Resident Evil 6 – new details announced

Last month, Capcom delighted zombification nuts with the news that Resident Evil 6 is in development and due out in autumn 2012. The publisher has now released some scintillating new details, translated from a recent feature in Japanese games magazine Famitsu.

The fresh data will appease fans of the Resident Evil 4 era, but may well send Resi 1 and 2 veterans shuffling back to their George Romero movie collections in disgust.

So here goes. Resident Evil 6 takes place in 2013. According to the announcement trailer, Leon Kennedy has returned from the events of Resi 4 and is meeting with the US president, Adam Benford (the one after Ashley’s father from the fourth game), when the unfortunate statesman transmogrifies into a monster.

We also get glimpses of a virus outbreak in a small northern American town named Tall Oaks, complete with what appear to be fast-moving zombies. With guns.

Just to re-cap, here’s the trailer:

Okay, Capcom has confirmed that there will be running undead in the game, and that they’ll also use firearms – plus, whatever they’re infected with, it isn’t the T-virus.

To counteract the speed of the zombie hordes, player characters are able to run and shoot simulteneously, as well as quick-turn, melee and use cover. They’re also super athletic, able to roll and dive between safety points.

From all this we can infer that Resi 6 will be much more along the bloodline of the action-orientated Resi 4 rather than the earlier titles, where character movement was obsfucated by a limited movement mechanic, and firing was always a stationary (and not very accurate) endeavour.

This is horror action, not survival horror. Indeed, executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi confirms as much in the Famitsu article; according to a translation on games site Andriasang, he says that number six won’t be a return to the roots of the series; instead it’ll take the best elements of Resi 4 and 5, but then up the horror factor.

Alongside the Kennedy plotline, we’ll also ses Chris Redfield, who is recovering from some major personal trauma, heading to China, or more accurately a fictitious city named Lanshiang. He’s still part of the BSAA and is in town to investigate some kind of bioterrorist attack.

Other confirmed characters are Helena Harper, a government agent who feels the outbreak is her fault, and Ingrid Hunnigan, Kennedy’s secret service contact during Resi 4. The game will include co-op play, so we may well be controlling at least one of these.

The teaser trailer also introduces us to a newcomer, a mercenary who could carry a cure to the latest zombie mutagen in his blood. According to Andriasang, this will be a cynical youngster, included to appeal to more youthful Resident Evil players.

There’s also a new, more intelligent monster named J’avo (the Serbian word for devil, apparently) that show up in the battelefield during an Eastern European conflict a few months before the events of Resi 6. They’re smart, they work in groups, they can understand language, and they’re ultra-aggressive.

So what’s going on? Are there two seperate outbreaks happening – the bio-terrorism in China and some sort of genetic weaponry experiment gone awry in the US? Capcom isn’t saying right now.

The certainty is, the development team is attempting to appease all parties, with shocks and body horror for the old crowd and fast-paced, colourful third-person action for the kids who grew up on Gears of War rather than fears and gore.