Resident Evil 6 (2012)

Been playing this off and on with a friend over the past month, as part of our slow-but-steady "play through all the main Resident Evils games"-athon. (Going with remakes when applicable, as they're what's more readily available.)

Wow! This game is not good. Each campaign is a real slog. Lots of filler, and none of it fun to get through. I'd say this is of course not a hot take at all, but looking at the ratings on Grouvee, apparently about 700 of you gave it 4 or 5 stars. About 900 gave it 1 or 2 stars, meanwhile. So I guess that makes this technically a very divisive game, rather than a merely despised one. (I'm definitely in the 1-star camp at the moment...)

I've been playing games my entire life, and RE6 may be the first game that gives me headaches when I play it. It's just a constant stream of set-piece bombardment and the spectacle gets old very quickly....Then it just doesn't stop. Over the course of a couple sessions I played through Leon 2 and everyone's chapter 1, and now I feel exhausted and need a shower. I just can't with this game anymore.

The ambulance insta-killing me at the gas station with BARELY a warning was a pretty hilarious moment though.

I'm doing a marathon of Resident Evil,  waiting for the Village. So I finally started RE6 - the forgotten one.

Just beaten Leon's campaign, and probably wouldn't have the effort to play by myself. But on COOP mode is actually really fun. More efficient than on 5 and still opening doors with a lot of style.

It's tacky - but great to play on Lockdown weekends.

I've played this years ago back when it was released and just like the others I was really disappointed that Capcom abandoned the survival horror aspect that makes the series so good. But now that I've played this again, I realized how fun it actually is. The combat is very flashy with all sorts of moves you can pull off and there's enough enemy variety to keep things fresh. Co-op with a friend make this game super easy, even on No Hope difficulty (as long as you work together nicely).

Currently playing this in chronological order that I found posted on Steam forum to mix things up a bit.

Beat all campaigns on Veteran. Started with Leon. Coming from 4 and 5 it was nice to see proper controls but it was not until the next campaign that I mastered the controls, particularly the dodge. I got my ass kicked a lot due to the enemies being so fast and damaging. I soon learned that my AI partner was using god mode and infinite ammo so I stated just running around letting her kill most things. Sometimes I would do unarmed and knife attacks and I got quite good at melee combat. The entire 1st town was a poor experience with ridiculous odds against you, especially fighting the obese ones in tight quarters. I smacked my head so many times on the mine cart ride that I lost much of my herbs. Worst part was when the regenerating one tries to push Leon into a meat grinder and I failed it a dozen times. Jesus fucking Christ quick time events. I had to stop using my thumb and rotate the stick using my entire other hand. The only thing worse than instant game over QTEs is ones that also make you put extra wear and tear on your hardware! I struggled a bit on the final boss trying to figure out what the game wanted me to do with the lightning rod and checked a walkthrough. Why does the boss have to have a stupid gimmick instead of a simple health bar to deplete?

My overall experience thus far was ruined by being too busy swearing at the QTEs and other bullshit, and rolling my eyes at the ridiculous over the top action cutscenes and absurd boss concepts. I next did Chris on Amateur because I thought it would lessen the QTEs as I read on a walkthrough. It was fun but not challenging. I did have to check a walkthrough for another stupid gimmick final boss fight. I then did Chris on Veteran to see how much difference there would be. By this time I had 4 skills maxed out; increased item drop, lock on, defense and field medic. Should have gotten field medic back with Leon because it is essential for bosses, but I managed. It was interesting doing Chris on Veteran because I only had ammo for sniper and grenade launcher starting off. There was not much difference from Amateur though, mainly the big armored ones were a lot harder to take down and the helicopter bosses required some serious field medic abuse. I enjoyed Chris's campaign the most because it has the least amount of bullshit.

Next I did Sherry, but first I took a better look through the options for the QTE helper after looking up online. It was off, god damn. I also found the FOV settings and put those up to max; much better. I did not have much trouble with this campaign and experimented with how much benefit the QTE helper gave; not enough but better than without. Most notable experience was after she was captured and was going around in hospital coverings with only the stun rod. I completely failed at stealth and had to kill everything. One turned into the big armored type and I was like: how the hell am I going to kill that? Gun turret did it. Then I did Ada. I had to look up solutions to a couple puzzles and the face boss; I ran out of ammo trying to figure that one out. I found this campaign closest to proper survival horror without a partner but it still had plenty of bullshit. Got my only S rank on Ada's last chapter, which was the best chapter in the entire game because you get to fly a helicopter and there are no QTEs. Started with Cs in Leon and worked up to mostly As. Got infinite assault rifle ammo since I felt that would be the most useful. Tried mercenary mode as Chris and did each map once for an E. Never was a fan of this mode.

My overall experience with this game was a wide range from atrocious garbage to masterful. The core gameplay is an improvement over 4 and 5 but there are so many terrible mechanics. I absolutely hated every QTE, running sequence and any similar part (the turret, driving and helicopter parts are cool though). Just give me a level populated with enemies, resources and maybe the occasional puzzle. Goal; get to the end without dying. Pretty much every part of this game that I disliked should have simply been a cutscene or not even in the game. Might play again on higher difficultly in the future, maybe.

RE6 is an absolutely atrocious mess of ambition, fan service and overdesign. It is by far the worst mainline Resident Evil, maybe besides Zero. It is a painful experience, lasting several tens of hours of endless combat encounters, QTEs, explosions and broken action sequences. It is the RE game that rightfully is pointed to when people lament the pervasive influence of 7th generation dumb-dumb military shooters and bad third-person action games.

But it has been so fun to suffer through with my friend in co-op, and there are few games with as much unintentional humor as RE6.