Resident Evil 6

I was prepared for dissapointments, failures, ridicule and the worst.

But it turns out that Resident Evil 6 plays just fine, although it has yet again changed a lot of things considerably. While the mechanics of 4 remain intact, expandments have been made towards controls, multiplayer, enemy design and the story.

As a biohazard occurs at the U.S.A. as well as in China, our large group of protagonists are determined to do what's right and invoke their experience(or their legacy) against Bio Organic Weapons throughout 3 main locations.

The third country is the fictional Edonia. Perhaps Capcom was too afraid to choose one of the Balkan countries(in this case Serbia) or former Soviet Union nations, and rather went with an apparent Eastern European urban setting alongside one part involving snow, ice and cold.

Chris Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy are considerably older than ever, but Ada Wong looks younger somehow and aside from her important role during Resident Evil 6, she had a facelift, similar to Jill Valentine in Revelations.

The newcomers as well as the surprise return of Sherry Birkin all had decent different personalities, such as the admiration and loyalty from Piers Nivans, or the redemption and love from Helena Harper. Jake Muller was really unexpected considering his bloodline.

Let's talk about the gameplay. It's all really familiar and relatable towards 4 and 5, but this time, you are able to roll forward or jump back and go into an aiming position, or roll your way out to the left or right. The melee attacks are still effective.

Jump away while aiming, shoot while running, hell you can fall on your back backwards and start shooting and then roll away if needed. The recovery system from 5 is also here, letting you be able to crouch away and shoot in desperate times.

What really changed was the item management. From the fun puzzle inventory in 4 to the very limited inventory in 5 to an improvement from the previous one when speaking of convenience and management.

Seeing as I beat all four chapters on Professional Mode, items were limited. But they were never as limited as I remember on Hard Mode in Resident Evil 0, which is still the hardest game in the series.

The Green and Red herbs are the only ones returning, and this time, the way you consume them has changed into the forms of pills. At first they seem less effective, but instead Capcom let's you decide on whether you eat all of them at once or just 2 when speaking of combining Red and Green.

Excuse me, but I don't recall seeing a cover system before. The way it was designed was confusing at first, but I quickly learned how to control it. All of the critique towards it feels like lazy or useless arguments towards something that just works differently. Quick Time Events were not gamebreaking nor annoying at all, people have exaggerated over this.

The navigation has become more linear, and a waypoint feature has been added during all chapters in order to quickly figure out where to go next or what to do next. Exploring areas is more limited, but certain emblems to be shot and secret supplies still exist.

Replacing the currencies is a skill point system, which you will be able to collect a lot through the game. After beating a stage, you will be able to purchase enhancements using the skill points. These will improve your characters in several ways, but you are limited to using 3 skills at the most.

Puzzles still exist in these third person shooters, but they remain absurd. Frankly, Resident Evil's puzzles are just that most of the time, however they seem to be, they're becoming either unnecessary, or rarely interesting.

And the same seems to be happening on a whole with Resident Evil 6 as well. While everything worked just fine for me, the gameplay is becoming repetitive, which is strange as I also still enjoyed it just enough.

Perhaps the peak of the franchise had already been reached with in my opinion REmake or Resident Evil 4, and to really blow the audience away, Capcom will have to innovate once again. While 6 offered 4 different long chapters, the buildup for them wasn't as good as the standalone games.

However, 6 still remains strong in certain areas, and enemy design is proof of that. I was already very impressed with the ones in Revelations, and this is once again the case here. Next to another zombie apocalypse happening, a new general enemy called J'avo kept things quite formidable.

The J'avo can mutate randomly into a long list of different forms which usually result into instant evolutions, but sometimes they must go into temporary cocoons before hatching again. At first I thought they were the third generation of Las Plagas, but this was not the case.

Instead, they are created using the new C-virus, of which the trademark is just what I described earlier, as being livid with mutating it's hosts with random results. Such as the J'avo growing spider legs or turning into a grasshopper.

But there are other new creatures, of which my favorite one is the Lepotitsa, a disgusting and grotesque one able to infect dozens and running around like a maniac with a baby voice. The Shrieker is another fun enemy and reminded me of the sci-fi horror film Screamers(1995).

The final boss of each chapter were actually well done and diverse, and with the exception of Ada's, they all were reminders or similar to earlier final bosses found in the other games. Lame new enemies also exist, such as the umpteenth shark and chainsaw creatures.

Loading screens were too fast in order to fully read the advice text to be found. I have seen this annoyance in other games as well, however some of them have scripted it to press any key before continueing, which this one lacks.

The inventory system is more convenient than 4 or 5's or even the older games, you just have to find a spot where you are able to manage. There doesn't seem to be a limit on what you are able to hold. It's not traditional, but it's certainly convenient.

Resident Evil 6 is a core entry that expands upon previous ones considerably, as the scope of the settings is huge, story and length wise. 4 large chapters each with their own separated stories intertwine with each other in order to bring out a larger unfolding.

And Mercenaries Mode is supposed to be the best one yet, but I am starting to get tired of it personally. And the same goes for a lot of other things regarding Resident Evil. I think it's time to really innovate after 3 core entries again, don't you think likewise, Capcom?

Rating: 8.4