Oh the horror...
First of all, this may or may not actually count as the 6th in the series to be truthful. Like Capcom's other trademark license, Street Fighter, this has had many spin offs such as Revelations 1 and 2 and Raccoon City.
Whichever way you see this, it's clear that this title needed to do one thing and one thing only, and that's help us forget the shambles that was Resident Evil 5. So does it do that? Yes and no...
If one story isn't enough...
Then how do you feel about playing 4? Yes 4. Capcom have decide to give us plenty to do in an attempt to keep us occupied. Two of the campaigns have an urban setting though set in two different cities.
Whilst one takes us through the buildings and alleyways, the other sees you exploring across rooftops, breaching buildings and rescuing hostages. The third and fourth take greatly divergent paths; the third campaign starts in a stricken submarine and moves on from there, and the fourth has more than one echo of Resident Evil 5 about but you can be forgiven thinking that you might actually be playing a Far Cry spin off.
Whilst the first three sees you equipped with pistols, machine guns etc, the fourth takes a more old fashioned approach, with the main character armed with a crossbow.
With four campaigns come four characters and their sidekicks. Chris is back as is Leon, with Ada and relative newcomer Jake Muller bringing up the rear. Each main character has a sidekick to aid them (more on this in a while), and you'll face zombies (yes they are back at last, to remind us what the series used to be about), plague victims and mutants and other nefarious nasties that want to rip your face off.
I could take up a lot of room here just discussing the four main tales and settings, but I feel that we just need to get to looking under the bonnet shall we say.
So how does it play?
It focuses on co-op play and this can be done with a.i. assistance or from someone online jumping into your game. Either way I shall say this, and it's a point in the title's favour, it's smooth and there is no lag and if your partner was playing online suddenly drops out, then you are not left hanging. The switch from human control to a.i is so smooth I hadn't noticed on a couple of occasions that my real life partner had gone for whatever reason. Most of the time I was playing as the main character or host, and in one session as the help as it were, the main character dropped out and I could play on as Piers without any delay.
I am not going to go on about controls, it's the same as any other third person shooter.
So what's new zombie hunter?
The game takes on an RPG based theme with a skill tree system where you can improve shooting, aiming and upgrade your weapons, extending the magazine, adding extra punch to the damage though these last two, take some time to unlock.
Items can be combined as normal though the radial menus for some reason, look different from one game to another so the interface can be a tad confusing if you switch from one to another.
Go this way, no this way....
It's not a sandbox experience, so sadly it's all on the rails to a large extent. It's a shame we weren't given a Dead Rising or Dead Island 'freedom to roam' option. Tactics however are up to you, gun ho or stealthy, your call. With certain enemies slow and cautious is the best, as the mutants are damned fast. With Zombies go hard and fast, because despite being slow and lurching it is surprisingly easy to become surrounded and overwhelmed by brain munching walking dead.
However sometimes the route becomes unclear and confusing, and this seems to be a problem mainly with the Chris Redfield campaign. How difficult is it to navigate your way through a tower block? Apparently very difficult at times. In one session, both me and my online partner were new to the campaign and neither of us could see where to go next. Why didn't they include a map that you can call up and see where you've been and where you need to go? We both gave up in frustration.
Ada is on a submarine for quite a while so at least with her, this is not a problem, but it can crop up with the other 3.
A.I.
Quick note, whilst the artificial intelligence of the companion of 5 seemed more artificial than intelligent, this is resolved thankfully with 6. There is no rushing off and using health kits willy nilly on just themselves or just shooting blindly until there's not enough ammo to go around. That's a plus.
Presentation
FMV cut scenes are well rendered and are punctuated with real time response elements that are to be honest somewhat annoying. Smoke, lighting and fire effects are well rendered and I cannot fault it in the presentation.
I'll take time out to mention the soundtrack, good music though not brilliant, and some very nice ambient sound effects add to the suspense, especially onboard the submarine.
The Best and the Worst...
I found Chris and Ada's campaigns to be the most enjoyable, and the two that I kept going back too. I'll take time out again to mention that there's a hoard mode where timed levels featuring waves of undead and mutants come after you and your partner.
it reminds me of Red Dead Undead Nightmare's online play, though it's not as much fun or as well executed but still provides a decent diversion from the main campaigns.
The other two campaigns just didn't engage me as much and were not as enjoyable for me by half.
So it's a game of two halves, one half the campaigns are tense and exciting and will stretch the nerves, the others? Well they soon become standard third person shooters rather than survival horror.
So are we on the right track?
5 was terrible, just terrible. 6 addresses some of these issues, but not all. It is better yes, but is it the return to form this series so badly needs?
No, it falls some way short I'm afraid. Yes it can be engaging it, it can be fun but it also disappoints in almost equal measure. From what I have seen from the trailers, Resident Evil 7 is the one we are waiting for and need to get the series back on track.
For me, I have more fun with Dead Rising, Dead Island and Zombi along with State of Decay than I do with this. In summary it tries to be the game we were waiting for but sadly does not quite succeed.
It's worth a look though and is one of those 'marmite' games, not a must buy but not totally awful.
I think for the most part, that die hard fans may just skip this and wait for 7.
Thanks for the code X Box.