Monday 25 March 2013

Resident Evil 6 PC

Now, i'm going to start off by saying that I did not play this game for very long before passing judgement on it. In fact, I played 3 out of the 4 modes, and probably only really spent 2 hours on it total.

That said, the reason I did not play this game for very long, or indeed, even pass Act 1 of any of the scenarios I played, is because the game is borderline unplayable for anyone who has any taste in games.

At least the game looks alright while its being shit I guess.
Resident Evil 6 might just be the sum of everything that is wrong with video games this generation - horrific design choices, an exhausted franchise and uninteresting and reused ideas.

Right from the get-go the game is filled with seriously questionable design choices and as you sit through and play more of the game, not only will you get a headache (like an actual one, due to the camera) but you will likely suffer from mental exhaustion from how often you find yourself wondering how such a high budget game could be so bad.

Instead of the traditional 'review' stuff I do, I've decided to just list everything that is wrong with the game - and bare in mind this is only the stuff I ran into in the first Chapter or 2 - If Resident evil keeps true to the series and the continuing trend of the past 2 games, then no doubt you can add in 'Frustrating Boss mechanics', 'Unfair enemy type' and 'Cutscene QTE which kills you' to the list.

Major / Design Flaws:
1) Menu system is complicated and inconsistent
This is particularly true for those trying to play with a Mouse and Keyboard, where you have to mix and match the two to be able to carry out certain functions. In addition, the menu is just too cluttered to be put to efficient use - Its hard to believe that they have gone back in such a way that the menu stuff in Resi4, or even the simplified menu stuff in Resi5 looks simple and well presented.

Use Keyboard to do the below, but you need to use your mouse to select the item... (oh but don't hit Right mouse button or it'll just exit out of the whole menu, genius.)
2) Difficulty Scales based on damage done to the player
This might be partially wrong and enemies may take longer to kill as well, but the main gripe I had with  playing on Hard mode was that instead of increased enemy AI, additional enemies, more scarce ammo etc - the only thing that happened was that zombies took 66% of my max health per hit, compared to 16%. In a game where half the time you will be getting hit due to other bad design choices in the game, this seems to render the game near unplayable in itself, and leads nicely into.....

3) Forced encounters still do damage
There was a scene where a zombie would be triggered as I walked past a door, it jumps straight onto you and you have to quicktime it off - the problem lies in that as soon as it jumps onto you, it takes 33% of your health and is seemingly unavoidable (so help you if you fail the QTE as well)

The bits of the environment which arent obscured by Leons back are sort of nice looking I guess. (I wouldn't know)
4) The fucking Camera
Is horrible. HORRIBLE.
The only reason Resident Evil 6 qualifies as a Survival horror game instead of a straight action game is probably due to the difficulty of trying to survive any encounter due to the horrific camera.
4a) Its too damn close - It actually gives me a headache every play session, also the back of your character takes up 30% of the screen.
I actually did some math based on some screenshots, when moving around and playing normally, the playermodel takes up 529k/2010k pixels, equal to 26.3% (Over 1/4 of your screen at all times), when aiming or in a combat scenario this goes up to 644k/2010k, or 32% (1/3 of your screen real estate).
Imagine your friend comes to stay over a weekend, and brings enough shit to fill up 32% of your room, you would tell him to FUCK RIGHT OFF.
4b) The FOV is too small - Again, leading to headaches. I know its survival horror but is it so much to ask to be able to see more than 30 degrees in front of me (again, thanks to my character model taking up so much space)
4b) It clips on walls, floors, and just about anything else you dont want it to clip to - This leads to the camera feeling 'bumpy' or behaving oddly when moving around corners, and let me tell you, there are a lot of fucking corners in this game. If a house is constructed of bricks, this game is constructed of corners.... This leads nicely into 5)

May as well be playing on a goddamn 4:3 monitor.
5) Autorun, and excessive collision on walls, and poor character cornering 
Im controlling a character that has seen more zombie scenarios than frank west and yet this motherfucker cant do a 90 degree turn round a corner properly?
Autorun almost makes sense, in a game where previous installments would have you holding down sprint at every opportunity anyway, sure. But when your character cant turn corners properly when running, and is always running? Oh boy. Did anyone playtest this shit?

6) Quicktime events
Really? We still have quicktime events in 2013?
And this game makes you press buttons for everything, I think I was forced to focus harder on cutscenes than the enemies whilst playing, because even mundane shit like abseiling from a helicopter, or looking accelerating in a car requires a button press or two.
Its almost like they saw that Heavy Rain was critically aclaimed and decided to make it an elaborate in-joke for Resi6 by filling the game with button-for-action bits at every opportunity possible.
This is made even worse in the PC version where the game will present you with such classics as [SPACE+R] or [Mash A and D]

Seriously? like... Seriously?...... Seriously...?
7) Nonsensical instant death traps
There is a particular scene in Leon A1C3 which this is directed at; this section takes place in an underground rail system, at one point there are 2 train tracks, with a chain link fence in the middle of the two, zombies begin chasing you from behind - On my first attempt I ran left, where my radio-helper lady tells me a train is coming, I get hit from behind by the train, no QTE, no nothing. Now anyone with half a brain would assume 'okay, I just picked the wrong track', So i retry and sprint down the right side this time, zombies still at my rear, "a train is coming Leon ", the train light approaches - I get hit from behind again. I literally quit the Leon campaign there and then, and no doubt there are other sections like this in the game which I simply havent encountered yet.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1axhr6/ive_never_been_so_confused_by_a_quicktime_icon_re6/

Minor / "who thought this was a good idea" flaws
1) The control scheme
Its too complicated in general, but certain things bug me - for example the button for reload is the same as the button for 'pick up item'. Becuase you obviously wouldnt want to have absolute control over when you are reloading, being an action horror game and all - there were a few occasions where I would have to mash the shit out of reload to first pick up all the items in the immediate vicinity before the game would let me reload to finish off the zombie stabbing me for 66% of my health each hit.
1x) I'd also like to add that the PC control scheme is probably worse than Hitler.

2) Zombies with guns that stagger you
Really? We're still using the stagger mechanic? Zombies now get ranged weapons which are capable of knocking you down? are you serious?

3) Lipsync is off in cutscenes (as expected?)
Minor, but c'mon guys, its 2013, there are characters on the internet where we don't know if they are CGI or not but you guys cant get lip sync right?

4) Its boring and uninspired
Remember when Resi games were about exploration? Even Resi 4 had some element of exploration in it, but Resi 6 from what i've seen is full of corridors guiding you down a very expectant path filled with enemies to stop and kill, they may as well have just released another sequel to the 'Resident Evil Survivor' on rails lightgun games of the 00's
Final Fantasy 13 is almost an open field compared to this game.

5) Set Scenes where you have to follow an NPC who moves really slowly
Enough said.

6) PC Framerate can be inconsistent
The game would switch between running at flawless 60, and jittery 60 (as in, smooth 60 but with 0.1s hitches every second or so). Weird.



Verdict:
I tried pretty hard to play this game, I really wanted to be able to say that I gave it a chance before slating the shit out of it, But I couldn't. The game is that bad.
Life is too short to waste on media like this, I've wasted the time doing it so you don't have to.


Approximate Game Length :  ????
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £4 / £20 = 0.2 (For online co-op)
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £1 / £20 = 0.05 (If playing Solo)
Should you play it : Avoid like cancer.
Rating: 0/5

This is the best part of the game right here, and i'm not even joking.


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