Oh yeah, the Resident Evil 6 Public Demo is finally here and let me tell you, it was worth the wait. There's still a lot of detractors of this game, I know, but I honestly can't see where they're coming from. Let me illuminate you a little as we dive into the bleak world of Resident Evil once more.
Let's start, as we should, with Mr Kennedy. Leon is still rocking the leather and emo haircut, but now seems to have picked up a more manly voice. Joining him on his adventure is Laura Bailey. I mean, Helena. (This is actually kind of disconcerting fiction wise if you remember that Laura Bailey voiced Angela Miller in Resident Evil Degeneration.) But anyway, it seems there's been a virus release and Leon is forced to shoot the President. Helena then confesses to causing all this and then insisting that Leon takes her to the cathedral in town before she reveals anything. Showing his usual levels of intelligence, Leon doesn't arrest her on the spot and instead agrees to accompany her on this lunacy. What follows is pure Resident Evil 4. Dark, tight corridors, punctuated by heavily populated open areas. Action is slow paced, but incredibly taut. Shooting feels good, really good, and the ability to move while shooting is an incredible game changer. Dodging and melee is no longer contextual, too, which really shakes up combat. That doesn't mean it's suddenly easy, though. Zombies will rush you in crazy numbers at times, but even a solitary zombie can catch you off guard, moving in unpredictable patterns. This section ends with a tense driving section that forces our protagonists into the sewer and the demo ends.
Next, Mr Redfield, who still seems to be chowing on the 'roids. He's giving inspirational speeches to emotional orchestral music and moving his team to tears. You know, the usual Chris stuff. "Is he always this awesome?" a rookie asks. Still, it's not long before the shit hits the fan. It seems the local guerilla forces have got their hands on a new type of virus that creates BOW's smart enough to use weapons and with some nasty defence mechanisms. Combat for Chris is Third Person Cover Shooting, for the most part. Cover is automatic, push against a wall whilst aiming and Chris will latch on, or pressing X while against a smaller cover object will make him duck for cover. This feels much more responsive than Resident Evil 5, but still feels a little funny at times. I'm not going to lie, I actually had fun with Chris' campaign. It felt like what Reisdent Evil 5 could have been. This is straight action with horror elements, it controls well for the most part, and the enemies are varied and challenging. There's a really fun boss fight against an El Gigante and a tense shootout in a trainyard that make some great set pieces.
Finally, we have Mr Meuller. We join Jake (played by Troy Barker, who's rapidly giving Nolan North a run for his money) in some kind of drug den. He shoots himself up with something that sends everyone else over the wall, but just seems to turn him into more of a douche. Sherry Birkin (that annoying little girl from Resident Evil 2) turns up and tells him he can save the world, which turns him into even more of a douche. Anyway, Jake's campaign is...hard to describe. The demo level features the same J'avo type enemies from Chris', but now they're even harder. The more you shoot them, the stronger they get. It's crazy hard, but more often than not, just crazy. I found it much easier in the end just to pump a few bullets into the gun type enemies and force them to mutate into melee types, then make a run for it. I'm worried about the difficulty spikes in this campaign, it feels a lot more scattershot. Jake's character is a nice change of pace for Resident Evil and I look forward to what he can bring, but I feel I'll only play this through because you need to finish all three to unlock Ada's campaign.
And that's it for the demo. Seems Capcom is still keeping Ada's campaign mostly under wraps, which I like. For those who are worried about the changes to the game, I can assure you they're mostly for the best. Whilst Jake's campaign, at least from the little bit I got to play, seems a bit hit and miss, Leon and Chris' campaign are both really enjoyable and offer something for the die-hards and newcomers alike. The partner AI seems much better this time, and you don't have to worry about managing their inventory or anything, which is nice. Speaking of inventory, it works really well this time. Scrolling through is fast and responsive, and weapons can be changed without opening the menu as well. There's also a quick heal button, which really comes in handy. There's now no way to actually pause the game, which keeps the tension high. If Capcom continues to design the levels around these new additions, I can see this becoming the best game in the series. That's right, I said it. Well, regardless, I got this pre-ordered and the demo's free, so I really suggest checking it out. Resident Evil 6 is out on Xbox360 and PS3 on October 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment