[News] Resident Evil 6 takes place in 2013, has an 'evolved' control system

I realize that stripping good control away from the player is a way to heighten the feeling of helplessness, and that Capcom used that excuse in the early days. However, I've never been a fan of that approach. There are other (more genuine) ways to produce terror, and I'd like to see developers focus on those. Not letting me be able to control my character properly is like (in a movie) focusing your shots to only show a lady's feet in slippers as she heads down carpeted stairs toward a monster who is waiting in the downstairs kitchen. You know a scare is coming, and it startles you when it hits, but it doesn't ever feel like a "fair" scare.

This, and the fact that zombies can now wield guns (which really isn't a big surprise, that JJ guy used to shoot a mini gun at us in RE4 and RE5 had full on chase scenes involving grenade launchers and gattling guns) confirms that RE6 isn't going to be scary.* It's gone full on action. It will probably be pretty bad-ass, but what Capcom has demonstrated in the last ten years as concerns pacing makes me think that the first Resident Evil was an accident.

At least they create great atmosphere!



* by the way, I'd love to be proven wrong on this. Just saying. It's been a while since I've played a good survival horror. Amnesia doesn't count because I can't play it without stopping every three seconds to change underwear.

Not being able to move and shoot at the same time was an integral design choice to the whole series, not any kind of excuse or lack of Proper control. Now they're making a new choice... a new one in line with their desire to John Woo the bejeesus out of the series.

Didn't Zipp and I have posts in response here? They seem to have disappeared.

I see both of 'em.

Just saying. It's been a while since I've played a good survival horror.

Likewise. I have hope--however small--for Downpour. Then again, I'm also an idiot.

Likewise. I have hope--however small--for Downpour. Then again, I'm also an idiot.

It's okay. I want to preorder the new Alien Versus Predator.

I think the ability to shoot while moving is long overdue for a main RE title (you could do it in the Outbreak games). Not being able to move while firing weapons was great for the older Resident Evil titles, where the enemies were more limited in how they could attack and not as mobile. But as the enemies improved in ability, it only made sense to increase the abilities of the controlled characters. For example, the dodge and quick turn features were added in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis because enemies could now follow you up and down stairs and were far faster.

Keeping the tank controls in a game where enemies can now swarm you from all sides and use weapons would make it feel very dated. Resident Evil 5 felt that way, imo, especially since the old control scheme does not work well with a real time inventory. Versus mode was unable to work well as a result of the control scheme, too. Anyone who thinks that adding shooting while moving is a bad idea need only look at Dead Space to see how moving while shooting doesn't mean suspense will be sacrificed.

Dead Space did it well by forcing your character to slow while aiming, meaning the tension remained really high. Also, switching from aiming to running took a second, meaning it was not feasible to fire shots, dodge an attack, and start running.

I think Resident Evil needs to stop calling itself Survival Horror. I'm not complaining about its direction, but it isn't "survival" horror, any more. It's action horror. That's fine, but the whole purpose of "survival" horror was to limit the player's ability to react to a dangerous or frightening situation. That's why there are no weapons in Amnesia, difficult controls and piss-hard enemies in Fatal Frame (though I think Fatal Frame went too far, honestly), and limited ammo and wonky camera angles in the early Resident Evils. Even Silent Hill played with this by limiting your understanding of how reality worked in Silent Hill and by forcing you to explore areas in a very round about manner.

They don't have to do crappy controls and camera angles to limit players nowadays, but giving us access to sub machine guns, grenades, etc. and making them damn easy to use does take away the fear of not being able to handle a situation. It's why horror RPGs never really frightened me, either, like Shadow Hearts. All the fear goes away the minute you are facing off across a separate battlefield and doing damage points to your enemy.

To carry on from that last point, I'm hoping this new Resident Evil brings back "jump out at you" moments and also starts utlizing a swarm better, rather than what I saw in RE4 and RE5, where the swarm was very controlled and almost polite about taking turns attacking you. Let's see two guys grab your arms from the sides while a third approaches to cut you in half with a chain saw. THAT would be tense. And don't make this a scripted moment; make it something that can happen in any swarm fight. Guys should gang up on you, not just populate the screen.

To carry on from that last point, I'm hoping this new Resident Evil brings back "jump out at you" moments and also starts utlizing a swarm better, rather than what I saw in RE4 and RE5, where the swarm was very controlled and almost polite about taking turns attacking you.

I never really thought of it that way, or maybe just didn't notice it. I always claim that bridge scene from RE 5 as one of my favorites simply because of the overwhelming odds, but you do make a really good point. Even if they did manage to make it to me, it would have played out like a ninja movie from the 80s with each one taking turns to try and hit me.