PixlBit

Recently finished Resident Evil 6. Contrary to what long time RE fans may feel, I don't think it's major flaws are in concept, theme, content, or genre, but in execution. Game sports a too-narrow field of view which has been increasingly unpleasant since 4. The camera is in tighter to your character's side-rear than ever, cutting off your left field of vision, which feels highly unnatural, unintuitive and claustrophobic. It feels like I'm wearing a blinder on the left or right side of my face (you can switch weapon grip, which switches camera axis). I constantly have to be shifting the camera to see obstacles and threats that would be well within your immediate field of view in other games or in real life. The fact that even low level enemies can now launch themselves at you from any direction means a first time player is in for some cheap hits, no matter how careful they play.

If it weren't for this major shortcoming, along with QTEs that don't add any value, this game could have been one of the best 3rd person shooters of the generation. As it stands, it's a solid and sometimes inspired action extravanganza. There are set-pieces here that rival any other shooter. I thought a boss battle within and atop a speeding subway train was easily more intense and made more relevant use of its particular environment than the train set-piece in Uncharted 2. This game has an enemy variety that a lot of AAA action games seem to lack. There are robust systems of melee and defensive/evasion mechanics, more so than any TPS I can think of.

You get your money's worth.. It's long. Maybe too long for a game of this kind. I find that modern action games (i.e. post PSX) do not lend themselves to lengths of more than 12-15 hours, and even that is stretching it depending on how late into the game new challenges or mechanics are being introduced. This game doesn't avoid staleness, but it's no worse off in that regard than some superior games I could list. There is also Mercanaries mode, a mode called Agent Hunt, and a lot of unlockable skills and rewards.

6 is not a frightenting game by any stretch of the imagination, but there are quieter, anticipatory, and atmopsheric stretches in the game, particularly in the Leon and Ada campaigns, which happen to be the most interesting campaigns --hmm, is that a pattern I see? Surprisingly, the Chris campaign winds up not being the worst, contrary to what many had feared after the lackluster demo. Said demo featured the weakest part of the Chris campaign, which is otherwise a satisfying romp, action and narrative wise; it's not Dostoyevski, but Chris and co-op partner Piers have the most successful, fleshed out dynamic out of all the campaigns. There are some memorable set-pieces, such as a hostage rescue and battle through multiple floors of a building, and a game of cat and mouse against a stealthy adversary.  The Jake and Ashley campaign, which I, based on the demo, assumed would be better than the Chris/Piers campaign ended up being the weakest and least memorable to me;  I could do without their whole deal.  This is where that aforementioned staleness reached critical mass, and brought my enthusiasm and progress to a halt. It took weeks before I was in the mood to continue and move on to the reward of the superior Ada campaign (which I could have started any time, but there seemed to be an intended order in which to play the campaigns).

The high points of this game acquit Capcom of having entirely lost their action game mojo. The problem is they simultaneously insist on continuing bad habits in design. With the upcoming Deep Down, we see they are again using the latter day RE camera position; it looks nice in video and screenshots, but looks like it hampers play yet again.  And just like RE6, with the Ninja Theory developed 'Devil may Cry" we saw Capcom's continuing desire to expand to an audience that may not appreciate or care about the attributes and nuances that defined the early successes of these respective series.  But RE6 is the action-packed RE that the enormously lazy and stupid Operation Raccoon City failed at being, with a number of good ideas and an amount of content that justified the $20 I spent. I'm done with this structure though. Either let Resident Evil die, Capcom, or give it its own identity and follow through on it in play design and tone.