Resident Evil 6 Trailer: Blow By Blow
Three heroes, three gameplay styles?
Last night, Capcom gave gamers a first taster of Resident Evil 6, showing off a decent amount of gameplay amongst the explosions.
The game appears to be divided in three: three protagonists, three play styles and three locations.
Our first glimpse of Resident Evil 6 opens with Leon S. Kennedy, hero of Resident Evil 2, aiming a gun towards the camera.
Leon was centre-stage for the series' critical high-point, Resident Evil 4, so it's notable that Capcom has framed the trailer's first chunk around him.
What is he aiming at?
"Bio-organic weapons are a global threat", growls the President of the United States, as we switch to a flashback.
Resident Evil 6 seems to continue the series' slow expansion of scope from the original's hush-hush experiments and zombies in a lone, spooky house to Resident Evil 5's storyline - which had bio-organic weapons in the hands of terrorists posing an overt threat to the world.
"We have to start working with the rest of the world," the President continues, mentioning the "Raccoon City incident" - the Resident Evil series' origins. "I'm going to tell them everything."
A helpful US President? Of course he's going to snuff it. Here we see what Leon was aiming at. The poor President is looking a little ripe.
Presumably his good-natured desire to blab about the dangers of covert bio-weaponry has marked him out for immediate zombification.
The President approaches Leon in a shuffling manner, dragging his feet across the floor. 'Proper' Resident Evil zombies are back, and the President is one of them.
"I always valued your friendship, Leon," the President continues, his zombie self intercut with him in flashback. This is presumably the same President whose daughter, Ashley Graham, was rescued by Leon in Resident Evil 4. More on her later.
Leon's got a new female partner, which Capcom has named as US government agent Helena Harper. Like Leon, she looks unlikely to believe the zombie President's claims that it's just jam around his mouth.
Bang! The President lunges at her, and a gunshot is fired. Did Leon just pop the President?
The new Resident Evil 6 logo appears on screen. It looks rusty and covered in cobwebs. Do they indicate a more spooky turn for the series after the shooting-heavy Resident Evil 5?
Now Leon's in some kind of dark facility. There's an American flag and some official-looking papers. Are we underneath the Whitehouse?
Cut to Leon padding down a dark, deserted corridor to ominous music. This one shot has more more creepy atmosphere than the whole of Resi 5's sunlit African setting.
"This is all my fault," Leon's partner moans. Maybe it's the suit and lipgloss but there's something very 24 about her.
"I did this," she sighs. Is she referring to the President's untimely end? Or perhaps to the scenes of firey devastation outside?
Jack-knifed lorries block the road and burnt-out cars litter an urban street. Dark silhouettes of people stand around.
It's a scene that could come directly from Resident Evil 2, but we're not in Racoon City any more.
We're somewhere called Tall Oaks, and that place has a station.
Leon creeps inside a train tunnel in what could be our first glimpse of actual gameplay. The scene is again pitch black, with shadows of upcoming attackers stylishly cast on the curved wall of the train tunnel.
Do his attackers move like zombies? It's hard to tell. Some seemed to be armed with crowbars and other objects.
Leon's updated character model looks very like Sawyer from Lost. Capcom has said that 10 years have now passed since the original Racoon City incident, four since we last saw Leon in Resident Evil 4. It shows on his tired, stubbly face.
"What are you talking about?" Leon demands of his partner, confused by her admission that she had a hand in the unfolding events. His partner looks away, guiltily. Drama!
The scene switches again, this time to a grey government-looking office. It's Agent Hunnigan, the glasses-wearing agent that Leon flirted with throughout the early section of Resident Evil 4.
"90 per cent of the population of Tall Oaks has been infected with the virus," she tells Leon and partner via a high-tech form of Skype. "That's about 70,000 hostiles."
Another section of small town America infected with a zombie virus? It is Resident Evil 2! "This is Racoon City all over again!" Leon affirms.
It all looks rather lovely though. Swathes of zombies shuffle through burning streets/get run down by a truck/get blown up in a montage of undead ass-whupping.
In one shot, Leon appears injured, holding his chest.
A few sections of what looks like actual gameplay follow, with Leon on the streets of Tall Oaks, his neck at one point being jumped upon by a passing zombie, and back in that railway tunnel, again being pushed to the ground.
The camera retains its behind-the-shoulder Resident Evil 4/5/Revelations setting, while Leon still has a penchant for cool-looking jackets.
Your handgun's laser target appears on the enemy itself, although there's no laser beam.
Outside a Gothic, church-like building, Leon delivers a roundhouse kick to a cluster of undead.
Back in the train tunnel, a herd of zombies get run over by a passing train. Handy!
"Want to tell me what's in there?" Leon asks a dark-haired lady. "It's better if I show you," she replies. Oo-er.
The action changes to Hong Kong, one of the other locations highlighted on Capcom teaser blog NoHopeLeft.com.
Aerial shots show off the neon-lit cityscape. Above it, a helicopter holding original Resident Evil hero Chris Redfield.
"I can't keep running away," Chris announces, as explosions rock the skyline.
"I have to face the truth, accept responsibility."
Does Chris blame himself for not eradicating the original Racoon City threat, allowing bio-weapons to spread? Has something happened to his partner Jill again? Where is Jill?
Chris runs through a beautifully lit Hong Kong street, pushing a cameraman roughly aside as he receives new orders to "suppress the bio-terror outbreak".
Chris retains his Resident Evil 5 look and appears to still be a member of the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), whose acronym is nowhere near as good as STARS.
Another montage of scenes as Chris and a team of around four others storm through scenes of devastation. A man's arm erupts with some kind of bio-weaponry mutation, similar to Krauser in Resi 4.
Chris encounters a gang of masked enemies who fire upon him with automatic weapons. These look like humans, not zombies. Are they the perpetrators of the bio-terror attack?
Chris ducks behind cover as he's fired upon, it all looks very Gears of War.
Two minutes in, and Capcom introduces a third protagonist. He's pale, scarred and sports a buzz-cut, so he'll probably turn out to be evil at some point.
He seems at ease taking down enemy B.O.W.s (Bio-Organic Weapons) with some ninja-style moves, marking a third play-style for the game. Presumably chapters of the game will intercut between the three?
"I was better off as a mercenary," the new protagonist groans, as his blonde-haired partner gives him a first aid spray, just as Sheva aided Chris is Resi 5.
The girl sounds exactly like Ashley Graham. Is it her? Four years later, is the President's daughter now an action hero? Or is she simply on a quest to find out who caused her father's death?
"I won't let anything happen to you," probably-Ashley says. "The world needs you."
"No, not me. Just my blood," the protagonist replies. "And the world can have it, as long as someone ponies up the dough." British-sounding accent? Definitely evil.
Online speculation suggests our new friend is Alex Wesker, brother of Albert Wesker who, for reasons which will be clear if you've played Resident Evil 5, probably won't be returning.
Alex Wesker, if this is him, has been mentioned in the games before but never seen. He and Albert were two of many siblings, but the only survivors of their genetic experimentation.
Certainly, "Alex" shows some superhuman abilities, including being able to make ridiculously long Matrix-like leaps and survive.
He also seems to be facing the largest gallery of uglies to take down, including some dramatically mutated people and a huge troll-like boss.
"How many of our men are dead because of that bitch?" shouts Chris, the action snapping back to China, as the trailer begins a fast-paced montage to the finish. Who is Chris talking about? Has Jill done something bad again?
The final scenes feature snatches of Las Plagas-style head-exploding enemies and an even more gigantic El Gigante boss.
There are also quick flashes of Leon fighting a 'proper' zombie cop, Chris in a tank and 'Alex' jumping on to the windshield of an escaping small plane.
Just before the end comes a shot of Leon, Helena and someone wearing red being thrown around inside a falling train car. Internet speculation pegs the person wearing red as long-time Leon love interest Ada Wong, but it's impossible to tell.
The game looks well into development, a fact supported by Capcom's release date - 20th November 2012 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with a PC version to follow later. Watch the trailer in full below.