We got our hands on the Resident Evil 6 demo and we’ve been chewing it over.
It’s… Well… It’s curious. It’s got some good ideas, but we’ve really got to wonder how they’re going to be applied.
First of all, the controls are still a bit messy, but they are revised and better than RE5‘s. Moving while shooting is possible, but definitely not a good idea. It’s really hard to get a bead on an enemy at anything other than point-blank range, so you’ll still be standing and shooting. But it’s nice to have the option and it gives you the ability to lay down suppressing fire.
The problem is that the controls are applied to three different games, essentially. The demo, as it stands right now, shows three different games and one franchise with a serious case of identity crisis.
One section of the demo is straight-up old-school Resident Evil. You’re running, hiding, and coping with limited ammo and a gigantic enemy out to kill you. Another is just basically Call of Duty with flying Chinese zombies. Still another is basically Leon wandering around dealing with cat scares and finding survivors.
None of these sections are bad, per se, but they’re confusing. This game wants to tell a huge, globe-trotting story, but it doesn’t feel like any of those parts are in sync.
Not helping is the overly linear level design. It’s a tightly scripted game that refuses to allow you to wander off the track for even a minute. It wouldn’t matter so much if the pacing weren’t wildly different from segment to segment; sometimes it works and other times it’s a mess.
One surprise is that there is no pause function whatsoever. Pausing just gives you a transparent overlay and the action is still happening around you. It’s good in the sense that it keeps up the tension, but hopefully you’ll be able to time your bathroom breaks.
In short, it’s a mix of what we’ve come to expect from the series and what we’ve wanted out of it. We’ll be curious to try out the full game.
(Pic via)
