Resident Evil 6 Promises Real Horror, T-Virus Free Zombies


In a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu, Resident Evil 6 executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, director Eiichirou Sasaki, and producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi had quite a few interesting things to say about the upcoming title.

For the overall concept of the game, the creators expressed a a greater emphasis on horror than with previous games in the series. “One of the appealing aspects of the Resident Evil series is the feeling of dread; where you know something bad is waiting ahead, but you still need to go anyways. But there’s much more to fear than just dread. We want to show the player that there are more facets to fear than they first thought of.” said Eiichirou. In earlier games, most of fear factor came from jump scares and atmospheric anticipation, but the creators have hinted that they have explored other areas with which to scare the players.

Another new element is the introduction of China as a new battleground. Unlike with the previous locations of Spain and Africa where the stages were mostly undeveloped areas, the city of Lanshiang is a fully developed cityscape ravaged by the zombie apocalypse. The creators actually went to China to look at and experience the cities in order to recreate a more authentic Chinese city experience. “Langshiang is an imaginary city, but we wanted the atmosphere to feel as real as possible. We traveled to China to get a feel for the cities there. We learned a lot by actually going.” said Eiichirou. Added Yoshiaki, “The reality is completely different when you’re creating from sampled materials and when you’re creating from memories and actual experiences. We want people to really feel like they’re there among the neon signs and crowded chaotic streets.”

The producers confirmed that unlike with RE 4 and 5, this time the enemies are indeed zombies. However, they were reluctant to speak about whether the Umbrella Corporation or Tricell were involved this time. “All we can say now is that ‘someone’ is engaging in acts of bio-terrorism across the globe. Who it is, we can’t tell you. After the game system established in RE 4, it became difficult to introduce zombies into the game, but we’ve brought them back.” Hiroyuki laughed. He added, “You might be interested to know that these zombies are not victims of the T-virus.”

As for the as-yet unnamed third protagonist, is he indeed Hunk? The creators were tight-lipped about his identity, but they pointed out not only his potential, but his necessity. “For people like us, seeing veterans like Chris and Leon do their thing is fine, we’ve been with the series for 15 years. But we needed a character that new younger players could relate to. That’s why we’ve brought in the third protagonist.” explained Eiichirou. While they would not divulge the character’s name, the producers stated that he was more of a “modern hero” than Chris or Leon.

Overall, the producers showed great enthusiasm for the game while remaining cryptic about the details. With 9 months until the game’s release, we can be sure they’ll be back to tell more.

Resident Evil 6 is scheduled to hit the stores in November.

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