Resident Evil 6 Review. Forget about survival horror

In its 16 years of existence, Resident Evil has come a long way from fixed cameras and has introduced quite a few innovations to the genre. The over-the-shoulder camera in Resident Evil 4, freely moving behind the character in third-person view, essentially revolutionized the action genre, so it’s not surprising to see the same system in Resident Evil 6. What’s surprising is why the creators haven’t come up with anything new.

Resident Evil 6 contains elements of what began as a horror game series, but over time has become increasingly cinematic in a Western way. Planes will crash, buildings will collapse, and if you see a ship, there’s a 50 percent chance it will sink, and a 50 percent chance it will explode. Although, both could happen.

This is a game that moves at a breakneck pace. Perhaps the campaigns aren’t as different from each other as Capcom claimed, but each lasts 6-7 hours, plus there are the Mercenaries and Agent Hunt modes. For your money, Resident Evil 6 offers quite a lot of gameplay time—the only question is, is this really what you want?

One moment from Leon’s campaign perfectly illustrates all the pros and cons of Resident Evil 6 (WARNING: if you’re afraid of spoilers, skip a couple of paragraphs).

You encounter a monster shark. At first, you see it from afar, and one look is enough to make you realize how much you don’t want to get into the water. But after a few minutes, you’re forced to dive into a network of underwater tunnels. When you surface for air, you can only see the heads of two agents, but nothing below, and when you dive again, the screen becomes blurry for a second because of the bubbles.

This is the scariest scene in the game, which, though not without its frightening moments, is still far from true horror. And when the shark attacks you from below, everything becomes simply ridiculous: it swims away with Helena, gently holding her in its giant jaws, while Leon dangles from the monster’s dorsal fin. The giant creature you were so afraid of at first turns out to have rubber teeth. We won’t spoil the fight itself, but as you might have guessed, it didn’t impress us much either.

The atmosphere of each campaign is a bit different. Leon and Helena get one of the most disgusting zombie-filled journeys in the spirit of Left 4 Dead, which takes them to China, where they meet our old acquaintances Chris and Piers. All the campaigns take place in the same locations at different times, with new areas and new enemies.

The battles also differ slightly depending on the campaign. For example, Leon’s zombies are much slower, but there are a lot more of them than in Chris’s campaign. Leon usually has to fight in confined spaces and winding corridors, while Chris and Jake are more often in open areas. Ada’s campaign is the most varied, but you can only play it in single-player mode after completing the other three campaigns.

But such a noticeable difference between the campaigns doesn’t really add elements from other genres—it’s just four varieties of a zombie shooter, where, as you’ve probably guessed, you’ll mostly be shooting zombies. And after 20 hours, it all gets a bit tiresome. To take cover, you have to perform far more actions than you’d expect. Even boss battles seem somewhat lacking in difficulty. In general, there’s always something that keeps you from truly falling in love with this game.

Another big problem with Resident Evil 6 is the moments where your control over the situation is strictly limited. During the game, you’ll have to pilot various aircraft, drive vehicles, and get into all sorts of disasters, but you won’t actually have control over what’s happening. You’ll just need to press certain buttons in the correct sequence. And you’ve probably already guessed why—say hello to Mr. Quick Time Event.

You do get a bit more control over vehicles than in previous games, and you’ll see a few interesting things along the way. But honestly, it feels like you’re driving a box on wheels, while the second player has to shoot endless hordes of zombies.

And when the creators of Resident Evil 6 remember that the core of the series is about killing monsters, the game actually becomes quite good. When this is combined with cinematic cutscenes, something cool happens. Pretty quickly, Leon and Helena descend into underground tunnels. As you walk through these winding galleries, you can see the shadows of countless zombies lying in wait for you. And when you start shooting, realizing you probably can’t handle them all, a train suddenly roars past, smashing everything in its path. It’s an amazing mix of panic and excitement. But unfortunately, there isn’t as much of this in the game as we’d like.

In the past, Resident Evil required you to explore, you had limited resources, and terrifying encounters with enemies. Now you just have to follow a linear path and shoot at anything that moves, with an endless supply of ammo. In short, Resident Evil 6 is a long journey that sometimes features very exciting and even original moments. But as soon as the game steps outside the boundaries of the shooter genre it’s so attached to, everything starts to feel clichéd.

Unlike co-op, in multiplayer mode you can play as a monster.

Anyone who has a gamer friend should consider buying Resident Evil 6, as it’s probably the longest co-op game available on the market. You can easily join your friend’s game. Sometimes, up to four players can fight a boss together, but this option is rather poorly implemented.

There’s also the Mercenaries mode, which you can play with a partner as well. The most enjoyable aspect of this mode is the ability to rack up combos for a certain number of consecutive kills. Plus, there’s a set of additional skills.

The new Agent Hunt mode allows you to invade other players’ games as a monster. Compared to humans, you’ll be depressingly weak, so attack from behind. It’s a pretty reasonable (if not fully thought-out) addition that’s worth trying.