Spoilers ahead
Been awhile since I have done a blog so here we go. I heard some pretty negative things about Resident Evil 6 and decided for Christmas to get it as a gift so I wouldn't have to pay for it in case it turned out to be true. Fast forward 2 weeks later, finally got around to beating all 4 campaign modes and some extra stuff in mercenaries mode. Anyways, the game surprised me.
Summary
Ok so a brief summary of the game. There is a new strain of a virus called the C-Virus. Actually, 2 strains. One is expelled as a gas in bio warfare and the gas kills the body then reanimates. Typical zombie stuff. Then people who directly inject it into themselves are turned into something called the J'avo. The J'avo are not zombies but they grow extra eyes, weird mouths, can use guns, have enhanced strength, speed, regenerate heads and sometimes mutate into weird creatures. Some grow Krauser shield arms, turn into weird spider like creatures, spitting lizards. They become a whole lot of twisted things. Anyways, you have 4 campaigns to go through. Leon, Chris, Ada and newcomer Jake Muller. Each person comes with a partner save for Ada. The campaigns feature their own story line and how it connects to the main story and at times intersecting with others. So each person is effected by the C virus (not literally effected) but they are impacted by it in some way. And you have to figure everything out and save the world.
Characters
Leon Kennedy: Who doesn't love Leon? The guy is a boss and he teams up with new partner, Helena Harper. Leon is nifty in the game in the fact that he is the only character that has a weapon that can dual wield. His wingshooter pistol has a large clip and with proper upgrades equipped, the gun is a deadly weapon for taking out quite a few zombies. Leon also gets other weapons like a knife, shotgun, semi auto sniper and an assault rifle. Oh, and 50 cal magnum pistol called the lightning hawk. In this game, you're really shown how Leon has grown since his debut. He is a lot more serious but still maintains the quips at times he is known for.
Helena Harper: His new partner and newcomer to the series. She gets her own special pistol as well. It is a pretty powerful pistol and she is armed with a hydra shotgun too and has her own unique quickshot with it. She gets other weapons too but sadly none melee like a knife. I love this character. I think she has a lot of potential to her and the VA showed a lot of emotion to her which I like. They didn't reveal too much on her past so it leaves to explore with her. She is relatively young compared to Leon, being 24-years old which makes her about 12 years younger with him being 36 years old himself. So I do hope to expect her to be around for awhile.
Chris Redfield: The Legend is back and kind of impacted from his experiences. Anyways, Chris has a very strong arsenal of weapons from the get go. I think this is a good advantage for starting since he has a more complex set of adversaries. Not a whole lot to say on him.
Piers Nivan. Chris' partner is a sniper based character. Piers' sniper is one of the strongest guns in the game being a one hit kill on most enemies. He is a collected soldier but fierce at the same time and has done a lot trying to keep Chris in line. I didn't really like him at first. There wasn't a whole lot of dynamic to him but in the end, he was a great a character with his development.
Jake Muller: The new guy and Wesker's son. Jake is a 20 year old (doesn't look like it) is a solid character and brings a different dynamic to the game with his hand to hand capabilities. He substitutes knives for his fists and kicks with a style that kind of resembles his dad's. He comes across as a big hardass jerk, but the development he gets changes it and understand why he is the way he was. Wesker abandoned Jake and his mother and his mother became ill so Jake tried hard to raise money for better medical care and they were in a third world country area called Edonia. Jake becomes a mercenary as a teen in order to raise money for his mother but she eventually passes. Jake also gets a very solid arsenal of weapons. His pistol is pretty good, his melee combat takes some getting used to but on top of that he gets snipers, machine guns and shotguns like everyone else. I like his dynamic with his partner. Sherry Birkin.
Sherry Birkin: Remember her? The little blonde girl in a sailor suit that was in RE 2 (I think it was?) for like 10 minutes? Well, she is back and all grown up. Sherry is now 26-27-ish and is a good little, straight by the book agent of the D.O.S. She is more kind and gentle than her partner Jake and you can really feel the tension between the characters and then eventual closeness. The VA's did an awesome job at developing their relationship.
Ada Wong: Ada is still Ada Wong. Mysterious. Elegant. She is like if Catwoman, Psylocke and Fantomex all had a baby between the ninjaness, thieving kind of style and total misdirection as to where the character actually sits. *Awaits Purps comment*
I have not yet played as Carla so Idk how she differs from...you'll find out.
Gameplay
Each character operates a bit differently from each other from some of the most subtle aspects. Everyone has a melee attack but not necessarily a melee weapon which can be screwy at times. Given that everyone has a melee attack though, they attack differently with different styles. Chris' attacks are a bit slower compared to the others but they pack a bigger throw back. Leon, Piers, Helena, Jake, Ada and Sherry are pretty fast with their melee attacks aside from some theatrics like Helena or Ada using scissor kicks on opponents which can leave them open.
Aside from the differences , the gameplay is the same as far as basics go. Just different weapons for different people and a different gameplay per character. Helena for example uses a multiple dodge technique for her quickshot with the hydra which is an effective maneuver. Sherry's special pistol is weaker than Jake and Chris' 909's and Helena's picador. But it makes up for it with a large clip and burst fire feature which fires three bullets or a single bullet. Leon too as he can dual wield despite his pistol being the weakest which can make up for it. Piers and Ada have no melee weapons or true pistols but assault weapons as their "pistols". But they make up for with larger clips and a faster rate of fire. Their other main weapons also are some of the strongest weapons in the game like Ada's crossbow or Piers' special sniper.
Jake and Sherry are the only partners thave a close range weapon. Jake having a h2h mode and not consider it a melee attack when in his stance and Sherry's stun baton with a charge feature and combo. Chris has a combo on his back dodge or quick shot while Leon does not have any combo with his knife.
The guns also will benefit from what skills you equip with a plethora of upgrades from steadying your aim, increasing it's fire power and increasing your own defense can make the differences in fights. Also, different guns do have different aim positions which can affect how accurate you are. Ada's 50 ammo box fires from the hip and was a bit off for me at first. Her crossbow also fired differently from normal guns. All in all, most people will get all the same type of weaponry without the guns being the same. Some get a semi-automatic sniper while others get a bolt action sniper. The pistols are all different, and Helena is the only one to get 10 gauge shells for her hydra shotgun. Some guns also carry explosive rounds like the bear commander assault rifle or Ada's crossbow with special bolts. You also have grenade launchers but not every character will receive it.
Each campaign also has its own enemies and different involvement with the C-Virus. Chris and Piers face the J'avo but the J'avo are upgraded from the very start which makes sense due to Chris' starting weaponry being the strongest. Jake and Sherry face the J'avo but they start out more common as ones that don't mutate so often. Helena and Leon face the zombies. Everyone faces B.O.W's. Another feature is that all the campaigns will intersect at some point but then branch off to their own again which I liked that touch. And each campaign will not spoil much of any others or their stories. You have to play all 3 campaigns to get the idea of everything going on. And with each level being at least an hour and twenty-thirty minutes or so on at least normal difficulty, the levels are pretty long and large which provides a longer gameplay feel and enough shoot outs.
Ada's campaign also adds a nice touch of filling in any missing holes.
Pros
- Campaigns. I loved the multiple campaigns. On normal mode it took me roughly 7-10 hours to beat each one which was fine to me as it gave each character set enough time to develop and grow. This also allows longer times for fighting, different bosses, different stories so things stay fresh longer.
- Variety of characters. I like the fact they used some of the older characters cause Leon is my favorite but added new characters. This keeps things fresh too. I commend Capcom for making the call to add new characters to keep the franchise going without rebooting it in a convoluted mess (damn you, DMC). Considering Leon is now 36 and Chris 40, these guys can't go for much longer unless Capcom turns them into Old Snake from MGS 4. Chris will be limping around with a walker but he lifts it up and it turns into a machine gun/ missile launcher. I was pleasantly surprised Sherry became an agent and a playable character. And because of the variety, as I said before, the gameplay differs a bit and it was fun for me trying to use each character cause you adjust to one and then have to learn how to use the others.
- I like Jake so far and I want to see how he grows which Resident Evil makes their characters develop very well. Take Leon from when he first appeared being a young rookie and kind of a flirt to a more stoic and serious agent but will still make quips every now and then to lighten the mood. Jake is still brash and cocky but he knows he doesn't want to be like his father but I do expect an encounter between him and Chris some day. His style is different. His attitude makes you want to hate him at first but when you learn his mother died and he became what he did to save her was an awesome aspect to his character. Kind of like Vergil in a way from Devil May Cry. Couldn't save her and just seeks the best bid or power he can.
- Sherry was a cool twist. At first to me she came across as useless but some of her cutscenes show she is a badass underneath all that straight cop attitude. It's also fun zapping people with the stun rod until they combust.
- Piers was kind of hard for me to like at first but just get to the end of Chris' campaign and find out what the character does. It flipped my opinion right around of him
I love Helena. Laura Bailey is fantastic. Her scene with Deborah was great considering it is a video game.
- The voice acting. All the voice actors captured their character's perfectly. Troy Baker does awesome going from cocky Jake to more caring but still holding true to his ego. Matthew Mercer (honorable mention since he played Tygra, my favorite T-cat in the newest version of the show and now plays my favorite character in the series) captured the more stoic Leon while maintaining his sense of humor in depressing times. Chris is intense throughout the whole series. Ada's VA does a fantastic job of making her calm, sly, and sexy.
- The dynamics. The characters had interesting dynamics and complemented each other. From Jake and Sherry being polar opposites, to a revenge driven Chris with Piers keeping him in line. Leon and Helena made the best couple in the game between their uneasy start to a fullblown partnership so I hope they continue to partner up while they can and maybe drift away from the Ada Wong and Leon relationship since it just seems to be teased too long and possibly won't happen due to conflicting natures. I know they have feelings but I kind of hope it dies eventually. Helena and Leon did show some signs of attraction so I d would like to see how that affects their partnership and whatever is between Ada and Leon despite Helena knowing Leon cares for Ada and even telling him to go after her. But, Ada and Leon might or might not happen and with Helena being his new partner and probably for the next few years (in the continuity of RE) anything is possible.
- Mercenaries (pros) I liked the mercenary mode just because of how many characters you can use and how you can use the environment to your advantage and with each character being different, how you survive. And all the costumes and stuff is pretty cool. Plus, it takes some strategy to do well in it.
- The story. What my hardcore RE friends don't like is how the game has been shifting away from a horror survival to more story based. It has always had a story but RE just has been widening its doors IMO. I liked the campaigns and how each one didn't reveal too much until you had to complete each and piece things together. It was a process and in a 30 hour or so game, I think Capcom did a great job doing it.
- The Co-op and AI does a better job than RE5. A lot smoother and more helpful.
Cons
- Graphics. I didn't think the graphics were bad at all but to me, they could have been better.
- Mercenaries mode (cons) It does get repetitive and sometimes frustrating when trying to unlock the new characters by yourself and can't reach the A medal score. You kind of have to feel the maps out first.
- Lack of complete customization. You can't customize and upgrade weapons anymore, but you can equip skills to yourself.
- Lack of ammo at times and some characters having no melee weapons. This can get frustrating when you don't have enough ammo and get swarmed cause you will run out of stamina and can't really fight back.
- Some campaigns lack. Chris' kind of lacks substance IMO and falls flat compared to Leon's or the different kind that is Jake's or Ada's. Chris' campaign wasn't bad just not as fun as the others and Ada's campaign is really, really short. It too me about 4 hours to do.
- Where the hell is Jill? They make NO mention to her. Is she still blonde? Is she working still?
Rating 8/10
I don't regret getting the game. I love it. I like what Capcom is doing with the franchise and are looking for the future in this and trying to evolve beyond just the horror survivor and creepy stuff which 5 kind of started doing and 6 just picked up and ran with. They improved some issues the previous game had and added more variety which is always fun for experimenting. It will just be a sad day when Chris and Leon hang up their guns.
Log in to comment