The Resident Evil 6 demo is live and I’m crazy psyched to give it a full run. My buddy and I tinkered with it for 5 minutes but wanted to save the whole thing for when we had a little free time. As the game is coming out in just a few weeks, I thought I’d talk about how this game will compare to Resident Evil 5.
Now, I’ve professed my love for RE5 before. The game, released in March three years ago, has really set the standard for action games and the layout for them. Now, I won’t even give forum to anyone complaining about survival horror. This is an action game and I would have it no other way. I love Resident Evil and sincerely hope RE6 can live up to the excellence of the last installment.
So, what does RE6 need to do to match/trump its predecessor. Here is my opinion.
Layout
First off, it needs to match the fifth game in its spectacular layout. By this, I mean the save-game system must remain as it did. Though I had to cancel my GameFly subscription, I have played a lot of games over the past few years and I haven’t found one with such an impeccable layout. Your save game keeps track of each level on each difficulty, time, collectibles and itinerary. This makes it easy to jump into and out of, and I never lost data because my game wasn’t saved properly. I love it and this must return.
Scope
Having played RE5 so many times, I kind of forgot how massive it was. From the humble city-streets beginning to the grandiose finale, Chris and Sheva went through a huge world of diverse excitement. While I know RE6 will have three story arcs taking place in different places (though crossing), I hope it keeps that feel of an enormous journey rather than a jumpy collection of short stories.
Replay Value
To say this again…I beat part 5 on the PS3, then went back and did it on Veteran mode. I played through it on the easy setting and got the infinite rocket launcher. Later, I played the game with a friend on Professional…which was brutal. In order to get the platinum trophy, I went through everything again.
A different friend never played it, so we trudged through the game on the Xbox360. I couldn’t help myself, so I beat it on Veteran myself and did most of it all again just to collect stuff.
I lost my save game on the PS3, then went through AGAIN…to say I loved this game would be an understatement and I desire to have that feeling again. I loved redoing it all to get the treasures, to save up for the guns, to power them up. Very few games really give me such a rewarding feeling and I certainly hope we have plenty of unlockables (infinite rocket launchers were awesome!) as well as great Mercenaries/Versus modes again.
Power
Being surrounded by enemies in the first jungle area was an overwhelming feeling. Those giants would wreck me and all those smaller guys around me were killing me. I grabbed that magnum and, in the midst of the madness, shot a round at a masked foe. It felt HUGE. The guns really felt like they scaled as the game progressed. Handguns were OK but shotguns were brutal! So, when I unlocked the infinite rocket launcher, I was in heaven. This was just a progression from Resident Evil 4, so I expect this to return in full force. Having played the demo, head shots are just as rewarding as they ever were. So good!
Thrills
To reiterate, RE is no longer about crawling through hallways with a horrible, yet intense control scheme. It’s a Hollywood movie with all the excitement and thrills of any summer blockbuster. Nothing displays this more potently than Uncharted 2. It was so outrageous and I ate up every minute of it. What will RE6 be all about? I can’t say I care. I want it to be a huge production, with twists, good voice acting, enormous explosions and much, much more.
Honestly, if the gameplay can improve on RE5’s and make it look super slick, I’ll be sold. That may sound like I’m selling it all short, but I guess that’s a testament to how much I love the series. This game should be intense, huge in scope, powerful and thrilling with a great layout and tons of replay value. I am so psyched for it to come out. Tonight…to put down Borderlands 2 for a little bit and play the demo. Rock and roll!!!
