Resident Evil 6 Revisited
Read the original review here.
Resident Evil 6 was an interesting game to critique and I felt like I have a little more to say outside of a formal review. Firstly, this game was my first review in quite a while, and rather than being a game that I either completely loved or hated, it simply existed in this place between scores- a place of mediocracy some might say. But while my Resident Evil fan boy side was not pleased at all with many of the formal aspects of the game, especially when put together, another side of me simply enjoyed the fact that a new Resident Evil game came out and was that side was easy going in accepting some of its flaws… this doesn’t happen that often when I play a mediocre game.
Looking back, I actually enjoyed playing Resident Evil 6 – but less as an actual sequel in the Resident Evil series and more as a cooperative side title. When playing the game solo, I couldn’t stand the presence of the AI, not so much as in its inability to function, but more as a mood spoiler. But when playing with a fellow Resident Evil fan, the presence of a partner was welcome as we both wanted to set aside the elements that a formal review would nitpick over and just relax and enjoy a game in the Resident Evil Universe.
In short, I only consider this as a CO-OP GAME.
One personal surprise I found was the addition of strafing while aiming, and it became an interesting problem- I actually found myself less interested in the strafing than I thought I would be. In fact, in my first blog, I even said that in order for Resident Evil to survive against newer titles such as Dead Space, they would have to include strafing to modernize their game mechanics and keep up with the competition. Surprisingly though, I found that it just didn’t FEEL like Resident Evil without that “stop and pop” pacing. In fact, I realized that half the anxiety I had while playing prior Resident Evil games was the mental planning of, “okay, I have enough time to stop moving, aim, shoot and reload”. Who knew that minor mechanic that I thought felt outdated really meant so much to my gameplay experience?
But then again, maybe it really wasn’t the strafing that left me uninterested. After all, I found dropping on your back and rolling around while shooting an amazing mechanic to include in a shooter. This new addition is genius in my opinion, as it added a new dimension to fire fights and put a twist on the timing after being knocked down by an enemy. After all, this could really be a tactic any reasonable person might do in a horrific, zombie infested, situation: trip, turn over, and shoot the hell at whatever is chasing you.
As you can tell, I keep going back-and-forth between elements I didn’t care for and then suddenly realizing that they shouldn’t be things that break the game experience. After all, stopping and shooting doesn’t make something horrifying and rolling on your back to shoot could add a sense of desperation to a horror experience.
So, I guess it all boils down to the co-op that, for me, desensitizes the player to the scarier situations. All the times I was most terrified in any game there was a perfect blend of enemy design to present both a physical challenge and visual scare, game mechanics given to the player that forces a struggle, and level atmosphere to immerse the player in an inhospitable environment. But most of all, there was always a sense of LONE desperation. Knowing that the only thing between defeating a boss and progressing through an experience is my ability to handle the situation is terrifying in itself. When there is co-op, you subconsciously realize that, “hey, I got a partner to handle this with- it’s not all up to me after all.” And that’s just not a scary mindset.
I’m not sure if I would go as far as saying that co-op kills the horror genre, I just think it is hard to get right and it certainly hasn’t been done right in my experience. I think the next major test for a horror co-op experience to look out for is Dead Space 3, which announced the existance of co-op in at least a portion of the campaign. If they can’t get it right either… why don’t we just leave the co-op for the action adventure games.
So I end with asking myself, “Where will this series go from here?” And I truly think that, like many series in gaming, it is time to go back to the roots. Even if developers only look back to Resident Evil 4, the last actual major hit of the series, it would be more effective to deconstruct the unnecessary elements and leave the core experience we crave. Is the answer getting rid of co-op in the main titles and saving that experience for lesser side-sequels or perhaps even creating co-op multiplayer modes outside the main campaign? Maybe- but what ever happens, I think gamers will all agree that it’s been a long time since Resident Evil truly scared the living crap out of us.