The Resident Evil games have always been intimidating to me. The earliest contact I had with the series was watching my brother play “Resident Evil Zero” on the GameCube. It gave me the creepie crawlies. Since then, I have had time with each game in the franchise, and the series has stopped being anywhere close to intimidating. Almost every game in the series is pretty good, with “Resident Evil 5” being the broken and useless exception. Resident Evil 6, on the other hand, was decent. It has some problems, but over all it is not bad, and it does not “kill the series” like what a vast majority of people have been saying.
The game is separated into four campaigns, one of which is unlocked after the other three are beaten. The three main stories follow euphorically handsome Leon Kennedy, action man Chris Redfield and a newcomer named Jake Muller.
Each campaign also features a different style of play. Leon’s campaign most closely resembles the Resident Evil games of old. It features zombies, creepy locals and tense gameplay. It feels like an evolution from “Resident Evil 5” through expansion of the controls, and fixing the awful single-player so the computer-controlled buddy can actually take care of herself.
Chris’s campaign, conversely, is a straight-up third-person shooter. This is a huge switch from the previous games that have an emphasis on survival. They dropped players into the middle of a labyrinthine hellhole, and said good luck. This is a good thing, mind you. Game designers want their games to be difficult, so the gamers who had gone through hell and struggle to complete the game feel great about their accomplishments.
Jake’s section is an exercise in frustration, as it attempts to combine elements from the other two campaigns and fails miserably. In some parts it tries to bring back the horror of facing Nemesis from “Resident Evil 3,” with some giant, near-unbeatable freak of nature stalking players wherever they go. While these encounters are tense and enjoyable, the J’avos take up most of the game’s combat time.
Despite these gripes, it is a solid game. I may hate the J’avo, but they are something I have never faced before, and some of those mutations sent chills down my spine. Leon is cooler than an Antarctic freezer, and, other than a frustrating couple of final hours, his part in “Resident Evil 6” is a saving grace, keeping the game above mediocrity and giving hope that even as the series drifts further from its survival-horror roots, it still has some bite left in it.
