Resident Evil 6 Review

 Finally a video game I at least played through to the end credits this year (such a feat has been especially spare for me). I beat it in late August.

Actually, this game is a lot better than I first had impression of. I was surprised to find plenty of people to play the game online with, as a teammate can join you most of the time for the campaign. I was playing on the PS3, which has long since already had its heyday. The seamlessness of the online integration in this game is really good.

I enjoy that it was like the WarioWare edition of Resident Evil, with a lot of random this and that. In total, there's 4 campaigns with different characters to be played. Leon's campaign was the closest to the Resident Evil roots, wandering through a campus infested with unfortunate zombies. Ada Wong's campaign was fun with some stealth elements amidst the more all-thrills action-oriented gameplay. Chris's campaign was like a squad-based third-person shooter, and I thought the new character Piers was memorable and had some cool parts to play in the story. Jake and Sherry's campaign was probably my favorite, there was just something about playing Sherry Birkin as a grown adult and I enjoyed how she was wearing a scantily-clad hospital gown for one chapter; not to mention Jake Wesker, the son of Albert Wesker and the seeming lone one unaffected by the C Virus and possible savior of a C Virus apocalypse

I really loved the nude female boss battle. Past the PS3 era, there's just more censorship to the console market when this will never be just a kids- or teen-only video gaming platform. I liked how at some points in any campaign, all the other campaigns would interconnect and there may even be four other people playing online. Added onto this there's the Agent Hunt Mode, where you the player get to assume the role of the zombie or other monster. When starting the campaign, you can even choose what you want out of the experience. Playing for the first time and into the story? Want to play Agent Hunt and prey upon first-time players? You can do that! Just select, "Here for the story."

The story was actually really good with many excellent twists and turns, and I love how one player's experience may differ from another's depending on which order they play the campaigns. I like the idea of the C Virus, a combination of the healing and regenerative qualities of the G Virus along with the insectile qualities of the T-Veronica Virus. The J'avo are some of the most inspired and variable with real threat and danger enemies in the entire RE franchise.

Skill points, collected from killed enemies, can be used at the end of each chapter of a campaign to purchase special benefits. For example, there's a skill that upgrades handgun power, and it can be upgraded more than one level. This gives an incentive to play the game, and along with the online components gives the game a unique replayability factor. There's a lot of Quick Time Events, or QTEs in the game--these will keep you on the edge of your seat rather than watching from a video game movie-goers seat, as it were. For those not liking the QTE, there is a difficulty setting that performs all QTEs for you automatically.

Pressing L1 to ready your weapon and X to crouch down, you can duck and cover. When doing this near a wall, the character will put their back against the wall and move from side to side--peeking over the side of a corner if there's one as another form of duck and cover. When a players' health is depleted, they still "live" as a gauge slowly fills up. In this situation movements are limited to moving on the ground, and a player may aim their weapon and fire. If the gauge fully fills, the character can stand up again with their health in the red. The player can also jump backwards, falling onto their back with weapon at the ready to fire. These all give a level of skill and depth to the action gameplay that really adds a whole new dimension.

The production quality of the game for such an outlasting franchise is top notch. It's very action-oriented gameplay, with some horror elements. I never really felt outright scared, but definitely menaced and a bit grossed-out in a good way by the J'avo especially.

It was fun to play the game on normal, and have a more casual gaming experience. Many of my gaming experiences as of late have been far less casual.

This is a very ambitious game with a sweeping story told from many angles by various different characters. Yes, I do love the old school Resident Evil that's truly survival horror more; but I've come to realize the action-oriented Resident Evils must be accepted and they have their place. I look at it as the natural evolution of the earliest Capcom action game iteration Gunsmoke given more of a thrill and theatrical quality and enough spice of horror to let the red food dye become blood with antibodies. Seen for what it is--and looked at aside of the nostalgia glasses of a gamer who has played all of the series to this point--it's really quite a good game for what it is. Take away the franchise namesake, and see it for what game it is--not what you expect it to be--and I promise you won't be disappointed.

8/10.