action title that happens to bear the name.