Resident Evil 6

The Resident Evil series has traditionally been characterized by four main attributes.

1. Over the top, campy storyline
2. Creepy horror atmosphere
3. Resource conservation
4. Annoying puzzles

The game has slowly changed since RE4, moving toward a more action oriented, roller coaster experience rather than haunting isolation and cautious exploring. Many fans have criticized this move, but after playing the last three installments I believe this is definitely the proper direction for the franchise to have moved in.

For one thing, Resident Evil was never going to be a better horror game than its main competitor, Silent Hill. They both have atmospheric tension, but the "jump scares" of Resident Evil were never going to rival the slow building psychological horror of its smarter cousin. In that vein, Resident Evil needed to evolve or die. There's only so many times you can be satisfied with a game that makes you spend half its length backtracking through the same rooms finding keys, cards, cranks and emblems to help you move past the next absurd puzzle left for you by insane, millionaire bio-terrorists.

The more recent Resident Evils have tapered off on the puzzles and key fetching, leaving only a trickle of that tradition behind in Resident Evil 6. Resource conservation was still a factor in both RE4 and RE5, but RE6 leaves it in the dust by making hand-to-hand combat more effective and giving all defeated enemies the chance to drop items. I welcomed this change because it made the game more fun and versatile and because the idea of "conservation" was always an artificial construct to begin with. No matter what part of a RE game you're in, the game designers had to leave you the bare minimum of health and ammo to get through the next segment or risk making your save file worthless, possibly necessitating a restart. But the only reason that would ever happen would be willful stupidity on the player's part (using up your items, saving and only using one save slot.) Therefore, the conservation aspect of Survival Horror games has always been overblown.

The horror atmosphere of Resident Evil is very much still present. There aren't as many jump scares as they're used to be, but that's probably because our heroes are more powerful and experienced. It makes sense that they're no longer surprised by old fashion shuffling zombies when they have to fight armed J'avo and giant mutant creatures on a regular basis. Our characters have become a more hardened breed (and so have the gamers controlling them.)

The Resident Evil storyline is more fun than ever. RE6 gives us a multi-layered plot unveiled in four separate but occasionally interwoven campaigns. There are seven playable characters, all with unique motivations for stopping Umbrella's latest schemes. The drama gets hammy at times, but that's to be expected (and it's part of the fun, really.)

To the extent that I had gripes with the game, they could have been addressed with a little more thought and tweaking. The game no longer allows you to scan through your equipment or select items while paused. This doesn't make the game any more "realistic" in a meaningful way, and it certainly isn't helpful. I lost count of the times that I was just trying to take stock of my inventory and I either got ambushed from behind, or an enemy ran up to attack me before I could close the item menu and react. Resident Evil needs to adopt a "wheel" system that temp-pauses. This has been done in countless other games and would have been easy to implement. The "cover" system in RE6 is trash to the point of being almost unusable, but that's ok because you don't actually need it. I don't know why they bothered with such a shoddy and unnecessary feature.

The other major source of frustration in RE6 was the lack of instruction while fighting the final bosses of each campaign. Each powerful boss is (in between shooting and dodging) a series of quick time events and mini-puzzle elements which must be solved before you can truly hurt the boss and move onto the next stage of the battle. The problem is, you're usually too busy trying to stay alive to figure out what you're supposed to do. The game gives you only vague clues, and no clear communication on what to do or how to do it. This was the most unfortunate aspect of RE6, as the boss fights look and feel epic, but the stunted gameplay subtracts from their enjoyment.

On the plus side, we can now, finally, move and shoot at the same time (long time RE fans rejoice!) In addition to more effective unarmed combat, there are new evasive tactics like side rolling, the run / slide, and jumping backwards and shooting from the ground. The skill system also allows you to customize your character to the play style you enjoy, a flexibility that no past Resident Evil has offered.

Although it's been a bumpy road, the evolution of Resident Evil has been a good thing. Nostalgia for the old games creeps back occasionally, but I've definitely enjoyed the newer titles. Resident Evil 6 can frustrate at times, but at its best, it's a captivating thriller and an action extravaganza that no summer blockbuster can compete with. Games like RE6 have made big budget action movies largely irrelevant, because now you can immerse yourself in these exciting feats instead of just watching them.