Resident Evil 6: One Year Later

Before people had a chance to play Resident Evil 6 last year, the early press had been bad. They called it a cheap attempt at being Call of Duty and all of the horror that made the series what it was was gone. Reflecting on the game one year later, Resident Evil 6 is a solid entry into the series, and while not the best, deserves to be a part of the series.

Resident Evil, in my opinion, has some of the best modern mythology you can find in a game series, unlike many of the games coming out of Japan at the same time, Resident Evil did not, at its heart, have a silly throw away core.The first game in the series, Resident Evil, had laughable voice acting and painful one liners, but what made the story memorable to what you walked through as a player and what you read in the books and journals hidden around the mansion. As the series progressed the story of Raccoon City did as well. Through Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis the story of the city unfolded and the game play turned more toward action as the narrative demanded it did. By the time the story of Resident Evil 4 and 5 concluded, the team was now fighting a virus on a global level. Naturally a more military based story was going to push the series forward. Now here comes Resident Evil 6, and people are lamenting the fact the series has lost its horror roots.

Resident Evil 6 begins with a whopping 6 protagonists to choose from at the start, and most are familiar faces. The story is told multiple times each time following a new POV character. At certain points during the story, the characters will cross paths and if you are a fan of Resident Evil, you will delight as Sherry and Leon share a brief reunion, not seen together since Resident Evil 2. I found myself at a loss for ammo in this game more than any other previous Resident Evil game. I like to think that it is because it is survival horror and not that I am getting terrible at shooting things.

While I can understand some of the criticism of this game, I myself have blisters from all of those damn QTE events, the game’s story does fit perfectly into the series as a whole. Can the ever go back to the horror from whence they came? Sure, but I think they needed to see these characters we have followed over the years reach their natural conclusions. Another reason they gave for continuing with this shooter over horror angle is due to poor sales of Resident Evil REmake for the Nintendo GameCube. That statement is problematic in a number of ways, its best just to move on. That being said, last year saw the release of the handheld game Resident Evil: Revelations, a combination of classic and modern Resident Evil that was a real blast to play.

Looking back on the strengths of Resident Evil 6, the thing that stands out more than anything in this game is the superb creature design. No other Resident Evil game has had this much creativity put into each minor and major villain. Sure it was disheartening to have to fight every boss four times as each time you think you put it down, comes another gross mutations… but these mutations are a work of genius design. Hideous and a marvel to look at.

Bottom line, if you have avoided Resident Evil 6 because of poor press, do not, it is cheap enough now that you should jump in and play it! You will not be disappointed! Resident Evil 7 is right around the corner, I will be excited for it no matter which direction the decide to take.

Buy Resident Evil 6