Resident Evil 6 Public Demo - first impressions

So, I just got my hands on the new demo that came out today. I honestly don't know what to think about the game yet because, well, this was just a demo. Here are my first impressions on the scenarios, then I'm gonna go a bit about some of the general stuff.

I started off with Leon's scenario. It's a really atmospheric experience and does indeed bring the words "cinematic horror" the devs were talking about in mind. Job well done, I'd say. Helena's AI is pretty helpful and well programmed too. I was actually taken by surprise by that. There was a tiny bit of backtracking and I found fighting hordes of zombies during that to be pretty fun. If the rest of Leon's game is like that I'm happy, though I'm propably gonna play this on the hard difficulty because it felt way too easy.

After the rather foreseeable ending, I moved on to Chris' scenario. I can already tell I'm not gonna enjoy this much. The action was so all over the place that it confused the hell outta me, it was something that would have worked infinitely better in first person. I can see what they meant by trying to get a part of CoD's audience. The story seemed somewhat interesting and even the minor characters were likeable, mainly the rookie Finn Macauley. The ammo felt too scarce considering you're in a warzone, I found way more of that in Leon's scenario. The El Gigante/N'desu knockoff didn't warm me up either. For some reason Chris' teammates also seemed to have worse AI than Helena, as they were just running around and getting in my way.

After finally beating the boss I went on to Jake's scenario which was by far the best of these. The lizard enemies were actually quite horrifying in packs and I like the way Jake and Sherry move/act. There were also parts when you had to go your seperate ways for a bit to open a door for the other which was nice. This demo didn't have the Ustanak so I can't say anything about that. Jake's arsenal of weapons felt good to use, it was great to get a feel of some of the weapons.



Okay, now for some general stuff.

• AI: The AI is a really mixed bunch. As I said, Helena's AI worked like a dream but for some reason Chris' team didn't seem to get their act together. Sherry was holding up pretty well by herself.
  
  
• Enemies: The enemies were a pretty mixed bunch. The zombies weren't even a challenge, all being so easy I rarely even needed a gun to handle them thus ending up with lots of spare ammo. I even went so far as to killing each and every zombie in an area just for the kicks, aside from one part where they kept respawning. The J'avo and the mercenaries, on the other hand, proved themselves to be a worthy adversary. The mercs know how to use cover and melee while the J'avo brought some much needed variation to the battle with their constant mutations. The lizard enemies I mentioned before were indeed a cool new addition to the RE monster catalogue but Ogroman, this game's version of El Gigante and N'desu, left a bad taste.
  
  
• Menus: Let's start with the weapon/item menus. The overall menu for items and weapons looks really nice and works well, losing the inventory space aspect (bad) but retaining the real time usage (good). The quickmenu for main/side weapons is similar to the one seen in Revelations, only better so no complaint there. The main menu and character select menus were nice to look at. What I would like to know, however, is who the hell came up with the friggin' options menu being real time? I have never ever in my life seen a game do that. Like Thom said when I was talking to him about this demo: using the options menu shouldn't be hectic. Worst case scenario, you will need to change something so you won't mess up and die but while changing it you will still get killed. Fun? I didn't think so.
  
  
• Button layout: *Note that I'm playing on PS3* The buttons in this game felt... awkward, to say the least. The "classic" option for controls only changes it so you use right trigger to aim and face button to shoot, nothing else. It even makes the left trigger the "interact" button which makes no sense. So, I ended up using the default control scheme. What I didn't like is that the X button had way too many things attached to it while other things that should've been under the same button were scattered around the rest of the buttons. Right now I'm using X to focus the camera, go into cover, dodge and interact with ladders, doors, drawers & jump points while I use the Square button to pick up items and the Circle button to open doors with partner and do assist jumps. For some reason I didn't find a button for quickturn. Why couldn't they just use the button layout we had in RE5 is beyond me. Almost forgot, there's an option to "quickfire" but you're required to press both of the triggers at the same time to activate it which just felt too awkward.
  
  
• Finding and using items: I can understand guerrilla fighters dropping ammo in Chris' and Jake's scenarios but when zombified highschool students drop ammo it just gets weird. Now, I know civilians turned evil in RE4/5/R dropped ammo but when you can still find ammo boxes everywhere around the school it just seems stupid to have the people drop that shit too. For some reason it felt like the zombies dropped ammo more often that the soldiers. Another thing that I don't understand is how the herbs work. You can find green and red herbs and combine them but all it seems to do is give you more health tablets, all of which heal just one block of health. You can't use them through the menu either, just add them to your tablet pouch and use them by pressing R2. You use key items whenever you are at a spot to use them which is okay. There are also some chess pieces that count as "skill points" so I guess those are like money in this game.
  
  
• HUD: You have the option to turn HUD on or off but it only seems to affect the destination indicator which you can activate by pressing L2 anyway. The actual HUD that shows your health, ammo and other vital things is nowhere to be seen unless you tap the "navigator" button I just mentioned, which in turn flashes the screen with the navigator screen that can mess your game up if you just want to see your health. I do't understand why couldn't they just make it so that it's there, all the time. Have an option to turn it off for people who don't want it there but for the love of God, let me see what my health situation is without pressing some completely irrelevant button. No, you can't see it in the item menu either which would have been HELPFUL.
  
  
• The rest of the gameplay:Now for the character actions and such. I would much prefer if there was an option to just walk, as just pushing the stick lightly seems to send the characters running. Dodging and crawling are well made and they can definitely get you out of a sticky situation. Covering is better than in RE5 but still needs improving, as my view was once blocked by Chris' own head and on another occasion I couldn't get a shot because Chris just kept spazzing out (I did try to change the shoulder on both occasions, didn't help). On the topic of covering, as I see how much they put into it compared to the last time I don't understand why there's no blindfire. You now have the option to just melee crates which is great as you now don't have to pull out your knife to do it (knife is back in the menu, quick knifing is replaced by melee). I already mentioned the lack of quickturn, or my lack of finding it, but there is one rather awkward way to do it: first pull back on the trigger to do a 180 and then press X to focus camera (I might also have fumbled with the camera options, who knows). At times the game was waaaay too dark to see absolutely anything so I would really have liked an option to wield a flashlight. The camera feels like it's still too close to the character, even though they said they had fixed it. Reloading seems to be pretty buggy in the demo as I found myself reloading the gun three times at best until it finally worked. Lastly, the characters seem to have the stamina of a 90-year-old as six punches seem to cause them to lose their breath. It doesn't help that the "out of stamina" state animation is the same as the "you're about to die" animation, which coupled with the invisible HUD makes you really unsure if you need to pop a pill or not. Speaking of pills, I already mentioned there being no full heal (aside from first aid sprays), you need to keep tapping R2 to take one pill at a time. It's as annoying as it sounds. Healing your partner is also not an option unless they're dying or you have a first aid spray. Item swapping wasn't present either and that makes absolutely no sense to me.
  

What seemed to be missing from the demo were the famous "Resident Evil" shout when you press start in the startup screen and the whole friggin' split screen co-op. I can't believe they opted for online instead of that.

All in all, I had some really cool moments with the demo and it even seemed to have a bit of that panicky horror in there. I would hope they fix the problems I already pointed out but seeing as the game is only two weeks away I'm not sure if they will have time before the initial release. Patches ahoy. Now, I know this is just a demo and it still might have some bugs not present in the actual game but they did say this was a fixed version. Oh well, at least there was no screen tearing.

did you notice the auto walk/run in Leon's scenario?

I have already discussed the demo with you, and I agree with pretty much everything you said there.

Overall, I find the gameplay and the atmosphere of the game bland and boring, hopefully the story will make up for it, I don't know anything about it and I also skipped the cutscenes in the demo because I don't want to get spoiled yet.

I did like the fact there was no screen tearing, but it looks like the graphics took a hit because of it. I also did like Leon's campaign the best, Jake's campaign seemed too hectic, I had no idea what was going on and Sherry kept falling behind making me wait at the door and probably take damage. I only just then figured out how to back out of standing by a door. I was confused where Sherry would run off to, at times. She didn't say anything and I was never informed where she was. I guess I have to learn to use the locator more effectively.

You can preset the options before you start the game, but if you need to make adjustments that is just totally bullshit. The options menu is really confusing with icons being more prominent than what they actually stand for, especially Chris' confusing clusterfuck of a menu.

I also didn't like how Jake's cutscene I was in Europe then all of a sudden I was in China.. I- what?

To say im disappointed is an understatement. Had such high hopes for this game.

First off, most of Leons campaign and parts of Jake's were way too dark for me to make anything out. The Zombies weren't even a challenge in the slightest. Still haven't figured out how to pause it lol. The graphics were awful in parts. RE5 has arguably better graphics. The game play is too similar to ORC which isn't a good thing. Hadn't a clue what was happening in Jake's part. The game play in general seemed awkward.

What saddens me is this is more or less the final product as they are probably in the process of printing the discs right now.

weskersbarber wrote:

First off, most of Leons campaign and parts of Jake's were way too dark for me to make anything out.

I had the same. I had to put the brightness on max to be able to see properly in Leon's campaign.

ThomVD wrote:

weskersbarber wrote:

First off, most of Leons campaign and parts of Jake's were way too dark for me to make anything out.

I had the same. I had to put the brightness on max to be able to see properly in Leon's campaign.

I could see things fine at 30. If you bring it to the brightest you can see so many imperfections and it just starts looking ugly.

And yeah I have no idea what's going on in Jake's campaign.

weskersbarber wrote:

What saddens me is this is more or less the final product as they are probably in the process of printing the discs right now.

This is the Comic-Con demo (2 months old). So there is still hope.

I really liked the Leon demo.

Jake's campaign was too chaotic.

Chris's campaign is just RESI 5.2. Or Gears of Evil 4 (call it what you want). Didn't really like it.

I will still buy this game on day one.... Just for Ada and Leon

The demo was brutal. I liked it. Although it's very much like 4 and 5 before it, the inclusion of the zombies (at least in some levels), reminded me of the earlier games, when they were a trademark enemy. The Resident Evil franchise will probably never go back to the style of the first trilogy, so if they are gonna keep the series fresh, I think they need to change a lot of things about the franchise. I don't think co-op will hurt it at all. In fact, it's a good way get engaged into the same adventure.

I actually really liked Leon's demo. It was pretty smooth along with the controls. I liked the dark creepy zombie atmosphere too.

However, unfortunately I didn't like Chris's or Jake's demo that much. I felt like a 10 year old playing a Call of Duty campaign on Recruit, running into the middle of a battlefield and randomly spaying and knifing wildly. Chris's demo felt like more like a war game and not like a Resident evil, and I don't even know what to say about Jake's. I was so damn confused the entire demo. Wtf is going on, why is there 16 people attacking me, where is Sherry, how do I stop staring at this door and shoot the guy that's about to kill me, etc.

And as for the new inventory, I don't know if I like it or if I hate it. I still don't know how to use herbs. But on the bright side, it's much easier to switch weapons. I don't have much to say about it, honestly.

For the controls, they definitely not classic, but I did like how fluid they were. I guess that's more opinion based.

I saw a lot of ups and downs and will likely report more when I play through it a couple more times. I'm still excited as hell for RE6 and will be getting it at the midnight release

I might give it another bash over the next few days but tell me this, has anyone figured out how to pause it yet or is it just me?

From a gameplay perspective I actually enjoyed Chris and Jake's campaigns over Leon's. The aiming reticule in Leon's was downright terrible. It's pretty bad when you're aiming at the heads of zombies and 60% of your shots miss them because of the red dot jerking this way and that. However in Chris's and Jake's the reticule is dead accurate for the most part. Atmosphere wise, Leon's was amazing though. Also, I found hand to hand combat mainly unresponsive and confusing. One thing I wish Capcom would have implemented though is the ability to share ammo and health with friends. I'm still buying the game though, I can overlook these problems.

weskersbarber wrote:

I might give it another bash over the next few days but tell me this, has anyone figured out how to pause it yet or is it just me?

I'm not sure what system you're playing on, but I played it on Xbox360 and it was Start.

CURSES MY WIFI DOESNT WORK SO I CANT DOWNLOAD IT GAH

chocotricks wrote:

CURSES MY WIFI DOESNT WORK SO I CANT DOWNLOAD IT GAH

To be frank, you're not missing much.

Venoym wrote:

weskersbarber wrote:

I might give it another bash over the next few days but tell me this, has anyone figured out how to pause it yet or is it just me?

I'm not sure what system you're playing on, but I played it on Xbox360 and it was Start.

PS3. Tried everything, still couldnt get it to pause lol.

weskersbarber wrote:

Venoym wrote:

weskersbarber wrote:

I might give it another bash over the next few days but tell me this, has anyone figured out how to pause it yet or is it just me?

I'm not sure what system you're playing on, but I played it on Xbox360 and it was Start.

PS3. Tried everything, still couldnt get it to pause lol.

It's probably buggy. When I paused it I didn't get a start menu or anything it just darkened the game and "Paused" was in the middle of the screen.

Venoym wrote:

weskersbarber wrote:

Venoym wrote:

weskersbarber wrote:

I might give it another bash over the next few days but tell me this, has anyone figured out how to pause it yet or is it just me?

I'm not sure what system you're playing on, but I played it on Xbox360 and it was Start.

PS3. Tried everything, still couldnt get it to pause lol.

It's probably buggy. When I paused it I didn't get a start menu or anything it just darkened the game and "Paused" was in the middle of the screen.

Must have been a bug as its working for me now.

I wonder what happens if you just sit in the car and don't look for the keys... will the zombies actually break in?

I still haven't played it yet.

I didn't much care for the ME3 demo, but when I played the actual game it was amazing. That's probably how it's going to be with me for this game.

Especially since ME3 and RE6 are the two biggest releases for me this year.

Answer to my question: nope. You can just sit there with the car moving around like some zombie bounce house and nothing will happen. Even when the zombie breaks in the window it doesn't actually bite you. You can take your sweet time.

I'm sucking butt at this. lol I need to learn the controls better.
I just downloaded it about 20 minutes ago.
The pause button works for me.

Edit: What would you guys say is the best Control set up is for RE6?
Edit 2: Just beat Sherry's part. Chris and Leon to go!

Mercy wrote:

I wonder what happens if you just sit in the car and don't look for the keys... will the zombies actually break in?

I think so. When one grabbed me, I was close to death. This game will be scary. No doubts there.

So, I have completed the demo and I enjoyed it once I got a little better at the controls.
I would have to say I did the best on Leon's campaign. But, I enjoyed them all.
I love beating the crap out of Zombies. It's nice to have Zombies back too and haha, Leon and his wonderful driving skills is a nice touch (I got a laugh out of that!). His campaign is so much like RE2 is crazy. I miss Claire.
I am still not sure if I am going to like Jake or not in general at least.

White Rock wrote:

Mercy wrote:

I wonder what happens if you just sit in the car and don't look for the keys... will the zombies actually break in?

I think so. When one grabbed me, I was close to death. This game will be scary. No doubts there.

Actually they don't. That police cop that tries to bite you never does. You can watch Leon struggle with the zombie for eternity without any consequence. This is a major disappointment, because there's nothing scary about fumbling for your keys in a car as zombies rave outside. You have all the time in the world. I literally just sat there until my eyes were sore from the camera shake.