Resident Evil: The Mercenaries

We finally got our hands on the elusive Resident Evil 3DS offering, and put The Mercenaries to the test. The playable demo included Chris, Clare, Hunk, and Krauser as playable characters, although many more are promised when the final roster is announced. Each character had their own unique loadout that can be modified and customized as the player progresses through the game. Chris could swap between a standard pistol, shotgun, and sniper rifle, while Krauser had a knife, bow & arrow with unlimited ammo, and rocket propelled grenades at his disposal.

Capcom promises over 30 missions for The Mercenaries with varying modes and goals. The levels we demoed were an amalgamation of enemies and locals from Resident Evil 4 & 5, but we expect to see content drawn from other titles in Resident Evil’s history as Capcom has “more surprises” up its sleeves.

While we didn’t get to explore the system in our demo, Capcom reps said that a talent tree/perk system has been included in the game that will unlock new weapons and skills so to reach the full potential of every character.

The missions I saw boasted traditional Killstreak objectives, tasking the player with killing as many enemies in an allotted period of time as possible. Moving around constantly seemed to be the key to success, not only to find timers that would increase the length of the round, but so not to be caught off guard by a foe or the occasional boss peppered in the level.

Mercenaries did well to capture a feeling of pressure inherent to the legacy mode, making the seconds when reloading a terrifying sort of limbo. I was particularly fond of the contextual melee attacks – activated when near an injured enemy rather than mapped to a button – which were stylish and appropriately over-the-top. I also enjoyed the 3DS interface, which positioned the action on the top screen and the inventory on the bottom. A quick tap and you can change your weapon or heal yourself, although the actions can be assigned to face buttons if you prefer a tactile press. 

The Mercenaries 3D allows you to run and gun for the first time ever in a Resident Evil game. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t use the feature once other than to confirm its inclusion. Running, gunning, and aiming simultaneously is out of the question, so I found it significantly more accurate (and familiar) to carefully position myself for each kill. 

While the demo was short and had limited diversity in terms of levels and cast, the experience was surprisingly addictive once I surpassed the learning curve of playing on the handheld. I’m looking forward to more time with the title, and to giving it a go with another Resident Evil fan via the two-player online co-op.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D will release in an undisclosed window this summer.