Chaos Raiden
Avid Gamer & Reviewer
Story
This game takes place after the events of Resident Evil 5. There are four main storylines interwoven in the game that forms a coherent, complete storyline by only playing all four campaigns. Although each scenarios start and end differently, it will intersect with each other scenarios where it gives a better understanding as to what actually happens in a scenario of a campaign.
- Leon's story starts at Tall Oaks, where he needs to find the mystery of the C-Virus outbreak as well as getting answers from a Secret Service agent, Helena Harper.
- Chris's story starts at China, where he wants to get his revenge against Ada Wong, for killing his squadmates by infecting them with the C-Virus, as well as eliminating the bioterrorism act in China. His subordinate, Piers Nivans accompanies him throughout the mission, as his loyal squadmate as well as his conscience.
- Jake's story starts at Edonia, where he is accompanied by a DSO agent named Sherry Birkin to make vaccines for the C-Virus, since Jake has antibodies of it.
I find that the storyline of the game is exceptionally well-done, with good use of clashing several scenarios into making a comprehensive single storyline. By playing a single campaign at first, you can't help but feel as to why and how that thing happened in your current playthrough. The only way for you to find out is by playing other scenarios to fully understand the storyline. However, this in turn causes me to dislike the multiple storylines as well, because it makes me feel that each campaign's storylines are rather short. I personally would love to have the game's storyline to be focused on Leon and Jake's scenarios, since Chris's scenario is rather unnecessary. Even better, make the whole game focuses on only Leon's story like in Resident Evil 4. In a way, I prefer how the storyline is presented and revealed in Resident Evil 5 than Resident Evil 6. However, I feel that Resident Evil 6's storyline is overall stronger and more intriguing than Resident Evil 5.
The characters in this game are fairly more interesting, with many recurring characters such as Leon, Ada, Sherry, Chris, and etc. I find that new characters such as Jake are interesting as well, where I am looking forward to Jake Muller being the star of the possibly next Resident Evil game.
Gameplay
Since the gameplay is overall similar to Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, it is better for me to talk new gameplay features in the game instead of talking the same thing all over again.
Each campaign has different tone in playing, where it contrasts each other campaigns with types of enemies encountered, as well as the atmosphere. For example, Leon's campaign has more horror atmosphere than other campaigns, while Chris's campaign plays similar to other third person shooter games available in the market. There are four Campaigns, with five Chapters included in each Campaign in total of 20 Chapters.
For the first three campaigns, you can choose a character to play with throughout the game. Each character have different weapons, melee combats, as well as paths to play with. As for the fourth chapter, you can only play solo and it can only be unlocked by beating the first three Campaigns.
Gameplay largely remains as a third person shooter game, where you can now aim and shoot while aiming. You can also do other movements such as side roll while aiming, or laying on your back on the ground to dodge enemy attacks. You may also crawl on the ground to avoid detection or dangerous obstacles such as rotating buzzsaws on the walls. You can also sprint to arrive faster at your destination, or while playing in escape sequences. Also another new feature is free cover system, where you can take cover on any walls to avoid damage. You cal also use Quick Shot to shoot enemies quickly, in case you are in danger of being attacked by enemies close by.
This time, you can now use melee attacks freely to attack enemies or break boxes/chests to obtain items. You may also use a combo melee attack on enemies to save ammo. However, using physically demanding moves such as melee attacks or etc will drain your Combat Gauge. If your Combat Gauge is empty, your character will be fatigued a while, unable to run faster or use weaker melee attacks. Your Combat Gauge will replenish over time by standing still or by not doing other actions while running/walking.
Your Health Gauge is represented in blocks. If one block is not fully depleted, it will regenerate over time. However, if one Health block is depleted, it will be lost and can only be recovered by using Health Tablets or First Aid Spray. Health Tablets is made by mixing several Green Herbs together, or by mixing Red Herb and Green Herb together. In this game, healing items are fairly sparse and limited in the game, thus extra caution should be taken to preserve your tablets supply. If your Health is depleted, you will enter into a dying state where you can revive back by holding out for a certain period of time. If you are hit while in dying state, you will die. If you have recovered from dying state and hit by an attack, you will also die. You can always call your partner to revive you back if you are overwhelmed by multiple enemies.
Items in the game are common to obtain, by breaking boxes/chests or by defeating enemies. However, they are more fairly limited and sparse in this game compared to previous Resident Evil game. Also, you do not have a case or a store to keep your spare items. Items management is fairly important in the game, since you can only carry a certain number of items at the same time. Since your items will be carried over to every Chapter in the game, you should take extra caution with your item count to avoid shorthanded or having too many of it. As for weapons, you can find them in different Chapters in the game while playing. However, only that character that you control can use that particular weapon, since you can't share items or weapons with your partner like Resident Evil 5.
As you play in the game, you will encounter a large variety of enemies, such as zombies and J'avos, as well as a variety of B.O.W.s. All enemies in this game are fairly unique in terms of attack patterns, design, and etc. For example, zombies are weak against incendiary weapons such as Incendiary Grenades. You will find that each enemy in this game are rather aggressive, where many of them have dangerous one hit kill attacks. Bosses in this game are fairly tough and challenging, and as you might have guessed, they would need a lot more ammo and specific strategy to beat them.
Progression in this game is fairly linear, but can be challenging to players unfamiliar with Resident Evil seris due to inclusion of several creative puzzles. There is a marker that shows where you are supposed to go next, and you may also activate your GPS to show the exact direction to go to your next marker. There are also puzzles in the game, which I find many of them to be creative. You also have to work together with your partner to solve a number of puzzles or overcome obstacles.
There are a number of QTEs in the game, such as to avoid certain death by an enemy in combat or during QTE sequences. Failure to complete them will result to Game Over, thus forcing you to retry from a Checkpoint. There are also other sequences included in the game, such as car chasing and helicopter sequences.
After competing a Chapter, you will be ranked accordingly with how many enemies you have killed, how fast you finished the chapter, your accuracy, and number of deaths. It is fairly cosmetic since the ranking will not reward you anything. You may also get recognition of accomplishments, such as saved your partner or executed a number of headshots in a row.
Another new feature to this game is the Skills system. Skills are useful abilities that can be used while playing in the campaign, such as increased ammo drop or increased firepower. Skills can only be purchased by spending Skill Points, which can be obtained by enemy drops or playing The Mercenaries. You may also find Skill Points in attache cases scattered in the game's Chapters. You can equip a set of three Skills at a time, and you may swap Skills anytime in the main menu or after competing a Chapter.
I find that the overall gameplay is better than Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, but the new features implemented in the game are fairly standard and not outstanding. Thanks to the new movement controls, I feel that this game is fairly easier to move your characters, such as moving while aiming. However, other features such as cover system, healing system, and etc are fairly boring and generic. I especially dislike the cover system, where I need to press the Action button and the Aiming button at the same time to take cover. The controls are improved compared to previous Resident Evil games, but could have be done so much better. Many of the QTE sequences in this game are rather cheap in design, where oftenly enough will cause players to die a lot by not reacting in time when the button prompt comes out on the screen.
As for the campaigns, I like Leon's campaign the best, since it emulates a lot of classic Resident Evil games' style and atmosphere, as well as having the most solid storyline. Ada's campaign is second best, with fairly good mix of combat and puzzles. As for Jake's and Chris's campaigns, they are not very outstanding and generic, with not much good use of horror atmosphere like Leon's campaign. Like I said earlier, I personally feel that a single campaign focusing on Leon's story with 20 chapters is much more better and preferable compared to multiple campaigns, due to many reasons. First, it gives me a much better reason to like the main character. Second, the storyline will be much more focused in terms of pacing. Two separate campaigns are the maximum number of campaigns I can tolerate, but four campaigns are actually pushing it, since each campaign can be redundant when they are played many times. However, the main draws of each campaigns are the storyline and the long playing time of each Chapter.
Graphics
The graphics are exceptionally great, with heavily detailed environments, character models, and etc. It is amazing how Capcom make a game with such incredible graphics, and they proved to be one of the developers that can make exceptionally great looking games. So far, I do not encounter any bugs and glitches, which is a bonus to me.
Like previous Capcom games such as Resident Evil 5 and Devil May Cry 4, the motion capture performance in the game is fairly great, with matched lip syncing of characters as well as realistic character movements. Two noticeable motion capture actors in the game that I know of are Reuben Langdon and Daniel Southworth, both known to be the voice actors as well as motion capture actors from Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry 4.
Sound
It is noticeable that many of previous voice actors from previous Resident Evil games do not reprise their roles, such as Paul Mercier as Leon or Sally Cahill as Ada Wong. However, their replacement voice actors (Matthew Mercer as Leon and Courtenay Taylor as Ada Wong) did fairly great job in voicing their characters, as well as many other old and new characters voiced by veteran voice actors such as Roger Craig Smith, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and others.
The soundtrack is fairly good, with good use of horror style themes, ambience, and action tracks. I find that the game's music fits perfectly the game's atmosphere and tone.
Replay Value
as Professional mode or play The Mercenaries and Agent Hunt with your friends. You may also want to play the game's campaigns with your friends, whether offline or online. You may also want to shoot all Serpent Emblems to obtain files that will provide you more knowledge about Resident Evil 6's storyline. You might also want to play the first three campaigns as different characters, since each characters in the game are fairly unique, such as melee moves, weapons, etc.
Conclusion
Play all four campaigns to uncover the mystery of the events happening in Resident Evil 6.
This game takes place after the events of Resident Evil 5. There are four main storylines interwoven in the game that forms a coherent, complete storyline by only playing all four campaigns. Although each scenarios start and end differently, it will intersect with each other scenarios where it gives a better understanding as to what actually happens in a scenario of a campaign.
- Leon's story starts at Tall Oaks, where he needs to find the mystery of the C-Virus outbreak as well as getting answers from a Secret Service agent, Helena Harper.
- Chris's story starts at China, where he wants to get his revenge against Ada Wong, for killing his squadmates by infecting them with the C-Virus, as well as eliminating the bioterrorism act in China. His subordinate, Piers Nivans accompanies him throughout the mission, as his loyal squadmate as well as his conscience.
- Jake's story starts at Edonia, where he is accompanied by a DSO agent named Sherry Birkin to make vaccines for the C-Virus, since Jake has antibodies of it.
I find that the storyline of the game is exceptionally well-done, with good use of clashing several scenarios into making a comprehensive single storyline. By playing a single campaign at first, you can't help but feel as to why and how that thing happened in your current playthrough. The only way for you to find out is by playing other scenarios to fully understand the storyline. However, this in turn causes me to dislike the multiple storylines as well, because it makes me feel that each campaign's storylines are rather short. I personally would love to have the game's storyline to be focused on Leon and Jake's scenarios, since Chris's scenario is rather unnecessary. Even better, make the whole game focuses on only Leon's story like in Resident Evil 4. In a way, I prefer how the storyline is presented and revealed in Resident Evil 5 than Resident Evil 6. However, I feel that Resident Evil 6's storyline is overall stronger and more intriguing than Resident Evil 5.
The characters in this game are fairly more interesting, with many recurring characters such as Leon, Ada, Sherry, Chris, and etc. I find that new characters such as Jake are interesting as well, where I am looking forward to Jake Muller being the star of the possibly next Resident Evil game.
Gameplay
Similar gameplay to Resident Evil 5, but with more control in movement.
Since the gameplay is overall similar to Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, it is better for me to talk new gameplay features in the game instead of talking the same thing all over again.
Each campaign has different tone in playing, where it contrasts each other campaigns with types of enemies encountered, as well as the atmosphere. For example, Leon's campaign has more horror atmosphere than other campaigns, while Chris's campaign plays similar to other third person shooter games available in the market. There are four Campaigns, with five Chapters included in each Campaign in total of 20 Chapters.
For the first three campaigns, you can choose a character to play with throughout the game. Each character have different weapons, melee combats, as well as paths to play with. As for the fourth chapter, you can only play solo and it can only be unlocked by beating the first three Campaigns.
Gameplay largely remains as a third person shooter game, where you can now aim and shoot while aiming. You can also do other movements such as side roll while aiming, or laying on your back on the ground to dodge enemy attacks. You may also crawl on the ground to avoid detection or dangerous obstacles such as rotating buzzsaws on the walls. You can also sprint to arrive faster at your destination, or while playing in escape sequences. Also another new feature is free cover system, where you can take cover on any walls to avoid damage. You cal also use Quick Shot to shoot enemies quickly, in case you are in danger of being attacked by enemies close by.
This time, you can now use melee attacks freely to attack enemies or break boxes/chests to obtain items. You may also use a combo melee attack on enemies to save ammo. However, using physically demanding moves such as melee attacks or etc will drain your Combat Gauge. If your Combat Gauge is empty, your character will be fatigued a while, unable to run faster or use weaker melee attacks. Your Combat Gauge will replenish over time by standing still or by not doing other actions while running/walking.
Your Health Gauge is represented in blocks. If one block is not fully depleted, it will regenerate over time. However, if one Health block is depleted, it will be lost and can only be recovered by using Health Tablets or First Aid Spray. Health Tablets is made by mixing several Green Herbs together, or by mixing Red Herb and Green Herb together. In this game, healing items are fairly sparse and limited in the game, thus extra caution should be taken to preserve your tablets supply. If your Health is depleted, you will enter into a dying state where you can revive back by holding out for a certain period of time. If you are hit while in dying state, you will die. If you have recovered from dying state and hit by an attack, you will also die. You can always call your partner to revive you back if you are overwhelmed by multiple enemies.
Zombies are back.
Items in the game are common to obtain, by breaking boxes/chests or by defeating enemies. However, they are more fairly limited and sparse in this game compared to previous Resident Evil game. Also, you do not have a case or a store to keep your spare items. Items management is fairly important in the game, since you can only carry a certain number of items at the same time. Since your items will be carried over to every Chapter in the game, you should take extra caution with your item count to avoid shorthanded or having too many of it. As for weapons, you can find them in different Chapters in the game while playing. However, only that character that you control can use that particular weapon, since you can't share items or weapons with your partner like Resident Evil 5.
As you play in the game, you will encounter a large variety of enemies, such as zombies and J'avos, as well as a variety of B.O.W.s. All enemies in this game are fairly unique in terms of attack patterns, design, and etc. For example, zombies are weak against incendiary weapons such as Incendiary Grenades. You will find that each enemy in this game are rather aggressive, where many of them have dangerous one hit kill attacks. Bosses in this game are fairly tough and challenging, and as you might have guessed, they would need a lot more ammo and specific strategy to beat them.
Progression in this game is fairly linear, but can be challenging to players unfamiliar with Resident Evil seris due to inclusion of several creative puzzles. There is a marker that shows where you are supposed to go next, and you may also activate your GPS to show the exact direction to go to your next marker. There are also puzzles in the game, which I find many of them to be creative. You also have to work together with your partner to solve a number of puzzles or overcome obstacles.
There are a number of QTEs in the game, such as to avoid certain death by an enemy in combat or during QTE sequences. Failure to complete them will result to Game Over, thus forcing you to retry from a Checkpoint. There are also other sequences included in the game, such as car chasing and helicopter sequences.
After competing a Chapter, you will be ranked accordingly with how many enemies you have killed, how fast you finished the chapter, your accuracy, and number of deaths. It is fairly cosmetic since the ranking will not reward you anything. You may also get recognition of accomplishments, such as saved your partner or executed a number of headshots in a row.
Another new feature to this game is the Skills system. Skills are useful abilities that can be used while playing in the campaign, such as increased ammo drop or increased firepower. Skills can only be purchased by spending Skill Points, which can be obtained by enemy drops or playing The Mercenaries. You may also find Skill Points in attache cases scattered in the game's Chapters. You can equip a set of three Skills at a time, and you may swap Skills anytime in the main menu or after competing a Chapter.
Better gameplay than Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, but not exactly great as well.
I find that the overall gameplay is better than Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, but the new features implemented in the game are fairly standard and not outstanding. Thanks to the new movement controls, I feel that this game is fairly easier to move your characters, such as moving while aiming. However, other features such as cover system, healing system, and etc are fairly boring and generic. I especially dislike the cover system, where I need to press the Action button and the Aiming button at the same time to take cover. The controls are improved compared to previous Resident Evil games, but could have be done so much better. Many of the QTE sequences in this game are rather cheap in design, where oftenly enough will cause players to die a lot by not reacting in time when the button prompt comes out on the screen.
As for the campaigns, I like Leon's campaign the best, since it emulates a lot of classic Resident Evil games' style and atmosphere, as well as having the most solid storyline. Ada's campaign is second best, with fairly good mix of combat and puzzles. As for Jake's and Chris's campaigns, they are not very outstanding and generic, with not much good use of horror atmosphere like Leon's campaign. Like I said earlier, I personally feel that a single campaign focusing on Leon's story with 20 chapters is much more better and preferable compared to multiple campaigns, due to many reasons. First, it gives me a much better reason to like the main character. Second, the storyline will be much more focused in terms of pacing. Two separate campaigns are the maximum number of campaigns I can tolerate, but four campaigns are actually pushing it, since each campaign can be redundant when they are played many times. However, the main draws of each campaigns are the storyline and the long playing time of each Chapter.
Graphics
Excellent graphics.
The graphics are exceptionally great, with heavily detailed environments, character models, and etc. It is amazing how Capcom make a game with such incredible graphics, and they proved to be one of the developers that can make exceptionally great looking games. So far, I do not encounter any bugs and glitches, which is a bonus to me.
Like previous Capcom games such as Resident Evil 5 and Devil May Cry 4, the motion capture performance in the game is fairly great, with matched lip syncing of characters as well as realistic character movements. Two noticeable motion capture actors in the game that I know of are Reuben Langdon and Daniel Southworth, both known to be the voice actors as well as motion capture actors from Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry 4.
Sound
Great voice acting and good soundtrack.
It is noticeable that many of previous voice actors from previous Resident Evil games do not reprise their roles, such as Paul Mercier as Leon or Sally Cahill as Ada Wong. However, their replacement voice actors (Matthew Mercer as Leon and Courtenay Taylor as Ada Wong) did fairly great job in voicing their characters, as well as many other old and new characters voiced by veteran voice actors such as Roger Craig Smith, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and others.
The soundtrack is fairly good, with good use of horror style themes, ambience, and action tracks. I find that the game's music fits perfectly the game's atmosphere and tone.
Replay Value
Moderate replay value.
The game has moderate replay value if you decided to play the game in harder difficulties suchas Professional mode or play The Mercenaries and Agent Hunt with your friends. You may also want to play the game's campaigns with your friends, whether offline or online. You may also want to shoot all Serpent Emblems to obtain files that will provide you more knowledge about Resident Evil 6's storyline. You might also want to play the first three campaigns as different characters, since each characters in the game are fairly unique, such as melee moves, weapons, etc.
Conclusion
A solid third person shooter game, but not exceptionally great Resident Evil game.
The additional of standard third person shooter controls such as sprinting and moving while aiming are commendable, but neither of these features make this game standout in terms of gameplay design. Many of drastic changes included in this game, such as inclusion of multiple campaigns, addition of QTEs, addition of standard third person shooter controls, and etc causes this game to be indifferent or unique than other third person shooter games. At the very least, I will definitely say this game is much better than Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, but with some reservations about this game as well. The inclusion of separate and distinct campaign styles are commendable, but risky since it doesn't properly emulate survival horror atmosphere. At best, Leon's campaign is the closest thing to survival horror atmosphere, with Ada's campaign followed closely.
Overall, this game will definitely not cater to all Resident Evil fans, and possibly new players to the series as well, since this game is drastically changed into more emphasis on action as well as the uneven pacing of campaigns. Although the game's director emphasised that the game's multiple campaigns is to suit a variety of players, I think that his approach is wrong. Sticking to one style of gameplay design is preferable, with Resident Evil 4 as the best example. Perfect blend of action and horror. As for this game, I can say that action is 80%, with 20% left for the horror element. It is uneven, and will no doubt causes any Resident Evil fans to be extremely disappointed. The only actual good things I can say about this game is the great storyline for each campaigns, a variety of enemies to be fought, great voice acting, and great cutscenes. For those who does not like Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, it is almost no doubt that they will not like this game. The only thing I can suggest to all interested players is to play this game with an open heart: Accept the game as a solid third person shooter game, as well as being a flawed Resident Evil game.
Score
Story - 9/10
Gameplay - 5/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 9/10
Final Score - 32/40 or 8.0/10.0
Pros
- Exceptionally well-done main storyline.
- Interesting storyline for each campaigns.
- Distinct and unique game design for each campaigns.
- Each playable characters are unique.
- Creative puzzles.
- Zombies are back.
- Great voice acting.
- Good and fitting soundtrack.
- Incredible graphics.
- A variety of gameplay sections. (E.G. Helicopter sequence, escape sequences, etc)
- Great enemy designs, especially the B.O.W.s like Rasklapanje.
- Leon's campaign emulates the best survival horror atmosphere.
- Long playing time. (4-5 hours minimum per campaign)
Cons
- Will most likely not entertain or satisfy long-time Resident Evil fans.
- Jake's and Chris's campaigns are rather generic and mediocre.
- Cheap deaths due to many random QTEs.
- Very bad cover system.
- The addition of standard third person shooter controls made the game feels a generic third person shooter game.
- Many of the new features feel generic and not creative.
- No weapons upgrading feature.
- Skills System lack of depth of upgrading.
- Game progression has uneven pacing in each Chapter.
- Not much replay value.
- Too much drastic changes from classic Resident Evil games in terms of survival horror aspect.
