Resident Evil 6 (Video Game)

 Resident Evil 6 (Fall 2012) 

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Upcoming Survival Horror Video Games

2012 is projected to be a very good year for fans of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil franchises. It's not often that we get a Silent Hill video game and movie in the same year as a Resident Evil video game and movie. If you're a true fan, then you're probably not complaining. Though I really love Silent Hill, I consider myself a huge fan of both video game franchises, having beaten all (okay, maybe not quite all) of the games in the series. Typically, I'm a sucker for atmosphere, ambience, mood, story and suspense, which goes for movies, as well as, the type of video games I play. The fact that I am fond of things dark and creepy makes Survival Horror video games perfect for a guy like me. 

Despite straying away from the claustrophobic and isolated, survival horror formula that the Resident Evil series initially became known for (which is definitely a negative in my books), I still find myself eagerly anticipating RE6. When it's all said and done, I probably won't love it, but I'm sure I'll still find a way to enjoy it. 
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Resident Evil 6 (2012)

Genre:       Survival Horror / Action
Platforms: PS3, XBOX 360

October 2, 2012 American Release Date

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Trailer

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Game Description

The Most Ambitious, Immersive and Feature Rich Resident Evil To-date

Blending action and survival horror, Resident Evil 6 promises to be the dramatic horror experience of 2012. Resident Evil favorites Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield are joined by new characters, including Jake Muller, to face a new horror, the highly virulent C-virus, as the narrative moves between North America, the war-torn Eastern European state of Edonia and the Chinese city of Lanshiang. Joining this cast will be presidential aide Derek Simmons, who vows to track down Leon for his involvement in the President's death, and femme fatale Ada Wong. But what part will Ada play as the story unravels and does she have ties to the mysterious Neo-Umbrella?

With three distinct, yet interwoven story threads, each with their own pair of protagonists for either solo or co-op play, both offline and online, not only will Resident Evil 6 deliver both different perspectives and gameplay styles but, with the introduction of the innovative Crossover gameplay mechanic players will be able to team up and share the horror. At key moments during the game, up to four players can join together online to tackle a specific situation, with some stages seeing the usual partnerships swapped to further increase the depth of gameplay.

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My Thoughts

Will Resident Evil 6 be just like Resident Evil 5? 

Resident Evil 5 in my opinion, was a bit of a disappointment. There's no denying that its predecessor (Resident Evil 4) set a bold new standard -- not just a standard in the RE franchise but a standard in the video gaming industry altogether. But the emergence of RE4 also brought with it changes to the series (some for the best, and some for the worse). In my opinion, RE4, in comparison to RE5, did a much better job combining action with elements of fear and horror (though probably too much action for most true RE fans), and although the controls were different and the formula had changed, and the game did away with familiar things like the Umbrella Corporation and zombies (I love umbrella and the zombies), it was still a very good game -- different than what we were used to, but still very good. RE5 on the other hand, felt way too much like an action game (military-style shooter, much in the vain of Gears of War), and it also seemed a whole lot shorter than Resident Evil 4. 

With that said, I still managed to find a way to enjoy RE5. I can do that sometimes -- be unhappy or disappointed with something but still find a way to enjoy it. I made peace with it, but I couldn't recommend it to other longtime, die-hard fans of the series because it didn't feel like an authentic Resident Evil game, at least not to me. I spent about a month or so being disappointed over the RE5 story mode (griping and complaining), but what ended up saving the game for me was the co-op mercenaries mini-game, which I've gone on to fall in love with, and have played just about every week since beating the game back in March of 2009.

Fast forward to 2012 ... so here we are, a little under a month away from Resident Evil 6, which is set to hit the stores on October 2 of this year, and my initial thoughts (which I am basing off of the trailer and youtube gameplay video footage) are;

Something in the graphics and controls (character movements) don't look as good, or seem as real as they did in RE5 ... I'm not saying the graphics are worse overall, in terms of clarity or pixels, I'm saying something seems different -- and from what I've briefly observed, not for the better. Obviously, I'm speaking as one who doesn't own the XBOX 360 demo and won't actually have a chance to play RE6 personally, until the PS3 demo drops on September 18, so my opinion may be subject to change. In RE5, the character animation -- for example, the way some of the villagers walked and moved -- felt real, or perhaps the more suitable word is natural. On the contrary, some of the in game video footage I've seen of RE6 doesn't look as real. It looks more like unnaturally fast, video game motion (more on the lines of Left for Dead). 

Changes to the motion, feel and control scheme probably won't be as much of an issue for me in story mode (we used to play with fixed camera angles) ... but any such changes will leave me a bit concerned about the mercenaries mode, especially if they decided to do away with the "Basic control type based on Resident Evil 4" controller settings. Though being able to run and shoot simultaneously is nice (really nice if you're into shooters and action/war games), I'm hoping that a lot of what I did love (control wise) wasn't sacrificed in order to implement this feature. If the mercenaries doesn't feel right, if the controls have changed for the worse (if it feels off in any way), I'll probably end up beating RE6 story mode and then returning to RE5 mercenaries mode.

And just think, before RE5, I really didn't give a hoot about any of the mini-games included in the Resident Evil games. Now, I can't believe its gotten to where I'll be disappointed if they fail to get them both right (Story mode and Mercenaries). 

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The Mothman