Alright... As far as older Resident Evil games hitting me "when I was a kid", bad assumption. I played the original game when I was 30, and played everything which came after with the exception of "Survivor" or whatever the lightgun game was called. I have all of them on my shelf, for multiple systems, some titles. I play them all, still, to this day - Just finished RE2 again this Spring. I'm not new to the series, nor do I have faded memories which have glossed with time into a false impression.
I preferred RE as Survival Horror. I still do. And I would give RE4 and RE5 a passing grade. I don't think they're bad games, either of them. But the two games are a definite departure from what I most-appreciated in the franchise. I liked RE5 for what RE5 was because even with the daylight, I thought it was keeping in the RE Universe and introducing some new stuff. If zombies had been the only evil, it would have gotten boring as Hell by RE3...
... RE3, with no Nemesis? RE2 with no Lickers? RE with no Dogs?
So I like the mutations in RE4, and RE5, I liked the change of venues. I liked the games for being innovative, whilst retaining the core.
I went back and played the RE6 Demo again last night, because I hadn't tried the Chris Campaign or the Jake.
I booted up the Chris, and started into it.
OK, shooting is alright.
Graphics are fine.
Cover system is weakly designed, and a bit obtrusive. Ok, I don't like the Cover System.
Nice set piece mid-boss fight, too easy though. And a bit too "Resistance: Fall of Man" - RE shouldn't have beings THAT huge. Didn't like the ogre in RE4 either. But Ok. I'll allow it.
I'm really not drawn in by any of this campaign, though... I get restless, and a bit bored. I have lots of guns, and lots of ammo. So, there's nothing to figure out about this... Just use the pistol as long as possible, side-step the hand-shield mutations and pop them as they recover. I've done this sort of thing a lot before, in other TPS.
Enemies with laser sites. REALLY hate the cover system, now.
*Quits the Game*
....
Sits, contemplating the game icon of the XMB. A full minute passes as I think.
....
"Delete"
I've seen enough, for now. I would rather have as much freshness as possible for when I eventually do buy.
I WILL be purchasing this game. Someday, when it's $10. I can't see paying $60 for this, though past the Cover System, I don't reeeeaaaally see all that much that's out-of-the-box objectionable. I definitely WANT to hate the game, and spew venomous vitriol about it, but if I am honest about my impressions, this is not a super-huge mistake of a game. It's not fundamentally broken. It's also not the type of game which makes my toes curl. There's no atmosphere, and no real dread which festers in my brain before dropping down into my guts in the same way RE3 does, when I know Nemesis is due for another visit. There isn't even the "OhSh^t" of hearing an Africani outcry. It's just by-the-numbers gunplay, and as Chris, I never felt any concern. Lots of bullets, and enough health.
Perhaps playing the game on a much higher difficulty once I buy the game is the answer to that.
As I have said before, it is a difficult thing to defend a game which I don't like. And I guess I have FOUR games now which I must defend in the sense that RE is no longer the game I have in a prestige position of my game library with these recent (RE4 onward) entries... But I see nothing inherently wrong with what CAPCOM is attempting here... No more than I see in "RE Deadly Aim", or "RE Outbreak", or RE Survivor". They're trying to inject some fresh blood into a series which is almost 20 years old.
I commend the effort, even if I condemn the results. Does that make sense? And perhaps now that they've attempted these changes and not entirely succeeded, we'll see something refined for future titles in the franchise... Perhaps we'll see them getting back to some of the formulas we really loved about Resident Evil.
They say that Survival Horror is a dying or completely dead genre. So are Point & Click adventures. But here and there, you still see one pop up on the radar. I don't think RE is a dead franchise just because games like ORC or RE6 are seeing the light of day...
... I simply accept them as one possible mutation of the T-Virus. But the one thing we've learned as RE fans over the last two decades, is that every time we think it couldn't possibly survive, Umbrella opens to show a new darkness.
:)
It can't rain EVERY day.
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