Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 10/2/2012

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The Resident Evil franchise made a huge comeback with RE4, but Capcom has abused this style of RE as they do with all their other franchises. Resident Evil 5 was already disappointing because it was too similar to RE4. RE6 takes it even further by making the game 100% action-oriented but trying to keep the survival horror elements of the last game. Either make it an action game or make it survival horror; you can’t make both. There are so many things wrong with this game that I couldn’t even finish the second campaign.

The story is about the C-virus that is being used in a terrorist attack. I honestly can’t tell you who did it, or did I even hear Umbrella’s name once through half the game that I played? This C-virus allows the zombies to mutate when damaged. That’s great and all, but give me some freaking ammo to kill them with. This is the biggest issue with the game; there isn’t enough ammo. I had to constantly scrounge for ammo like in past games, but they throw 10–15 enemies at you, and this becomes frustrating. I never had my maximum capacity of ammo; I always had half a clip in each gun, then ran around meleeing enemies until they dropped some ammo. Oh good, 5 rounds for my shotgun; it takes more than that to take some enemies down, so it’s back to square one. I literally ran out of ammo at the wrong times and had to exploit the game to survive; that is not fun at all and is a broken game. Throwing three strong enemies at me plus a bunch of small ones with just two clips isn’t survival horror; that’s survival ammo.

If that isn’t enough, this game is meant to be played co-op only. The AI does a terrible job covering your back when you run out of ammo. They peck at the enemy here and there with a round or two, and it can take over 10 minutes for the AI to take a large enemy down for you. I also found the quick-time events poorly implemented, and the animations for getting wounded are just awful and frustrating. Each character does this stupid drawn-out animation that completely rips you from the game. When you get back up, you get hit again, play another long animation where you lose control, then again with another hit, and you’re dead. This is so stupid and frustrating. Why rip the control away from me and play some stupid, long animation that can’t be interrupted?

The boss fights are the most interesting in this game, but also the most repetitive. You will have to use the same strategy for every boss several times over instead of just two or three times before it is dead. The final boss for Leon’s campaign needed the same quick-time event performed 10 times. That is extremely tedious and not fun at all. As you have seen me explain, each character has their own 4-hour campaign that explains the story in busted-up pieces. It makes no sense; the enemies are silly (why do these zombies have guns, parachutes from helicopters, and drive tanks?) and the new characters are hardly likable. The story just didn’t make any sense. Sure,  there were a few shocking moments, but why trudge through these four campaigns for it? At this point, Resident Evil needs to go back to its roots and veer away from this action nonsense.

There are a few modes, like Mercenaries, where you can earn more skill points. The skill system is terrible as well, because I beat one and a half campaigns and only had enough skill points to upgrade three skills. It takes so long to upgrade these skills; what happened to the weapon upgrade system? That was a lot more fun. The game doesn’t even feel like Resident Evil, but as an action game, it isn’t starring RE characters. Sometimes it felt like a setting from Gears of War; sometimes it felt like something from a generic sci-fi shooter. Lots of boring cement buildings—nothing interesting at all to look at. It doesn’t help that the graphics are awful, save for some nice lighting effects. The textures look like muddy stickers, and the game just gets boring and monotonous halfway through the first campaign.

Is this worth playing at all? Sure, in co-op only because the AI can’t cover you and is worthless. The quick-time events are poorly implemented, the boss fights are fun yet repetitious, and the game is just boring to look at. It also doesn’t help that it never once felt like a Resident Evil game, and the constant scrounging for ammo is just stupid. If you are a hardcore fan, stay away; if you are a newcomer, stay away. Just go play RE4 or 5 one more time and wait for the next game.

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