No more than twenty-four hours ago the gaming community was rocked by a sudden reveal trailer for Resident Evil 6, Capcom’s latest installment in their long-running survival horror franchise. The video features Leon Kennedy (former one-day R.P.D. officer turned unwilling government lapdog), Chris Redfield (S.T.A.R.S. bad-ass and BSAA commando), Steve Burnside (or at least I believe it’s Steve, based on his dialogue) and…
…GASP! could that be Ashley Graham? She’s all grown up! Hit the jump and see the dissected shots and my predictions about the game.
The video, roughly 3 minutes plus a few seconds long, show three unrelated events that lead to an enigmatic conclusion. One thing’s for certain: evil survived.
The first part depicts Leon Kennedy speaking to Helena Harper (another government lapdog) about how she supposedly “started something” in a location called Tall Oaks. Oh, and he gets to kill the (zombified) president too in a scene which is a clear homage to Resident Evil One.
Here we see Hunnigan (Leon’s intel officer from Resident Evil 4) briefing him about the situation in the said location. It seems that Tall Oaks has reached critical mass and is now on the verge of collapse from the virus outbreak.
Aside from the usual undead fare, Leon also faces a huge monstrosity resembling Left4Dead’s Boomer, which succinctly gives him a well-deserved piledriver.
Jump to China, where Chris and a squad of BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) personnel arrive via chopper in the midst of an outbreak.
We then see non-infected civilians fleeing the scene, and a camera crew which Chris promptly pushes away as they make their move into the conflict zone.
Chris’ campaign appears to feature squad-based gameplay, as depicted by the BSAA’s strategic advances towards the heart of the torn city.
Chris also faces a B.O.W. (Bio-organic weapon) that resemble William Birkin (the inventor of the G-Virus in Resident Evil 2), which leads me to believe that this particular outbreak is of the G kind.
Aside from the usual zombies, we get to see Chris fighting armed civilians. Did Umbrella arm these civilians, or is it similar to Las Plagas?
Jump (again) to a mystery location, where we see who I believe to be Steve Burnside (The wise-cracking teenage Rockfort island prisoner from Resident Evil: Code Veronica) accompanied by someone who might be Ashley Graham (the president’s daughter and prime annoyance from Resident Evil 4). If this really is Steve, then the Veronica virus must have given him the sigil of awesome, like what the T-Virus did for Albert Wesker (THE bad guy of the Resident Evil series).
Things aren’t easy for the unlikely duo, as they are being chased by what seems to be an advanced version of the Nemesis B.O.W. (Resident Evil 3’s epic enemy, a zombie that RUNS, PUNCHES, KICKS, and CARRIES A ROCKET LAUNCHER). One thing with Steve though: he’s clearly a good match for the monstrosity with his superhuman strength and agility.
Now for the gameplay. It’s similar to the over-the-shoulder mechanic we’ve already experienced in both Resident Evil 4 and 5, along with a few (awesome) modifications reminiscent of games already seen in the market. Here we see Chris using a side-cover system similarly found in action games like Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. In the next one, we see Leon performing a slide-and-shoot trick seen in Wanted: Weapons of Fate and WET.
It seems that Capcom also employed some Gears of War mechanics in Resident Evil 6, with Chris’ sudden stick-to-cover maneuver.
Close quarter defensive techniques were first introduced in Resident Evil for the NGC and Wii, and it seems that Capcom has taken it up a notch by allowing the player to use melee weapons found in the environment, like this axe.
Steve’s campaign is clearly melee-centric with his jumping around and doing all sorts of kick-ass commando moves on armed zombies (yep, ARMED ZOMBIES). Ashley’s no wuss either, since she provides cover fire for the Kung-Fu mercenary.
All in all, this reveal will keep haunting us until the game’s release this November 20th for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The biggest question though is: are we ready for what could possibly be the biggest Resident Evil of them all?
