Demo Reel: Resident Evil 6

We swear, we don’t have split-personalities around here, but the recent demo for Resident Evil 6 demanded the attentions of more than one reviewer. The first part was written about Chris Redfield’s portion by Tabitha Wang and the second part focuses on new character Jake and was written by myself. Sit back, relax, and enjoy these transatlantic impressions for the newest entry in the Resident Evil series.

Meet Chris Redfield. You know, the guy from Resident Evil 5? He’s all washed up now, kinda like Max Payne…

That’s how we’re introduced to Mr. Redfield in Resident Evil 6‘s rather brief demo. After being treated to some flashy purple giraffe logos, we get a rather stark look at what became of the hero in the previous ResiEvil title.

He’s drunk. He’s belligerent. And he doesn’t want to give a damn. And yet, he’s forced to give a damn when ResiEvil newcomer Piers Nivans magically recognizes him and proceeds to re-introduce him to all of his past horrors. In a typical Capcom moment, all the other patrons of the dark bar reveal themselves to be part of Piers’ unit, come back to retrieve their beloved captain. This unit ain’t leaving nobody behind.

Capcom doesn’t waste its breath in telling you that Resident Evil 6 will have a fair amount of action. Playing through Chris’ scenario will definitely tell you that. There’s barely a shred of its former horror-styled self as players are unceremoniously dropped onto a rooftop and told to simply make their way to a hotel codenamed “Ace of Spades.” A group of UN bigwigs have been trapped by — you guessed it — terrorists, who are wearing gas masks and have obtained zombie-morphing powers. It’s almost like staring down a gun barrel at re-imagined Necromorphs, with twisted arms and half moth-like bodies flailing around. I kid you not.

The painfully obvious point is that Chris’ scenario will feature a lot of action-movie sequences, complete with a rooftop firefight against mighty morphin’ terrorists toting assault rifles. With some nicely imagined environs and razor-clean textures, it will definitely get any ResiEvil fans’ blood pumping.

However, one painfully obvious flaw to the demo was the unfinished feel of the controls. In comparison to recent third-person shooters like Gears of War or even Dead Space, Resident Evil 6‘s controls, especially dodging or covering, felt clunky. I probably was doing it wrong, and perhaps this really is an improvement over Resident Evil 5, but it almost felt like an over-complication of something that could have been very simple. Perhaps the finished product will see a refinement, but we can only hope at this point with an October 2nd release date.

Overall, Resident Evil 6 is shaping up to be a decent title, one that fans of the series surely must have.

Meet Jake. Jake is Albert Wesker’s son. We know, that Wesker guy was a bit of a dick, but that doesn’t mean his son is. …right?

Jake is the newest character to be included in the Resident Evil series and has some big boots to fill being the son of evil mastermind Albert Wesker. Jake is accompanied by another newcomer, Shelley, in his portion of the Resi 6 demo – what role they play in the bigger story is still a bit of mystery, despite the fact we know Jake’s heritage is quite important. His portion of the demo is very self contained and is essentially a boss fight.

From the start you can tell this game is a bit more influenced by recent action games such as Uncharted. You’re immediately dropped into the action having to run towards the camera and away from the hulking mutant that clearly isn’t friendly. The handling of Jake is more like Leon than Chris – lots of acrobatics are used and melee combat is a massive part of the fighting you can adopt. Guns are still present but getting up close and dealing damage with your fists is encouraged a lot more.

This new installment does feel a lot closer to more classic Resi than the previous outing featuring Chris and Sheva. The camera appears to be pulled in a lot tighter and the environments also play to this, consisting of tight corners and dark corridors. Exploration of your surroundings will provide you with rewards – found by breaking crates and within other items. The similarities that Jake’s sections have with Uncharted don’t just end with the action sequences, but also the one liners that the character comes out with are reminiscent of Drake.

In the last portion of the demo you get to take on the goliath that started out chasing you amidst of a handful of more basic enemies, taking place in an open warehouse environment where you have to bait and shoot the creature using strategically placed explosives and your firearms. While your teammate will be key to getting you out of a jam if you get too close to the beast, the enemy AI is quite dumb, perhaps for the purposes of allowing you to get more hands on fighting done than posing an actual threat.

Resident Evil 6 in all is a very good looking game – through its environments, effects and characters, even at this stage it looks pretty faultless. Hopefully things can only get better in the run up to launch this October.