Resident Evil 6's recent demo was a round disappointment, big on ambition and, well, bigness, but criminally short on insight. We've already treated Capcom to a bit of a tongue-lashing - now, the healing process begins.
Here are five ways the publisher could clean up the game's act. There's very little time to implement these suggestions, of course, but perhaps somebody will pull a last-minute rabbit out of the zombie hat.
Perhaps the most revealing thing about the Resident Evil 6 demo is the way it arbitrarily limits your actions during the Leon Kennedy section. We don't have anything against walking in itself, but being flat-out obliged to do so? That's a game that can't be arsed to actually persuade you to alter the pace the way, for instance, Portal and F.E.A.R. do. That's a game that doesn't trust you to take charge lest you ruin things for the scenario designers, like a beach bully kicking over a child's sandcastle. If you want us to walk, Capcom, do something that makes us feel like walking. Otherwise, you might as well turn that Tall Oaks campus crawl into a cutscene.
2. Don't deny us the screamingly bloody obvious
Resident Evil's premise is built around the idea of dead people coming back to life, but for some reason the logical corrective - shooting dead people before they stop being dead - is off-limits in Resident Evil 6. Oh, for the pre-emptive possibilities of Dead Space, in which you'd carefully dissect all corpse-flesh from a distance in case it leaps upright on approach and molests your intestines.
3. Easy on the zombie gunmen, chaps
We were prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. Undead with enough residual higher brain function to handle gunpowder weapons? Sure, why not. Resident Evil 4 had zombie peasants who can throw sickles. That's basically the same as shooting bullets, isn't it? Well no, turns out it isn't, especially when said zombies dual wield Uzis and leap car bonnets. We quite like the idea of zombies that mutate into giant moths and the like when they're shot to pieces, though - it's kind of a meta-commentary on the oft-expressed wish that Resident Evil "get back to its horror roots". Take cover will you, undead fiend? Eat hot lead till you see the error of your ways.
There's a difference between "entertainingly implausible" and "flat-out ignoring the rules of your own universe". Resident Evil 6 chronicles the latest in a very, very long line of zombie virus outbreaks. You know how this goes, Leon. Person gets bitten, that person develops a sudden hunger for flesh. Quite why you thought the wounded freshman would be an exception to the rule eludes us.
5. The multiplayer needs to be bloody good
There's an amazing surplus of paranormally inflected multiplayer components nowadays, from the shambling Nazis of Call of Duty: World at War through Dead Rising 2's gameshow throwdowns to F.E.A.R. 3's spectral frenzies. In that climate, the last thing Resi 6's undivulged online features need to be is pedestrian. This can't be Horde Mode with zombies, Capcom, because Horde Mode with zombies has been done a million times over. We'd experiment with the idea of players succumbing to an infection, if we were you. Here's a list of additional possibilities for a scary multiplayer game.
7 comments so far...
Decent_Jam on 16 Jul '12 said:
In all the signs are looking increasingly bleak for this one, which frankly is a real disappointment. I know there wasn't a lot of love for 5 and I didn't 'love' it either, but it was alright. On the other hand, I don't want it to be the last Resident Evil game I play.
sonicmark on 16 Jul '12 said:
One thing I'm worried about with this game is the initial opening cutscenes for each character, when I played the demo, I got the impression that that cutscenes I was seeing was from the first chapter, while some people may think it's a good idea since it doesn't spoil much of the story progression (if that's possible given the amount of spoilers already given), I'm hoping that there's something set before those particular cutscenes.
Clanger67 on 16 Jul '12 said:
I am just hoping it was because it's a demo and they still have a few months to go at it.Quite a lot of demos lately have been shit and i don't think they do the full game justice, Spec. Ops.: The line,Dirt : Showdown,etc.At least i hope that's what it is,lol.
msbhvn on 16 Jul '12 said:
It could be a case of s*** demo, good game. It's not likely, but it has happened. Dead Space 2 comes to mind. The game should be all but finished with two months to go, surely? I'm not pre-ordering RE6 on the strength of the demo, that's for certain.
RetroDad on 16 Jul '12 said:
I think I'll wait for it to go down to a tenner. I can feel a 7/10 from OXM being loaded into a Benelli M3 very soon. I used to love the series and can't believe I'm not excited about the release of the sixth instalment. It sounds like Capcom have a severe identity crisis and are trying to offer a sampler platter as opposed to a main course.
pauloselhombre on 17 Jul '12 said:
Then I recommend buying or borrowing a 3DS, playing RE: Revelations, and then avoiding home console instalments from there on out. REvelations isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's a huge step in the right direction compared to RE 4 or 5. If they take fan criticism onboard and tone down the action segments we might end up with a pretty decent handheld series that beats the home console series' recent spate of unrelentingly loose stool.
Baryonyx on 17 Jul '12 said:
Sadly, I think this RE may be beyond fixing. If Capcom need to take one lesson on board, it's to realise that bigger/louder/dumber does not equal better.
I don't think RE5 was all that bad. If it suffered from something, it was a lack of imagination in the endgame sections, with the Ouroboros oil-monsters being a pretty lazy cop ot for enemy design. The things about Wesker controlling Jill with a mind control device were pretty stupid, indicative of just how thinly stretched the RE franchise has become.
The signs are all there RE6 being a mediocre title, and it is shameful to be able to say that about a RE game.
A few things I have noticed that didn't sit too well with me:
1) Massive, glowing HUD's on the screen suggest that item management will not be much of a concern in this game. Nor will immersion, as you have that glowing great HUD to look at.
2) The shooting action feels weightless, the controls too light. This is particularly noticeable in Chris' scenario, where you're zapping bad guys left, right and centre. But it often feels like you're just shooting a pop gun at cardboard targets, particularly when you're wielding an assault rifle.
3) Close combat. Yes, a knife may be sufficient against a shambling zombie, but the wild martial arts moves just seem stupid. I was disappointed during Leon's campaign when I ran out of ammo in the parking lot. I was hoping that may have presented a few moments of tension and fear, until I realised I could just kick my way through the zombie hoard. In fact, Leon has apparently become such a master of the deadly arts that I might as well have saved myself the ammo and just kicked every enemy to death.
Yes, it is a shambles. I really don't think there is anything they can do to fix this RE, so much has it been corrupted by lazy, summer blockbuster style thrills. Maybe Capcom will look at this mess and decide that the next RE needs toning down and taking back to it's roots (even RE4 seems so long ago now). Maybe RE needs scrapping altogether, and a new IP being made. Then maybe we can come back here in 16 years time and complain how that too has been ruined.