During an IGN interview before Resident Evil 6’s release, producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi proudly labelled the game as the “ultimate horror entertainment.” As described by him, the goal of the team at Capcom was to “balance all the things people love about the series” including “the horror experience” alongside the “action elements of the RE series.” I present these quotes without comment, alongside the accompanying image of two characters fleeing a tank during a chase section. If my coop partner and I had to endure this segment as many times as we did, then you’ll have to at least know that it exists.
The failure of RE6 is well known and I’m not here to debate its hard-fought position deep in the bargain bin. Despite decent initial sales, the fan and critic backlash drowned out most other discussion about the game and Capcom has clearly taken note in their output since.
But I am here to ask, almost 14 years later, if the game deserves this reputation. After the creative pivot towards a more intimate, first-person horror experience with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village, the series seems finally ready to return to some of the threads left open by 6. The upcoming Resident Evil Requiem proudly declares that Leon S. Kennedy is back, looking older and grungier than he looked even in 6. Trailers have also revealed snippets of a multi-protagonist structure, moody colour palette, city street environments and flashy kill animations that were all hallmarks of the franchise’s maligned sixth entry. Maybe, now that the franchise’s reputation and prestige are restored with a streak of new entries and successful remakes, we can look at this hated action blockbuster more fondly?
Well, I direct you again to the image of that tank section. Whatever your feelings are on the game if you’ve not yet played it, I guarantee they’ll more or less echo your reaction to that. A jumping-the-shark moment for the franchise? Possibly, although we’ve already boulder-punched and backflipped our way past that in previous titles. A fun bit of self-aware camp that doesn’t take itself too seriously? Maybe if you squint. A functioning video game that’s fun all the way through? Not in the least.
Talking about RE6 as a singular experience is a bit misleading. The game is chopped up into several disjointed campaigns that each attempt to serve the player something different. As the saying always goes, quantity over quality. You have Leon’s campaign, a mostly passable action game that has delusions of being a survival horror experience. The player will be taken through dark city streets, underground crypts and though it never even approaches being “scary,” there is at least a semblance of mood and atmosphere. Sure, other RE games deliver more tension in ten minutes then this game delivers its entire runtime. Yes, maybe the combat is much more satisfying in RE4 and RE5, where the player has full control over their weapon arsenal and the satisfying melee executions aren’t hampered by a restrictive stamina system. But the game’s fighting has some merit, allowing you to dive and roll around with greater fluidity than the past. Leon is a fan-favourite character, the plot has enough intrigue to carry for a few hours, while the relentless pace of new locations keeps boredom at bay. For a time.
Chris’ campaign is where the experience sheds this false skin. What lies beneath is the military shooter the game always wished to be. It also abandons any conceits of being scary (or really being ‘good’ or ‘fun’ or ‘playable’ beyond the silliness of what will happen in each cutscene.) The height of gameplay is facing off against zombie enemies that are shooting guns, piloting tanks or helicopters and genuinely doing very un-zombie-like things. You might find yourself questioning why they’re even zombies at all. You might wonder why neither your coop partner nor you are capable of opening doors without the other’s express approval. Or why ammo isn’t shareable in stacks lower than 50. Or why the game needs to end every scene with an explosion and/or car crash. The game isn’t interested in answering these dilemmas any more than it’s willing to divulge the narrative threads raised by its own ridiculous plot.
If you want answers to some of the game’s bizarre mysteries – such as how one of the characters might possibly have been birthed from an egg – you’ll need to play Jake and/or Ada’s campaign. These are clearly the least polished of the four, as whatever levels aren’t recycled from previous campaigns clearly show the strain Capcom were under to deliver. RE6 takes about 20 hours to complete, some of the longest playtime in the franchise, yet the recycling of the Eastern Europe, Underwater Base and China levels makes it seem like only enough content for half that length. Jake and Sherry’s campaigns are particularly egregious for drawing upon the most irritating escort/boss sections of Chris’ missions, combined with the most slapdash romantic tension in a franchise that’s not exactly renowned for relationship writing. I’d much rather buy a potential romance between Chris and his identical gruff military buddy, Piers. At least they’ve got something more in common than their antibodies.
But Ada’s campaign is when the bottom falls out on the whole experience. Clearly, the missions where you play as international super spy and long-running franchise anti-hero Ada Wong was where the least of the development time went, which is a massive shame. Ada is the character who feels most at home in the series’s most ridiculous moments, with her quips, fashion and fondness for improbable stunts. Alas, the coop is so poorly implemented in her campaign that it renders the serious conspiracy narrative into an unintentional comedy. The player 2 character, Agent, is hastily inserted into every scene and can’t keep up with Ada’s grappling hook movements. As such, he suddenly teleports in the moment every cutscene ends. One memorable instance was when I, as Ada, closed the door on my co-op partner, only to find them just standing thereon the other side.
Another such moment was suddenly finding them on a descending lift as Ada navigates an elevator shaft with a grappling hook. Clearly, Player 2 has special abilities beyond most people’s comprehension. And yet, they are unable to perform simple actions like opening chests or doors, doing puzzles or generally interacting with the environment beyond moving and shooting. That is, after all, most of what Resident Evil 6 wants you to do. It just likes to pretend to itself and the player that it’s something more than that.
As I mentioned before, there is something to like about the game’s combat. It’s completely ill-fitting for a survival horror and restricted by its insane stamina system. Still, it’s hard not to see the potential for some Devil May Cry type action game, similar to how that series spawned originally as an offshoot of RE4. A possible RE6 that prioritises those roundhouse kicks and one-hit punches over the repetitive helicopter fights and chase sequences; which rewards stylish combos over careful management of limited resources; which doesn’t make the player pause to regain stamina or engage with a healing system that makes death seem preferable. But that would be recommending a game that doesn’t exist, beyond possibly some of the game’s optional bonus modes. This is a review of a game that we have, not a pipedream of one that we don’t.
And yet, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy my time with Resident Evil 6 in an ironic sort of way. I do still recommend this game and it’s exactly for the reasons that I’ve listed above, which earned it such a deservedly poor reception upon launch. The game is a fascinating time capsule into the era of gaming in the early 2010s, where many gaming franchises were chasing mass appeal over their established audiences. Among its horror contemporaries, Resident Evil 6 is joined by other sequels like Dead Space 3 or Fear 3 for attempting to crowbar co-op play into franchises known for their tense, single-player gameplay.
As such, it makes for a cooperative experience like no other; a game that you’re just as much laughing at the game design as experiencing it while playing. There’s a sheer fascination in the chaos of how much went wrong here, how something like this could possibly exist in the same franchise that houses the incredible atmosphere of Resident Evil’s Spencer Mansion, the polished gameplay loop of Resident Evil 4 or the fantastical art direction of Resident Evil Village’s snowy valleys and castles. The game’s absurd escalation is a distinct identity of its own, even if it could never serve as a stable foundation for the franchise to move forward.
Whether Resident Evil Requiem continues the lengthy win streak Capcom has been on since they revived the series with RE7 or falls back into the absurd elements of 5 and 6 remains to be seen. However, one thing is for certain; it’ll undoubtedly be entertaining to find out where it lands on the silly scale. And, of course, there will most definitely be some giant tentacle creature, a rocket launcher and a stupid one-liner to cap it all off.
Featured Image credit: Capcom
