Resident Evil 6

I had an entire review planned out for Resident Evil 6 last month. And then I just...Didn't care enough to pull all of my points together and make it look presentable and organized. Not because it's a bad game. I actually enjoyed it (more so on single player than co-op because my co-op partner was my ex). It still doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game, which is disappointing. And it can't live up to other TPS like Uncharted and Mass Effect (the gameplay and story just aren't up to par). But it is still enjoyable and it is a HUGE step up from Resident Evil 5.

So here are the notes I wrote down while playing.

*You can FINALLY walk and aim at the same time.

*Leon isn't as obnoxious as he was in Resident Evil 4. He's actually likable.

*It's nice to see what Sherry has been up to since Resident Evil 2.

*It's amazing that Chris, who was always my favorite character in the series until Resident Evil 5, managed to become an even worse character in RE6. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, I cringed. If they didn't tell me he was supposed to be Chris Redfield, I never would have known it was the same character from Resident Evil and RE Code Veronica.

*Of all the campaigns, Leon's is the closest to the feel you get from the older games. Jake's campaign has a lot of sections that require you to use stealth, which is interesting because you don't see that a lot in this series. Chris' campaign felt like a generic shooter, it was boring and unimaginative and I could not wait for it to be over. Ada's campaign was, in my opinion, the most difficult. You do not have a partner (unless you find someone to play with online, but otherwise, she's on her own) and in the first chapter, you're hit with a bunch of the more difficult enemies you face throughout the game. In one chapter, there is a section that is particularly puzzle-heavy, but it's still not challenging and I don't ever expect to see much more than the "combine the two plate pieces together to open the door!" puzzles we've been seeing since Resident Evil 4.

*The cemetery in Leon's campaign feels like it was taken directly out of Silent Hill Homecoming. But it's not as scary.

*The cover system is the worst thing I have seen in any game. EVER. If you are near a wall and you press L1 to aim your gun at someone, you'll take cover instead. It is ridiculous.

*Professional difficulty is nowhere near as unforgiving as it was in Resident Evil 5 and I was really disappointed because I liked how challenging it was before.

*Your eyes need to adjust to the dark in this game. They FINALLY implemented the idea they've been talking about since before RE5 was even released. Too bad Uncharted 3's multiplayer beta did this already. Still, it's a nice detail.

*You cannot save on your own and the autosave system is horrible. I lost my progress once because I reached a checkpoint and assumed it would be safe to quit out of the game. Nope. It's not safe to quit until the game actually says "saving" at the top of your screen. And those saves are few and far between.

*RE6 does not come with a manual. Apparently, this is common with newer games? I think it's unacceptable. When the in-game tutorial doesn't explain the cover system or how to use first aid spray and you have to look it up on GameFAQs, something is wrong. Include a manual next time.

*Co-op still feels unnecessary and tacked on since the only actions you really perform together are pressing circle to open a door.

*Each campaign is between four and five hours long, most of which you'll spend watching cutscenes. You'll perform one action and be thrown back into a cutscene and it completely takes you out of the game. It seems like they were more interested in making a movie than a game and if that's what they were going for, they should have just used RE6's storyline for that CGI movie they released last year instead of the one they actually used, because it was terrible. (I actually felt sorry for the lickers in Resident Evil Damnation. That should never happen.)

*The romantic subplots are horrible and the endings to each campaign (especially Leon's) feel so out of place in the Resident Evil universe.

And aside from ALL of that, my biggest complaint is that Resident Evil 6's failure to commit to either survival horror or a third person shooter is its biggest downfall. Capcom needs to decide where they want this series to go in the future because it's in this in-between phase ever since Resident Evil 4 and it's not working. Choose one or the other. Resident Evil 6 was NOT a bad game (even though I had a huge list of complaints about it). But it is plagued with all of these issues because they don't even know what genre they're working with anymore. Pick one and make it work next time.