Resident Evil 6 Review

It's uncanny how much Resident Evil (RE) has in common with the Silent Hill (SH) franchise, despite having a fundamentally different approach to the Survival-Horror genre. Both games used clever means to overcome the PlayStation's hardware limitations. SH employed fog to limit draw distance, whereas RE leveraged the claustrophobic environs of a mansion to reduce rendering complexity. These clever workarounds eventually went on to define the franchises.

Ada's current '70s inspired outfit has nothing on the elegant red number in RE 4

Deja Vu, Anyone?
Their sequels distilled gameplay elements to perfection and combined them with a compelling narrative to emerge as the best in their respective series. Their third iterations were more of the same, whereas the fourth instalment, in both cases, went through a radical change. SH 4 did away with the eponymous town altogether and introduced a first-person camera view, whereas RE 4, for all intents and purposes, eschewed its Survival-Horror roots for an all-out action romp. Both games hit the right chord and were successful to a great extent.

Thereafter, it was all downhill for both franchises, as SH: Homecoming strayed from its cerebral psychological horror roots, and replaced it with a pitifully literal approach to horror and gratuitous gore—all reminiscent of Hollywood schlock. RE 5, on the other hand, went full-retard with all-out action without caring to overhaul its debilitating controls, which were good enough to generate tension in a survival horror title, but extremely frustrating for an action game. Both franchises have been on a steady decline ever since. However, as a die hard Resident Evil fan, I had genuinely hoped for this game to succeed.

Michael Bay was here

A Complicated Affair

It's quite difficult and rather futile to summarise the plot, considering how it continues the canon from the RE 4 and 5, while also introducing new cast members and a grown up Sherry Birkin from RE 2. The characters and their story arcs are convoluted and, to be honest, mimic the current state of the Bollywood industry. I mean, you have such abundance of sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, uncles and complicated relationships that it pretty much explains why the franchise avoids love angles altogether. Think about it, there's a serious risk of ending up with something decidedly incestuous here, if Capcom doesn't exercise caution while pairing them up.

After Albert Wesker's death and Umbrella Corporation's dissolution in RE 5, the game conveniently shoves in a new evil entity, unimaginatively named Neo-Umbrella, which has been busy developing the C-virus just in time for another global crisis. RE 6 is played out in three interlinked campaigns offering a considerably long 30-hour playtime in totality, with Leon Kennedy and newcomer Helena Harper starting off on the American front, Chris Redfield and newbie Piers Evans taking the fight to China, and Jake Muller and Sherry Birkin facing off with the relentless uber-mutant dubbed Ustanak in a fictional Eastern European country. Finish all three of these story arcs, and you're rewarded with a solo Ada campaign, which serves towards clearing the mysteries left in the wake of the criss-crossing narrative.

The reworked combat system is surprisingly effective

Major Gameplay Overhaul

The plot may be convoluted, but the combat doesn't have to be that way. Basic gameplay elements and controls have received a major overhaul this time around, and the change is positive. The in-game menu and inventory systems, for example, function in real time and have been streamlined to perfection. Gone is the awkward item and weapon management of the past games. It has been replaced by a system that can be quickly and effortlessly accessed with the D-pad without pausing the game. The ability to move and aim simultaneously, in addition to swap weapons and items in real time has been carried over from RE: Operation Raccoon City. Combat, however, has a lot more depth than the last game. Skill points earned through the campaigns can be spent on perks that buff up parameters such as defence, firing rate, recoil, power, critical hit, piercing ability, and more.

Melee combat receives a whole new dimension thanks to a counter system that can turn the tides against your enemies, provided you nail the timing. In addition to regular kung fu and melon-smashing critical hits introduced in RE 4, you have flying kicks, shoulder butts, and sliding as well as environmental attacks. The FOV has been maintained at the bare minimum to increase the scare quotient. However, that doesn't mean you end up running into a zombie's arms. Thankfully, you can get around this limitation by pulling off a Quick Shot, which lets you reflexively target the nearest zombie without aiming. All of these moves are tempered by a stamina bar to prevent abuse and ensure a fine gameplay balance.

Unlike RE 5, the partner AI actually works this time around