WTF Capcom?: 'Resident Evil 6' Demo Impressions

The time has come for the masses to get their first taste of the much hyped Resident Evil 6! The demo available allows a short playthrough in each of the campaigns (Leon, Chris, and Jake). Each character has their own partner much like in the previous game in the series. There's also an option to have someone take control of the partner for some co-op action. Unfortunately, what sounds like a pretty robust experience quickly turns into a "shit storm" of frustration.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to pause the game, you need to choose "offline" when picking a campaign.

I first started with Leon for a myriad of reasons. His campaign seemed to be the closest to a Resident Evil type experience, he was the hero in the greatest entry in the series (RE4), and not to mention he's my man-crush of the franchise. This is definitely the most cinematic and "survival horror" out of the three campaigns. There are tense moments and tricky navigating throughout with the former being a nuisance most of the time. There's a part where you're in an auditorium of some sort with stacks of desks and chairs blocking your path. It's all very linear.




You'll notice right away upon playing that the controls aren't as stiff as they have been in past entries. Animations are definitely smoother and, thankfully, you can move while aiming and shooting. The melee button is going to be your best friend and your most hated enemy for a number of reasons. The enemies in RE6 soak up bullets like a sponge. Seriously, lead must be in their diets cause it takes WAY too many shots to take down just one guy.

You will quickly run out of bullets if you try relying on your gun which means using melee attacks. These can be pretty cool and bring up some sweet animations if you're near a desk or a shovel. This is also where things can get hectic though. In all three campaigns, you will be in situations where you have to deal with up to 5-7 enemies at once. Your character (and the camera) is not really equipped to handle this. Sure, a melee attack can knock some guys back but they'll keep coming unless you finish them off with 3 or 4 more kicks each.




This may just be me but the co-op aspect feels like a bit of a burden. It's improved over RE5 but that's not saying much. Running around, trying to get to your next checkpoint, only to come across a door which needs both of you can be maddening at times. Your partner does a decent job keeping up but if they're tangled up with an enemy, you could be waiting for a while. This is especially apparent playing Jake's campaign since there's an enemy in every direction that regenerate into even tougher monsters when you kill them.

Chris's campaign is worth noting since it tries (key word here) to be a quasi Gears of War cover based shooter. You can run and slide into cover or press up against walls before shooting. This ends up feeling really clunky and simply doesn't work with the gameplay mechanics in all of the campaigns. Couple that with the previously mentioned problem of having too few bullets to kill tough-as-nails enemies and it ends up failing miserably.




A quick nitpick I have to bring up is shooting corpses. In any instance where you're dealing with zombies, a dead body could be for real or an undead sneak attack. As a precaution, I like to shoot the corpse just in case it's the latter. Makes sense, right? That's not the case in Resident Evil 6. Shooting a corpse, whether it's really dead or not, will do nothing until you get close enough for it to jump you. This is pretty discouraging for those of us trying to play the game smart. I may as well just run right through the level like John Rambo and stomp whoever comes my way.

I was considering picking up Resident Evil 6 after it's been out for a while. Now it's not even on my wish list. Getting myself lost trying to figure out where I'm going while spraying myself with magic pixie dust to heal every 5 seconds isn't my idea of a fun time. The cut scenes are impressive and Troy Baker does a nice job playing the role of Jake but that's all I can really take from this demo. If you ask me, Capcom needs to give this franchise a major overhaul.