Capcom turns to Valve and ‘Left 4 Dead 2’ to rescue ‘Resident Evil 6’ on PC

By Anthony John Agnello Published March 15, 2013

resident-evil-6-sales-625x1000 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Everyone loves a crossover, especially when it’s unexpected. Street Fighter factory Capcom and Half-Life maker Valve announced an unusual union on Friday by confirming a PC crossover between their respective horror series, Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead.

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When the PC edition of Resident Evil 6 releases later this year, players will be able to download characters from Left 4 Dead 2 to use in the game. Meanwhile, Left 4 Dead 2 players will get some new content as well in the form of Resident Evil 6 enemies transported into the game’s campaigns. Content for both games will be totally free when it’s available.

People love Left 4 Dead. Given the popularity of zombies, from books like Max Brooks’ perennial bestseller World War Z to TV hits like AMC’s The Walking Dead, it’s not terribly surprising that Valve’s multiplayer zombie shooters have been hits over the past four and a half years. What started as an entertaining experiment for Valve back in 2008 has gone on to sell more than 12 million copies through a sequel and multiple downloadable expansions. Even just a little bit of new content is enough to excite the franchise’s community.

Capcom may be getting the sweeter end of the deal in this case, though. As much as people love Left 4 Dead, they certainly don’t care for Resident Evil 6. The game received a critical drubbing when it released in October 2012—Digital Trends found it to be a mediocre game but still enough of an astoundingly gaudy spectacle to merit some interest—but it’s real failure was with players, as the game sold millions of copies fewer than Capcom expected. After months of bad press, it’s doubtful that some Left 4 Dead 2-related fan service will help Resident Evil 6 find new life on PC.

The future for both series, meanwhile, is looking up. While no plans are set in stone just yet, Valve’s Chet Faliszek said in October that a Left 4 Dead 3 is very likely to come out “some time down the road.” Capcom meanwhile, has decided that it will stop chasing the lucrative online action game crowd with future Resident Evil games. Producer Masachika Kawata said in February that the next Resident Evil will emphasize “horror and fear” in an attempt to make the series unique again.

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Resident Evil

Anthony John Agnello

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…

Gaming

Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways leaves me hopeful for a Resident Evil 6 remake

Ada Wong holds a gun in Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways.

This year’s Resident Evil 4 remake was an important victory for the horror series. Not only did it successfully reimagine a beloved classic, but it finally concocted the perfect action formula for the series at large. That’s an important milestone considering that Resident Evil has historically run into trouble when fully dropping survival horror in favor of blockbuster action (see the misunderstood, but undeniably sloppy Resident Evil 6). The remake paves the way for Capcom to once again evolve its series, taking another crack at the third-person shooter genre it struggled to nail.

In that sense, Resident Evil 4’s new Separate Ways DLC feels like a taste of what’s to come. Capcom uses Ada Wong’s solo chapter to push its action formula even further, weaving in some exciting new tricks that are already leaving me hungry for a true spinoff. It’s not the series’ finest DLC, playing more as an asset-reusing victory lap, but it gives me hope that Resident Evil’s second decent into pure action will be much more successful this time.
Grappling forward
Separate Ways follows Ada Wong, the anti-hero mercenary on a quest to retrieve a Plaga sample for Albert Wesker during the main game. The lengthy bonus episode is a remake in itself, but it's perhaps even more radical than the base game’s reinvention. Right from its completely new opening scene, it's clear that Separate Ways is diverting pretty far from the original DLC. That’s a sensible decision considering how much the new version of Resident Evil 4 reworks Ada Wong. She’s no longer a careless hired gun, but a nuanced character struggling to balance her professional responsibilities with her moral ones.

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Resident Evil 4 Separate Ways DLC: How to solve the shield wall puzzle in Chapter 4

A wall of shields

As you progress through Resident Evil 4's Separate Ways DLC, you'll eventually need to help Luis score some ingredients for a fresh batch of medicine to aid in fending off the infection ailing both Leon and Ada. As you begin your quest to find the ingredients, you'll first have to solve a lithograph puzzle to open a door leading into a room filled with shields on the wall. In this room, you'll have to shoot specific shields in a specific order to open a cabinet revealing your first ingredient: red ink. Here's how to solve the shield wall puzzle.
How to solve the shield wall puzzle in Chapter 4
After solving the lithograph puzzle and opening the door, you'll enter an area where you can interact with a printing machine to get a piece of paper that hints at interacting with (shooting) the shields hanging all along the walls of the room. The problem is that, well, there are a lot of shields in this room. To find the correct shields, turn around from the printing machine and look at the fireplace along the wall behind you. To the left of this fireplace are the five shields from the picture that you printed.

You need to shoot three of these shields in the following order:

Gaming

Resident Evil 4 Separate Ways DLC: how to solve the lithograph puzzle in Chapter 4

A wall with lithographs

Part of the way through Chapter 4 of Resident Evil 4's Separate Ways DLC, you'll find yourself needing to track down some ingredients to make some new medicine. One of the first things you'll encounter while doing so is a wall of lithographs that must be placed in a specific order to open a hidden door leading to a shield wall puzzle, which itself yields one of the necessary ingredients you're seeking. Here's how to solve the lithograph puzzle.
How to solve the lithograph puzzle in Chapter 4
When you first set off to find the ingredients, you'll probably come across the wall with two lithographs set in it alongside two empty slots. This means you'll first need to find the other two stone tablets – both of which are nearby and require minimal effort to round up. One tablet is easily found in the same room as the lithograph puzzle, while the other is on a desk in a room further down the main hallway.

When you've obtained both lithographs, return to the puzzle and place the tablets into the empty slots. Notice next to each slot is a symbol (two of which are partially scrubbed off) that corresponds to one of the symbols on each of the lithographs. In order to solve this puzzle, you'll need to not only match the appropriate symbol, but you'll also need to select and flip the lithographs to the correct colors, too.