Did anyone else find the Resident Evil 6 demo underwhelming?

[DrunkOnEstus]

So yesterday I realized there was a public demo for RE6, and downloaded that thing as quick as PSN would allow (which isn't at all quick, as many of you know). I finished Leon's campaign, and made it what I assume is halfway through Chris's.

...all I could do while playing the thing was shake my head, or sigh, or other signs that you aren't having fun. I embraced the changes in 4 because despite everything it was really fun to play. I didn't like 5 when I played by myself, but I managed to find it...tolerable when I beat it with the wife in the weird pseudo-split-screen.

6 though completely ceases to feel at all like it should be carrying the RE name. I never once was afraid that I would die, and even took to swinging punches and kicks as Leon just to see how hard is was to die on purpose, and simply put you can run full speed from giant checkpoint to the next and not worry about enemies.

Hope fall apart when I played as Chris. Giant assault rifle with hundreds of bullets, Chris loves to end up on the ground after every move and shot taken, wall cover, rolling all over the place? I felt like I was playing a fleshed out, Japanese-infused Capcom version of the CoD zombie game(s).

I'm not one to expect things to stay the same, and I would be wondering where the evolution was if we were still moving with tank controls and saving with ink ribbons. But only if what we're growing into is fun, and worth the transition. For me personally, what I played of RE 6 is NOT fun, was a frustrating, head-shaking barrage of anti-fun, and I have no intention of picking it up at any point unless it turns out that the demo was poorly representative of the final experience. For the record, my wife (who beat RE 5 with me) saw the demo while I was playing and when I asked her if she'd want to beat it, she practically begged me to not make her go through it and to not ask lest she be guilted into actually having to play it.

So, anyone else give this thing a spin and have any impressions to share about it?

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

The psychological aspect of horror is too scary for kids these days, and that is supposedly where the money is. And kids like it when they are instantly good at something, so the unique control scheme of resident evil has to be homogenized with the what Cliff Blezinski (bless his heart) thinks a tps control scheme and setup should be because his games seem to sell. It doesnt pay (as much) to be unique and individual.

And for the record, yes the demo was a fucking waste of time as will the game. I mean zombies with guns, come the fuck on

I think that was my biggest problem, that it just jumped head first into the homogenization of "traditional modern" TPS games. It felt like Gears, it felt like full dilution. I really don't know how to discuss this without sounding pretentious, but it's hard to say anything else aboput it when it's so obviously right there on the table. This is going to be a focus-group driven, design-by-committee watered-down soulless kill all the zombies...thing.

When RE 4 came out and changed all the rules we had going into it, it was okay because it had its own personality, and you couldn't say "oh this is just like X and Y but with Spanish parasite hosts". I miss horror, I miss tension and wondering if I have enough bullets to tackle what's ahead or if I'll have to pull some miraculous knifing out of my ass. Games like Amnesia are great, but I miss when full blown horror and tension were considered worthy of large budgets and creative energy. I think that's why many of us remember Silent Hill 2 more and more fondly as time passes, because we haven't grown beyond it, and it's still tops at its own game over a decade later.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The RE6 demo being underwhelming is the understatement of the decade.

This is where we could've used Shinji Mikami; a guy to step in during production and say,"This is not working at all. The controls suck, the camera sucks, the game is too dark, the aiming reticle is horse shit, and the HUD is flat and unappealing. I don't care how much money or man hours we've put into this, we're starting over."

 

[hazabaza1]

Played it back when I got Dragon's Dogma. Decent game, but the demo was fucking awful. Seriously, I don't even know how they got this that wrong. It can't have been that hard.

 

[Catfood220]

So yesterday I realized there was a public demo for RE6, and downloaded that thing as quick as PSN would allow (which isn't at all quick, as many of you know). I finished Leon's campaign, and made it what I assume is halfway through Chris's.

...all I could do while playing the thing was shake my head, or sigh, or other signs that you aren't having fun.

Ha ha, I think you and me had exactly the same experience of this demo.

I was really unimpressed with the demo, it was too dark, the zombies looked like shit, which is probably why its so dark. I tripped the metal detectors in Leons mission and actually laughed as the cutscene that followed showed the zombies do this sort of quickstep shuffle towards me. The characters kept tripping over almost everything like they'd just learned to walk, the shooting and the fighting seem really hollow and the inventory is kinda unintuative to use. Also, when you pause the game to tinker with settings ((such as turning up the brightness) it should pause to let you do this, its Resident Evil, not Demon's Souls.

Actually, Leons mission wasn't too bad, had Resident Evil 6 focused on him alone, I have a feeling the game could have beeen pretty decent.

Then I got to Chris and oh dear. At least it was bright enough for me to see what I was doing. But the gameplay was dull, I didn't figure out how to take cover until I was on Jakes mission which was annoying to repeatedly get shot. And I don't know why they limited my ammo when this is the action part of the game and you are throwing El Giganti and hoards of enemies at me, I gave up about halfway through to play Jakes mission.

I lasted even less time with him than I did Chris. I found out how to take cover, however that is unintuative too, stop trying to reinvent the wheel with the cover system Capcom, just map it to the Circle button like everyone else. Jakes mission had potential, even if it was just as dark as Leons mission and it gave me more ammo than Chris. However, the thing that ruined it for me was the bad guys that had 3 mutations and it took ages to go through all 3 and I'm just waiting for them to change so I can shoot them again. That is not what I call fun. I quit shortly after I came to that conclusion.

I'm not buying this game unless I read nothing but positive things about this game from players and reviewers, I can't see it happen. I feel sorry for my friend who I know is going to end up disappointed by this game, but is buying it because its got Resident Evil stamped on it, like he was disappointed by Operation Raccoon City.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

The RE6 demo being underwhelming is the understatement of the decade.

This is where we could've used Shinji Mikami; a guy to step in during production and say,"This is not working at all. The controls suck, the camera sucks, the game is too dark, the aiming reticle is horse shit, and the HUD is flat and unappealing. I don't care how much money or man hours we've put into this, we're starting over."

I said "underwhelming" because I try to avoid offending people who may have enjoyed it, but now I'm wondering who these people might be. But you're right, when you look at a game like Vanquish it's obvious that Mikami's influence at the very least insures that the most important and basic mechanics work as intended and are intuitive for the player. Virtually everything about RE 6 seemed like a test to see how cumbersome, un-intuitive, and annoying a playing experience could be. I also got the impression that they looked at everything that was "hot" or "popular" and said "alright, we need to include that in the game, since games that make 750 million dollars have that".

The sad thing is, I see this getting many raving reviews at release. With people praising the co-op and every other broken thing like it's a positive aspect of the game. We'll see though, but I have a strong suspicion that this franchise is even more dead inside than Silent Hill, which is quite an accomplishment.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I've only played Resi 5 and a bit of Code Veronica X, so my knowledge of Resi isn't too great.

I'll download it on the 23rd of Oct when I get Live back

 

[burningdragoon]

The Leon section was okay. Okayish at least. I mean it started out all atmospheric and slower paced. And then there was the many obvious come back to life corpses that you couldn't shoot until they got up. And of course the incredibly obvious metal detector with the convenient un-hop-over-able small desk in the way.

The other two sections were... there.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Did anyone else have some trouble ducking behind cover and dodging attacks?
Beforehand with Resident Evil 5 I just quick-turned and ran off, quick-turned back and started the shooting gallery (easy enough since the majority of the enemies were Melee only) but here quick-turning is removed, most enemies use guns (and are a pain in the ass to see) and the only effective dodging method is putting your arse to the ground and rolling all over the place.
And ducking behind cover? AWFUL!

 

[White Lightning]

It was just awful. Just awful. I would rather strip down naked roll around in honey and jump in the back of an ice cream truck filled with angry bees being driven by a blind man with tourettes than play that pathitec excuse for a game again.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I actually almost died playing as Sherri, but I think that had more to do with the controls than anything else. I had a really hard time figuring them out. I need a menu or tutorial for all of that. Did I understand this correctly: In order to dodge, you need to be move and then CLICK the thumbstick, press X, and tilt the thumbstick in the direction you want to dodge, all at the same time? Ugh. That needs to be fixed. Also, where's my laser sight? That tiny red dot that vanishes as soon as I sneeze is not my laser sight. I couldn't get head shots because of that thing.

The new melee combat was fun though--when I didn't end up swinging into thin air because I wasn't aimed perfectly straight. So yeah, some issues they need to fix. Hopefully they'll get on this stuff before the game is out. I'm still going to buy it, but this one may end up being my least favorite if some of these issues aren't addressed.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Oh. My. Goodness. That demo is complete shit. Leon's campaign was the only thing I found entertaining. Not good, but entertaining. Why is this even called Resident Evil anymore? It has changed so much that there is really no need to even call it that. Replace all of these characters with other people and switch the name of the game already. This isn't Resident Evil anymore.

I was sorely disappointed in the demo, I really was. Leon's campaign left me slightly upset, but Chris' just...I just didn't understand why it was this way. I played Jake's for about 2 minutes before giving up. It just isn't Resident Evil to me. Unless it gets stellar reviews and I'm missing something, pass from me.

 

[chadachada123]

While playing as Leon, I see a metal detector in front of me, with a wall on the right of it, and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (but a desk with some small junk on it) to the left. Naturally, the game wouldn't let me jump over the TWO AND A HALF FOOT FUCKING DESK.

I spent several minutes saying "No. This is beyond stupid. This is retarded. There is absolutely no reason why a sane person wouldn't go the hell around this. Fuck this. I'm not doing it."

I ended up doing it after exhausting any other options, just to see a motion-capture-appearing montage of zombies fumbling towards the locked door behind me. Real professional looking. *Sigh*

I can provide an image for anyone that requests it, though I highly recommend players play through this themselves and see just how asinine this is first-hand.

Edit: Also forgot the fact that you can't shoot dead bodies in the head pre-emptively before walking past them, despite it being allowed in at least two other previous Resident Evil games.

Double edit: Found the scene where it happens in some random Let's Play, at about 18:10.

 

[lithiumvocals]

Leon's mission was okay. Not great, but passable. The other two I can sum up with three words:

Zombies. With. Guns.

It doesn't help that the cover mechanics are garbage and that the camera swings around far too much.

 

[anthony87]

I liked it. Didn't enjoy the Chris section as much as the other two, the lighting needs some work and I was annoyed that you couldn't shoot the zombies until they got up but overall...yeah, pretty happy with it.

Definate purchase for me.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I'm going to call this now:

When this game comes out, it'll get great, if not awesome, reviews despite the fact that it's complete and utter garbage.

I guess they didn't learn from Resident Evil 5. I'm not a fan of RE, so I'm not that concerned about whatever direction it ends up taking.

 

[The87Italians]

I've only played through the Leon section and found it incredibly boring. Some of the new changes just suck, except for the ability to roll onto your ass and slide around on the ground. That was the most amusing part of the demo for me.

 

[CityofTreez]

Trash.

And I would even call it a 'Horror" game. Call it "Action-Adventure" and it'll fit better.