The lack of feedback takes its most frustrating form in Resident Evil 6's frequent boss battles, where it's difficult to tell when or how you're having any impact against bosses. Did I do enough damage on this giant snake creature to trigger the next cutscene? Did I just survive long enough? I couldn't tell you, and I suspect the answer is different for each fight. This confusion robs actions of any feeling of consequence. Resident Evil 6 is the worst kind of cinematic video game — one where the player's part in the process is an afterthought at best.
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It's so much of an afterthought, in fact, that an alarming number of player actions are relegated to button-mashing quick time events. Resident Evil games have fallen back on waggling the analog stick or quickly tapping a button to escape instant death for a long time, but Resident Evil 6 takes that bad habit to depressing extremes. I lost count of how often a quick time event popped up out of nowhere with split-second timing required, guaranteeing that I failed and died the first time.
Even worse, some of those already-awful boss fights end with increasingly difficult demands to tap a button over and over. Just when you think you might be finished with a particularly annoying segment, you'll run into and fail a quick time event and find yourself forced to replay the last five minutes.
