Cognition Dissemination: Do We Need a Resident Evil 6 Remaster?
When I first saw the news about Resident Evil 6 being rated for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in South Korea, I couldn’t roll my eyes hard enough. Given the mostly negative critical reception, its divisiveness among the general audience, and the flood of copies that audience resold to various stores around the world, you’d think Capcom would rather put this title behind them. Considering its superlative sales (around 6.3 million worldwide), though, such a blemish wouldn’t prevent them from continuing the franchise in its current form. Of course, there’s the chance a sequel could potentially sell less thanks to this particular game turning some off from RE for a while.
Yet it seems someone at Capcom is a fan of dredging up unfortunate memories for some of their audience. And before you doubt its veracity, this would be far from the first time the South Korean ratings board was accurate. For instance, they previously rated both Resident Evil Revelations for consoles and Gravity Rush Remastered for PS4 before their official announcements, so its legitimacy is very high.
Its existence also wouldn’t be surprising given how Capcom said they’d be producing more remasters after the superlative sales of Resident Evil (Remake) HD Remaster (near the bottom of page 2), and next year being RE’s 20th Anniversary. Besides, this is the company who assumed their fans wanted another experience on par with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City with Umbrella Corps, despite that title being thoroughly ravaged by critics and fans.
Not to say RE6 didn’t have some quality moments. It had great production values, including quality voice work and a larger variety of environments compared to its predecessors. The main package was also packed with content, even without including the DLC. Its four campaigns kept people busy for around 20 hours, and its Mercenaries mode is the most enjoyable in the franchise thus far thanks to its great combat system — despite the game doing a pitiful job teaching players how it works.
But those qualities didn’t offset its flaws, which sometimes made it tough to remember the good parts. It’s painfully evident that this was developed during the era where incredibly linear Uncharted clones were all the rage, and embraced that format to the point where some gameplay moments defied all logic. It also took the “actionized” RE format to new heights in terms of tone and pacing, which made it almost resemble an adaptation of the Hollywood movies, with inspiration from various western AAA shooters like the Call of Duty and Gears of War titles.
A remaster won’t simply give Capcom the chance to resell the game, albeit with all the DLC on disc and running with the best resolution and framerate it can (i.e. selling the PC version to console owners). They could also fix some flaws that plagued the original, and add some brand new features. Both DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition and Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition showed how Capcom has no issue with going above and beyond with remastering their older titles, in addition to having every piece of content available. Both represent what remasters should be.
DmC DE added an adjusted control scheme and combat features to make it feel similar to the Japanese-developed installments, new outfits that served has homages those same titles, and two new difficulty modes. DMC4SE added the ability to play as three additional characters (Vergil, Lady, and Trish), along with some new outfits and a new difficulty mode. While it’s a shame the latter’s main single-player quest didn’t receive adjustments to address its repetition, but this was good enough. Don’t rule out the chance of RE6 receiving similar treatment, which means you also shouldn’t expect anything significant.
If it indeed arrives with a number of new features and adjustments, perhaps some will be willing to give it a second chance — especially if the game actually teaches players how the controls work. Whether it turns out better or not, hopefully they’ve taken enough criticism from RE6 to make Resident Evil 7 a better game. RE producer Masachika Kawata mentioned that players should stay tuned for the next mainline installment; there may not be a big chance of it releasing by the end of its 20th anniversary next year, but it could be revealed by then. Since Capcom is currently lacking in software developed for current-gen consoles due to their risk-averse business strategy, this game could mark the best chance to show their skeptics that they can still release high-budget quality games.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
