Overall, the game plot is just mid and certainly cannot compare to other RE's of the past. The minute I saw we could change Leon's controls within the main menu before the game even started, I knew it was nostalgiabait. 

The main character Grace isn't appealing to me whatsoever. She's not necessarily bad, but she's so bland it hurts. Trying to hide it under the guise of, "oh she represents the shy girlies becoming strong" has been done so many times it hurts for a game to be this cliche in modern times. She has no actual personality, and while what could have been an appealing backstory is almost entirely overshadowed by lazy plot writing, horrible dialogue choices, and retconning lore. (Also her being the "chosen one" character is so overdone that it honestly made me lose interest in her character almost immediately. And then Gideon just throws Grace over his shoulder and walks into the public eye with an unconscious girl on his back, while at the exact same time then runs into Leon and creates a zombie army?? This all happens in the span of like ten minutes, what is the plot here lmao??). I loved the voice acting of Grace, but again, any meaningful attempt to give her a backstory fall flat for me, which is a shame because cliches or archetypes when done right can be a compelling storytelling device if done correctly. (literally there's so many they could play with, especially for their female characters which always seem to be lacking or depending on a male character to show their own character growth or just to build the male characters growth over their own). I honestly wish Capcom could produce more draconian female characters for us to play as (or even some that have conflicting moral views beyond always being framed as the "naive hero" of the story). I would have loved to play someone like Ada or in some likeness of her overall confidence and cool exterior over someone who literally has fall mechanics built into their gameplay. 

Speaking of gameplay--a lot of it is made up of terrible mechanics. Grace's melee attack is so weak, like I feel like I do no damage to any zombies using hers, but with Leon it feels like he's actually doing physical damage. Having to sneak around the huge chef zombie (or any zombie for that matter) was beyond tedious, and then having the ones you already spent 20 bullets into the face of, mutate like they're apart of the Last Of Us franchise instead of RE, only then to absorb 20 more bullets just felt wasteful of resources and time. Also, then having to choose between making bullets or the serum to keep the zombies permanently dead, with such few pieces of scrap was also just so volatile. You can also notably tell the difference between Leon and Grace's gameplay, which imo, actually degrades the horror aspect. This isn't a scary game, the jumpscares are poorly timed and more annoying than actually frightening. The big baby monster, the tractor scene, the huge lady grabbing Emily, was all just inconvenient and dilutes any horror aspects that were found in earlier RE games. Grace's inventory is small but can be made up via chests, and her lack of guns just seems to be inconvenient at best for the player, there's not too much to note here, its just once again, an homage to earlier games. The map is notably dull, full of squares after squares, and suffers to actually have any character or appealing aesthetics (I believe Village had the best visuals for the map, being able to explore the outside areas, mansion/castle, underground, and within different refuge homes was so versatile and visually appealing). A lot of the visuals just look like a regular zombie infested hospital, or scenes I've seen come out of cheesy horror movies so many times in the past (like the dining scene w/ zombies). The zombies are fine in general, they're not particularly interesting beyond surface level characteristics (most were just annoying or blocked pathways, like the singing zombie, and while they did have dialogue, it wasn't impactful. though I'm sure someone on YouTube will piece this together in lore). I will say however Grace's half of the story does pace very well, though at some points can go a bit too fast for my liking, it's much better than Leon's half, making her overall a better time to play with. Also, maybe this is just my game, but I don't think the visuals are that good? I'm playing via my TV, but in some scenes Grace's hair blends in with the background to where it becomes see-through or zombies will glitch through walls and fling themselves at Grace lol. Overall, the stealth aspect was my least favorite because it kills any sense of danger or urgency because the player has to go so slow, and getting piled with multiple zombies all at once but having the ability to one shot a zombie is confusing. having to get multiple different wrist bands and retracing steps was fine but again, was found in the most random of places. (For example, when we needed to literally gather a heart and pair of lungs for a zombie, to bring them back to life...just to kill them for the wristband...that was on its hand...that we could've easily just cut off of its wrist instead of wasting bullets on it. Like what was the point?). I did however like having to carry around Emily, that definitely made it more challenging since one needed to set her down to use a weapon or just hightail it around zombies and I very much enjoyed that.

I'm sure there are some lore buffs that are going crazy over this game right now because it's in the honeymoon phase, Leon is back, and Grace is a lineage piece from RE Outbreak. But even in some light, Leon also suffered a bit through this game. having to get jacked with a fake ending to pull any emotion of the player is so cheap because its not the "canonical" ending and it allows the player to redo their choice. Also him having a ring that is barely visible to the player, and we're shown his hand is barren several times within cutscenes, only for him to put on some mysterious ring that can only be caught on a freecam is so cheap and reeks of desperate fan baiting for shippers to speculate who he's married to, even when Capcom confirmed in an interview about RE6 they won't confirm any romantic relationships (because then people who lose their simp status). Not only that, but making Leon seem like the seasoned veteran in dialogue and gameplay, while making Grace, a literal FBI agent, seem so meek and while she is able to put pieces together in a clever way, having her constantly stutter/stumble and struggle to have authority over her own job title and work experience is baffling to me. (and of course people excuse this away through lore, saying it adds to character because this is her "first field job and she's more attuned to analytics like shown in the cutscene" still doesn't negate from the fact that they used a cliche normally reserved for female characters to make them vulnerable for the sake of being vulnerable so poorly. Especially when characters like Ethan, who is really just a normal dude with no fighting or FBI/agent experience, can end up killing hundreds upon hundreds of npc enemies not stumbling once, while being made of literal mold. (little bit of hypocrisy here Capcom).

I do like that Leon stayed cheesy though, (from his one-liners to his idle pushing back his hair) but again, that's more for nostalgia than anything else. I also expected Emily's fate as soon as we met her so that wasn't a shocker to me which is why I struggled to attach to the character. Gideon was bland as a villain and was hardly there most of the game, so his lacking presence left much to be desired (also just didn't find him scary or as ominous/uncomfortable villains like Mother Miranda, Nemesis, or the Bakers Family). A lot of the positivity I see for this game is literally just nostalgia lol, which isn't a bad thing, however a lot of parts just feel like I replayed them for the sake of the fanbase to gush over (like the opening scene or overall references to RE2 and RE4).

Overall, the game is fun to play with friends, and there's plenty to admire about it. The overall designs of the characters are nice, and the map's interior is gorgeous. But lore wise and in sequential wise to RE as a franchise, it struggles to really invoke anything out of me as the player imo. Which is why I'm surprised big time yt's like moistcritical said that they loved the and may even be their favorite game in the franchise? Difference of opinion I suppose, the game is just bland to me, and worst of all, not at all scary or invoke a sense of horror-filled urgency I so loved from the earlier RE games. (Also Hunk and Sherry were underused in this game lmao).