Low budget, true. But I counter you with:
http://i.imgur.com/zH50t9C.gifv
The Story (Barring Natalia and Alex) and the CGs are the best things about the game.
If 6 is quality then I'll stick with the straight to DVD.
The low budget actually worked in its favor. Instead of huge QTE setpieces and janky vehicle sections we actually got a good survival horror game.
It nailed everything, from atmosphere to enemy designs. Pacing is spot on with a great balance between combat, puzzles and exploration. The story is perfect for a RE game, striking the perfect balance between cheesiness and actually being interesting, while adding tons of fantastic references to the classic games, especially with Barry.
I don't see any issues with the gameplay either, the dodge works great, alternating between characters keeps things interesting, controls are perfectly fine, gunplay isn't amazing but it's not bad either.
Considering the state of the franchise I think getting a game that is such a quality RE experience is a blessing and it's completely baffling to me to see hate for it in the community thread of all places.
Thinking it's nothing special is one thing but saying it sucks. Fuck no!
See that's one of my biggest things with Resident Evil. I don't need to be won over by it "returning to roots" or being a good "survival horror" game. Those are the last things I look for in an RE game. I want a good story that incorporates the series lore (Which Rev 2 does putside what I said above) and offers a decent presentation (Rev 2 is back and forth on this). I didn't feel there was a good balance to what you describe.
Rev 2 is majorly very small linear hubs, so there isn't much exploring to do. The puzzles that are there aren't anything special, and the combat itself is a step down from RE4-6. Only managing to be better than Rev 1. True it's in it's own side series, but being in the 3D realm of RE, I expect better. Being an improvement over Rev 1 isn't much when compared to the series pedigree prior.
Going back to balance you mentioned earlier. I felt it was lacking gameplay wise as well. Either go full horror like RE7 or go action like 6. This middle ground thing doesn't seem to work with only RE4 managing to do it and even that's arguable to some. Trying to please two fanbases especially when your budget is low to me isn't a good idea.
I will say that I don't HATE the game. But Rev 1 and Rev 2 (Despite my lists going to exclude CVX since my complaints there are mainly technical) stand as the lowest points of the mainline franchise to me. Since to me they both fail to offer that perfect middle ground people seem to claim they have.
So yeah Rev 2 isn't bad. But I fully stand that expectations should be kept in check considering what it is at the end of the day.
I will say despite being a series fans. My tastes do tend to stick out from other legacy fans.
Though that's old news at this point.
