Capcom kitchen sink a bitch with Resident evil 6

Capcom were always going to have a tough time after Resident evil 4. Not only was it an amazing sequel, but it was a brilliant game which set the template for a plethora of third person action games which would release in the follow up generation. When you've managed to completely redefine a genre and set a standard, it's difficult to do it again. And in this sense you could argue perhaps some of us were a bit too hard on 5. Resident evil 5 wasn't a terrible game. But it felt like it was trying to mimic much of what others had done before it, as opposed to trying to carve its own niche. The irony being that the games Resident evil 5 was trying to mimic were games which were influenced by Resident evil 4 in the first place; most notably Gears of war. It felt strange. Capcom have admitted on many occasions that they're aware of the backlash they'd received as a result of deviating from much of what makes Resident evil Resident evil. Hence why we got Lost in nightmares and Revelations, both presenting a dramatic shift in pace and tone from Resident evil 5 more akin to what came before. One would think in lieu of these two throwback Resident evil experiences coming after 5 that 6 would follow suit!? Wrong. SO fucking wrong. Cue new Resident evil 6 trailer with helicopters, SWAT teams, zip lining, exploding cars, warfare outbreaks in central China and superhuman kung fu.

It's difficult to catch from this trailer what exactly direction Capcom have taken with this game, seeing as it looks like three separate games with a Chronicles style setup of parallel / intertwined stories from the viewpoints of different characters, each with their own styles of game play. Leon's section reeked of nostalgia: a familiar city, zombies, darkness and isolation. Chris' section ups the action ante with melee cover, explosions, civilians and has more in common with Ghost recon with a split second of Assassin creed (watch Chris mack his Ezio shove game from 1:40 onwards) than anything we've seen in Resident evil before. And the final section looked like Infamous without the electricity, a lightsaber and a bit The Matrix reloaded.

I'm not sure how I feel about this trailer. I liked Leon's section because it appeased the RE2 survival horror stan in me (I still want a damn remake). But the second Chris swooped down from the helicopter which he probably bench pressed 5 minutes prior, I asked myself: Is this Resident evil now? All out third person action, because everybody else is doing it? I'm not golden showering on parades. Just saying how I initially felt when I watched this trailer, which was that I like how it looks, but I get no real sense of direction as to what Capcom are going for other than 'let's make an all out action game and kitchen sink the muthafucker'. And whilst I like what I see, I don't love it. At least not yet. But I can grow to. Because I want this game to be amazing and there's nothing to prevent it from being so. Well...there is. But...you know. I wanna give this shit a chance and see what industry folk have to say at E3 when they'll more than likely have a chance to play it.

I love the Resident evil series, so even if this game ends up with a aggregated metacritic score of 2, I'll still buy the shit out of it on launch day. And if this game isn't currently be developed for a simultaneous release on  WiiU too, then that console is already in trouble.

Oh, and China. Gamers ran out of Africans to shoot. So it's your turn now.