Final thoughts...
Prologue
Why was this a thing? No seriously, why? It sets such a bad tone for the game and sours you to the experience from the word "go". It teaches you jack shit about the robust combat system, is an In Media Res opening that does nothing to enrich the story and isn't even in continuity with the game since we go through that section in Leon/Helena chapter 5 and it happens differently, and is a slow walk/QTE fest.
Leon and Helena
As mentioned, this is probably my favorite campaign simply because it contains the least amount of bullshit. There are also genuinely atmospheric moments. The rising and falling piano tune playing in the background of Tall Oaks Streets as the city is going to hell with silhouettes of zombies coming from around the corner and people being torn apart by zombies legitimately makes my heart race. The trek from a College Campus to Sewers to a Subway followed by the chaotic streets of a city and then on to a Cemetery, Cathedral, Underground Lab, and finally some Catacombs was a hell of a ride. Chapter 4 and 5 were also good fun just to see how much more over the top the boss fights would get. And of course how could I not mention the gameplay? Because there is the least amount of QTE, forced running, etc. bullshit, you spend a majority of your time wrestling and shooting zombies which is where all the fun is at in this game.
However, this game has too many failings to give it high praise.
One of the largest problems is the story pacing. As many have mentioned, Leon and Helena simply don't have much to do in the overall story. You start with the president dying and Helena saying that you need to get to the Cathedral and... that's it. The next two chapters don't advance the plot at all outside of small bits. The problem is that these are probably the longest two chapters in the entire game so it's a 3 to 4 hours period first time through that you are just kind of waiting for Helena to spill the beans. And then when you finally know what's going on, Chapter 3 is pretty much a filler chapter. The story really doesn't get going at a good pace until Chapter 4 which is 5 to 6 hours into the campaign.
Another issue is that while there isn't nearly as much bullshit design in the campaign, there is nothing that really shines either. Long stretches are just narrow corridors to fight through with little variation. Chapter 3 borders on being annoying because you simple move from area to area with low visibility and kamikaze zombies coming from the catwalks surrounding you. It's not actively bad, but it's not good either.
Sherry and Jake
This is where the game begins to fall apart. Let me list to you the end of Chapter 1 to the beginning of Chapter 3: You end chapter 1 with a turret fight, begin chapter 2 in a next to zero visibility ice storm where you have to fight long range and flying enemies, move onto a vehicle section, then deal with a stealth section, then end Chapter 2 with a QTE section, and finally start Chapter 3 with yet another stealth section. By the end of Chapter 3 you are back to forced running into the camera, start Chapter 4 with a vehicle section, and then are put into a shooting gallery that ends with a really shitty helicopter fight which continues throughout the level.
NONE OF THIS WAS PARTICULARLY FUN. I refer everyone back to what I said earlier:
Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to make it so that you can barely see (there are points in the level where visibility is even worse) as you have long distance enemies
and enemies that fly around!? Or to make it so that if you are knocked down at the top of the hill, the ice in the level will force you to slide all the way back down to the bottom with no way to stop yourself? Or the previously mentioned issue with the snowmobile? And then adding in a mandatory stealth section after a mandatory vehicle section? And then top that all off with a QTE section?
The best thing about the campaign is that I really liked Sherry and the story in this campaign probably best links to the main themes of the game (taking responsibility for one's actions, trust, and redemption).
Chris and Piers
Resident Evil: Shootbang edition. Overly loud, bad sound design, bright flashes which blind the screen in the first two chapters, too many long range snipers and machine gunners that dispense way too much chip damage, all enemies later on become bullet sponges (but it isn't tense because I know I won't run out of ammo because there isn't ammo scarcity in this game), forced camera angles, forced running sections, the helicopter fights, holding blasting points, QTEs, generic military talk over the radio constantly, the jeep vehicle section, the harrier section, I could go on. After I get the few remaining Serpent medallions, I'm never touching this campaign again. Everything wrong with Resident Evil 5 and 6 were condensed down into one really shitty campaign that I can't believe passed the design stage. I'd give it a lower score, but there was nothing wrong with tech or actual playability (in theory).
And you'd think that an action based campaign would best utilize the robust combat system,
but it doesn't. The long range snipers, machine gunners, and rocket launchers force you to play much more conservatively and much more like a common TPS which is the
worst way to play RE 6. But what are you supposed to do when you have shooting galleries full of long range enemies or bullet sponges or are much harder to melee (or in the case of Chapter 4:
there are enemies who cause splash damage by exploding upon death, so of course I won't melee them).
Ada
This campaign is where the game simply overstayed it's welcome. Thing, is, it's not like there's much to talk about. The first two chapter are
really boring puzzles with chapter 1 having a really bad stealth section and Chapters 3 - 5 are simply about connecting the dots in the story and crossover moments. There simply isn't much to talk about. It was boring and the story reveals were really dumb. I wish I could say more, but I was kind of on autopilot by that point in the game and just wanted to get through it.
The Mercenaries
Best part of the game and I can't praise it enough. This is where the combat system
really shines without any of the bullshit from the campaigns. I have spent over a dozen hours just messing around with the different characters, costume weapon load outs, enemy placements, strategies, etc. Simply put: It's a hell of a lot of fun. It's just too bad there isn't more customization like choosing our own weapon load outs.
The Story
One of the things I appreciate the most about Resident Evil is that despite being a horror series they still manage to stay hopeful. The main character don't die, they triumph over adversity. The stories aren't nihlistic, they are about banding together as partners and saving the world/city/what have you. Of course, this also leads to even more cheesiness and it's hardly mature in its examination of its subject matter and generally has the story execution of a middle school book report, but I still have a soft spot for the zany antics and hopeful message Resident Evil puts out and its so charmy just how hard the writers try despite not being skilled.
The soft spot I have for RE 6 extends only to the overall themes. The game maintains the overall hopeful message of the franchise: Second chances, redemption, taking responsibility, friendship, and trust.
The problem comes with the the moment to moment stuff which is simply too dour for the level of execution going on here. This is a plot where the big revelation is that we have a governmental conspiracy being perpetrated by a top level official who actually became so obsessed with a former employee quiting and rejecting him that he funded what I can only assume to be a billion dollar research facility and program to CLONE HER. And when that didn't work, he cloned his top researcher into Ada. And that's what kicks the plot off: Carla wants revenge for being turned into a clone of Ada Wong, only instead of taking out Simmons and "The Family" (which the story is already asking you to suspend your disbelief that such an organization wouldn't kick Simmons out on his ass for wasting billions on being a creepy, clingy asshole), she decides to destroy the whole world. Oh, and Simmons says something about "for the good of the nation" and "maintaining the current order" which is a load of bullshit and makes zero sense why they wouldn't be covert about their plot and instead killed 70,000 people and nuked a city when being covert would have taken so much less effort and wouldn't have risked exposing their whole operation. And they take it SO SERIOUSLY. With the sad piano pieces or the horror themes or the tense epic music or whatever on top of the mumbly serious dialogue and so on.
Overall
As mentioned there are probably enough good ideas in the game to support a single 8 hour campaign, not four campaigns clocking in at 25 hours. There isn't enough story to cover that 25 hours either and even if there was, it was still very disappointing and even outright horrible at times (even for a Resident Evil story). On top of that, all of the variation comes from ideas outside of the core mechanics (Stealth, Vehicles, QTEs, Swimming, Forced Running, Forced Camera Angles, and so on) and none of them are fun because the developers couldn't flesh any of them out. If they had focused on Leon and Helena's campaign, polished it, fit the story into that campaign and given them expanded motivations and character arcs (Leon is a generic do-good person and Helena wants revenge and that's supposed to carry an 8 hour campaign), given us a charismatic villain (not an obsessed ex-employer who is beyond clingy or a clone of Ada Wong), and focused on the action and added mechanics which took advantage of the robust combat system they implemented they might have had a truly rip roaring zombie wresting adventure starring Leon S. Kennedy and guest starring a cast of fan favorites and some newcomers to base future games on (particularly Sherry and Jake). As it is, we have a game where I'll only be willing to replay 1 out of 4 campaigns and will spend a majority of my time in an optional extra mode. I would only ever recommend playing Leon and Helena's campaign, and even that would be with some massive caveats.
The team clearly developed a fundamental misunderstanding of how an action RE title should work design wise sometime between RE 4 and RE 6, so maybe some time away will give them a fresh perspective for spin offs or for RE 8. I just wish RE 7 would have gone back to classic style or something like that rather than what they are showing now.
