Resident Evil 6

Genre: Third-Person Shooter / Horror

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen), 2-6 Co-Op / Competitive (Local Wireless, Online), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Resident Evil Triple Pack, along with Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5.)

Resident Evil 6 is a game that is seen by many series fans as something of a low point for the series. After Resident Evil 5 pushed the series in a heavily action-focused direction, Resident Evil 6 went for broke and went full-on Action. There are definitely elements of the series’ Horror roots still present in places here, but largely this is a game that is not bashful about wanting to be more of a roller coaster ride than a haunted house. Originally released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, the game was subsequently ported to other platforms, with the Nintendo Switch version releasing in 2019.

In terms of presentation, Resident Evil 6 looks fantastic on the Nintendo Switch, albeit with one major exception – the framerates here can get extremely choppy when things get explosive (which is fairly frequently, actually). Right from the opening introductory sequence, you’re faced with framerates that can get as low as 17FPS, with framerates in general that range between 25-35FPS, dropping down to hover around 20FPS when playing in split-screen co-op (thanks to Digital Foundry for the numbers). It’s not unplayable, but it definitely mars the performance of this game, and stands in stark contrast to the 60FPS performance on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

That’s unfortunate, because otherwise this game is visually very impressive on the Nintendo Switch. The game has a resolution of 1080p in docked mode and 720p in handheld mode, features detailed environments filled with activity, nicely-detailed character models (though again, the mouths don’t always match up with what they’re saying), some really nice lighting and reflection effects. If it wasn’t for the framerate issues, this would actually be one of the better-looking games on the Nintendo Switch, in my opinion.

I would also say that the setting is visually more interesting this time, taking place in a busy city being overtaken by multiple viral outbreaks – zombies are back again, as well as a new mutant form of the intelligent enemies of Resident Evil 4 and 5 called J’avo. Everything is going nuts and blowing up in a way that even Michael Bay would approve of, and while it’s still not as iconic as some of the earlier Resident Evil games, I’d argue that it’s far more striking than the washed-out look of Resident Evil 5.

The story this time around is split into four distinct “chapters” that can be played in any order, with each following a separate group of characters, and having a somewhat different tone, and all intersecting with each other. The story is bonkers and all over the place, involving an attack on the president, someone claiming to be Ada Wong working against the game’s protagonists (made more bizarre by the fact that one of those protagonists is Ada Wong), the son of series antagonist Albert Wesker, and more acronyms for both real and fake paramilitary organizations than you’re likely to be able to sort out. However, it’s all certainly interesting, even if it’s clearly all gone off the rails. I mean, Resident Evil was never really a bastion of realistic storytelling, landing somewhere between a great horror film and B-movie schlock, but what we have here is not just closer to Michael Bay than the George Romero roots of the series, those roots have all but disappeared.

On that note, there are many who don’t even consider this game to be a “true” Resident Evil game, not just due to this change in tone, but the change in gameplay, although perhaps “change” isn’t so much the correct word – this is the end of a journey into action-focused gameplay that started with Resident Evil 4, intensified in Resident Evil 5, and now here we are in Resident Evil 6 getting into a gunfight with a horde of mind-controlled enemies that return fire with their own weapons, regenerate bits of their heads that you blasted off, and sometimes grow massive mutated arms or wings. Meanwhile, you may take a break from firing a hailstorm of bullets to run up to one and take it down with a pro wrestling move before karate kicking another to the floor and curb-stomping its head. Yeah, like I said, this game is bonkers.

So here’s the thing… if you were hoping this game would play anything like earlier Resident Evil games, you will be very, very, very disappointed. There are no puzzles to solve here, no “survival horror”, no quiet dread as you walk down a dark hallway and shudder at every little sound. If that’s how you define “Resident Evil” then this certainly won’t be a Resident Evil game for you. Having said that, for what it actually is, this is a fantastic action game.

Generally speaking, I like the controls in this game more than Resident Evil 5, which already had better controls than all earlier games in the series, although I will say I don’t care for how this game sometimes wrests that control away from the player to push story at them. Also, the “Quick Time Events” get a bit crazy here, sometimes coming one after another after another in different forms. Oh, and I definitely don’t care for how the button to open a door changes from A to B and back depending on what type of door it is. However, while there are definitely areas where the controls lead to frustrations, overall everything here feels more fluid and responsive than at any prior point in the series. Ah, and while we’re on the topic of control, much as with Resident Evil 5, this game includes optional gyroscopic motion controls.

Much as the rest of this game feels like it takes the ideas of Resident Evil 5 and goes crazy with them, the same can be said of this game’s multiplayer gameplay, which presents players with a ton of options to play. In local split-screen you get campaign co-op and the return of Resident Evil 5’s more arcade-like Mercenaries mode, but as with Resident Evil 5, you’re looking at a nasty drop in framerates in split-screen that makes it less than ideal. Alternately, players can join campaign co-op online, or participate in one of a pretty impressive variety of co-op and competitive multiplayer games, some casting you in the role as a zombie hunting down other players, with the game even making it possible to jump into another player’s campaign this way.

This is a fantastic addition, and one that adds variety and replay to the game, although it comes with a bit of a caveat – these modes are all currently sporadically populated. You’ll be able to find a game or two, but not reliably, and not necessarily in the game mode you’re interested in playing.

So to sum up… I find myself in the strange position of saying that out of all of the Resident Evil games on the Nintendo Switch, my favorite is the one that is often considered one of the worst in the series. Make no mistake, as with Resident Evil 5, if you’re looking for anything resembling “survival horror” here, you will not find it. Resident Evil 6 is unashamedly a Third-Person Shooter with a focus on absurd, over-the-top action, and it does that very well. The port to Nintendo Switch is pretty good too, although the framerates definitely suffer in the transition to Nintendo Switch, and the online modes aren’t well-populated. However, if you fancy a ridiculous action game, perhaps with a friend in online co-op, you should find this to be an experience well worth trying.

tl;dr – Resident Evil 6, even more than the series’ fifth game, is an over-the-top action-packed Third-Person Shooter that is as far from “Survival Horror” as the series has ever gotten. However, for those who don’t mind the departure from the series’ roots and who are looking for an Action game with some great online co-op, this is a game well worth playing, although be warned that the Nintendo Switch version suffers from poor framerates and underpopulated online lobbies.

Grade: B+

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