Only Resident Evil can make me return to my long lost video gaming/nerd blog. Welcome back everyone. So Thursday, January 19, 2012, was undoubtedly a day to remember for Resident Evil fans. Things started off a little shaky when Sony pictures decided to release the theatrical trailer for the new film starring Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil: Retribution. Shield your eyes if you can...The trailer is below. You've been warned.
For those of you who are still puke-free, yes, they did make it crappier than before. To add insult to injury, they also included Daft Punk's brilliant score from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, "Recognizer," to try and ride the coattails of the music's success in an attempt to get a bigger nerd-haul for the theaters. Your powers are useless against me Sony!!! Do you hear?!?!
Aside from the atrociousness that is this trailer, that's not what this blog is about. Later in the day Capcom thankfully saved me from my nerd-rage by releasing a new trailer for the next core-game of the RE franchise: Resident Evil 6. It's been nearly three years since Capcom has released a core Resident Evil game, so it's was both a very welcome, and very surprising announcement. There had been minor inklings here and there about the development of a new RE game, but with Capcom releasing Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS, and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City this year, it never crossed my mind to think they were actually planning to release ANOTHER game during the year. I don't think I was ever happier to be wrong. It was also a pleasant gift to hear the release date was in fact 11/20/2012. That's right folks, barring any unforseen development delays, there will be three, VERY different RE games in one year. It's great to be a gamer.
I'll shut up now and let you take a look for yourself. Ladies and gentlenerds .... I give you ... REDEMPTION!!!
You still with me? I can wait a moment if you need to go use the bathroom to clean up .... Back? Great! Let us begin our dissection of the trailer.
First, let's set the stage here. Resident Evil 5 was the last core game of the franchise, and although it had its strengths, it was a bit of disappointment for hardcore fans. Probably the biggest problem with the game was the forced inclusion of co-op. I think co-op is a function that really found it's re-emergence during the XBOX years. Again, I'm referring to co-op, not multiplayer. It kind of died out back in the N64 days, but it wasn't until Halo and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which included a separate co-op campaign, really kicked off this renaissance of co-op. Anyway, I digress.
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| Welcome back, Mr. Zombie |
Resident Evil is a franchise that has built itself off the premise of survival horror. RE4 really changed things by adding spiced-up flavors of action in the game, while still maintaining that element of suspense, gore, and thrills. The game had moments where it left you with little to no ammo, and kept you weeping like a scolded child in their dark, gritty, and blood-stained environments. But what was most important in the game was that Leon spent most of the time ALONE. This was ultimately my biggest gripe with RE5. There was too much focus on action and cooperation, and not enough on horror. The fact that you had a useless ally at your side, (I'm looking at you AI controlled Sheva) really killed the possibility of having any survival-horror moment.
After looking at the RE 6 trailer, I have many hopes, but many more reservations.
Lets get the good stuff out of the way. First, I'm glad we finally get to take control of Leon S. Kennedy again, and double THAT to the inclusion of Chris Redfield, who I strongly feel is the main protagonist of this franchise. It's the first time in the entire series that both characters are in the same game, and will finally cross paths. It leaves me excited like a hamster on coke over how these two characters will interact with each other.
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| One of the hopefully many dark, scary environments |
The trailer also shows me that the franchise is looking to reconnect with its survival horror roots...especially when you look at the Leon scenes. He's apparently forced to live through another Raccoon City-like experience after a viral outbreak occurs at a place called Tall Oaks. Leon navigates fire-ravaged cities, dark, decrepit forest areas, and dank, water-dripped tunnels a-la '28 Days Later.' It really seems like the developers are really trying to go back to their horror roots, and I'm all for it. In fact, I hope they lay it on me thick like an STD from the Great Depression.
By far the most impressive part for me was the re-emergence of the classic zombies. For the last two games Capcom has decided to bench the shuffling corpses for faster, smarter, parasitically infected enemies, known as las plagas. Although it was a welcome change to have during my RE4 experience, it grew stale when RE5 came around. By just glancing at the new trailer, it seems the developers are really going for a middle-ground with these zombies, having them run, jump, and try to chomp out chunks of human flesh as they attack you in large groups. Initiate nerd-boner...
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| Didn't they tell you Sheva? I work alone |
Now, I have some concerns. For starters, the game will once again feature partner/co-op systems. According to the press release for the game, "RE6 will feature both single and cooperative gameplay." If this is the case, I certainly hope that Capcom makes the co-op aspect it's own separate story. I've been a strong proponent in saying that the Resident Evil franchise is best experienced alone. If you're navigating a dark and treacherous tunnel with nothing else but a 16-round clip in your gun, congratulations, you've made the encounter that much more pulse-pounding. On the flip side, if you're trying to navigate that same tunnel with a partner at your side, asking you whether you've got enough herbs to last through this next encounter, the tension is gone. This was what killed RE5. Although it was fun to have a co-op inclusion to the game, I really wanted to experience the story from Chris Redfield's own eyes, without Sheva telling me her sob-story every 5 minutes. Case in point, Capcom can get the most out of this game if they make the main story a single-player experience, with a side-branch 'supporting story' that can be experienced via online/offline co-op.
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| Who the hell am I?!?! |
Another concern I have with this trailer is the unknown third character who pals with the President's daughter Ashley Graham. Why they decided to bring back Ashley from RE4 is beyond any logic. She was one of the single-most useless characters in the series; always getting into trouble, and never being able to defend herself properly. After watching this trailer, she's apparently teamed up with some unknown third character, who resembles so many recent video game protagonists. The faded haircut, furrowed eye-brow, grizzled 5-o-clock shadow; we've seen this characater resembled in games like Infamous, Force Unleashed, Desmond from Assassin's Creed, etc., and that's not my biggest problem. In all the scenes featuring this mysterious, playable character, the action level is completely over the top. The dude is hanging off helicopters, plummeting hundreds of feet only to make a safe landing, running away from a Tyrant-esque baddie...it's a bit too much emphasis on the action part of the franchise, which I'm not terribly excited about. The only way I would accept this kind of behavior is if this third character ends up being HUNK. The Umbrella mercenary first made his appearance as a supplemental mission in RE2, where he had to race against the clock to recover the G-Virus and then return to the escape chopper within 20 minutes. He's made appearances in other RE games as a playable extra character in the "mercenary' missions, but that's about all the face-time he's had. To put it into perspective, he's always been revered by gamers as the "true badass" of the series, so I think it'd be nice to have him in the lead-role for a change.
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| This floor could use an ass-scrubbing, I guess |
Speaking of controls, one of the biggest complaints people have about the RE franchise are its 'tank' controls, where you have to stop, take aim, shoot, and put your weapon down in order to run again. I've personally never had as big a problem with it as other gamers, but I think with the way third-person shooters have been evolving, it'd be nice to see a run and gun mechanic included. From looking at the trailer there's no one moment where I saw a character running and gunning, but I have a good feeling that the franchise will finally get the upgrade many gamers have been asking for years. I used to think adding this kind of a mechanic would ruin the tension aspect of the game, but Dead Space proved to me that you can still have survival horror while turning up the action intensity with an aim and walk mechanic.
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| Yes...I am a badass. |
In my final thoughts, the RE6 trailer did what it set out to do: excite the balls out of me. I'm very pleased to see Leon and Chris in the same game, and am glad they're bringing back both the zombies AND horror aspect of the game. Having said that, I was a bit disappointed to see the overdone action moments, especially where Chris is involved. You can probably argue that his scenes looked more Rainbow Six-ish, than Resident Evil-ish. And just for the record I've always been a bigger Chris Redfield fan than Leon, considering Chris was there for the Mansion incident, and had the most at stake in fighting an asshole like Albert Wesker. In RE5 he didn't get his due credit, always seeming more like a victim, getting thrown around, punched, dragged, etc. I want to see Chris go back to his Code Veronica days, and totally own up the place.
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| Excuse me, could you point to me to the monsters? |
In any case, Capcom has got me by the figurative balls with their new trailer. I'm a die-hard Resident Evil fan and can't wait to see what kind of shenaniganz they're going to put us through with their latest iteration. All I can hope for is a game that follows a similar model as Dead Space, and keeps the co-op as a separate piece of the game. If that's the case, then it should pave the way for the ultimate RE experience. And can you believe it??? The frickin game comes out this year in November!!! E3 seems like an eternity away.
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| See you 11/20/2012 Bitches!!! |
