Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Resident Evil 6 - Demo Impressions
*
Games: Capcom released the demo for Resident Evil 6 today. What's
that? You didn't know, and didn't play it? That's pretty understandable... it's
exclusive to 360 owners at the moment, and of that group, only to people who
bought a new copy of Dragon’s Dogma.
(The access code was on the back of Dogma’s instruction booklet.)
(The access code was on the back of Dogma’s instruction booklet.)
 |
| The happiest giraffe in the world. |
First things first, it's confusing as hell to even get to
the demo. Here's the process:
1> Insert the Dragon’s Dogma disc into your 360.
2> Hit the guide button on your controller and redeem the
code.
3> Start Dragon’s Dogma and then update it.
4> Restart Dragon’s Dogma and there will be an option for
RE6 on the main menu.
5> Select that option, and the actual download will begin.
So, after going through all that, what's it like? Got you covered. Essentially, the game is another two-person cooperative
jam, and the demo is split into three parts.
The first section is apparently the "creepy" zone,
and it stars Leon and newcomer Helena. The game opens with Leon capping the zombified
president of the United States, and then the two of them try to make their way
out of the White House. Along the way, they meet a father looking for his daughter
and help him. The two civilians are infected, of course. On the way out, there
is a brief "surprise" attack and then a quick battle to escape a
parking garage.
 |
| Helena and Leon |
I'm not going to beat around the bush, this part straight-up
sucked. It's pretty clear that Capcom was going for suspense, but it only ended
up boring as the characters walk down dark hallways with nothing
happening, and control was frequently altered or taken away in service to
dialogue and cutscenes. For example, I couldn't figure out how to run or reload
my gun, only to realize that those actions were disabled during certain scenes. This whole bit was immersion-breaking at every turn.
The second section is the "action" zone, and stars
Chris and brand-new punk Piers. This scene takes place in a bar, with Chris
apparently suffering from amnesia and drinking himself to the point of being a complete dickhead. Piers drags him back to the BSAA and the demo immediately segues
into what appears to be the rooftops of a city in Asia. A bunch of thugs in
porcelain masks show up, and the shooting begins. Once they take some damage,
they morph into half-human monsters. Meat-moths, anyone?
 |
| Chris and Piers |
This segment will be immediately familiar to anyone who's
played the last couple of Resident Evils, but there’s a lot wrong with it. For
starters, the camera is WAY too close to the action, and it's extremely
difficult to tell what's going on. Also, in this section I wanted to take cover
behind some objects, and apparently ducking down is either not in the game, or
I just couldn't figure out how to do it. It was also bizarre to find out that
melee attacks seem to be more powerful than guns. I was getting overrun trying
to take enemies down with bullets, only to find that they couldn't stand up to
a few punches and kicks.
The final segment was the “boss fight” slice, and paired
Sherry with newcomer Jake. The two of them are in some sort of Russians sewer being
chased by a huge Nemesis-like monster called Ustanak. His right arm is a
mechanical contraption that appears to drill into the humans it catches, and he
basically looks pretty pee-pants terrifying. After a Crash Bandicoot “run towards the
camera” segment, our heroes end up in a large, open warehouse area and must
take the beast down.
 |
| Jake, Ustanak, and Sherry |
This boss battle was very similar to several others that
have been in recent installments, and was equally irritating. My partner and I
felt totally underpowered as we pumped round after round into it with no
apparent effect. I tried the old "lure him near the exploding barrel"
trick, and that didn't seem to do anything, either. During this time, Russian
mutant thugs kept showing up to be easily dispatched -- clearly there to make
sure that we didn't run out of ammo. Honestly, I didn't finish this section. I
got killed three times in a row, and throwing myself up against this HP wall of
a monster with no clue whether I was on the right track or not wasn't very engaging. After the third death, I just quit the demo.
Random notes:
>After selecting the single player option, I
was quite disappointed to see that there is no pause. The active player ducks
down and looks at their smartphone to bring up a menu on screen, but the action
continues on in real time. Quite frankly, such a decision is pure crap in singleplayer mode. Do. Not. Like.
>The control setup feels extremely clunky and cumbersome. The
left bumper is devoted entirely to a "go here" function which brings
up a giant arrow telling the player which way to go when they inevitably get
turned around. Dodging requires moving the stick, holding a trigger, and
pushing a button at the same time, and I often couldn't predict which direction
I would dodge.
>I ran out of ammo in all three of the demo scenarios, and
trying to navigate the cross-key menu to switch to another gun or to figure out
how the hell to heal (it's the right bumper to use heal capsules) really
distracted me from what was happening on-screen and was an unnecessary layer of
stuff to navigate, especially since there's no pause. I guess Capcom is trying
to instill a sense of tension with inventory management, but it just felt awkward and difficult to use. Granted, a lot
of that is unfamiliarity with a brand-new system, but still...
Overall, I can't say that what I saw in the demo was very encouraging.
Of course, it's just a demo and the final product will likely be different in
many ways, but the basic design and logic of what we got here are a worrisome -- the controls and camera, most of all. The challenge in playing a
game shouldn't be battling the menu system or trying to dodge when it's needed.
I will definitely still give the game a chance, but after this demo and the
distasteful experience of Operation Raccoon City, I can't help but think that
this series is mutating in the wrong direction.
*
Posts
Of course it's heading in the wrong direction - this series has been since they killed Outbreak. Of course, those people went on to create Monster Hunter, so maybe it's for the best?
1. At the Boss Fight first clear the Warehouse without checking the Door, after killing all Thugs go to the Door, the Boss shows up, lure him around the Warehouse from Barrel to Barrel, after 5-6 times he is finished.
Why the hell did you get killed 3 times??
The Demo sucks and shows Resident Evil is Dead..
I'm really excited to play the Resident evil 6 and I expect more challenging stage and mission on this.