The long-awaited (dreaded in our circle) sixth entry in the ‘Resident Evil’ series has now been formally announced with a lengthy trailer outlining the, ahem, plot and detailing some of the graphic and tragic violence it will promote against virtual, and later perhaps less-virtual, Zombies:

As teased at NoHopeLeft.com and GameStop advertising materials, Resident Evil 6 is officially coming this November, bringing the series two most popular male leads together for the first time.

Taking place some ten years after the Raccoon City incident that started this whole business, Resident Evil 6 begins with the President of the United States about to reveal the truth behind the incident to the world at large. Unfortunately he instead transforms into something hideous due to a bioterrorism attack, causing his personal friend and bodyguard Leon S. Kennedy to clean up the mess.

Meanwhile Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance member Chris Redfield arrives in China to deal with a bioterrorism attack there. Nowhere is safe. We’re all going to die. Watch the vid to see for yourself. So screwed.

Yes, the gang, and I do mean gang (antisocial misfits with way too much firepower) is all here, ready to shoot a lot of Zombies in the name of the always-poorly-defined War on Terror.

Joy. Though the cynic in me wonders how Chris Redfield will like it when his job is outsourced to a Predator drone in RE7.

The aforementioned trailer makes it clear that ‘Resident Evil 6′ will continue, and magnify, the series’ tendency toward elaborate global conspiracy plots involving a recurring cast of characters, whose interpersonal relationships are as complex as that of any soap opera cast:

Is it just me, though, or is RE6 moving even further away from the classic survival horror construction? Tight spaces, being trapped in, say, a spooky mansion, hunted by ‘monsters’, who we all know are just innocent victims but the genre demands you fear?

Something about the geopolitical intrigue the trailer presents also reminds me of another Anti-Zombie powerhouse fictional franchise: Max Brooks’ ‘World War Z’.

Think about it: you’ve got the same convoluted international storyline with a host of diverging law enforcement and private entities all scrambling to confront an Undead menace while jostling for control and authority. RE6, oddly enough, looks at least at first glance to be a truer adaptation of ‘World War Z’ than the film of the same name, which increasingly appears to be nothing more than an action movie vehicle for Brad Pitt to attack Zombies.

I wonder which grim vision of the future will have the longer-lasting impact on the Zombie Rights movement.

We’ll keep an eye on this latest Resident Evil and, of course, keep you informed of any further developments.

Tags: Books, Max Brooks is a Jerk, Movies, Videogames, What's Up with Japan?

This entry was posted by John Sears on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.