E3 2012: Resident Evil 6 to have 3 separate story and gameplay types

Capcom’s Newest instalment of the Resident Evil series is promised to be the most ambitious yet. Why? I hear you ask, well, not only will RE6 have 3 separate story modes which will each have their own style of gameplay but you will also get to take control of 6 different characters which include some greats from previous RE games. Not only will RE6 have all of this but the multi-player promises to be where the innovation kicks in, apparently having a Journey type feel to it.

Before we explore the depth of RE6’s multi-player, I’ll explain the single player. The single player is split into three separate campaigns each of which will over cross between each story.

The first campaign is Leon Kennedy’s story (you may remember him from RE2 and RE4) where you begin In his home town, where a bio-terrorist attack has occurred turning Leon’s good friend, the President of the United States, into a brain hungry member of the walking dead. Leon’s story involves discovering who is behind this dreadful attack. Leon’s gameplay style is also meant to be a lot more like the early RE games, where you fear for your life, conserve ammo and generally pray that you will make it out alive. We will also see the emergence of a new character in Leon’s storyline, her name is Helena Harper, who is an agent of the Divisions of Security Operations and Leon’s new partner.

The second storyline in RE6 will be Chris Redfield’s, where you will see a similar type of story to Leon’s where a bio-terrorist attack has occurred in China and Chris and his team are sent to investigate, you will also see another new charecter, who is a BSAA sniper Piers Nivans. Chris’ gameplay will be more action based than the other two stories. This is not to say it will not be scary, as there will still be the fear of how are you going to survive this awful situation as each your team mates get picked off one by one.

The third storyline is set around the new charecter Jake Muller (son of Albert Wesker). Jake’s story will see him chased through Eastern Europe by various monsters and bad guys who want Jake dead, as he is heir to a “very special blood line”. We also get to see the re-emergence of, a now fully grown, Sherry Birkin from RE2. Jake’s gameplay style is meant to echo the third installment of the RE series, where you are constantly on the run from the big bad Nemesis.

Now for the most interesting part of RE6 (not that the 3 campaigns do not sound interesting), the multi-player. It sounds like Capcom have gone all out on the multi-player aspect of RE6, it will mainly focus on cooperative play. The way in which it will work is, is when a player joins an online co-op match they can also be dropped into another person’s game, this can only happen if the other player is at the point in their campaign which crosses over with yours. So for example when two people start an online co-op game with Leon, they could be dropped into someone’s game if they are at the crossover point in Chis or Jake’s campaign. This addition makes for a dynamic online experience turning what could be two player co-op into a four player one. This mode can be turned on or off, so you can play on your own if you want.

Capcom have also added the ability to edit who can join your game or not, allowing you to allow players from your friends list to join and decreasing the risk of annoying troll invasions. Which can literally ruin an online gaming experience, RE5, in my experience often suffered from this problem.

All in all RE6 promises to be a nice addition to the RE series, it would of been nice if RE6 stayed away from the co-op as sometimes, especially in RE5, the addition of another player either AI or human seemed to ruin the fear aspect of the RE series.