Wow. What a heartbreaker. Resident Evil 6 isn't just a weak entry in Capcom's long-running and well-beloved survival horror series -- it's not even a good game in general. In its attempt to push the series through yet another evolutionary phase, the developers have failed to retain the franchise's most essential tenets. Make no mistake: Resident Evil 6 contains some great moments. But the good stuff is buried under a messy amalgam of uninspired gameplay and awful design decisions.

Resident Evil 6's visuals are difficult to fault. This is a fantastic-looking game whose visuals live up to the high standard set by its older brother, Resident Evil 5. Characters models look great, and monster designs are creative and twisted. Scary? Maybe not. However, the off-kilter animation of those infected by the C-Virus lends a touch of creepiness to the proceedings. The gore factor is above that of the awful Operation Raccoon City, which actually got the gruesome violence down better than any other entry in the franchise. In Resident Evil 6, bullets tear infected persons apart, leaving gaping, dark red holes where corrupted flesh once was. Counter attacks are particularly brutal; it's really something to see your hero grab an axe out of an infected's hand and bury it in its neck.

Resident Evil 6 sounds phenomenal. The voice acting is surprisingly less hammy this time around and goes a long way towards selling the otherwise pulpy and silly drama. You've got options in the second disc, which offers more language options. Kind of ironic that they'd include this option only when the English dub is finally good enough to stand on its own. Resident Evil 6's soundtrack may be the least iconic of all six numbered installments, but it's the most technically and musically impressive of them. It actually sounds like something from a big budget action movie. Sound effects are awesome, as well. The sound of tearing flesh, the violent eruption of bizarre growth, and the gurgle of blood flowing from a torn carotid artery are as disgusting and as Resident Evil as ever before.

Resident Evil 6 features four campaigns, three of which are designed for cooperative play. Each of these lengthy campaigns features an emphasis on a certain type of gameplay. This is a neat idea, and it allows for some interesting storytelling techniques. However, the disparate styles of play are of wildly differing quality, with the best of them trying (and failing) to match up with franchise paragon Resident Evil 4.

Leon S. Kennedy and Helena Harper's campaign is the first and best of them. This one seeks to fuse the tense creepiness of earlier Resident Evil games with the action of the more recent ones. It opens as Leon is forced to euthanize President Adam Benford due to his infection from the C-Virus. It turns out Derek Simmons, the National Security Advisor, was responsible; as he performs a tricky coup and accuses Leon and Helena of assassinating President Benford. This puts Leon and Helena on the run in a world gone mad. Their mission is to survive and expose the truth.

Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans' campaign is heavy on the action, so much, in fact, that it more closely resembles Gears of War than Resident Evil. Chris is still smarting over the loss of his team some months back, and he's been hitting the bottle pretty hard. His old brother-in-arms Piers is able to get him out of his stupor, and they set out to track down the woman who caused the death of Chris's unit.

Jake Muller and Sherry Birkin's campaign is the least conventional and least impressive of the three main campaigns. Most of the action has an overly powerful cinematic emphasis on things that are far removed from your control. A lot of time will be spent running away from the Nemesis-inspired Ustanak and participating in quick time events. At least the story is somewhat interesting, as it involves Jake and how his genes are inextricably linked to the C-Virus.

Ada Wong's campaign is unlocked once you've finished the first three. Hers does not include cooperative play and primarily deals with Resident Evil style environmental puzzles. Her story is meant to tie the previous three together.

You have the option to play cooperatively with a buddy, just like in Resident Evil 5, and you also can indulge yourself in some Mercenaries action, but there's a fascinating new addition that ultimately fails to live up to its potential. Agent Hunt allows a player to invade another player's game, like in Dark Souls. The problem is that the monsters you get to use aren't powerful enough to give anyone with a brain a serious run for their money.

Resident Evil 6 can be painfully easy one moment, only to arbitrarily kill you off in the next. This game is unpredictable to a fault. Most of the game's scripted moments take you out of the action when you don't want them to. However, some of them leave you in complete control of your character when you obviously should not be. Take, for example, a showdown in a gas station. Fire is everywhere, and infected are practically crawling out of the woodwork. You make your way to a mostly clear area and begin taking the infected out. Suddenly, a van comes careening out of the flames and runs you over before you have a chance to react. Your ranking at the end of the mission goes down as a result. Who thought this was a good idea?

Most of the time, you don't even need to kill every infected you see. There are several moments in the game that simply don't require it, even though there may be too many for you to handle. It's often a completely viable strategy to just run like hell. It's nice to have that option.

Resident Evil 6 puts its worst foot forward in the prologue, where you get a disheartening taste of what's to come. You spend the first ten minutes of the game barely in control of your character, who is forced to walk through a linear path. When things finally go south, the game doesn't put you in the action to find out what you should do. Instead, the game tells you to hammer on a button or wiggle the analog stick around. Unfortunately, Resident Evil 6 is absolutely loaded with these moments. Sure, the context can be exciting, but you're so physically uninvolved that it's just not fun.

When the game actually lets you play it, things get better. You have complete 360 degree control over your character, and the camera is not fixed in an over-the-shoulder position. The shooting is decent but unrefined, but I particularly like that your combat options don't run out when your ammo is depleted. Melee is more viable than ever this time around, and pulling the attack trigger at the right moment results in a brutal counter attack that is often context-sensitive. For example, performing one in a cramped area might result in a head being pulped against the wall. Catching an enemy from behind often results in a satisfying one-hit kill. But those awful quick time events are always under the surface, waiting to strike when you least expect (and want) them.

As in Resident Evil 5, inventory management does not pause the action. In fact, absolutely nothing does. It does ratchet up the tension to refill your herb slots when you're being attacked, though it is incredibly implausible to do so while a monster is trying to force into the blades of an air conditioning unit.

The controls and the finicky camera do their best to bring you down. I faulted previous Resident Evil games for not allowing you to move and shoot at the same time. Resident Evil 6 allows you to do this, but at a cost. Firstly, the controls are unstable. Perhaps it's more realistic to have your gun moving every which way as you move your entire body, but it's just too wild here. Secondly, the camera often shows you what it wants you to see, rather than what you want to see. Close quarters encounters can be frustrating when you must juggle the unwieldy controls with the stubborn camera.

Resident Evil 6 is an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise solid franchise. I can't fault the developers for trying new things, but I also can't help but wish that the execution was smoother. And again, quick time events should not be a part of Resident Evil 6 -- in fact, they should be a thing of the past by now. If you've played a Resident Evil game before, you probably have fond memories of it. Do yourself a favor and revisit those memories instead of playing Resident Evil 6, because then you won't have to risk tarnishing them.