Resident Evil 6 game review

Dead legs

It was Einstein who famously quipped that insanity is ‘doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results,' and it's an observation Capcom really should have heeded.

Paneful sight

In RE6 you will roundhouse kick zombies into oblivion, partake in needless QTEs (and how), collect green herbs and, as is seemingly par for the course now, most of us won't have a clue what's going on thanks to characters who seem incapable of finishing sentences.

And what a lot of characters there are too, because rather than focus on one or two protagonists RE6 throws returning leads Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield and Ada Wong all into the mix, while introducing a host of newbies across its lengthy and interlinked episodes. All characters, with the exception of Ada, have co-op play partners and when campaigns do intertwine, there’s even the option to buddy-up for four-player action.

Bricking it

Presumably the idea of throwing all this content at us (and you’re looking at 40+ hours) is for Capcom to cater to all tastes but, to roll out an overused cliché, it ends up as something of a Jack-of-all-trades.

Despite the impressive engine – which can throw swarms of zombies at you while simultaneously setting off a cacophony of explosions – the experience is more akin to that of an old hat corridor shooter than anything progressive. Indeed, I've been playing Dishonored alongside RE6 and, though clearly very different games, the sheer gulf in ambition between each title is almost laughable.

Killer bites

The fact too that QTEs are sudden and of the kind that require lightning fast reflexes means you'll be unavoidably insta-deathed at times – surely by now a development no-no? Boss fights meanwhile will go on... and on... forever. That’s not to say that such encounters aren’t stunning, but with one such fight in Leon’s campaign lasting for something approaching three hours, they’re a bit much. Indeed, I'm still not convinced it's really dead.