I have a ton of complaints about Resident Evil 6. In fact, rather than rant and rave uncontrollably, I'd probably be best off just making an attempt at a list.
First and foremost, this camera is busted. Chase sequences are abundant and awkward, and the constant camera angle switches mean the controls change in the middle of events where death is on a timer. As if the Quick Time Events weren't enough trouble. The standard camera also has some kind of inherent nausea-inducing effect on me. When sitting down for a new session, this is especially true. I made camera and aim adjustments in the settings, but ended up just dealing with it, as the adjustments made the combat more difficult.
QTE and interactive cutscenes. This has obviously been pummeled in to the ground at this point. But it is truly ridiculous how an attempt at putting more of the game in to the gamers hands, it's turned in to this button mashing and stick fiddling fest. Is this actually better than chilling for a minute and watching a cutscene? QTE should be simple and responsive. RE6 is overly complicated, confusing, and does a poor job of explaining what the actual goal is. Prompts appear on screen right when they are required, and it's in that 1-2 second window, I'm expected to figure out if the sticks need to be wiggled or rotated. Nearly impossible without dying. Dying repeatedly causes frustration. Frustration causes dislike. Quitting. Hating. Etc... At least the difficulty can be adjusted to make QTE automatic. Also, what's up with the weird moments where you can only walk slowly?
Check out this parody on the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LrVou1Jo7w
Vehicles. Just... no.
Melee combat. I always wished for this in earlier Resident Evil games. I would take that wish back now, if it would get rid of this crap. Resident Evil 4 used melee sparingly to get out of tough situations or deliver a finishing blow. RE6 makes it a staple and, for Jake, a focal point. When playing as Jake, I wasn't even sure I was still playing the same game. That being said, he was one of my favorite characters. What ruins the melee experience is having a stamina gauge. Characters get exhausted and can't do anything. For Jake, this is a SERIOUS problem.
Item management. What were they thinking? This is the equivalent of hitting pause to bring up a series of menus, but the action on screen continues throughout the inventory navigation. When I first pulled up my item screen, I just stared at it. I had no idea what was going on. There's quick selection, using the d-pad. Left and right blades through weapons. Up and down shuffles items and grenades. Grenades can only be used one at a time, as the game re-equips your most recent weapon. Herbs have to be combined in a SEPARATE menu, which is accessed with the Y button. This is still totally live action though, so be quick. After combining herbs, you still can't use them. They have to be stored in a "pill case," which can carry 6 units of health recovery. I think I used 200+ over the course of the game, so I did a lot of herb combos. Speaking of combos, there are actual quick combo moves for the crappy inventory system, but RE6 only explains this occasionally when load screens appear. There is limited space in the inventory, and dropped items don't fall to the ground. They vanish forever. Quite a few times, I could have benefited greatly from being able to temporarily drop an item or ammo. Still, I rarely found myself struggling with resources. I do remember Googling "not enough ammo" once during the Chris campaign, but that was before I knew how much of a necessity melee combat was.
Boss battles. I thoroughly enjoyed some of these. Others come across as bullet sponges used to create a false sense of low resources. Little does the gamer know, the next rooms will replenish enough to move on. Once I realized this pattern, I never felt in danger. There is poor execution at times, in letting the gamer know whether or not a boss requires "defeat". This is especially true when the caption appears, stating "defeat this boss". Sometimes it is damage required, sometimes it is time elapsed, other scenarios I'm honestly not sure. And can someone please tell these guys that not every boss needs to return from the dead 5+ times. After 1 or 2, the charm and surprise wears off. Derek Simmons, please SIT THE F*CK DOWN!
But honestly, after getting all of that off of my chest, RE6 was over all pretty entertaining. The experience was phases of frustration and fun bundled up at first, and off and on throughout. However, I felt that once I finished the first chapter of the Chris campaign, took some time off to get over the idea of a true Resident Evil sequel, I came back and plowed through Chris, Jake and Ada in a couple weeks. It took me well over a month to trudge through the Leon campaign and first Chris chapter. I hated it so much. I had heard Leon was the best, and that may have been true initially, but the last 3 chapters killed me. It was all pure, over the top action and gun fighting. Chris sealed the deal. I was so over it. I came back ready to beat the game in anticipation of The Evil Within, and really enjoyed it.
Jake is a great character. I have a soft spot for anti-heroes who end up doing the right thing. His relationship with Sherry was my favorite story to follow. There's an entire chapter of snowy mountains that tried to ruin my fun, but I tried my best to see through that crap, and I didn't let it drag me down. Because one of the most enjoyable parts of the game for me, was sneaking Jake out of captivity. Unorthodox for the RE universe. In this case, it worked. I hope to see more of these two in the future.
While I admit, I really hate that one shot kills have been mostly eliminated, the gunplay in RE6 is pretty solid. I generally had high accuracy just running around guns blazing. I resorted to this method after I grew increasingly aware that the cover system is useless. Some of the Javo have incredible marksmanship (especially snipers) but can generally be manhandled 1vs1. It's when their numbers and variety increases that enemies become tougher to handle. I enjoyed the tougher bio-weapon transformations, and felt genuinely relieved and rewarded after taking them down. I also appreciate how much work was done with the AI partner. Giving them infinite health and ammo makes them much easier to cooperate with. Obviously, the intention is multiplayer, but I didn't hate them that much this time around. I actually implemented strategies in to battles, solely based on letting my partner wipe out most of the Javo and Zombies. Too bad they go full on ruhtarded on boss fights, and do little to nothing.
I have more issues than compliments with the skill leveling system, but I do appreciate the attempt at allowing me to personalize my character. The skills are expensive. By the end of the game, I had maxed out only 2 skills. Apparently, the idea is to gain skill points through multiple plays through and other modes (Mercs and Agent Hunt). No thanks. I got enough to get through the game comfortably, but it would have been nice to have more freedom with the skills. Like being able to equip more than 3 at a time. Come on...
This story flows in and out and all over the place. It was like Resident Evil 2 directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I love that the character stories interweave like in RE2, but it was almost overused here. I think this was probably so that more opportunities for multiplayer occurred. But everyone runs in to the same characters, and the same experiences are shared multiple times through different eyes. The last thing I wanted to do EVER, was deal with Simmons ONE MORE TIME. Weird, quirky, confusing, poorly acted, unintentionally funny. Holy crap, it's just like the original.
Wrapping up, don't let the haters persuade you. This is far from the original games, and it's further from Resident Evil 4 than 5 was, but it is still a solid game. All of my complaints still didn't keep me from playing to completion, and I enjoyed many moments along the way.
F*ck Simmons.
This is how many enemies I killed by the end.
