The fact you're alert enough to be reading this suggests that you're probably aware that the Resident Evil 6 public demo dropped on PSN and XBL this morning, and has already been met with an extremely mixed, some might even say overwhelmingly negative (depending on where you read) reception. Sure, it was plastered with the typical label that it isn't necessarily representative of the final product, but then, why bother putting a demo out at all? Though it seems generous that Capcom put out a demo lasting roughly an hour, all this lengthy blast through a portion of the game has done is make it clear to us that Capcom are continuing their efforts to streamline the series, transforming it even further from suspense/survival horror into visceral action. While Resident Evil 4 and 5 both tended towards this direction, they still retained some elements one could label as "frightening", though on the basis of this hour-long demo, Resident Evil 6 has gone full Call of Duty mode now. This feels far away from what most fans both want and expect out of the series, with the crass aim of maximising sales by watering the product down. Here's our 14 reasons why, on the basis of this demo, Resident Evil 6 sucks.
1. Graphics
There's no way that this comment won't make us sound like graphics whores, but it's staggering how little has changed since the release of Resident Evil 5 three-and-a-half years ago; there simply isn't a feel of progression, that the visuals have really improved much beyond a cursory effort made with slightly more lifelike faces and some fairly standard lighting. For the sixth game in an immensely popular franchise, Capcom really should be excelling in this regard, but the aliasing and jagged edges on the environments, as well as the unimproved quality of the animations makes it feel like a fan project someone concocted out of their own home. Remember those shiny map-packs you could download for the PC version of GTAIV? This feels just like that, except it's not that shiny; it's simply different. Given some of the A+ titles that have blessed this generation, it's disturbing that the game still can't really measure up visually to titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 which have been out for over 4 years. Though making dark locales look good is always harder than bright ones, that's no excuse given that, at least in the demo, Chris's campaign appears to take place during the day, yet the European marble architecture still looks substandard and low-res.