[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/RE6_cast_9477.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The gang's all here.]]
->''Our hiding places diminished ...we turned to hope... but she has fled...''

'''''Resident Evil 6''''' -- the [[SequelNumberSnarl ninth main installment]] of the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' franchise, released for the {{PlayStation 3}} and {{Xbox 360}} in 2012, and the PC version seeing the light of day in late March 2013 -- features multiple campaigns with their own controllable characters, unique settings, gameplay styles, and tones. The partner system from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' also returns, and Capcom included additional multiplayer options to boot.

Fifteen years after the Raccoon City Incident, President Adam Benford prepares to reveal everything about said incident to the public -- but soon after Leon S. Kennedy arrives in Tall Oaks to discuss the reveal, he finds the President transformed into a zombie. Leon kills the President to save Helena Harper, a Secret Service agent who has a few secrets to hide, and the pair work to escape Tall Oaks and discover the source of this latest viral outbreak.

Halfway around the world, BSAA agent Chris Redfield and his {{sidekick}} Piers Nivans arrive in the coastal Chinese city of Lanshiang to help suppress another bioterrorist threat. Along the way, they encounter the elusive Ada Wong -- who has an agenda all her own -- as well as a few new surprises. As the city becomes overrun with zombies and the global threat of the newly-discovered C-Virus becomes clearer, however, Chris has to decide who to trust in order to help save humanity.

Alongside Chris' and Leon's stories, a third story follows mercenary-for-hire (and series newcomer) Jake Muller as he teams up with Sherry Birkin. Jake is the illegitimate son of the late Albert Wesker, and his blood may be the key to stopping the C-Virus.

All three stories converge together as Chris, Leon, and Jake all work together to stop the parties responsible for the C-Virus outbreak and save the world... but are their efforts already in vain?

After clearing all three main scenarios (or just one of them with a patch), a fourth scenario -- Ada's -- unlocks.
----
!!''Resident Evil 6'' contains examples of the following tropes:
* AbsoluteCleavage: Carla's chest-baring dress.
* ActionGirl: Sherry and Helena.
** DarkActionGirl: Though Ada is somewhat of one in a morally ambiguous way, the real DarkActionGirl here is [[spoiler:Carla]].
* ActionizedSequel: Is even [[UpToEleven more action focused]] than ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' or ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', with the ability to sprint, dodge roll, use stop-and-pop cover, move while shooting, and slide on the ground and fire. J'avo type enemies also wield guns, creating straight 3rd-person shooter segments.
* ActorAllusion: This isn't the first time LauraBailey plays a character who is [[spoiler:forced to kill a loved one, and a sibling at that]]. In a ''Resident Evil'' production as well.
* AdaptiveAbility: J'avo are supposed to mutate in response to how you've wounded them. They might grow a [[CombatTentacles big nasty tentacle arm]] or two, a [[SinisterScythe sickle-like arm]], turn one arm into a [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe bulletproof shield]], fall flat on their back and start releasing poison gas, grow a thorax with multiple limbs that enables them to WallCrawl, grow grasshopper-like legs that allow them to [[InASingleBound jump high]] and kick, grow moth-like wings under their abdomen, grow two caterpillar-like appendages that wrap themselves and [[ActionBomb explode]], or grow a pincer-like head. That's if they don't cocoon themselves in ooze and pop out as a big nasty monster. [[spoiler:This ability allows Piers to get a new arm when his is lost.]]
* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Derek C. Simmons. Though one of the major sources behind the C-Virus outbreak, in the past, he took care of the orphaned Sherry and allowed Claire Redfield to visit her regularly.]]
* AffirmativeActionGirl: ''Inverted.'' Almost every Resident Evil game is about a male and a female teaming up (or, if split up, you have the option of choosing which to play as). Chris and Piers are the first-ever guy-and-guy team in the franchise. They didn't make Piers a woman because Capcom didn't want there to be any UnfortunateImplications during the times when Chris gets all up in Piers' face and acts belligerent.
* AllThereInTheManual: The explanation for most of what's really going on is in the files. You only get files for shooting hidden snake symbols, they're not in-universe documents your character finds lying around. You also have to quit out of the game entirely and read the documents from the main menu, so while you have very little to distract you from the action, you also don't know the whole story when you're running around.
** Even worse is the stuff on RE.net that tells even more of the story. [[spoiler:Jake's opinion of his dad and his treatment of Chris makes alot more sense with that information.]]
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Averted. [[spoiler:When Chris is about to get revenge on Carla for the deaths of his men, Leon is quick to remind him of the big picture.]]
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Piers gets his arm heavily damaged in the final battle and forcibly amputates it to get to the C-Virus sample. The C-Virus injection gives him a new arm that shoots electricity.]]
* AnAsskickingChristmas: The Edonia chapters take place on December 24th and 25th. Doesn't get much attention because they're halfway across the globe and in a war zone.
* AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler:Resident Evil 6 introduces a massively influential global conspiracy into the canon, known as The Family. They apparently formed the modern world of the games, and have a history that stretches back to the Colonial Era at least.]]
* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Every surviving character ends the game getting ready to enter the next battle.]]
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: Most of Chris' BSAA squad mutates into ooze-covered monsters, [[spoiler:Piers becomes a J'avo, Simmons goes OneWingedAngel, and Carla Radames and Deborah Harper become [[HumanoidAbomination humanoid abominations.]] Oh, and the friggin' ''President of the United States'' becomes a zombie, and Leon has to shoot him.]] ''[=RE6=]'' has this in spades.
* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler:Said by Helena after she and Leon finally defeat Simmons, in revenge for her sister]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Only in Mercenaries mode though (a huge contrast from previous titles, which allowed the player to use alternate outfits in the main scenario).
* AnotherSideAnotherStory: Ada's campaign (showing her experiences during the regular campaigns) unlocks after beating the three standard storylines, although all four campaigns have several moments being retold from different perspectives.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: [[spoiler:Helena only aided Neo-Umbrella in the Tall Oaks outbreak because she wanted to save her sister.]]
* AntiAir: Chris and Piers' campaign has them needing to take out anti-aircraft cannons before being able to get an airstrike on the Ogroman.
* ArtificialStupidity: While the AI is substantially improved over ''[=RE5=]'''s, given that it has both infinite health and ammo (except in certain circumstances, such as an incoming ambulance which can kill the AI partner), your partner can still be found lacking. It sometimes takes much longer than necessary to reach gates with the player, sometimes outright ignores the player while they are in a downed state, and fails to reliably rescue the player during certain set-pieces.
* AssholeVictim: One of the survivors in Tall Oaks is a sociopathically survival-focused {{Jerkass}} named Peter, who, after loudly and repeatedly demonstrating his lack of concern for his fellow survivors' lives, decides he'd have better odds escaping on his own and forcibly takes his girlfriend's gun before running off. The only person ''remotely'' upset when he promptly gets eaten by a zombie is his now-ex girlfriend.
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: The Ogroman.
* {{Badass}}: All of the playable characters. Special mention goes to Jake for [[spoiler:fighting the Ustanak ''hand-to-hand'']].
* BadassAbnormal: [[spoiler:Piers Nivans turns himself part B.O.W. in order to save Chris. Sherry has become this due to her G virus creating a HealingFactor.]]
** [[spoiler: Jake is to, considering that he already injected himself with the c-virus by time Sherry found him.]]
* BadassBandolier: Some of the J'avo enemies wear them.
* BadassBystander: While trying to escape Tall Oaks and reach the cathedral, Leon and Helena meet and temporarily join a small group of survivors who are pretty capable at gunning zombies down. [[spoiler:Too bad they all die later.]]
* BadassNormal: Ada, Chris, Leon, and their respective partners, of course.
* BarBrawl: Chris nearly ignites one [[spoiler:in the beginning of his campaign]] before being stopped by Piers.
* BarbieDollAnatomy[=/=]NakedOnArrival: The {{Humanoid Abomination}}s born from C-Virus chrysalises, [[spoiler:such as Deborah Harper and Carla Radames]].
** [[spoiler:Ada Wong as well at the beginning of her campaign. And just as nippleless as the rest, though Carla and Ada are somewhat excusable since the naughty bits are supposed to be covered up with shadows.]]
* BareYourMidriff: Helena's outfit during the China chapters exposes her belly button.
* BeardOfEvil: Simmons.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: The last part of Jake's second chapter involves hiding from the Ustanak's vision in case you are attacked by his drill arm. Jake and Sherry eventually find a mining drill to face him on even ground.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: [[spoiler:Ada's campaign will shed light on the occurrences in key points of the game. Just how did that chainsaw-wielding maniac end up falling in front of Jake and Sherry? Why were the passcodes Chris and Piers had to collect found near dead soldiers?]]
* BelligerentSexualTension: Jake and Sherry at times, with Jake being the master of snark and Sherry's responses to it.
* BerserkButton: Ada becomes Chris's berserk button after [[spoiler:she kills his entire team]].
** Hurting Deborah is a good way to push Helena's button, although it's not very explicit from the game.
* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Simmons and [[TheStarscream Carla Radames]]]].
** BigBadEnsemble: [[spoiler:While Carla had definitely worked with Simmons in the past, her ultimate goal is in direct opposition with Simmons' plans for the world.]]
* BigCreepyCrawlies: J'avo halfway mutate into insectoid things. They might turn half of their body into a giant moth, their arm might become a huge centipede arm, they might grow big spider legs out of their back to crawl around at high speed, and so on.
* BigDamnHeroes[=/=]JustInTime:
** Ada shows up to provide vital aid to Leon and Helena during their fight with both [[spoiler:Helena's mutated sister and Simmons]], and also aids Jake and Sherry against the Ubistvo, even personally swooping in, saving Sherry, and [[BridalCarry depositing her in Jake's arms]]. In the end, she even leaves Leon and Helena [[spoiler:the evidence they need to [[ClearTheirName clear their names]] and prove that Simmons was [[TheChessmaster behind everything]]]].
** A BSAA soldier attempts to have one in the [[spoiler:second Simmons fight]], by bringing in a Humvee with turrets to aid in the fight. While helpful for a moment, the Humvee is destroyed and the soldier is killed soon after, setting Leon and Helena back to square one.
* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: Helena's files reveal that she is/was intensely protective of her younger sister Deborah, to the extent that she actually lost her temper and ''shot'' the latter's boyfriend when he started to [[DomesticAbuse abuse her]].
* BigNo[=/=]SayMyName: When you or your parnter die, the character who's alive will shout their name. In Mercenaries, they'll shout "NO!!!" instead despite the characters knowing each other in story.
* BigOMG: Sherry's reaction when the Ustanak attacks their chopper, and Helena's reaction when the girl they're sharing an elevator with becomes a zombie.
* BilingualBonus: The J'avo at the beginning of chapter three in Jake and Sherry's campaign says "Hey, what are you doing?" in Cantonese, not what the subtitle translates to.
* BillingDisplacement: Despite having four different campaigns and seven protagonists, Leon and Helena are the main focus in most promotional materials. In the ending credits, Leon receives top billing. It MakesSenseInContext; Sherry hasn't been seen since ''ResidentEvil2'' and its retellings, and Chris was the lead in two recent games (''[[ResidentEvil5 5]]'' and ''[[ResidentEvilRevelations Revelations]]''); however, while Helena gets a lot of promotion, she's billed fifth.
* BittersweetEnding: The outcome of Leon and Chris' campaigns.
** In Leon's ending, he and Helena are successful in thwarting Simmons' plot, clearing their name, and uncovering the Anti-C vaccine. However, President Benford and [[spoiler:Deborah]] are dead, millions of people were infected by C-Virus or killed, and both the United States and China have suffered heavy casualties.
** In Chris' ending, he succeeds in rescuing Sherry and Jake, destroying the Haos B.O.W., and bringing [[spoiler:Carla]] to justice (sort of), but at the cost of all of his subordinates in Edonia, as well as most of his secondary team ([[spoiler:including Piers]]).
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands:
** You can shoot off the weapons that some enemies hold to weaken them. For zombies, it's better to just stun them so you can pry it out of their hands for a extremely damaging melee attack.
** [[spoiler:When Carla taunts Chris over the deaths of his men, Chris loses his temper and shoots her C-Virus dart gun out of her hand in retaliation.]]
* BlobMonster: [[spoiler:Carla turns herself into one via the C-Virus to fight the real Ada.]]
* BodyguardingABadass: Sherry's "protective detail" for Jake Muller, a mercenary with far more field experience than her.
** Ada comments that she's starting to think she's Leon's bodyguard when she helps him and Helena with a helicopter.
* BookEnds:
** Jake's campaign begins with him tossing an apple in the air before eating it. [[spoiler:He does the same thing in the secret ending that plays after beating Ada's campaign]].
** In the beginning of Chris's campaign, Piers makes a comment about getting a better steak dinner back home. [[spoiler:In the end, Chris is eating a steak before being approached by a BSAA member]].
* BoomHeadshot: Actually... it's not as much of an instant kill as you'd hope (at least not until you unlock some firepower upgrades). It is certainly the quickest way to kill a zombie, but you're just as likely to only blow off part of the top of their skull instead of their whole head, so you need to shoot them in the head multiple times without missing. Some zombies wear helmets, too! J'avo also like to mutate their heads into horrible things if you headshot them too much, so this trope is really messed with.
* BottomlessMagazines: Some skills allow infinite ammo for a specific weapon type.
* BrickJoke: Playing the other campaigns can make one realise how you were helped, how something happened and who just made your life that much harder.
* BringIt: Jake does a two-finger version to the two J'avo who were supposed to "escort" him at the beginning of chapter three in his/Sherry's campaign.
* TheBusCameBack: [[OlderAndWiser 26 year old]] [[TagalongKid Sherry Birkin]], after [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappearing off]] [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse the face of the earth]] following ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2''.
* CallBack: Multiple events from the previous games are referenced by the various characters.
** The game kicks off with the President about to announce new information regarding the "[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil Raccoon]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 City]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Incident]]".
** Multiple characters, such as Leon and Ada, reference [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 Raccoon City]] over the course of the game.
** Chris and Jake discuss Chris [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 killing Jake's father]].
** The most extensive one comes from Sherry discussing [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 how she got the G-Virus and what happened to her]] [[MadScientist father]].
* CameraScrew: Happens on some levels, particularly Chris's, where you have to run through a gauntlet while evading the enemy or a hazard such as an explosion. In those scenes, the camera tends to be at fixed locations rather than directly behind the player as normal. Can lead to FakeDifficulty when the camera is in front of you, then suddenly pans behind, causing you to run directly back where you were coming from, just in time to die from whatever you were trying to escape from.
* CaptainObvious: Finn, who pulls double duty as TheNewGuy.
* CarFu: Played straight when the bus driver runs over the Whopper zombie Leon and Helena weaken when it blocks the bus, then subverted when the bus driver runs over a zombie on the road, causing it to spin out of control and eventually crash. A BSAA soldier late in Leon's campaign also runs over a couple of zombies while driving through the infected city.
* CassandraTruth: After distracting the president's security detail in Tall Oaks, Helena suffered a crisis of conscience and attempted to get them to go back before Simmons made his move, but they all dismissed her due to her past transgressions in the CIA. Leon was the only one willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
* CasualDangerDialog: Leon dishes these out regularly. Jake is even worse; he barely registers surprise at all when everyone else on his team turns into mutants trying to kill him.
* TheCastShowoff: TroyBaker, Jake's VA, sings the song during the credits at the end of his scenario.
* ChainsawGood: The Ubistvo has some sort of organic chainsaw arm.
* ChargedAttack: Sherry and Jake can charge their [[StaticStunGun stun rod]]/[[GoodOldFisticuffs kung fu]] to unleash more damage. [[spoiler:Piers can do this as well with his C-Virus infected arm]].
* CheckpointStarvation: Chapters can take one to two hours to complete, which is REALLY long. There are plenty of quick, automatic checkpoints but you can't manually save and go back to specific points in a chapter if you wanted to replay just one part of it, which makes emblem-hunting a tooth-grinder.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The C-Virus injector Piers finds. [[spoiler:He uses it later to get Chris out of there and kill the B.O.W. they were facing.]]
** A few things in the other campaigns play a more important role in Ada's campaign. The lost submarine and locked door in Leon's campaign [[spoiler:and the fact that the C-Virus sample falls down the same place as Carla in Chris's]].
* CListFodder: Almost every single survivor and BSAA officer you encounter throughout the game will inevitably die no matter what.
** Most of the survivors in Tall Oaks seen in Leon and Helena's campaign will die shortly after they're encountered, and the player doesn't have a say in that. There are exceptions, but it's very rare. Then there are also the people on board the plane to China.
** Pretty much every single BSAA officer that goes alongside Chris and Piers die.
** It is averted on at least two occasions. Chris, Piers, and their team manage to rescue three survivors and escort them to safety early in the campaign. Ada also aids one BSAA officer and four civilians in two separate rooftops by shooting down the zombies that attack them, though we are not shown if those survivors manage to make it out alive in the long run or not.
** Gets to an almost ridiculous level in Leon's last chapter. You can aid two BSAA soldiers in killing a whole hallway full of zombies, down to the last zombie. The hall will magically fill up just so one soldier has to commit a HeroicSacrifice.
* CloningBlues: Carla flips out when she discovers that [[spoiler:Simmons turned her into an Ada Wong clone]].
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Aside from his viral immunity, Jake can easily overpower and kill J'avo with his bare hands, and he is actually able to hold his own against the big-ass Ustanak.
* ChemistryCanDoAnything: [[spoiler:It's revealed in Carla Radames' file that she created the C-Virus by combining an enhanced version of the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica T-Veronica virus]] with the G-Virus in Sherry's blood.]]
* ChessMotifs: Skill Points are obtained by collecting chess pieces. Higher value pieces are worth more points.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Invoked, [[TropesAreNotBad in the player's favor.]] A single-player-only Skill allows your partner to give you [[NotPlayingFairWithResources free health pills]] when they revive you. It's pricey, and doesn't fully compensate for a human partner, but is still incredibly helpful.
* ContinuityNod:
** The zombified President's slow head turn after feasting on a body mirrors the first zombie encounter scene in the original ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil Resident Evil]]''.
*** Dying to a zombie usually gives you that classic shot of the zombie eating your guts, and then turning its head to look at the camera, a la ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil RE1]]''.
** Furthermore, in the beginning of Chris's campaign, he is shown smoking, which he has not been seen doing since the uncut live action intro of the original ''Resident Evil''.
** Leon and Helena escape from the college in Tall Oaks by commandeering an abandoned police cruiser, a nod to a similar scene in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 Resident Evil 2]]''.
** Additionally, one Tall Oaks survivor complains about it being his first day on the job as a cop, which was Leon's own situation in ''Resident Evil 2''. [[spoiler:He's not as lucky as Leon, though.]]
** A subtle one during Jake's third chapter. Jake and Sherry have different songs when playing the piano. Jake plays Chopin's Revolutionary Etude while Sherry plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This references Billy being the better player in ''[=RE0=]'' [[spoiler:and that Sherry has been in captivity since she was 12.]]
** Sherry and Jake find a magnum to deliver the killing blow to their final boss, very similar to how Rebecca and Billy find a magnum to take down the Queen Leech in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0''.
*** Also, earlier in the same sequence, they attempt to knock the Ustanak off their escape shuttle by launching a crate at it, much like Claire did to defeat the Tyrant in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''.
** As mentioned below under [[UnresolvedSexualTension UST]], Ada mentions continuing what happened "that night", which doubles as both a reference to both ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' ''and'' ''[[Anime/ResidentEvilDamnation Damnation]]''.
** The C-Virus mutations have effects similar to the viruses that it was derived from: Regeneration and appendage generation from the G-Virus, and insectile appearances and flammable blood from T-Veronica.
** [[spoiler:As mentioned below, Jake and Sherry's face off with the Ustanak in the steel factory in the underwater facility seems to have a [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 strong resemblence to another boss fight against the series' most famous antagonist. The boss theme even borrows a few notes to make it more notable]]]].
** The fighter jet Chris flies is a Harrier, the same kind he flew in Code: Veronica.
** In the finale of Leon's scenario, you get [[spoiler:a rocket launcher from Ada, which has happened for a couple of final bosses in previous games]].
** In actuality, many enemies in the game that weren't directly brought back from a previous game can be seen as analogous to an enemy from earlier in the series. To name just a few:
*** Bloodshot: [[ResidentEvil1 Crimson Heads]]
*** Brzak: [[ResidentEvil1 Neptune]]
*** Ilusija: [[ResidentEvil1 Yawn]]
*** J'avo: [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 Ganados]] and [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 Majini]]
*** Ogroman: [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 El Gigante]] and [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 Ndesu]]
*** Rasklapanje: [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 Regenerators]], as well as [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations Ooze]], at least appearance and movement-wise.
*** Ubistvo: [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 Dr. Salvador]], [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 Chainsaw Majini]], and [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations Scagdead]]
*** Ustanak: [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Nemesis]]
* ConvectionSchmonvection: [[spoiler:Jake and Sherry face the Ustanak directly over a lava pit with little to no breathing problems, though all three are {{Transhuman}}.]]
* CreatorThumbprint: Variation: This game had many different scenario designers and it really shows, as many campaigns and individual levels feel nothing at all like others. So it's not one specific creator's thumbprint on the game, just that it's covered in many different thumbprints getting it all messy.
* CrisisCrossover: Of a sort. It's a global threat, and the first game that includes both Chris Redfield ''and'' Leon Kennedy, alongside Ada Wong and a [[TheBusCameBack returned]] Sherry Birkin, all in stories that interconnect at different points. There is also mention of [[BadassNormal Claire Redfield]], though she does not appear.
* {{Crossover}}: [[http://kotaku.com/5990832/capcom-and-valve-team-up-for-resident-evil-6-x-left-4-dead-2-title There will be a DLC pack that adds characters and monsters from]] ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2.''
* CrosshairAware: Enemies with {{Sniper Rifle}}s can be spotted and avoided by the [[LaserSight purple laser pointers]] they use.
* DeadWeight: The Whoppers. They shrug off bullets and attack by lifting and throwing survivors, and they are so fat (and so strong) that it's a major disaster whenever one shows up; the first one nearly brings the building down when it bursts in.
* DeadlyRotaryFan: In Leon and Helena's campaign, when they enter the catacombs, they accidentally trigger a trap that activates the blades, prompting the player to crawl. Get near it, [[GoryDiscretionShot you lose your head]]. For Ada's scenario, she or Agent just get hit by it and die.
** A quick time event in Leon's Chapter 3 involves a Rasklapanje grabbing and holding one of the characters dangerously close to a large meat grinder in a butcher's shop. Failing causes both to get chopped, while succeeding will only have the Rasklapanje being blended.
* DeadpanSnarker: All four of the main protagonists exhibit this trait, with Jake on the high end, Chris on the low end, and Leon and Ada in the middle.
* DeathFakedForYou: Leon asks Hunnigan to declare Helena and himself as dead in order to travel to China without interference.
* DetachmentCombat: The Rasklapanje enemies, and they can regenerate.
* DevelopmentHell: A full ''seven weeks'' were shaved off of the game's development cycle, which pushed up its release from late November of 2012 to early October. This is a primary cause of many of its issues at launch, which led directly to some of its low review scores. The reason for the early release has never been officially disclosed, but it can comfortably be assumed that Capcom did not wish to jump into the sales crossfire between ''Halo 4'', the Wii-U's launch, ''Assassin's Creed III'', and ''Call of Duty: Black Ops 2''.
* DiegeticInterface: The in-game [=HUDs=] are implied to be extensions/abstractions of the character's smartphone-esque equipment. Sherry, Leon, and Helena, all US government agents, use (or start with, in Sherry's case) the same white, rectangular HUD. Chris and Piers, BSAA agents, use a curved HUD based off their [[BuffySpeak flashlight projector thingies]]. Jake, a presumably self-equipped mercenary, starts with a unique green HUD, but loses that when captured and replaces it with the same blue cubephone Ada uses.
* DifficultButAwesome: Counters in this game can deal impressive damage, kill weaker enemies outright, and set up stronger enemies for further attacks. Compared to 4 and 5, though, you can't be doing something beforehand, must be directly facing your enemy and if attacked by other enemies, you're set up for more damage yourself.
* DisappearedDad[=/=]ParentalAbandonment: Wesker abandoned Jake's mother before Jake was even born, and Jake grew up believing him to be nothing but a deadbeat.
* DistressedDude: Despite his superhuman abilities, Jake is gonna need saving at least once over the game.
** DistressedDamsel: Jake, really? ''Sherry'' is going to need saving at least once per ''chapter'' in Jake's Campaign. She walks a fine line between ActionGirl and DistressedDamsel, bordering on FauxActionGirl.
* TheDragon:
** Carla Radames [[spoiler:who reveals herself as TheStarscream, creating more of a BigBadEnsemble]].
** The Ustanak serves as Carla's Dragon.
*** DragonTheirFeet: Ustanak and the J'avo continue to do Carla's orders [[spoiler:after she dies.]]
* {{Doppelganger}}: [[spoiler:Carla Radames was turned into one of Ada Wong by Simmons.]]
* DullSurprise:
** Helena, an ex-cop turned Secret Service agent with no biohazard experience whatsoever and a history of emotional ''overreaction'', is seemingly impassive to the horrors all around her, like mutating B.O.Ws, uncannily intelligent zombies, and mass slaughter. However, when alone for a short sequence, she's heard muttering "Come on, Helena, keep it together," and her voice acting suggests complete emotional exhaustion rather than indifference. Frequent hints suggest she's suffering from shock and possible PTSD the entire game, particularly since she ''starts'' the game as [[spoiler: an unwilling pawn in a scheme to assassinate the President]].
** Ada's reaction to seeing the videotape of Carla being reborn as her clone is a simple "Huh, looks just like me." However, considering how many outbreaks she's been through, she could be a case of SeenItAll at this point.
* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:Piers chooses to die with Neo-Umbrella's underwater base rather than get in the escape pod with Chris, because he knows the C-Virus mutation will soon overtake him and transform him into a mindless drone just like all other C-Virus B.O.W.s.]]
* EleventhHourSuperpower: Leon finds a rocket launcher [[spoiler:left by Ada]] to finish the battle. [[spoiler:Piers mutates himself with the C-Virus, giving him an arm that shoots lightning, to aid Chris in the final battle.]] Inverted in Jake's campaign, where he loses all his equipment and is forced to fight hand-to-hand.
* EnemyMine: Discussed and defied, [[spoiler:after Ada walks to where Carla fell down and "died", she said she would have helped her in her revenge against Simmons had Carla not also wanted to destroy the world. Carla suddenly regains consciousness and scorns the idea before going OneWingedAngel.]]
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: [[spoiler:Carla]]'s plan, starting with an attack on the US, then China, and then major cities in the rest of the world.
* [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas Even Mercenaries Love Their Mamas]]: Jake's [[OnlyInItForTheMoney obsession with money]] and [[HiredGuns mercenary lifestyle]] stem from wanting to [[AllThereInTheManual support his mother]]. That said, she's dead, and he's mostly doing this at this point because he has pretty much nothing better to do.
* EveryCarIsAPinto:
** The bus and turret Humvee in Leon and Helena's campaign.
** According to the gargantuan, escalating explosion in the prelude and midway through Leon's fifth chapter, EveryCarIsAPinto [[UpToEleven With An Onboard Nuclear Warhead]].
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture: Played straight in several ways; the smartphones most "regular" characters carry are very smooth and round and exclusively use holographic touch screens. The Neo-Umbrella lab in one campaign looks straight out of an Apple store and is almost exclusively white and round.
** Averted by Chris and Piers' flashlight/GPS devices, which are cylindrical and utilitarian. Ada's cellphone/PDA that she receives from her employer is a translucent cube that flips open into a blocky, triangular, distinctly non-ergonomic phone.
* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: The Brzak, which looks like a super-sized cross between a mako shark and a lungfish, which Leon and Helena encounter in the underwater caves beneath the cathedral.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: One of the game's files reveals that Simmons finds Sherry's kind and benevolent personality disgusting.
* EvilVizier: [[spoiler:Simmons. He is the President's most trusted advisor, is part of a nebulous conspiracy which undermines his authority, lusts for power, and even has a sinister goatee! Also, he has a ''thoroughly'' disturbing obsession with Ada Wong.]]
* ExposedToTheElements: [[spoiler:Carla/]]Ada walks around a war zone in December with only a revealing dress and high heels to ward off the cold. This is the first clue that something isn't normal about her.
* {{Expy}}: Lanshiang is clearly based on post-British Hong Kong, and several fictionalized versions of local landmarks appear as gameplay locations, including Exchange Square[[note]]The main building only has two towers in real life[[/note]] (the Quad Tower), Chungking Mansions[[note]]Though it's overall a lot less run-down than its game counterpart nowadays thanks to some recent, large-scale renovations[[/note]] (Point Ace of Spades), the Kowloon Walled City[[note]]Demolished in 1993 and replaced with a public park[[/note]] (the Poisawan district) and the Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant[[note]]Technically an Aberdeen landmark[[/note]] (the unnamed floating restaurant seen in Chris, Jake and Ada's campaigns).
** The Rasklapanje's physical appearance, independently mobile body parts, penchant for traveling through sewer pipes and disturbing method of reproduction are all eerily reminiscent of Flukeman, one of the more infamous [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]] from ''TheXFiles''.
* ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl: Sherry, complete with small frame, pluckiness, cute features, and boyish haircut.
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: When [[spoiler:Simmons]] downshifts back into human(ish) form and is vulnerable to melee attacks, Leon and Helena both will drop all the flashy choreography and just run up and beat the living shit out of [[spoiler:his]] face with their fists, and you can practically ''taste'' the rage they put into each blow.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: The J'avo have two eyes in the standard places, as well as several eyes of various sizes all over their foreheads.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** The first part of Jake's third chapter has [[ShirtlessScene Jake]] and [[{{Stripperiffic}} Sherry]] running around barely half-clothed, and Sherry briefly gets completely naked, though all we see are her [[ToplessnessFromTheBack back]], her [[ShesGotLegs legs]], and [[ShipTease Jake's startled reaction]].
** There's also Carla and Ada's AbsoluteCleavage tops, and both have a brief nude scene. Helena's sister Deborah counts, though it may be more FanDisservice.
* FakeDifficulty: Often used on the levels where you have to run away from an enemy, or an environmental hazard such as an explosion, largely thanks to CameraScrew being in effect during those moments.
* FictionalCurrency: Chess pieces provide Skill Points to use to buy skills.
* FinalBoss: Each scenario has a different final boss.
** Leon and Helena have to fight [[spoiler:a mutated Simmons.]]
** Chris and Piers have to fight [[spoiler:Haos, Carla's ultimate B.O.W. designed to infect the world.]]
** Jake and Sherry have to fight [[spoiler:the Ustanak.]]
** Ada has to fight [[spoiler:a mutated Carla Radames. She also fights the mutated Simmons alongside Leon and Helena.]]
* FireBreathingWeapon: The BSAA use flamethrowers to dispose of Chrysalids.
* FisticuffsBoss: Jake and Sherry lose their weapons during the final part of their last boss. It's notably the first time a boss is fought this way in the series.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When he first meets Jake, Chris briefly wonders if the two of them have met before. Turns out Jake is Wesker's son.
** Piers' BSAA emblem on his left arm gets a lot of closeups. [[spoiler:It's the only thing that Chris has left of him in the ending.]]
** Even through a single campaign, there is alot of evidence that [[spoiler:there are two Adas, and one's with you and one's against you. Then Ada's campaign spells it out.]]
* FlunkyBoss: Sort of. The flunkies for the boss in question are just some of the thousands of Chinese zombies wandering into the area. The boss takes advantage of them by consuming them to regenerate itself. [[spoiler: To defeat it, you have to turn this advantage against it by spearing one of the zombies with a lightning rod.]]
* FrameUp: Leon gets framed for killing the President, [[spoiler:and Ada Wong gets framed as a bio-terrorist by her {{Doppelganger}} Carla Radames]].
* FrickinLaserBeams: While pursuing Carla, Chris, Leon, and their partners have to make it through a laser hallway trap.
* FriendshipMoment: When Leon asks Hunnigan to fake his and Helena's deaths so they can chase [[spoiler:Simmons]] to China, she barely hesitates. In fact, the reason they know where he's going is because she already put a tail on him. They're accusing a respected superior of a crime they're the prime suspects in, without any evidence to back them up, and she believes them immediately.
* FromBadToWorse: Leon mentions this at one point in his campaign. In-game, things do continue to get worse for every character as they progress through the plot.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Leon and Helena are on the plane heading to China, a TV in the background shows Chris and Piers pushing the news crew out of the way, which was seen in the first level of Chris's campaign.
* {{Gainaxing}}: Subtle, but present on Sherry in the beginning of their third chapter. She is only wearing a hospital gown.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Sherry can heal fatal injuries in seconds during cutscenes, but has a normal health bar like everyone else during gameplay. Funnily, her cry for help during her "knocked over and about to die" state is "I... can't... regenerate... fast enough!" Her ability has no effect on how long she stays knocked down, though.
** Actually averted at the end of Chris and Piers' campaign: [[spoiler:Once Piers injects himself with the upgraded C-virus and gets his lightning-arm, he actually does have reasonably fast health regen during gameplay.]] Doesn't help too much, though, as it's an EleventhHourSuperpower.
** You acquire weapons in the next level regardless of whether you got them in the last. Especially noticeable with the hidden Bear Commander.
** The second Javo with a passcode can't be killed in the same room that Chris and Piers find it.
** The prelude that serves as a introduction and tutorial is actually based on a portion of Leon and Helena's campaign. While the prelude shows the two of them as exhausted and low on ammo and supplies, the actual chapter it takes place in won't deplete anything they possess in their inventory. The cut-scenes that occur in the prelude don't appear in the chapter itself, and [[spoiler:Ada as the helicopter pilot]] is kept secret. Oddly, it would seem that cut-scenes were canon, as they are in the timeline. Interestingly, the zombie BSAA soldier that attacks Leon still appears in the same spot, and performing a melee after a head or arm stun does a special kill animation using [[ContinuityNod the zombie's knife]].
** Given that your inventory is saved across missions, this can lead to amusing moment of not having any ammo as Chris or Piers in the beginning of a "flashback" mission 2, because you've spend them all in mission 1 - in the future!
* GangUpOnTheHuman: J'avo are in command of most of their mental facilities, but for some reason, during Jake's campaign, they instinctively attack him despite most of them being from his same mercenary outfit, instead of going, "Hey, buddy! Where's your extra eyeballs, man?"
* GasMaskMooks: [[spoiler:Neo Umbrella soldiers.]]
* GenerationXerox: Inverted. While the children of Umbrella {{Big Bad}}s Wesker and Birkin do team-up, Jake and Sherry are [[WhiteSheep nothing like their fathers]].
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Bioterrorism is explicitly a nuke as of this game, particularly now that the bad guys have missiles full of zombie gas they can launch into target cities. City of 70,000 people? Boom, 65,000 of them are now zombies chewing on the remainder.
* GetBackHereBoss: An invisible boss, which flees each time you inflict enough damage.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: One of Jake's weapon choices.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: 6 continues 4's trend of naming every enemy after a tangentially related word in the monster's country of origin, in this case Serbian. Just like in 4 and 5, no monster other than the generic mooks are named in game, and you have to trawl supplemental data to find the official names for them.
* GunsAkimbo: Leon can switch between wielding one or two handguns on the fly.
* GunshipRescue: Ada often assists Leon and Helena in a helicopter in China against zombies [[spoiler:and Derek Simmons]]. Heck, she even saves some survivors on the roofs of skyscrapers from zombies as she goes to find a helicopter pad.
* HarderThanHard: The recently released "ultra-hard mode" level of difficulty for the campaigns, No Hope. The subtitle for said mode is "will quickly rob you of any hope for survival." So welcome to having [[OhCrap no skills active whatsoever]], along with the values on damage and enemy health about the same or harder then Professional mode, meaning that larger scale enemies and bosses kinda give out the illusion of being [[DespairEventHorizon totally invincible]].
* HealingFactor: Sherry has one [[spoiler:from the G-Virus]]. C-Virus infected can recover from a decent amount of damage.
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Leon and Helena encounter some armored zombies, which resist their gunfire on certain body parts.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Ada seems to do this frequently, unless you notice that [[spoiler:Good!Ada wears a red shirt and black pants and gloves, while Evil!"Ada", aka Carla, wears a blue dress and red scarf.]]
* HellishCopter: The BSAA transport helicopter Sherry and Jake rode on gets destroyed by Neo Umbrella gunships pursuing them.
* HeroicBSOD: Leon gets this quiet a few times through the game, the most notable one being after learning about [[spoiler:Ada's EvilTwin death]]. It takes a long moment for him to snap out of it. Chris has acquired a [[DrowningMySorrows drinking problem]] ever since the deaths of several BSAA agents during a biological attack allegedly caused by Ada Wong.
* HeroicSacrifice: A few RedShirt BSAA agents will hold off the monsters while the heroes go on. More importantly, [[spoiler:Piers also injects himself with the C-Virus laced with Jake's blood and then fries Haos underwater with an electric shock to save Chris.]]
* HeroWorshipper: A tragic example. Finn Macauley is TheNewMeat in Chris' team where he's actually nice to him (and being the most important, since he's a demolition expert). Near the end of Chapter 2, [[spoiler:Finn becomes mutated by Carla, and puts a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on him]]. In Chapter 3 of Chris's Campaign, Piers gives a WhatTheHellHero to Chris and reminds him of Finn's hero worship of him.
* HiredGuns: Mercenary Jake makes a point of demanding payment before and after his assignment -- and that fighting [[NotUsingTheZWord B.O.W.s]] will cost Sherry extra. When he discovers just how valuable his blood is to the world, he raises his price to $50 million.
* {{Homage}}: When you reach Tall Oaks cathedral, the crazy guy inside refuses to open the door [[Left4Dead and then starts ringing the church bells]], prompting a HoldTheLine segment.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Jake and Sherry.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Carla describes the late Albert Wesker as a "colossal imbecile" for his attempts to destroy the world with bioterrorism, yet she is doing the exact same thing, [[spoiler:right down to using airburst missiles as a means of spreading the virus]].
* [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy I Want My Partner to Be Happy]]: Despite being Leon’s new partner and having grown to like, trust, and rely on him, Helena encourages him to leave her to chase after Ada when she runs off again. How platonic this is depends on your ShippingGoggles, but Leon declines and insists they stick together, [[spoiler:which pays off when they need to work together to kill Simmons one more time.]]
* IGaveMyWord: Jake is this in regards to being a mercenary; if he accepts the job; he expects to be paid and vice-versa. 50 million dollars, an apple... a deal's a deal.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Sherry is skewered through the back by a piece of shrapnel, but [[GoodThingYouCanHeal recovers within seconds]] after it is removed. And Piers gets his arm impaled and crushed, forcing him to amputate it to get the C-Virus sample. Also, Simmons meets his end by being impaled on a pillar.]]
* ImplacableMan:
** The Ustanak that relentlessly chases Jake and Sherry [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis Nemesis]]-style throughout their campaign. When Jake and Sherry briefly team up with Leon and Helena, Jake complains about how hard it is to kill the thing. Leon, who's fought several implacable men himself, says, "You get used to it, kid."
** [[spoiler:Derek Simmons]] relentlessly goes after Leon and Helena [[spoiler:after Carla injects him with the C-Virus using a J'avo]]. He finally goes down after ''five'' boss battles involving him. He just refuses to die.
** Besides the Ustanak, Jake, Sherry, [[spoiler:and Ada]] deal with the Ubistvo, a chainsaw-armed B.O.W. that survives being pumped full of bullets, hit by a train, incineration, drowning, getting a building collapsed on top of it, and an explosion. The only thing that finally does it in is introducing it to a HelicopterBlender.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Some zombies carry things like hammers, axes, and knives (whether on hand or lodged in their bodies), which you can steal and use against them in a finishing blow.
* IndyPloy: Jake's decision to take out the Neo-Umbrella chopper that's hounding him and Chris. He even admits to Sherry that he's making it up as he goes.
* InformedAbility: [[spoiler:Haos, Carla's ultimate B.O.W. that will apparently spread infection across the world, has no infection based powers. Justified since it was only two-thirds into its growth.]]
* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Particularly noticeable in Leon's campaign, where random chairs and debris can block him from moving forward, despite being able to slide over tables and dodge roll like a maniac.
* InterfaceSpoiler: The game makes no surprise that there is a fourth campaign. Or that there is a DLC difficulty.
* {{Invisibility}}: The giant snake in Chris and Pier's campaign.
* InvoluntaryGroupSplit: Happens approximately once per chapter - the group is split by an explosion, collapsing bridge, rockfall, and so on. Ada's campaign is an exception because its single player, but it still happens twice during coop.
* ItsAllMyFault: Helena Harper holds herself responsible for the death of the President and the C-Virus outbreak in Tall Oaks.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jake has some aspects of this, particularly when it comes to Sherry.
* JuggleFu: If Leon dual wields the Wing Shooter and Quick-Shoots an enemy, rapidly tapping the trigger lets Leon juggle the enemy for a little while. [[SubvertedTrope Doesn't work for armored enemies, though.]]
* KillTheOnesYouLove:
** Leon kills the President -- Leon's former military recruiter and personal friend -- after he fully turns into a zombie.
** [[spoiler:Helena is forced to drop her mutated sister to her death after realizing she cannot save her, and vows revenge on Derek Simmons.]]
* KnightTemplar: Chris heads into this direction with his overwhelming desire for revenge against Carla [[spoiler:after she wiped out his squad in Edonia]].
* LackOfEmpathy: Let's just say that Ada's sense of compassion when it comes to Helena being forced to fight and kill her infected sister leaves something to be desired.
* LampreyMouth: The Rasklapanje.
* [[spoiler:LastBreathBullet: With the last of his humanity and life, Piers finishes off the B.O.W. attacking Chris's escape pod.]]
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Everything associated with Ada's campaign gives it an odd man out feel.
* LeeroyJenkins: During the prelude and midway through Leon's fifth chapter, a gigantic explosion pursues Leon and Helena up a stretch of highway. As a helicopter lowers in to pick them up, the door gunner valiantly jumout to open fire on the oncoming explosion, desperately buying the two time to escape by [[RuleOfCool keeping the oncoming explosion at bay with gunfire]].
** Chris does this a few times in his campaign. Piers calls him out on this.
* LessEmbarrassingTerm: The Trophy for collecting three figures is titled "They're ACTION Figures!"
* LetsYouAndHimFight: At one point, Leon and Chris end up [[ItMakesSenseInContext fighting over Carla]].
* LightningReveal: In Leon and Helena's campaign, lightning will reveal zombies in the cemetery they are traveling through.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Jake Muller is the son of former BigBad Albert Wesker.
* MacGyvering: Helena's Hydra shotgun has a flashlight duct taped on it.
* MadeOfIron: Leon and Helena both survive incidents that would normally kill or disable someone with relatively minor injuries, including [[spoiler:a roll-over car crash, a plane crash, being trapped in a bus that falls off a cliff, and being bodily thrown into a car by an explosion.]]
** The other campaigns aren't much better. Being thrown across the room by an explosion is the least of the things that happen.
* MetalDetectorCheckpoint: Leon and Helena have to go through one with their guns on hand, sounding the alarm and alerting zombies nearby. Made all the more BS by the fact that there is a table next to it that you cannot vault over; however, a metal detector not five meters away has a table that you CAN vault over with no trouble. Thanks for that.
* MexicanStandoff: Between Leon and Chris. See LetsYouAndHimFight.
* MilestoneCelebration: This game marks the fifteenth anniversary of the franchise; as a special treat, gamers were able to purchase the first four mainstay PS games from the Japanese store for 3,000 yen (''4'' alone would cost 1900) through the end of March 2012.
* MissionControl: Ingrid Hunnigan, returning from ''4'', ''[[Anime/ResidentEvilDegeneration Degeneration]]'', and ''[[Anime/ResidentEvilDamnation Damnation]]'', is serving as Leon's source of intel once more.
* MomentKiller: A few happen between Jake and Sherry.
* MoneyMultiplier: Some skills will increase the chance of item drops, some for more specific items.
* MonsterClown: Many J'avo wear ceramic clown masks to hide their mutated faces.
* MookMaker: The "Lepotitsa" is a C-Virus monster that looks like a walking gasbag. It constantly produces zombie gas, so any fight with it and a bunch of civilians in the area means that very shortly, you're going to be facing a lot of zombies.
** For additional horror, the lepotitsa's outline looks vaguely feminine, and was apparently named because it's something of a "mother" to its undead spawn.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Most ActionCommands are the same regardless of character, but averted in at least two ways. The male characters can stop Nepads through brute force, the females simply dodge. [[spoiler:In the Leon vs. Chris cinematic, it's made pretty clear Chris has the advantage in raw physical strength.]]
** Played straight during the last fight against [[spoiler:Ustanak, in which Jake faces him in fisticuffs. Despite Ustanak being a mountain of muscle that's about three times as wide as Jake, Jake can beat the ever-loving crap out of him. He can even punch Ustanak hard enough to launch him into a pit of lava.]]
* MythologyGag:
** Leon and Ada's campaign are full of gags towards ''2'' and ''4''.
** The Ustanak is pretty much a moving MythologyGag to all the ImplacableMan bosses of the franchise.
** Helicopters and their pilots still have a hard time. [[spoiler:Main character driven or not.]]
** Jake and Sherry can pick up a revolver called [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 Elephant Killer]].
** When you [[ImplacableMan FINALLY]] kill [[spoiler: Derek Simmons]], it ends with [[spoiler: him]] impaled on a spire and oozing blood into a floor mosaic. When seen from above, the four massive puddles, interspersed with still-white tiles, creates a giant Umbrella Corporation symbol.
* NeckSnap: One of Chris's melee finishers/stealth kills.
* NewGamePlus: As with every game. You can start a new game after finishing each campaign with every character with the items you had before.
* NewMeat: Finn, the rookie in Chris' squad during the second mission of his campaign. Finn is the demolitions expert on the team, and [[spoiler:gets turned into a Chrysalid by Carla at the end of the chapter during her test as Chris and Piers look on helplessly]].
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: While the viruses in Resident Evil have always been prime examples of ArtisticLicenseBiology, they always had consistent limitations and abilities. The C-Virus has only a few restraints. When dispersed as a gas, it kills and living victims (and exposed corpses) exposed to a lethal concentration into zombies of several different types, some capable of mutation. When injected directly into the bloodstream of a living host, it turns them into sapient J'avo, violent humanoids with a number of extra eyes, freakish strength, and the ability to mutate in horrific and unpredictable ways (from the growth of new appendages to a chrysalis that spawns monsters) in response to damage. [[spoiler:Carla also uses bombs that convert BSAA troops directly into the chrysalis -- justified because, as can be seen in the cutscene, the "bomb" is a ball of syringe-tipped vials of the stuff that are scattered in a FlechetteStorm when it's detonated. The upgraded C-Virus is even more unpredictable; Piers becomes a J'avo (probably since he'd just lost an arm), but Simmons and Carla become full-fledged protean B.O.Ws.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Leon and Helena unlock the secret entrance in the Tall Oaks cathedral, which inadvertently releases a Lepotitsa and turns most of the survivors in the building into zombies. The first victim is the guy who vouched for them and let them in, just to twist the knife.
* NGOSuperpower: Much like the original Umbrella Corporation, Neo-Umbrella somehow has the resources and capabilities to hijack and run an aircraft carrier and a U.S. Navy submarine, and arm the Edonian Liberation Army with not just B.O.W.s but also enough tanks and helicopters to fight their country's government to a stand-still. Let's not forget their ridiculously massive undersea lair, which they built and operated directly under the noses of the Chinese government.
* NoBodyLeftBehind: The method depends on the enemy. Bog-standard zombies melt into black goo, J'avo (and the creatures they sometimes mutate into) start visibly ''burning up'' from the inside-out as a byproduct of their overactive healing, leaving only ashes.
* NoGearLevel: Jake and Sherry are reduced to their hand and melee weapons in the first part of their third chapter.
* NonStandardGameOver: Fail an important mission objective and the characters simply give up without anywhere to go. [[spoiler:Getting attacked by the J'avo in the airvents in Ada's fourth chapter results in her getting knocked to the floor where Chris apprehends her immediately.]]
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Sort of. Though he was presumably born and raised in Eastern Europe, Jake has an American-sounding name and speaks with a distinct American accent.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Averted in 2 cases, when Leon calls the first incoming train "Zombie Express". The second involves a surivior calling incoming zombies, "zombie freaks".
* OffhandBackhand: One of the new melee options.
* OffscreenTeleportation: J'avo and zombies can suddenly appear right behind you when you when you do the next checkpoint. The Ustanak does some impressive movement in Jake's second chapter as well.
* OhCrap: The side characters are prone to reacting this way when the next problem presents itself. Sherry actually says this when a tank shows up.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Jake initially is only traveling with Sherry to get a sample of the C-Virus antibodies in his blood for $50 million. [[spoiler:In the end, he drops his fee to $50]].
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: C-Virus zombies are a little different from T-Virus zombies. They're just barely smart enough to hold onto a weapon (bad news for you if you face one holding an axe or a machine gun), sometimes they mutate right in the middle of battle into horrible skinless berserkers, and they have a few sub-variants like the DeadWeight "Whoppers" or the "Shriekers" that puff up their throats to [[MakeMeWannaShout unleash a deafening scream]]. Spitting zombies that puke projectile acid show up from time to time too, though these are a classic of the series.
* OutOfTheInferno: [[spoiler:Getting dunked in lava and being in an exploding base just slows down the Ustanak. Notably does this from the flames Jake and Sherry are outrunning.]]
* OutrunTheFireball:
** Leon and Helena run away from a street-engulfing explosion to a rescue helicopter in the intro.
** Jake and Sherry use a lift to escape an exploding base in their ending.
* PantyShot:
** After viewing [[spoiler:Carla Radamnes "death" from Ada's perspective, the player can go down to her "death" spot and use a sniper rifle to see her black panties. However, things will quickly change since she mutates herself right after that.]]
** You will probably get a look up [[spoiler:Deborah's]] dress while moving her. Then she turns to a Chrysalid.
** Basically any skirt wearing female in this game is susceptible to an upskirt view (Especially the UN Hostage in Chris' scenario. She is too focused on her life to close her legs compared to Ashley).
** Ada's alternate Outfit in the mercenaries is a knee high dress. Depending on the moves you use, it's possible.
* PermaStubble: Chris and Leon.
* PistolWhip: Some characters have this as a melee option when wielding a handgun. Rifle-wielders seem to butt-strike instead.
* PlotArmor: Three notable examples
** As usual, the protagonists are in no real danger of contracting zombieism, though this time it's because the C-Virus turns people to zombies if exposed to it in gas form, not bites. Whether it's because they've developed a resistance (having mostly worked in anti-bioterrorism fields for some time) or naturally (for Jake and Sherry), they can take concentrations of the stuff that turns civilians into the shambling undead almost immediately, though sufficiently high concentrations, such as a heavy blast full in the face or a massive, highly-concentrated bank of the stuff deployed via missile, will still be fatal.
** Leon and Helena survive the horrific crash of almost every single vehicle they ever get into, but always emerge battered and bruised but otherwise comically unscathed. Averted however, if you get caught in the blue mist emitted by one of the BOW's or stick around in the blue fog too long late in Leon's chapter.
** The Ustanak can go from a OneHitKill machine that can take a full minute of fire without slowing down that even going into melee range is suicide to just a strong boss with the same weapon. Notably failing the ActionCommand in the lava fight gives the same outcome, just Sherry is knocked unto a platform instead of lava pit.
* PoliceAreUseless: The Tall Oaks and Lanshiang Police Force(s) are clearly overwhelmed by the C-Virus zombies (and other monsters) that most of their ranks are turned into. A few others aren't going to survive any longer with their facilities being overrun by the monsters themselves or destroyed by the American/Chinese governments to prevent further viral outbreaks.
* ThePowerOfFriendship: Very likely saved the world. It was because of the friendships between the main characters that they were able to trust each other over official information, share information readily, and make helping each other a priority. Most notably, if Sherry didn’t make contact with Leon against orders and tell him where she was meeting [[spoiler: Simmons]], or if Leon wasn’t able to send Chris and Piers to go rescue Jake and Sherry despite being the BSAA’s official top suspect in the Tall Oaks attack, things could have gone [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt very]] [[TheBadGuyWins differently]]. To say nothing of how many times they all would have been killed if their partners weren’t watching their backs.
* PreMortemOneLiner: Leon gives one to [[spoiler:Simmons]] as he mutates further.
-->'''Leon''': I hope you have friends on the other side. Because no one is going to miss you here.
* PrecisionFStrike: Leon fires one off in one of his later boss fights.
* PressXToNotDie: Returns, almost excessively so. Not only do you have ones that test your reaction time, you also have ones that test your timing.
* RaisingTheSteaks: Zombie dogs return, as well some sort of zombie shark and zombie moths.
* {{Ramprovisation}}: Jake and Sherry use an auto transport truck as a ramp as they ride on a motorcycle.
* RealityEnsues: Done to a fault, according to many problems players had with the game. For example, in reality, laser-sightings on guns don't stay steady on a target like in most video games. Resident Evil 6 deciding to simulate a real laser-sighting met with backlash. Also, the powerful impact of a bullet can knock someone down in reality, even if they wore a vest. However, many complained about the bullet knockdowns during the game play. Also people complained about the surprise deaths, like the infamous ambulance scene during Leon's campaign. However, in reality, during a city wide panic, random speeding vehicles can cause accidents and deaths.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: An utterly bizarre example, as in the backstory Helena is resented by her superiors for her PoliceBrutality, so they punish her...by assigning her to the President's Secret Service detail, possibly the most exclusive and elite job in US law enforcement.
* RecurringBoss: The Ustanak hounds Jake and Sherry from beginning to end and has a round with Leon and Helena.
** The game goes absolutely hog wild with this trope. If a character has to be occupied at any given part of the plot, another RecurringBoss will be introduced to occupy them until the next Intersecting Event occurs. There's the Ogroman, Ubistvo, and [[spoiler: Simmons]].
* RedOniBlueOni: All of the duos with Chris, Jake and Helena as red, and Piers, Sherry and Leon as blue. Leon and Helena have those colors as their outfits in China to boot.
** Ada Wong and [[spoiler:Carla Radames]] are these in the first place, then switch around when [[spoiler:Carla]] has her breakdown.
* RedShirtArmy: The BSAA, full stop. The number of SOU guys they lose is almost at RunningGag heights.
* RegeneratingHealth: Featured in a limited capacity: Health is divided into 6 blocks, and your regeneration will only recover health up to the end of the current block, similar to the system of regenerating health found in ''VideoGame/FarCry 2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. [[spoiler: However, during the final battle of Chris' campaign, Piers' health constantly regenerates back to full after he infects himself with the C-Virus, but his attack is CastFromHitPoints]]
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Simmons' family crest has snakes on it. Also the giant invisible snake in Chris and Piers' campaign
* {{Retraux}}: All seven characters have an alternate outfit in Mercenaries mode where they resemble a low-polygonal model from a [=PS1=]-era game. Chris, Leon, Ada and Sherry in particular are redone to resemble their past selves as they appeared in the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil first]] [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2 two]] games in the series.
* {{Retirony}}: Chris says he wants to retire when this is all over and have Piers take over. [[spoiler: Inverted, Piers is the one who dies instead.]]
* {{Rewrite}}: The prologue shows Leon dragging a severly wounded Helena. When the same scene is revisited in Leon's and Ada's campaign, Helena is combat-ready. This change is based around the ForcedTutorial nature of the prologue, and the Cooperative gameplay of the campaign.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Chris spirals into this after [[TraumaInducedAmnesia regaining his memories]], and remains that way until he meets up with Leon. Helena also slips into one after she is forced to kill her infected sister.
* RunningGag: Vehicles tend not to make it out in one piece during Leon's campaign, especially if he is the one operating it. Granted, he ends up operating them while zombies are trying to kill him, which would make focusing on the task at hand difficult. This seemed to be acknowledged slyly at the end, as [[spoiler: Helena is the one to pilot the helicopter at the end of Chapter 5]].
* SequelHook: The game ends stating that the battle isn't over yet as the characters go to the next assignment. The achievement for finishing Ada's campaign is What's Next just to make it clear.
* SequentialBoss: Every boss has multiple forms and stages. The final bosses have at least 3.
* ShapeshifterBaggage: Holy cow, the series hasn't seen this much shapeshifter baggage ''ever.'' Leon's recurring boss transforms from something man-sized to something car-sized, then something house-sized, and can fold itself back up into something man-sized, while completely ignoring the laws of conservation of mass! J'avo also regularly employ this when they pop out something like a big heavy tentacle arm.
** Notably averted in the last case with Leon's boss. [[spoiler: Simmons]] disintegrates down into a single man from a form the size of a cathedral, displacing all his mass into gory debris as he descends the skyscraper.
* ShirtlessScene: Jake, after he and Sherry are captured by Neo-Umbrella. [[spoiler:Derek Simmons after being injected with the C-Virus. Thankfully he has MagicPants as he goes through constant transformations.]]
* ShockAndAwe[=/=]LightningGun: [[spoiler: Piers during the final boss. After injecting himself with the C-Virus, Piers gets an [[ArmCannon organic lightning cannon]] for a right arm.]]
* ShootTheMoney: ''Resident Evil 6'' has the highest budget of any in the franchise, possibly a greater budget than any Capcom game made previously, and we get to see all of that in the ridiculously amazing visuals. BrokenBase aside, nobody accuses this game of looking bad.
* ShotToTheHeart: Your partner will give you an adrenaline shot when your health is fully depleted, provided they can get to you before any nearby monsters rip you apart.
* ShoutOut: When performing a melee attack on a lone zombie from behind, Leon will occasionally break out a [[DeadRising Frank West Face Crusher]].
** In another ''Dead Rising'' reference, you can spot a Colombian Roastmasters coffee shop in Lanshiang.
** Completing Chapter 4 of Leon's campaign earns you the Achievement/Trophy [[BigTroubleInLittleChina "Big Trouble in China"]].
** [[spoiler: Piers' sacrifice in Chris's campaign ending is reminiscent of the ending in {{Film/Armageddon}}]].
* SinsOfOurFathers: Played with in Jake's case. Jake takes flak for his father's actions, although the most important part of Wesker's legacy in this case is his viral immunity.
* SpentShellsShower: [[spoiler:In Ada's ending]].
* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler: Simmons' obsession with Ada arguably kick-started the whole plot of the game.]]
* StopHelpingMe: In some levels, you often have to run away from the enemy or a hazard such as an explosion. You will often be forced to dash/sprint as well, and the button for dashing is also the same one used for context sensitive use, such as leaping over a box when there's one near you. The game will often assume you holding down the button means you also want to leap on top of a box. Unfortunately, as soon as you get up there, if you continue holding the button down, the game will then assume you want to climb back down, particularly if CameraScrew is in effect and the camera angle changes drastically. Which means you'll sometimes jump on top of the box, only to then jump right back down where you were previously, just in time to get killed by that explosion/monster.
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: Sherry mentions this happened to her when she was taken in government custody due to possessing the G-Virus after the events of VideoGame/ResidentEvil2. Later, [[spoiler:Sherry and Jake are subjected to this when they are captured and taken to China]].
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: The Ustanak's strength fluctuates depending on how much the of a threat the plot needs him to be. He can go from a NighInvulnerable OneHitKill machine to being weak enough that Jake can suddenly give and take hits with him.
* TheGenericGuy: As of December 17th, "Agent", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a generic spec-ops trooper]], teams up with Ada Wong as her Co-op partner. Though he's more of a typical player 2 than a partner as he cannot interact with key moments in the game (including puzzles), and has to rely on Ada to do everything. Despite lacking any characteristics, he does make combat much easier, AND is completely optional (as in if you want choose to play alone, he will not show up at all). He also appears in other game modes as a playable character.
* TheStinger: After Ada's campaign ends, the final "secret ending" shows [[spoiler:a young girl, looking out through a window slit, looking at a number of mutated creatures headed in her direction, and asks a hooded figure to "keep a promise" and hands him an apple. Said hooded individual turns out to be Jake, who eats an apple before drawing his gun and preparing to fire on them. Said promise appears to be "protect me and in exchange I will give you this apple."]].
* StuffBlowingUp: Grenades and remote bombs.
** ExplodingBarrels: In classic "red barrel" formation. Some are even required to beat some bosses with.
** TrickBomb: Incendiary and Flash Grenades.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: Leon, who normally has no trouble sliding over desks with ease, [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence can’t hop over a small table placed between him and the university's exit]], forcing him to [[IdiotBall walk through the metal detector while holding his gun, setting off an alarm and attracting zombies.]] He even has an animation for approaching the table and starting to hop over it, only to decide not to, and [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it as well.
** Annoyingly, he can vault the table at the opposite end of the hallway, flanking an identical metal detector, just fine.
* SuperSerum: The C-Virus was advertised to be this InUniverse, but the side effects were not mentioned to the rebel soldiers who took them.
* TheSwarm: Gnezdo enemies are essentially a swarm of [[GoshHornet hornet-like insects]] [[TheWormThatWalks taking the shape of a human]].
* SwissArmyAppendage: The Ustanak' [[ArtificialLimbs cybernetic arm]] possesses several different weapon modes, including a [[RubberMan telescopic]] [[WolverineClaws claw]], a [[ArmCannon high-calibur gun]] a [[ThisIsADrill three-pronged drill]], and a flail.
* TakeMeInstead: Helena tries to save her sister this way, but her sister is taken anyways.
* TakenForGranite: J'avo and other victims of the C-virus can find themselves encased in a cocoon formed from ooze coming straight out of their own bodies, freezing them in place as a gooey-looking statue with an agonized expression on it. A monster pops out of the cocoon later (by this point there's nothing left of whoever was inside the cocoon).
* [[TalkingToHimself Talking To Herself]]: [[spoiler:Ada and Carla are voiced by Courtenay Taylor. Which is justified, since Carla's actually a clone of the real Ada]].
* TankGoodness: Present in Chris and Jake and Sherry's campaigns respectively, used by the J'avo.
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Zombies that are carrying items may throw them.
* TimeSkip: In Jake and Chris' timelines, there's a mission in Edonia during December 2012, then Chris's mission fails and he pulls out (and Jake and Sherry are captured by Neo-Umbrella for six months). They all meet back up in China six months later along with Leon and Helena.
* TookALevelInBadass: Former TagalongKid Sherry Birkin is now a federal agent sent to protect [[BadassAbnormal Jake Muller]] 15 years after ''[=RE2=]''.
* TragicMonster: The President, [[spoiler:Helena's sister Deborah, and Piers Nivans]].
* TrailersAlwaysLie: Trailers and Ads implied global catastrophies were occuring and that the protagonists were trying to save the world from global infections. In-game only three cities at the most are uninhabitable at the end and the worldwide infection is stopped before it began.
** Edited cutscenes in trailers made it appear that Jake, Sherry, Leon and Helena were all in the city as it was hit by a virus laden missile while Chris tries to get them out.
* TranquilFury: Chris for a brief period after regaining his memories. The cutscene is even titled "Quiet Anger."
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: Chris in the beginning. When Carla infects his entire squad in Edonia, Chris is rendered unconscious. Upon awakening, he has PTSD-triggered amnesia and remembers nothing about the incident or his life except the guilt of letting his team die.]]
* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: Chris and Leon's campaign has a ridiculous case on this. After Chris and Leon meet, both hear two sides of a phone conversation sometime later. Chris has a jeep chase, fights his way through a hanger, blasts open a door and gets across the hanger again and then hears the talk. Leon walks down the street, has a talk then a shootout, gets on a train and moves to the front to hear his. Then Leon and Chris have a cell talk after a while. During this Chris finds three passcodes, gets a jet, disables an aircraft carriers defences, and fights another Ogroman. Leon has a boss fight and (an admittably exhausted) swim. Ada's campaign is even worse about things.
* TooDumbToLive: PROTIP: If you and a buddy are trying to call for help by waving and hollering in front of a security camera, only '''one (1)''' of you is needed for the job. Your buddy should turn around and keep a look out for zombies approaching from behind.
* TrickArrow: Pipe Bomb Bolts for the Crossbow.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Ostensibly takes place in 2013 (released in 2012), but holographic smartphones, laser robot mines, and of course HollywoodGenetics all feature in the campaigns.
* TwoKeyedLock: Many doors throughout the game require you and your partner to hold down buttons on either side of the frames to get them to open. Not forgetting all the levers that need to be pulled at the same time to get batteries in place, elevators to activate, traps to deactivate, etc....
* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: Being the first game in the series to feature Chris and Leon together [[hottip:*:excluding the non-canon Extreme Battle mode in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'']], the trailers and promotional screenshots played around this fact by showing our two heroes in a standoff ([[http://www.1up.com/features/interview-resident-evil-6-director which was actually the first scene envisioned by the designers]]). [[spoiler:In the actual game there's no real antagonism between the two. Chris and Leon resolve their issues without incident and Leon even helps Chris resolve some of his revenge issues thanks to their brief chat at gunpoint.]]
* UnresolvedSexualTension: The amount between Leon and Ada after three games and a movie is almost unbearable at this point. Ada specially mentions finishing what [[DidTheyOrDidntThey they]] started that one [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 night]].
** Jake and Sherry seem to have a decent amount of tension between them. Hilarious if you think about their fathers' relationship.
** Helena possibly has some with Leon. She tells him to pursue Ada though.
* VideogameSettings
** AbandonedLaboratory
** AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Leon and Helena travel through Tall Oaks' sewer/underground subway on their way to the cathedral.
** BloodstainedGlassWindows
** DeathMountain / SlippySlideyIceWorld: Jake and Sherry travel through one after their BSAA transport crashes, taking up their second chapter.
** DownTheDrain
** ItsAllUpstairsFromHere
** LevelsTakeFlight
** LocomotiveLevel / SinisterSubway / TraintopBattle
** MinecartMadness
** RemilitarizedZone
** ShipLevel / UnderTheSea
** UndergroundLevel
* ViralMarketing: [[http://www.nohopeleft.com/ No Hope Left]].
* TheVirus: C-Virus in this case. There's also the G-Virus in Sherry, but it only plays in Sherry's HealingFactor, [[spoiler: though later it becomes a component of an enhanced C-Virus]].
* WeakenedByTheLight: Enemies that spawn out of Chrysalids are especially vulnerable to flash grenades.
* WeaponOfXSlaying: Some skills give damage bonuses against a certain enemy type.
* WeatherOfWar: [[spoiler:The lightning storm in the background of Derek Simmon's final boss fight plays an important role.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Simmons and the Family are both determined to preserve global stability by any means necessary. To this end, Simmons himself was the one who gave the order to [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis nuke Raccoon City]], and helped in the C-Virus outbreaks because he believed that President Benford's plans to reveal the U.S. government's involvement in the incident would ruin that stability.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Piers gives one to Chris for [[DrowningMySorrows getting drunk in a bar]] and then nearly hospitalizing a local in a fight when the bar owner tells Chris to go home.
** Chris gives this to Leon for protecting Ada Wong as her Doppelganger Carla Radames commits a bioterrorist attack that kills most of Chris' unit.
** Leon and later Piers gives one to Chris, saying that it's more important to deal TheChessmaster than let Chris just kill Carla out of his desire for revenge.
* WithThisHerring: Jake was just a mercenary trying to make a buck, Sherry was expecting a simple snatch and leave mission, and Leon was security detail, justifying why they have only handguns. Averted with Chris, Piers, Helena and Ada. As they actually expected heavy combat, they come somewhat better equipped.
* WhyWontYouDie: Ada about Ubistvo, the C-Virus-chainsaw wielding creature she encountered near the beginning of her third chapter, wondering why nothing stays dead anymore after Sherry and Jake's second encounter with him.
* WomanScorned: ''[=RE6=]'' is the story of how this trope nearly screwed the entire planet. [[spoiler: Everything comes down to how Simmons, feeling he’d been “left” by the woman he was obsessed with, tried to recreate her using the C-Virus and a female researcher of his who had strong feelings for him. Carla found out what he’d done to her, snapped, and tried to destroy him and, because he’d helped shape it, the world.]]
* TheWormThatWalks: One Chrysalid-product is nothing but a bunch of bees that walk in the shape of a man. You can only hurt it when the control insect is forced out of the cloud of smaller insects.
* WorstAid: Subverted. When Sherry is impaled by a large piece of metal, Jake initially refuses to pull it out, knowing she would bleed out in seconds. She insists he does it anyway and then [[spoiler:demonstrates her healing factor, courtesy of the G-Virus strain in her.]]
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Each character has at least one melee that would not look out of place in a wrestling match. This includes Leon bulldogging zombies and Jake taking down Javo with DDTs and suplexes, not to mention the lucha or crusierweight-like moves done by Helena and Ada. Piers and Sherry are possible exceptions to this (Piers can do a headlock throw that is not depicted often, and it seems rarer to see anyone put off a jumping facebuster by vaulting over them like Sherry can).
* YouKilledMyFather: Subverted. Jake nearly shoots Chris in the head after learning Chris killed his father, but averts his shot at the last second and ''barely'' misses. He decides that given [[RaceAgainstTheClock the situation]], he'll figure out how to deal with Chris ''later''.
* ZombieApocalypse: Finally brought back, but in Leon's portion (Ada also fights zombies in her second and final chapters). Tall Oaks and an entire city of China is heavily infected. Luckily, it's implied that Jake's blood managed to avert the apocalyse from spreading further.
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