After playing through the Resident Evil 6 public demo (which is quite big actually if you count all 3 campaigns) my feelings are mixed but mostly positive. I am however going to focus on a couple of things Capcom could easily fix in day 1 patch. In an age where patches are the norm, I’m really not trying to slag the game off saying its broken in any way, simply pointing out a few things that would make the game more fun.
First thing that stood out immediately was the fact that there are no laser sights turned on as the default setting. Even when you turned it on in the settings your co-op partner can’t see it, and as a result can’t see where you aim. In my opinion this was one of the best thing about Resident Evil 5, taking turns trying to take down the zombies. Now you shoot at random and waste ammo because you shoot the same target over and over again. That natural cooperation you got from seeing what your partner were doing has simply vanished. This was also really useful when just aiming at things in the environment letting your partner know where a loot chest is or where to go next. A really bad decision from Capcom in my opinion.
Another big flaw is the lack of a flashlight (either mounted on your gun or as a separate item in your inventory). Usually in dark areas you should be able to at least temporarily turn on your flashlight and either scan for zombies or loot, now you simply can’t see what’s lurking in the shadows. Even if you turn up the gamma to the highest settings the dark corners remained dark and you had to walk right up to everything in order to see what was there. This was also a hassle when aiming at zombies at a longer distance, in a narrow alley for instance, they would often blend into the darkness and disappear from view, but I suppose this is done intentionally to create more tension. Dead Island solved this elegantly by having a battery driven flashlight that would recharge after a moment or two. This way you can’t use it all the time but it’s there when you needed it the most.
Next big hurdle to overcome if you enjoyed RE5 and just tried RE6 is that you now run if you move your stick instead of walk. Sure, there is a gradual movement going from walk to run but the span/sensitivity of the walk-part is so tiny that its hard to simply walk around most of the time. This looks really silly when you’re in a small environment and two characters go from standstill to running and bumping into things all the time.
Another thing you notice when you go between chapters in the demo is the different layout of the on-screen interfaces. I’m sure you will get used to these being different for each character pretty quick but at first it feels a bit jarring.
As usual with the Resident Evil franchise there will be things that you need to get used to when you start playing a new game and maybe some of these things will even turn out to be a good thing if you give it some time. But seriously Capcom, make the laser sights in co-op VISIBLE to both players!
What did you think of the demo and what do you expect from the full game?
I agree with you 100% Not to mention the AI of your partner is horrid. But there’s something about it though… I really want to like it but, maybe it’s a little too Japanese at the moment??? :p I’m still rooting for it though.
I haven’t tried the game with AI partner but I can imagine you’re right :) RE5 was the same thing…
Why dont you focus on the things that actually matter and pose a problem to the game instead of irrelevant ridiculous misc that no one quite cares about
What needs to be fixed is the camera, and smoothness of aiming.
The character takes up 3 quarters of the screen, you cant see what you are doing or where you are going. And the aiming is by far the worst ive seen in any game. It took me 10 seconds to line up a headshot on a zombie. Dont even bother if you are walking whie aiming.
I agree with you about the aiming, i just assumed it was because you start out with low level weapons in the start of the demo and that accuracy would improve as you go along. I did not have a problem with the camera at all though.