Resident Evil 6

Going into playing this again, I was actually excited.  So when the game first came out I got it on PS3 and played for 30 minutes with a friend and we both acknowledged we weren't having fun and it didn't feel like playing Resident Evil.  So I stopped there and didn't try again until 2020 when I decided to replayed all mainline Resident Evil games in chronological order and with that actually playing through six all the way.  This time I planned on playing the whole game again but after starting Leon's campaign I decided immediately to just play his story and Ada's campaign.  But then after playing through Leon's campaign I ended up having so much fun that I decided to go back to the original plan and play all the campaigns again, especially since it didn't feel as long as I remember it from the first time I played and honestly just letting go of the expectations that comes with Resident Evil games helps me see this is still a fun game, just very different.

It's so weird because it just doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game.  Like RE5 had more action too but RE5 at least just felt like a more action packed RE4 but RE6 is completely different.  From its interface to the combat mechanics to the zombies literally jumping and vaulting themselves at you to attack, I feel like this game would be better labelled House of the Dead, like maybe a version of House of the Dead that was made to feel more like a console game than an on rails arcade shooter.  Which with how linear this game is with how it constantly has on screen markers for where to go next, it makes this feel like an on rails game with the illusion of choosing where to go.  At least this is how I feel with playing an hour into the beginning of Leon's campaign.  Another thing that adds to this vibe is the overuse of quick time events.  Before you just did them in most of the cutscenes but now they're what's used for getting out of an enemy's grasp.  It just feels like this would be a great Resident Evil game for the arcade.  And to top off the cheesiness, Leon, at least at the beginning, feels like an actor is just doing a toned down Keanu Reeves impression.  It doesn't feel like Leon to me.  I love the action movie cheesiness in Chris’s campaign with every action movie cliche imaginable that made me laugh more at it ironically than The Room.

Now to get ready and hyped for RE9 releasing, I've been playing through the RE engine games in number order and so going from playing the RE4 remake and learning how RE9 was said to work with going between the horror and action gameplay with Grace and Leon, respectively, it makes me excited to see if they plan to remake six.  I can see if nine is a success that six will be remade to be closer to how nine is almost as if nine would be a test run to find a way to successfully remake six.  So playing through six right now and having this in mind does make me even more excited to imagine how six would be if done like this, and is doing its job in building the hype for nine.

One thing that RE6 certainly has the award for is the cheesiest and most cringe moments in the series, at least out of the mainline entries.  These can range from logic loopholes like the store owner who has you kill all the zombies just to close shutters that would have prevented the zombies from entering his store from the beginning to the goofy drop kicking some characters do like how crazy it is to be shooting up zombies with Leon and see Helena come out of nowhere drop kicking zombies I've stunned.  All the over the top action movie moments with Chris's campaign like the opening scene in the bar with every patron being BSAA there ready to show him how much they missed him and honestly every campaign like how each one has it's fast and furious bit where you are in the middle of a high speed chase or race against time.  For me it's still crazy how Leon's campaign was meant to be a horror campaign because it is never terrifying and if anything is just an action campaign trying to be scary.  

One random thing I notice from time to time is this game does have some good music sprinkled throughout but usually just in points where you’re doing so much you wouldn’t notice. Like when playing in the cave in the third chapter of Leon's campaign I paused for a moment to answer a text and then chilled and listened to the music for a minute. And some of the music does a great job at capturing the vibe of the original ps1 trilogy. 

Jake’s story is definitely the most interesting except it’s better played in game order as opposed to chronological order like I did originally. His campaign in general is the most interesting in that it combines the other two but is actually a little less cheesy but still has some of that action movie cringe but not at the level of Leon’s wannabe Evil Dead campiness and Chris’ over the top Fast and Furious vibe that feels like all Chris cares about is family without ever saying the word family but the vibe is definitely there. But Jake’s campaign actually feels like the successor to RE5. I feel if they remade RE6 it should mostly just focus on Jake’s story with maybe just little instances of playing Leon and Chris kind of like how it is when playing Chris in RE8. 

The story tries to give Jake a character arc but it feels kinda forced. This is definitely something that can be developed a lot better in a remake. Chris somewhat gets one too but his is more that the start of the arc isn’t developed as much and so that can be something developed on both a remake of RE5 and RE6. Maybe RE5 sews the seeds for what is to develop with Chris in RE6. Maybe there’s more hesitation seen in him killing Wesker which can be developed more with remakes of RE1 and RE Code Veronica. I kind of realize the perfect marketing opportunity Capcom has for themselves after RE9 is out in remaking all the games that develop the rivalry between Chris and Wesker and maybe RE10 will be a follow up to this one with Chris and Jake.   Also in a remake of RE6 they can continue the pursuer mechanic and maybe do something even more next level with Ustanak pursuing Jake and Sherry. Of course another big thing of potential that can be worked with on remake would be developing Jake and Sherry’s relationship more. It’s cool what they did with bringing together the estranged children of Wesker and Birkin to work together like their fathers but to save the world. 

One random criticism I have is when playing Sherry any time you get to a co-op door Jake’s “I know what I’m doing" reply gets so annoying. Like why did they include that. It feels like because of his troubled past in making him a rough around the edges person they diminish that with having him lash out at times when it makes absolutely no sense. I understand trauma can cause harsh reactions unknown to the person but I feel realistically that wouldn’t be a time. Now if I pressed the circle button again causing Sherry to yell at him then yeah that reaction makes sense but not as a reaction to just saying I’m at the destination ready when you are. Minor complaint but with the other so bad it’s good stuff in the game this just becomes annoying.

Ada’s campaign is very mixed to me. The first chapter is annoying because you’re forced to do stealth but the game isn’t made for stealth gameplay so I just ran past the enemies to proceed which I ended up doing in multiple sections of her story because playing it after the other three it didn’t have the same kind of fun to it. Some parts were ok like with the puzzle sections in it and I generally enjoyed how it tried upping the ante on everything like having the stealth serve as another level of horror and then it had its extra action movie cheese with things like the helicopter chase but it feels like the responses she has to everything is so forced like she’s trying to make herself laugh because she’s just thinking and not talking to anyone.  I feel in a remake this is another thing that can be fixed because it just seems like lazy writing and I'm hopeful with how the remakes have portrayed Ada, it would be fixed because in RE6 she just comes off completely narcissistic which to an extent she is but it's very cartoon villain like to me and I feel she's really more grounded than that.

In the end, I'm really happy I played through RE6 again.  This doesn't only have me excited for RE9 but also the future even more so with where Capcom will from here with seeing the potential they have to work with and knowing that they're thinking about and learning from the mistakes of RE6 like how they mentioned it directly in the marketing for RE9, it has me excited that they are planning to possibly go this direction that can redeem the legacy of the series and who knows, maybe a remake of RE6 can be so good that the ironic thing will be that the game that once was known as the worst entry in the mainline series can maybe become the best remake.  Anything's possible.