Resident Evil was a series that practically defined 3D horror survival. While games like Alone in the Dark were horror games, Resident Evil perfected it with advanced gun play, story(minus the horrible voice acting), and puzzle mechanics. When the fourth Resident Evil came out, it totally changed the way Resident Evil was played giving the player a whole new over the shoulder camera for aiming, which definitely improved accuracy. With Resident Evil 5 coming soon, was there any resident evils to come out in between RE4 and 5? Well yes there was, in an attempt to give some back story from the previous games of the Playstation era, Capcom released Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. A rail shooter covering Resident Evils 0, 1, and 3 but included a missing part of the series where Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine go to investigate an Umbrella outpost in Russia. While the game is ambitious in it's design, we have had many Resident Evil based rail shooters in the past and none of them did too well. Could this break the mold of mediocrity?
Concept:
The game is narrorated from the series mastermind, Albert Wesker as he reflects on how the efforts of Umbrella was foiled by the numerous S.T.A.R.S. (raccoon city police force) members. It all begins in the Arklay Mountains outside of Raccoon City where the S.T.A.R.S bravo team has to investigate the murders that have been going on. Then you play through 3 chapters of a very rough version of Resident Evil 0's story. Then you do the same for Resident Evil 1 and 3, then finally the final chapter dubbed "Umbrella's End" which is supposedly the final assault on Umbrella. Even though this game has most of the important parts of the plot in tact, many things are cut out of the stories that were pretty significant. Plus, some things are wrong about the story, like since when in Resident Evil 1 did Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine explore the mansion together? They were separated in Resident Evil 1, not together and things like that are very misleading. They also cut out MANY things from Resident Evil 3's storyline, but revealing those might spoil that story. One other thing that baffles me is where the hell is Resident Evil 2? That is one of the most important parts of Resident Evil's story, they shouldn't just leave it out. The story is half baked in this game, but it is by no means bad. It gives the players a general idea of what is going on, but nothing more.
10/20
Design:
The game is a rail shooter, therefore you are always moving forward. You can slightly turn the camera with the nunchuck's analong stick, but most will forget that feature is even there as it is never really needed since it barely turns the camera. With it's rail shooter design, it can feel limited at times and most people will wish that they can explore the areas and have free movement when shooting zombies.
Points cannot be taken off for that reason though, since that is a rail shooter's design in the first place and it is still a lot of fun. You have many different weapons at your disposal and you always have a handgun with infinite ammo. Weapons range from shotguns, machine guns, magnums, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers, all of which can be upgraded. There are three types of each category, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You can also unlock secret files that will give you information like the origins of enemies or characters. Finally, you could also unlock side missions which have you playing as characters such as Albert Wesker and they do a good job of giving the game length. However, these side missions mostly recycle the same environments from the main mission, just with different enemy locations and the fact that you could be going in another direction. Co-Op is also included for the main missions of the game and it would be a sin if it was left out for this kind of a game, and it is much more fun to play it with a buddy. The design aspect of the game is sound overall, there is plenty of weapons to collect and files to read. However, the side missions while have intriguing mini-stories seem a bit tacked on.
17/20
Gameplay:
As a rail shooter it is only natural that you shoot things. You will be shooting alot of things like zombies, dogs, and even giant spiders. The environments are pretty varied and most of them encourage you to shoot an object to gain an unlockable weapons or files. It is also very important to use the right weapon for the right situation.
Your handgun is your best friend as it has unlimited ammunition, fires at an acceptable rate, and is pretty accurate making it a reliable weapon, but that won't always cut it. When you are surrounded by enemies, you could either mow them down with a machine gun or if there is a powerful enemy that can take a lot of punishment, the shotgun would do the trick. You aren't only limited to guns though, hold down the A button and you can swipe the wii remote rapidly to use your combat knife. This tool is useful for getting enemies away from you but the other use kind of breaks reality, you might be prompted to knife leeches off of your face. Realistically, this would end up cutting your face pretty badly and would end up hurting you even more, but then again this is a zombie shooter so the bounds of reality are already broken so its not so much a complaint as it is an oddity. If you hold the A button and then press the B button, you can as well chuck a grenade which you can use if you are outnumbered or just want to save weapon ammunition. The game takes many pages from Resident Evil 4, such as the way a zombie reacts to being shot in a certin place. The biggest thing bought from Resident Evil 4 is the quick time events, where you must waggle the controller or press a button at the right time to dodge an attack or get a zombie off of you and finish it off. For a rail shooter, it is pretty varied but one big problem lies in it that can be described by one word: Repetitive. While there are for sure a varied amount of enemies, they repeat level after level. Some of the bosses aren't that fun to fight either as they either are annoyingly hard or seem too similar to another boss in the game(Tyrant and Nemesis both have an attack where they lift you in the air and strangle you). Something that lowers the tedium is the Cooperative play, which allows you to beat levels that would take an hour if done alone with ease since having a partner makes the game much easier but at the same time challanging since you both share the same health bar and must react to quick time events at the same time. The gameplay is pretty good for the most part but it's repetitive nature keep it from being spectacular.
17/20
Sound:
So the game has a lacking story, decent design and gameplay, how is the sound? Well for the most part, the musical score ranges from creepy to unfitting. Unfitting because in moments that should be tense moments, you have oddly upbeat music playing in the backround, which makes encounters a bit less startling.
However when there is creepy music playing, it certinly puts you on edge as you wonder in fear about if a zombie will randomly run down the hallway, and as your character looks back, you see nothing then you turn around to see a zombie running right at you. The music definitely helps the atmosphere in those moments. The voice acting is hit or miss, even though it is delivery is decent. The characters you play as will more or less spout out a corny one liners as you play through a level. However, the voice acting of some characters is gold, especially Albert Wesker who has the best acted voice in the game. The game may have some akward tunes and voice acting, but the sound by no means is bad.
15/20
Presentation:
For a Nintendo wii game, the production values here are pretty good. Detailed enemies, character models, and wonderfully animated CG cutscenes are the visual highlight of the game overall. However, the environments are a mixed bag. In one area(talking about the caves in the RE1 portion of the game) you have water streaming down off the wall with incredible lighting giving it a realistic look.
However, in another area(Raccoon City in the RE3 portion) it could look bland and boring. Add that with some bad textures and the environments are truly a mix of awesome and boring. There are also some graphical glitches as you might see an enemy pop in right when your character turns or they might clip into the walls when you deliver a powerful shot with a shotgun or rocket/grenade launcher. The animation of the characters and enemies are top notch as an enemy can react specifically where you hit them and the quick time events are fun and exiting to watch. Graphically the game could use some work but like the sound it is by no means bad.
16/20
Overall:
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is like a love letter to all Resident Evil fans everywhere. Sure it's story is lacking, it can feel repetitive at times, and it could use more polish but its a solid game with a good amount of replay value thanks to the unlockable content and especially Co-Op. The game is long too by rail shooter standards, as most will take about 5 or 5 1/2 hours to beat it on the normal difficulty, and even longer on the hard difficulty so you are definitely getting your moneys worth with this one.
75/100 Solid
.jpg){kind=avatar}