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I've loaded into Resident Evil 6 and have no clue what I'm doing. The timestamp on my save file tells me that I left off about halfway through Leon's first campaign mission, shortly after I picked it up on sale in 2024. Two years later, I'm traversing a zombie-studded train tunnel while my female co-star Helena barks "roger" at me when I interact with stuff, and each zombie seems to… melt when it dies?
As one of the less popular games in the Resident Evil timeline, Capcom's 2012 action shooter is definitely an outlier. Neither a critical nor commercial darling, I admit that I've not played it much since I finished it the first time more than ten years ago. But something about Leon's fancy footwork in the latest Resident Evil Requiem gameplay reveal had me hankering for a reminder of his original combos. After re-experiencing them first-hand, I can confirm that Leon has actually been an action movie star this entire time – and maybe Resident Evil Requiem has more RE6 than I thought.
No more Mr Nice Cop
The first time I get run over by a train in Resident Evil 6, I am reminded why I ragequit at this point two years ago. The thing about the quicktime events in this game is that you have precisely .43 seconds to respond before certain doom, and half the time, the only way to avoid it is to know precisely where to stand to avoid a track, van, motorcycle, or insert any other careening vehicle here.
Thankfully, that's about as much mental gymnastics as there is in this game. Ignore the naysayers who call it every insult under the sun, and you'll discover that Resident Evil 6 is actually a damn fun co-op shooter once you forgive the fact that it's not scary at all. I'm impressed by the smooth gunplay on my Xbox Series S, even if the massive crosshairs take some getting used to, and there's an arcadey sense of fun to be had in collecting stacks upon stacks of skill points to purchase and equip power-ups between campaigns.
Sure, the skills system is one I am glad Capcom didn't decide to stick with for Resident Evil 7 and beyond. But it works for an episodic run-and-gun game like this, made for fast-paced multiplayer antics over slow, methodical survival horror strategizing.
Resi 6 proves that Leon S. Kennedy has always been an agile menace with a thirst for violence.
The sixth mainline entry is such a deviation from the core franchise, it's undoubtedly the silliest Resident Evil has ever been. I include all the spin-offs in that verdict.
I can't take screaming survivors seriously when the C-Virus infected zombies of Tall Oaks hurl themselves around slapstick-style, bodies hissing loudly as they dissolve once killed in a clever move to prevent corpse build-up on screen. I can't help but giggle as I make Leon kick a Bloodshot to death, or stab a Whopper in the butt cheeks with my survival knife, or any of the other ridiculous ways there are to kill enemies imaginatively in Resident Evil 6.
But the thing I'm most impressed by are Leon's finisher moves. There's nothing more satisfying than curbstomping a C-Zomb's head as it crawls towards you for one more bite, or retaliating with a quickshot to the forehead after succeeding a QTE sequence to break free from a grapple hold. He looks all-out deadly in Capcom's latest upcoming horror game, of course, but Resi 6 proves that Leon S. Kennedy has always been an agile menace with a thirst for violence.
I've only made it through the first few campaigns in this current playthrough, but I think I might actually see this one through. I'd initially intended to replay Resident Evil 4 Remake ahead of Requiem, but where's the poetic justice in that? Resident Evil 6 is part of the main canon, like it or not. Discounting it as anything but is an insult to Leon's evolution as a master of melee brawling, and I'm excited for Resident Evil Requiem to remind us where he first learned to stomp zombie brains like grapes in a winery.
Check out our list of the best Resident Evil games for a full ranking of Capcom's beloved series
