“Resident Evil 6” has arrived to a crowd of hungry gamers after promising to be a banquet of action and horror, but this game will leave those who play feeling unsatisfied shortly after starting, like dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

“Resident Evil 6” takes place four years after the last “Resident Evil,” with a brand new enemy known as Neo-Umbrella attempting to wage war against the world with zombies and mutants in memory of the Umbrella Corp. from past RE games.

If that sounds convoluted to anyone, it is. The story is a melodramatic, ridiculous cliché-fest that will leave most groaning as it is delivered from poor-to-mediocre voice acting.

But the story isn’t the reason most will play RE6; it’s the gameplay. Unfortunately, it is almost as disjointed and poorly delivered as the story. The controls are unruly and most of the game’s life-saving mechanics are never spelled out to players, leaving them to die often for unpredictable and profoundly frustrating reasons. RE6 is also poorly paced, frequently jumping from action to mind-numbing tedium and back again. Furthermore, the game is incredibly linear, often leaving next to no direction to go besides straight ahead.

RE6 is not all pain and misery. Pockets of fun can be found in between the frustrating, unbalanced combat sequences, but those moments only serve to punctuate the bulk of the game. Co-op also makes the game a little more bearable, but in the end it is just a matter of “misery loves company.”

One of the very few positive things about this game is that the graphics look great. The set pieces are large and interesting and most of the characters are worthy of being in high-definition. That being said, the rest of the environments are bland and feel completely lacking in personality.

All in all, nothing is particularly broken about RE6, but almost nothing about it is of quality. While this may be one of the longest titles in the series, partaking in 40 hours of mind-numbing redundancy does not make a good game.

The only nightmare RE6 provides is the one created by the knowledge that this is a main-entry title. The only thing to fear in RE6 is RE6 itself.

INFO BOX:
Graphics: 4
Gameplay: 2
Presentation: 2
Overall: 2