Fiddlesticks's Resident Evil 6 review

Eh, I don't know. This score doesn't reflect the level of pure enjoyment I'm having with the title. That isn't to say I disagree with your complaints about story. But I think I gave up on Resident Evil's story back in Code Veronica and never really cared since then. Maybe I cared a little bit after RE4, because there were sort've these hints that Capcom wanted to try and tie up some loose ends, but when they failed to do that in the next three games (that's RE5 and the couple games they made for the PSP, not to mention those two rail shooters for the Wii) I went back to not caring.

I don't know that I would be having as much fun with RE6 if not for the fact that I have a great partner to enjoy it with, but I can point to a lot of things in the controls and design that have finally solidified the title as a great action game. The survival horror roots have finally been left behind, but enough of the sentiment was brought back into the design that I actually find myself okay with it. Things like very limited ammo (on Veteran mode, we are running out of ammo at very crucial moments, which has raised the tension more times than one) and playing around with player visibility; forcing the player to move rather than stand in one place and "hold ground" and reintegrating some disturbing character design into the enemies.

I do completely agree with your appraisal of the new "skill" system. The one thing they really had gotten down to a fine art was the weapon upgrade system. I don't know if it was because they were afraid it would break the challenge or what, but I really miss the upgrade system for weapons. Replacing it with this bullshit where you pick a bare handful of skills to see you through the game is very boring. And it's clear, as you say, that some skills are good and others just suck. We use item drop increase, defense increase (maxed out), and firearm increase (maxed out). There's a couple other choices that could be substituted in, but not many that make so much sense.

I would hope we don't agree on the score if you like the game when clearly I don't.

Kind of surprised that you didn't mention the controls, since that's the thing people seem to complain about the most.

I had no beef with the controls. That's why I didn't mention them.

What about the lack of instructions or a tutorial? It never tells you about diving and rolling and rolling into cover and being able to quickly mix herbs and stuff like that.

Rhody, it explains that stuff (the herb mixing in particular) in the introductory level, which is very much a tutorial stage.

I'm with Rhody on this. Even with the tutorial, we discovered dodging pretty much by accident and some things, like the quick shot and quick mix, through gamefaqs. An instruction book would've been nice.

There's nothing wrong with discovering things on your own. I hate it when games spoon feed the player.

Jason, you're talking about the regular herb mixing system. I'm talking about the fact that if you don't have any herbs equipped but there are some in your inventory, you can hold R2 and press square and it will automatically mix them and equip them.

There's a tutorial stage, but there are tons of things that you can do that it just doesn't teach you. Quick mixing, how cover works, what counter attacks are, etc..

There's a difference between letting you discover things and not teaching you how to play the game in the first place.

lol, you not knowing how to make herb tic tacs on the fly caused you not to know how to play the game? Because that's what you're arguing. Did you know that if you fire the guns, they kill zombies if you aim properly?

Ok, first and foremost, lose the attitude. I mean it.

Secondly, I'm arguing that there are lots of things that you can do that the game doesn't even so much as hint at, and it doesn't include a manual for you to read to learn any of it either. I listed more than just the quick herb mixing. Which, by the way, saved me more than once, and only because I read about it in a user-created list of mystery commands.

I'm not picking sides in this supposed argument, but I can kinda understand why Fiddlesticks is being defensive. Though, he could've handled that last post a little better. He took all this time to write a coherent review about his experience with RE6, and the reactions he's reading about it is "your score doesn't agree with my enjoyment of RE6" and "how come you didn't hate the controls?". But, of course, if read deeper, Zipp did agree with aspects of his review, and Roto was simply wondering why there were a lack of explanation of certain mechanics. Just wanted to throw my 2 cents out there.

Edit: oh, btw, nice review. You sounded really disappointed with where RE6 went.

I haven't actually read the review but I just want to say that I had a Redbox copy of Resident Evil 6 for a week and literally only played the prologue in that time. That's how poor a first impression this game made on me.

Yeah, good summary Pickhut. I should also say that I found the review to be pretty damn funny; I was thinking the exact same thing about T-Rex and Final Fantasy bosses while playing—we even called that out during the game.

I just wasn't expecting anything more or less than that. I mean, it's Resident Evil. It jumped the shark many many games ago and has been ridiculous ever since. Code Veronica was probably the last one that balanced the fine line between believably creepy and just plain silly. The next game, Resident Evil 0, was a scary game, but it was also the game with an Opera singer controlling leeches with the power of song. And it's gone downhill from there. Resident Evil 4 starred a midget Napolean as a boss and Resident Evil 5 was one Wesker scene away from a straight up parody.

Thanks pickhut. To your point, Zipp, Resident Evil has always been over the top (zombie outbreaks usually are). My discomfort with this particular game's plot is how it offers no build-up. All the context for why the main characters are in the situation that they are in can really only be gleaned through convoluted cut scenes or unlockable files. Other RE titles had better build-up and plot arcs. Here your actions are the result of Capcom wanting the game to be not survival horror but straight up action. But it's not fresh or exciting action. It's been done a hundred times before - and better - by Call of Duty, Prince of Persia, Uncharted, Gears of War, etc. Because the story is so in your face and takes itsel so seriously - but is so obviously out of ideas (neo-Umbrella, really?) - I grew tired of it's b-movie qualities very quickly.

You are definitely right that the series has grown pretty tired in terms of originality. I won't argue with that, not one bit.

Nemesis >>>>>>>> Ustanak.

That is all.

Edit: Okay, that's not all. Yeah for real, who would trust a company called Neo-Umbrella after Umbrella Inc's disaster in Raccoon City was made public? Who would invest in it? XD

Anyway, as far as enjoyment is concerned, I think I'd put this above RE5 for sure but not quite there with RE4. RE3 still reigns supreme in the series, imo.

Hell yeah, RE:3!!!

I've played RE3 so many times that I completely own it. I even completed a walkthrough on it getting an A rank, all Nemesis drops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUj-KyRL4r0&feature=g-all-u

The least Capcom could do is implement the two surviving Nemesis T-Types that were created out of the four. Or at least get the team together that made RE3 and have them develop the next game. I read an interview on projectumbrella where the head developer of RE3 said he wanted to include a minigame where you control a zombified Brad Vickers and go around eating people but he couldn't due to budget constraints. How cool would that have been? Let's get some of that in the next game! Control a zombie! >:D

That's exactly what agent hunt lets you do. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

This is an excellent review. Pretty much sums up my feelings on the game. After beating the Leon/Helena storyline, I thought, maybe the Chris/Piers mission will be more exciting. And it's not. So we get four weak minigames. I'd have preferred one good game instead. The crappy QTE and the considerable weight of the limited melee 'system' are beyond disappointing.