No Hope Left ☣‎

Resident Evil 6

Soooo...it has been a month since the game was released and I have only finished the first of the three/four segments of the game since I have been busy with school. :( But! I will give each segment a review once I have gone through them. I started chronologically down the list so this will be the review for the Leon Kennedy and Helena Harper campaign.

Before the game was released and sent to my door...all those reviews gave it a TERRIBLE score. I was a bit worried seeing that, especially since the other Resident Evil game that was released earlier in the year by Slant Six was... just unbearable. On the upside, I was happy to see Leon Kennedy again. So was this game after all "no hope left" as their slogan suggests?

Even though I am a HUGE fan of the Resident Evil series, this game is not without problems. There are many pros and cons, which so far seems fair to me. This game is very linear as most of the other Resident Evil games were since the beginning so I could understand the very blocked off areas of the game, however, at this day and age shouldn't we be allowed to explore a little more? When there are cinematic moments, it tends to prompt button sequences that kind of throws off the point of the cinematic cut-scenes, which is a very minor complain.

The traditional knife is kind of unnecessary in this game and if you play as Helena, you don't even get one! Better ration your ammunition because even though this game gives you more ammo than the previous games before part 5, it is still very limiting in ammo supplies, especially when you do not have a knife! As we were allowed only to curb stomp zombies when we have staggered them in part 5, in part 6 you are allowed to stomp and kick enemies at your will, which at first made the game feel way too easy, but they balanced it out by putting a limit on stamina. However, when you curb stomp zombies in part 6, you don't get that solid feel of the stomp as you did in part 5. In fact, most of the time you cannot tell if you have successfully killed off the zombie because the controller does not vibrate as it did in part 5. Some of the zombies tend to be annoying in the sense that their reach is unbelievable and the fact that you are forced to be attacked by some of the zombies seem a bit unfair. When you see a corpse lying on the floor, you tend to shoot them and usually they do dissipate, but in this game, you are forced to walk by them to retrieve an item and when you return that way, they will become animated and will attack/immobilize you even if you are afar sometimes. It kind of gets annoying after a while since this game gives random button prompts to kick enemies off unlike part 5 where it's always the left stick as other games tend to do.

The idea of having to pick up skill points seem a bit pointless to me. You shouldn't have to pick up skill points. The hub is a different idea and it works once you get used to it. The hotkeys made it a lot easier to reach items you want, but having to scroll through the guns when you're low on ammo and trying to figure out which gun has any bullets left kind of sucks. The health system is improved as you get more control of how much to use than before. Finally in 2012 can we strife and take cover in Resident Evil!

The evaluation at the end of the chapter is as cruel as any of the other Resident Evil games. Can't make a comment on how well the AI works in this game as I have been playing with my partner in crime, but I have heard that the AI actually does a decent job at what they should be doing. As for people complaining about button prompts with a timer is not fair, with or without the timer on the screen would have the same response. Just because having to see the timer there, psychologically we freak out more seeing time slip than not.

The zombies are pretty cool and they have their different abilities that might or might not piss you off. The puzzles in the game isn't too bad or frustrating, but there are a couple that might piss you the eff off. The boss fights are alright once you figure out what to do. Graphics aren't that much of an improvement, but it's still pretty. The campaign starts off kind of slow, but it gets better as you progress. I don't know about you guys, but so far I am liking it. It doesn't really feel like a traditional Resident Evil game, but it has it's moments as the series evolve to fit a bit more into present-day gaming. Even though it is more of an action-adventure game than the once survival-horror, it has its creepy moments.

Til next time :)

Lollipop Chainsaw.

I have created a blog!  

Not entirely sure how to do this, but here we go!

I got my hands on Lollipop Chainsaw about two months back and finally got the chance to check it out. At first glance, I did not expect much of it other than the fact that it has the protagonist as a cute blonde American girl named Juliet Starling with pigtails and a perfect body in a skimpy high school cheerleader uniform that hunt zombies and sucks on lollipops. Okaaay... I did, however, expect the music and soundtrack to be awesome though since Jimmy Urine of MSI and Akira Yamaoka are the composers for the game.

When I popped the game in, I enjoyed the graphics of the game and the style in which it was drawn, but it just felt like a very repetitive game right off the bat. Yeah, I get that it's a hack and slash game killing zombies and that actually sounds awesome because I like hack and slash games, but it did not capture me like the Devil May Cry series did even though essentially it's pretty much the same. I hacked it out and finished the first stage, it was very Japanese in which it has a score card and grades you harshly on your time, hits, deaths, etc. I was like, "Okay, I suck...next stage *click*" and did the same things over and over again. 

Hanging off her belt is her bodiless boyfriend, Nick Carlyle. He whines and complains pretty much throughout the game and he gives the most obvious tips. In the second stage, Nick becomes kind of useful and you can buy "Nick tickets" and use him as a sort of dazing weapon.. or a piggy bank. Where does the coins come from? I don't know >.> With those coins/zombie medals you can buy upgrades and other skills/accessories through "Chop2Shop.zom." When you are in the shop, you get to listen to the ever repeating 1958 song "Lollipop" by The Chordettes.

The main antagonist is a goth sorcerer dude named Swan and you can guess why he summoned a zombie apocalypse... whatevers. All the zombies are pretty much the same throughout the game. There were some...farmer flying zombies...? It's nice to have some variation...but as zombies do, they hurdle in masses and follow each other. Then later on you meet her Sensei, Morikawa, her sisters, Cordelia and Rosalind, and her daddy, Gideon, that looks like an Elvis impersonator. They are a pretty cool bunch. 

The boss fights are just about as mindless as the regular zombies mobs. They look cool, but they are easy to figure out and are just as repetitive. They repeat the same few lines and the same few moves.

About half way through the game I started to like the game more. I don't know if it was because I was bored and just wanted to play a mindless game or it got more elements to make it more fun, but I started to enjoy it and wanted to finish it. The last boss is so ridiculous, it is awesome. Now that I finished playing the game, I kind of want to go through it and get all my achievements. Maybe I'm just an achievement whore, but at least I will play it again?

Overall, the game to me was just bland. Nothing special and the music also fell short for me as well. At least there are no glitches in the game! Yay. I probably would play the game again if I feel like just playing something that requires pushing the same two button over and over again, but that's not saying a lot for the game. 

...and I have a feeling that a lot of girls are going to be cosplaying as Juliet Starling in the very near future, if not already....