When Resident Evil 5 was released, I personally thought it was a great game. However I could not help but agree with hardcore Resident Evil fans that it was indeed much different than previous games, more importantly Resident Evil 4. CAPCOM knew this and had stated that they were going to be releasing a more action packed game rather then a slower story driven survival horror game, which is kind of the staple of the franchise up until Resident Evil 5, with it being set in Africa during the day time. So what is Capcom to do with a mixture of feelings of the last title released on top of the hardcore fans who just felt let down in a way. Well I got my hands on Resident Evil 6, or at least a demo of it at E3 2012 and I was very surprised, but certainly not in a bad way.

I am not sure it this will be the same demo available for gamers that pre-ordered or purchased Dragon’s Dogma but, I would say it most likely is if I had to guess. Not only did I get a chance to play the Demo for Resident Evil 6 but fans that eagerly awaited an opportunity to play it waiting in line got to see an indoor setup of a re-creation of what looked like a level straight out of Resident Evil 5 which you can catch a glimpse of in the pics here. Unfortunately I did not get to play co-op but to my surprise the demo what setup where you could choose to play as one of three different characters, each having their own unique level/demo. You could play as either Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy or Jake who is Wekser’s son in Resident Evil 6. I first dove right into the Chris Redfield portion of the demo and right away got the whole Resident Evil 5 kind of style as far as gameplay as well as mechanics, however I noticed you could move while aiming your weapon which I thought was an immediate plus.

Of course though each of the character demos has a cinematic introduction, so with Chris you see him drinking in a bar in Eastern Europe where he apparently dealing with some slight amnesia, which then had me realize that they could really take the game to different places, plot wise with Chris in this condition. Right before Chris lets the all the whiskey get the best of him, about to make a scene, we see Piers Nivens, who is a BSAA Agent here who is in charge of trying to get Chris back with them to bring the fight to China where there is an outbreak. I suppose in the interest of time you pretty much cut right to China with Piers by your side as the action gets going right away. Just as the action was like in Resident Evil 5, only now you are fighting infected that are armed with guns… so it is truly action packed through the whole demo for Chris. Piers and Chris fend off many of this new kind of masked enemy that we are not used to seeing.

You can even tag enemies for the AI and Piers to go after while I assume it would work the same in co-op which is a nice feature but although your are supposed to have all these BSAA backing you up, it felt much more like if was just you and Piers up against them. As if infected zombies with guns is not enough they can also just randomly sprout mutant arms with flying infected things, which I don’t know what the hell to call, but they sure as hell brought the action element as you were constantly fighting for the most part. One of the best parts about fighting against the gun wielding infected was the wicked awesome melee/pistol whip animation it goes into letting just beat the crap out of them for what seems like as long as you want. Eventually you get the fuck out of there after calling in for a chopper extraction and that is the end of Chris’s demo.

Now this is what really surprised me as I started up Leon’s demo was that you first learn you are partnered up with Helena Harper, who is a secret service agent as you slowly search through corridors at a university. This was literally me going from playing as Chris Redfield with all this action in the streets of Chine to now playing as Leon as if I was transformed back to Resident Evil 4. It was the same exact style with everything quite moving room to room both hands on my pistol (as oppose to the Assault Rifle I used as Chris), walking unable to just sprint into some action scenario you might expect in Resident Evil 5. After hearing noises, noticing things had a much more creepier feel much like other titles in the franchise, I realized that I could also dual-wield pistols. Unlike Chris Redfield’s portion of the demo it takes a while for us to even see a zombie until we come across a father who is in need of help as he is trying to find his daughter. Leon agrees as the power to the campus goes out with lightning outside making it even more creepy in the dark now. After eventually finding the daughter past blood stained walls she is reunited with her father. However something does not seem right.

The power goes back for Leon and Helena only to see that in that time the daughter has turned into a zombie having just taken a giant chuck out of dad’s neck after that reuniting hug. Now as if that is not enough to deal with, we then see even more zombies closing in through doorways you of course thought were clear. Now I immediately get that feeling of having to back it up in fear of being trapped by these classic shuffling zombies, which I am sure most of you know what I am talking about if you have played Resident Evil 4 among some of the older games in the genre as well. Fending them off definitely gave me that tense fear while playing the older games that you just don’t get playing as Chris or playing Resident Evil 5. We both make it out alive to survive the demo but it is so interesting how different the two portions of the demo are and that it seems that Capcom is out to please everyone here. Even down to the PDA that Leon has, along with the entire layout of where I could see my ammo to other things were all different then while playing as Chris.

Unfortunately I did not get to spend some quality time as Jake (Wesker’s son; if you don’t know who Wesker is, but plan on picking up Resident Evil 6, I suggest brushing up on some history of the game franchise). Although I did not get to play as Jake I do know that his portion of the demo includes him partnering up with a familiar face, whom is Sherry Birkin from Resident Evil 2, but years have passed as she is older now. They are chased down by a seemingly invincible Nemesis like monstrosity known as an Ustanak. With all three of these demo I wondered how the game would pan out only to learn that there will actually be three separate co-op campaigns in Resident Evil 6 with each of them supposedly to be rather long. This not only gives players a lot of game to play but a lot of options if you like playing the franchise at this point a particular way. Capcom is quite literally aiming to please everyone which I must amend them for doing as it is truly unique as well as them really caring about their franchise and the gamers buying it. I would have most likely been pleased with whatever they decided to do with Resident Evil 6, but with three separate co-op campaigns that are all suppose to be going on at the same time, with multiplayer returning as well, I can only predict that Resident Evil 6 will gain the hearts of many gamers as well as critics to boot. It will be out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on October 2nd, 2012 with DLC hitting the Xbox 360 first.