Thoughts on the Resident Evil 6 reveal trailer

Hooray, an entry on Twilight Lynk that ISN’T related in any way to Star Wars: The Old Republic… we seriously need more of these happening don’t we.

My attention for the last month or so has been on OTHER things so the reveal trailer for Resident Evil 6 slipped by me completely until Jeff mentioned it to me randomly. As soon as he did, I rushed to YouTube to watch the trailer and boy did I like what I see…

Just so we can have the source reference front and center, here’s the reveal trailer…

…and here we go…

Story

The events of Resident Evil 6 take place over 10 years after the events of the Raccoon City outbreak and after Resident Evil 5. Leon S Kennedy (as well as Hunnigan) is returning along side Chris Redfield and a new unknown character. The story of these three characters all take place in different places, the latest BOW outbreaks are happening simultaneously around the world and each of the main characters are playing a part in the story which at first will seem disconnected from each other.

Leon will be dealing with a situation similar to the original Raccoon City outbreak he faced as a rookie cop while Chris Redfield and the BSAA are tackling an outbreak in China. The third character, who is still unknown to us all, appears to be some kind of mercenary who is protecting a blond girl who some think may be Ashley Graham, however the voice actor for Ashley, Carolyn Lawrence, has stated that she hasn’t been contacted by Capcom to voice any parts in Resident Evil 6… at least not yet. It’s hard to tell just yet but there is a very good chance that the blonde girl in the trailer may actually be a grown up Sherry Birkin. I’m sure we’ll have confirmation in the near future just which characters are returning for RE6, but information is pretty slim at this stage.

That being said, Capcom has revealed that the three story arcs you can play through in the game can be played through in whatever order you choose and are all selectable from the Start screen at the very beginning. However, another tidbit from Capcom says that Ada Wong also returns in RE6 and that she will be featured in content you open up once you finish with the three starting story arcs. Again, Ada is the girl behind the scenes who probably knowns a lot more about what’s going on than anyone else in the game.

Characters

Fuck yeah, Leon! It looks as though Leon is the character to look out for in every even-numbered Resident Evil game… and I’m glad. While Chris seems to be very similar to how he is in Resident Evil 5, it looks as though Leon may have changed a little from the time we saw him in RE4 and Degeneration. Of course, the fact that one of the opening shots in the trailer was of Leon shooting a zombified version of The President of the US (Ashley’s father), it’s no wonder Leon seems a lot more angry and serious in the trailer. I do hope that he still has his light moments though, some of the best parts in Resident Evil 4 were of Leon’s ultra campy dialogue with other characters in the game… “Saddler, you’re small-time!”

The trailer itself is pretty dramatic so I’m not too worried, though when you think about it, these characters have over 10 years of zombie filled experiences, so it’s not going to be any wonder why they’ve changed over the years, though the real worry people have is that this game may destroy the original personalities of the characters involved.

As I mentioned before Leon shot Ashley’s father, the President of the US who was infected at the time however the voice actor of Ashley Graham says she hasn’t been contacted to play a role in the game yet. I really hope Ashley does have some kind of part in the game, I can’t really see Leon shooting an infected President Graham and not having Ashley in the game for at least some kind of cameo of some sort.

Another thing folks are noticing is that, again, Jill is missing in action, though I’m sure she’s just busy with other matters the BSAA has to take care of considering the scale of the outbreak occurring in the game. I wonder what other established and new characters will show up in the coming months as more is revealed. I’m already pretty happy with the current listing of confirmed characters. After all Leon was created for Resident Evil 2 as a counterpoint to Chris in the original Resident Evil. The two have never met directly, however, for the first time they star in the same game together.

Fanboys and girls around the world are dreaming of an RE6 ending where Leon and Chris brofist at the end and the credits rolls, I’m sure…

Gameplay

Two player online and offline co-op returns in Resident Evil 6 from RE5 with Leon being partnered up with a new character named Helener Harper and Chris with another BSAA agent. The third story arc seems more like a throwback to Resident Evil 4’s escort type gameplay, though we can’t really tell all that much from the trailer.

The three main arcs of the game have very distinctive differences in style, Leon seems to be in a more survival horror type situation similar to RE2 and 4 while Chris is in a more action orientated situation bringing him back to the style taken up by RE5. The new character also shows some interesting features in his side of the story, particularly the few flashes of melee gameplay you see in the trailer.

The ability to move and shoot at the same time has been confirmed and it looks like you may also be able to dual wield certain weapons in the game as well. Of course, of course we won’t really know much more about the gameplay until someone actually ends up playing it or we get a gameplay trailer to work with. The few shots we’ve seen so far suggest a more action-packed type of game than most old school Resident Evil fans would want, but like I said, it’s too early to tell since trailers have a way of misrepresenting the final product.

I’ll be keeping a close eye out for more information about RE6… I’ve been a huge fan of the series since it first came out despite not owning a PlayStation and Leon is my favourite Resident Evil character… the fact that he’s in this game alone has gotten me hyped for it but there’s so much more I’m looking forward to. This is a series with a lot of lore and it definitely didn’t end with the defeat of Albert Wesker at the end of RE5. I’m also glad that the rumours of RE6 being a reboot of the series turned out to be false… there’s still a hell of a lot to explore with Resident Evil and I’m glad Capcom is giving us more.