Resident Evil 6 Is Great

Resident Evil 6 sits between a 60 and 74 on Metacritic depending on the platform, it is seen by many a Resident Evil fan as a game that is not a true Resident Evil game, and I personally have only met one other person who likes Resident Evil 6, with everyone else who I’ve talked to about the game describing it most favourably as “shit”.

Well they’re wrong because Resident Evil 6 is not just a great game but a great Resident Evil game.

First zombie ever in RE. This guy caused so much trauma.

Resident Evil began life as a survival horror game taking place in a mansion full of zombies and other bio experiments gone wrong. It is a game of suspense, dwindling resources and isolation, and despite its almost ancient presentation it still holds up remarkably well. That ancient presentation is paired up with a sense of humour and self awareness few other games had at the time, with classic endlessly memed lines like “you were almost a Jill Sandwich” and its bizarre live action intro. Resident Evil has never been a series that has taken itself entirely seriously, a good helping of cheesy one liners is just as essential to Resident Evil as zombies.

The series would go on to get many sequels with each one increasing the focus on action, every new game in the series had more ammo, enemies and explosions than the last. Then with Resident Evil 4 the series went full action horror, dropping any pretence of it being a survival horror experience. The most immediate change was swapping the tank controlled fixed camera angles of the PS1 games for a new over the shoulder third person camera, setting the standard for almost every third person action game to follow.

Many fans were disappointed in 4 at it’s release due to it ditching the classic gameplay for its action heavy approach, but the game became the best selling game in the series so far and Capcom did what any company would do and make the next sequels more in line with Resident Evil 4.

By the time Resident Evil 6 arrived on store shelves in October 2012 Resident Evil had become a full fledged third person shooter action series, with the only recent game that could be considered even remotely survival horror being Resident Evil Revelations.

Fans felt disillusioned, the game failed to meet initial sales expectations and it got middling review scores from critics. This caused a critical reassessment of the franchise by Capcom and we got Resident Evil 7: Biohazard 5 year later, leaving 6 nothing much more than a game that would rather be forgotten by the fanbase.

Which is a shame because Resident Evil 6 is one of the best co-op campaigns you could ever hope to play with a friend. 6 follows on from the immensely successful Resident Evil 5 which incorporated a second playable character so the whole game could be played in co-op. Co-op in Resident Evil 5 felt unnecessary and tacked on as it offered little in terms of gameplay and the additional character added even less to the story. 6 is a game that demands to be played with a friend and it is so much more fun for it.

The game comprises 3 separate campaigns, one focusing on Leon S Kennedy, one about Chris Redfield and one for newcomer Jake Muller with each being between 4 and 6 hours long and a bonus campaign designed for single player that is around 2 hours. These campaigns all tell stories that cross over with one another and form one larger story once you have played all the campaigns.

Leon’s campaign is by far the worst full length campaign. It’s too long, repetitive and gets stale quickly, which is a shame because if you look at steam achievements it is the campaign that is the most widely played out of the 3. Despite that it has a mutant dinosaur and a minecart chase so it still has its moments.

But Chris’s and Jake’s campaigns are wonderful action roller coasters.

Jake’s campaign starts in Eastern Europe fighting bioweapons that are 3 stories tall that you have to clamber over, moves to a motorbike chase through a zombie infested Chinese city and ends with a fist fight over a pit of molten lava with your nemesis like pursuer who's been chasing you the whole campaign.

Chris' campaign involves an invisible snake, fighter jets and shooting lighting out your hands in a climactic fight in an underwater base. These are what make Resident Evil 6 special . These campaigns are designed for co-op and have so many incredibly fun moments that could only be fully appreciated with multiplayer. I lost count of how many times me and the friend I was playing with burst out laughing at what was happening because it was so ridiculous and fun to experience.

All of this is tied together with a ridiculously fun combat system which allows you to go from performing wrestling moves on zombies to pulling headshots in about 2 button presses and it flows wonderfully.

Resident Evil 6 is a beautiful game. It is as much a core Resident Evil game as Resident Evil 1 and has as much of the series identity inside of it to not only be a great co-op experience you play over a few nights with a friend but also a great Resident Evil experience that signalled the end of the series “action” focused titles. If you want to play a good cheap game with a friend you cannot go wrong with Resident Evil 6... but don't start with Leon’s campaign.

You can get Resident evil 6 for ps4, xbox one and Nintendo Switch

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