28 Explosions Later….| Resident Evil 6 Review

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Capcom are back with yet another installment of the <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> franchise&period; Before the release of <em>Resident Evil 6<&sol;em>&comma; previous games in the blockbuster series had already sold over 50 million copies&period; The first game released back in 1996 on the Sony PlaySataion console&period; It was a claustrophobic survival horror game where the player needed to escape from a mansion infested with all manner of mutated beasts by solving puzzles and discovering information in order to progress&period; The monsters were as dangerous as they were ugly and were to be generally avoided due to the scarcity of  ammo&comma; so when they leaped out&comma; normally suddenly and when least expected&comma; it would be a brief moment of pure terror&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;29681" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-29681" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;resident-evil-6-review&sol;resident-evil-6-trailer-12&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-29681"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-29681 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;11&sol;06085225&sol;resident-evil-6-trailer-12-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Resident Evil 6 Screenshot 1" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-29681" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">My name is Barry&period; I like books&comma; movies and eating new people&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Subsequently&comma; this game spawned an unending series of games across many platforms and genres&comma; the modern incarnations favoring combat over suspense&comma; fight over flight&period; Inevitably&comma; whilst enabling a whole new audience to enjoy <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> games&comma; there are some who see the &lpar;un&rpar;death of classic game&comma; that it has become a foul mutation of its former self&period; Brought about by the infectious virus of Hollywood action movies and big budget shooters&period; They would see the <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> series shot in the head out of pity and for the good of mankind&period; If you are one of these people&comma; you should probably avoid <em>Resident Evil 6<&sol;em>&period; It is a third person shooter with melee combat&comma; quick time events and more blockbuster set pieces than any movie or game I can recall&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first choice to make is which campaign to start playing&period; There are 3 unlocked from the start&comma; all open for single player or online co-op play&period; The first is the Leon campaign&period; Leon Kennedy is a secret agent and personal friend to the US president&period; Chris Redfield&comma; BSAA marine and Jake Muller are the other two protagonists&period; Each has a supporting character who will fight alongside either as an AI or an actual human over Xbox Live or PSN&period; All six of them have a story that is linked to the previous <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> Titles in some way or another&comma; as well as a large part to play in the narrative here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;29679" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-29679" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;resident-evil-6-review&sol;re6-7&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-29679"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-29679 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;11&sol;06085253&sol;re6-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Resident Evil 6 Screenshot 2" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-29679" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Mine is bigger than yours&comma; they appeared to say&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">The gameplay alters slightly depending on the storyline you are following&period; The guns&comma; melee attacks&comma; enemies and menu layouts are different for each campaign&period; At first&comma; zombies will be slow and stupid&comma; standing around&comma; waiting to be shot&period; This gives the opportunity to learn the basic controls&period; As progression is made however&comma; tactical play will be required as the creatures become ever more grotesque&comma; deadly and numerous&period; Ammo preservation is important so melee combat plays a bigger role later on&period;There are a huge amount of Horrible&comma; fleshy beasts&period; Some can fly&comma; others can spit acid and some can call upon hordes of zombies with a piercing shriek&period; Many zombies seem to die easily only to come back from the &lpar;un&rpar;dead in a much more &lpar;un&rpar;deadly form and then there are bosses&comma; huge buggers that usaully require some thought and experimentation to beat&period; This variety keeps the gameplay fresh and challenging&period; The controls do become rather awkward and seemingly too sluggish when you get surrounded by groaning flesh bags&comma; but it is as much of a lesson learned as it is a problem&comma; and combat is generally fairly satisfying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Most of the game is excellent to look at&period; Gameplay and cinematics have been blended together to great effect in order to keep the action coming at a fast pace&period; Level design is hit and miss though&comma; ranging from superbly atmospheric graveyards to generic buildings with many generic floors&comma; but there will always be some nasties around&period; The creatures are animated and designed with real imagination by some terribly twisted minds&period; Zombies will lose big chunks of rotting flesh when shot&period; A leg&comma;half a torso&comma; an arm or two thirds of a head can be removed with a single gunshot&period; If they are unfortunate enough to fall to the floor&comma; you may employ the &&num;8220&semi;Stomp on head and squash like a melon&&num;8221&semi; technique&period; It feels like fair amount of work on the zombies was put into portraying something particular&&num;8230&semi;&period;&period;Decomposition&period; Right&comma; what&&num;8217&semi;s for breakfast&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;29680" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-29680" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;resident-evil-6-review&sol;resident&lowbar;evil&lowbar;6&lowbar;slug&lowbar;head&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-29680"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-29680 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;11&sol;06085239&sol;resident&lowbar;evil&lowbar;6&lowbar;slug&lowbar;head-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Resident Evil 6 Screenshot 3" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-29680" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">You might need some antibiotics for that&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">There is the freedom to play the different questlines in any order&comma; for example&comma; you could play as Leon for a couple of chapters and then switch to another campaign for a while&comma; unlocking cut-scenes as you progress that are added to an overall timeline&period; This gives a sense of where everything fits into the bigger picture&period; There are points where the different protagonists cross paths with one another&period; When chance encounters happen&comma; 2 player co-op can become 4 player&period; Players who are on different storylines but at the same point in the game&comma; can join together over Xbox Live to tackle a certain boss or horde&period; This feature&comma; accompanied with the Pulp Fiction style narrative structure&comma; works wonderfully for a time&comma; and actually offset some of the linearity of the gameplay&comma; but later on&comma; the script writers seem to run out of ideas as chance encounters become so ridiculously unlikely&comma; that some of the amazing work done to build a unique story telling structure is lost&comma; which is a real shame&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;"><em>Resident Evil 6<&sol;em> feels like a game torn between the past and the future&period; The core game mechanics are solid&comma; tried and tested but the decision to build  an all out action game around them feels a little dis-jointed&period; It is a game obsessed with set pieces&comma;explosions&comma;  hanging from ledges&comma; crashing vehicles&comma; thrills and more explosions&period; Most action sequences are controlled by pressing buttons or stick wiggling&period; All of this is ok  for the first few hours but Resident Evil 6 is a very long game and it is so relentless&comma; it becomes tiresome&period; This game engine worked at its best in <em>Resident Evil 4<&sol;em>&comma; but a few things that made it great have been omitted here&period; Weapons cannot be upgraded&comma; instead skill points are collected which can be spent on perks&comma; 3 of which can be equipped at any one time&comma; hence there is no shady vendor lurking in the dark&comma; ready to open his trench coat and say &&num;8220&semi;What are ya buyin&quest;&&num;8221&semi;  The capacity of the inventory cannot be increased and herbs need be to combined&comma; turned into pills and eaten&comma; all in the heat of battle&comma; however these are small annoyances and mostly forgivable given the scope of this game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;29687" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-29687" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;resident-evil-6-review&sol;resident-evil-6-ada-wong-80312-04&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-29687"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-29687 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;11&sol;06085154&sol;RESIDENT-EVIL-6-ADA-WONG-80312-04-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Resident Evil 6 Screenshot 4" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"576" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-29687" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Aww look&comma; he wants a hug&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Overall then&comma; this is a really good game&comma; hugely ambitious and a lot of fun for the patient gamer&period; However&comma; it does not quite attain true greatness due to a few minor mis-steps&comma; a couple of poor plot choices and a control scheme that doesnt quite fit&period; That being said &comma; these are still usable gameplay mechanics and fans of the other  modern Resident Evil games will appreciate 6&comma; and warm to it like an old pet dog&period; It just goes beserk&comma; chews the sofa and craps on the stairs now and again&comma; but we forgive it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version