Resident Evil 6 game review
It's bite night tonight in a horrorfest sporting an impressive engine
Review What a dumbfounding series Resident Evil is. First, we have the innovations – popularising the survival horror genre for one. Then later, perfecting the third-person shooter camera, before taking environmental interaction to new heights. The game even led the way in cooperative campaign mechanics. But then there's the series' bizarreries – and I'm not talking its roster of mutated freaks and shambling undead.
Long shot
The most infamous of these quirks is the aiming mechanics which, up until Resident Evil 4, prevented our all-action heroes from moving and shooting at the same time. Lest we forget the continued over-reliance on boss fights, which go on long past their relevance or ability to shock, as transformation after transformation of said boss, tests the patience more than your trigger finger.
Elsewhere, current examples such as Resident Evil: Revelations on 3DS have taken the franchise's sprawling narrative to all new levels of madness too – to the point where most will be tempted to simply bypass cut scenes vaunting ‘Bio Organic Weapons’ in awkward voiceovers.
Dead can dance
These same contemporary entries have also upped the close-quarters fighting stakes, with our protagonists now looking to kick zombies' heads off via QTEs, rather than go down the traditional route of lodging bullets in undead brains.
While perhaps most perplexing is the retention of the health restoring green herbs – seriously, Capcom, you don't need to continue with that 'iconic' feature, it's done...
What happened to my old dentist?
Yes, it's fair to say the franchise has had its triumphs and its issues, but why am I telling you of entries past when I should be talking about Resident Evil 6? Well, aside from the fact that since RE4 characters can now move while shooting, the exact same comments and criticism can be levelled at this latest example.
Next page: Dead legs
COMMENTS
QTEs
Worst part of modern gaming, don't let the player actually do any of the cool good looking bits, just make them follow an onscreen sequence.
It might seem cool the first time, the second time it becomes 'oh, that again', the third it's worse than a cutscene you can't skip. It stops being impressive because you're really not in control of the action.
Actually designing the games so the player has superior control and can pull off the things shown in many of the QTEs and feel a real sense of accomplishment for doing it would be preferable and more varied.
You can't move and shoot in RE4, it introduced being able to aim at what you shoot at but it kept you stationary. That's crucial to the game, you can run or you can stand and fight but no doing both. In the games before that you automatically pointed at the nearest enemy when you brought up your gun and could only aim up or down.
IMHO this makes RE4, it would be easier if you could move and shoot but not better.
Re: QTEs
its worse than that. becuase i am concentrating on which button pops up next, i miss some relaly cool action, as im not looking at it. they are a very curious beast
Scared
I can remember the first time I played RE on the Playstation. The bit where you walk down a corridor and the dogs jump through the window behind you - I genuinely shot out of my seat. Then it was new, and the fact it could scare you in little ways like that was fantastic. Silent Hill 2 also had that thread of fear running through it for me. Who would have thought that Morph would look so scary in a Nurse's uniform....?.
However, the best game with, I suppose, the genre of Horror attached to it for me was Eternal Darkness. That game was excellent in structure, puzzles etc,. i will never forget the time I walked into a room and the protagonist's head just fell off...
It seems that, like Hollywood, games seem to be more interested in effects, rather than substance.
More imagination in games, please! If you can't do imagination, then at least when you re-do older, excellent titles, (Syndicate, I am looking at you) then at least get them right!
