QJ.NET reviews Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles

  When a cherished videogame series takes a completely different direction with one of its latest iterations, the move is usually met with much trepidation and wariness. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is no exception, although the transition from third person zombie shooter to lightgun adventure makes a bit more sense. But is it a smooth ride, or are there bumps in the road that Capcom seems to have ignored? Find out in this QJ.NET review of Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii.

  

With Resident Evil 4 taking us into a zombie-er, Plaga-infested village somewhere in Spain, and the upcoming Resident Evil 5 taking somewhere in Haiti – it’s a bit sad that we had to say goodbye to Raccoon City, that old haunt that not only gave us our first dose of classic survival horror, but also gave us a taste on just what it would be like to be in a sprawling city that’s pretty much gone to the zombie dogs. Thankfully, Capcom knows how to be sentimental, and their latest entry in the series – Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii – can be likened to an early Christmas present from an ex-squeeze, with the keys to a souped-up Ferrari tucked inside the wrapping. A Ferrari that unfortunately is painted in your least favorite color and handles a bit weird, but a Ferrari nonetheless.

So, before we get into the oddly-colored sportscar that is Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, here’s a bit of a backgrounder: The Resident Evil series tells of the history of the Umbrella Corporation, a nasty company that dabbles in all sorts of science-y things. Aforementioned science-dabbling resulted in the creation of multiple, single-lettered viruses that had the rather irritating side-effect of turning ordinary humans into the living dead, as well as some grotesque and inconvenient mutations on the side.
And while common sense would dictate that such viruses should be kept locked under maximum security, they inevitably break out and infect everyone and their mom’s dog in Raccoon City – thus creating a living, breathing, brain-eating utopia for zombies.

 

Unfortunately, the rest of the normal, non-brain-eating humans then made the decision to start an armed conflict with the now-zombified empire of Raccoon City, sending groups of herb-grazing individuals bristling with projectile weaponry into the city to either (a) investigate the cause of the mass zombification, (b) retrieve something or someone from deep inside the city, or (c) hopelessly get marooned in it until one of them becomes a zombie while the others try their level best to escape. That’s pretty much it.

While the story lends itself to extreme moments of campiness and events which can also be found in many a zombie movie, playing as one of the aforementioned individuals who can heal themselves with differently-colored herbs and can take at least three or four zombie love bites to the neck before dying is, in all truthfulness, quite exhilarating and addictive. The gameplay throughout the series has been quite reliable in scaring the crap out of the player, even while the player has the means to conceivably blow apart every zombie, zombie monster or zombie mutation monster he comes across. And that is a very good thing, considering other classics such as the Silent Hill, Clock Tower and Fatal Frame series have made it a point to make your character helpless or powerless in some shape or form to amplify the scaries.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, the game we’re reviewing, revisits the chapters that mainly took place in Raccoon City and follows through with a new chapter here and there. What’s unique about Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is that instead of going the usual third-person vantage point that the series has been known for, it uses a first person, on-rails perspective that’s reminiscent of today’s arcade lightgun games. The Wiimote functions as your gun – point and shoot with the B button – and the Nunchuck attachment functions as a mini item screen of sorts (switching weapons, using grenades, equipping the knife). As a small bonus, the Nunchuk‘s analog stick also serves as a way for you to peer around, although with the on-rails movement it’s pretty much only useful when you want to appreciate the surroundings a little bit more. So it’s your typical lightgun experience, but not quite.

 

Before the inevitable comparison with Sega‘s The House of the Dead series, or the critically-panned Resident Evil: Gun Survivor series, let me get the fact that this game is neither of those two out of the way first, and going into Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles expecting an experience similar to either will leave you disappointed. Granted, it looks and plays more like a lightgun game along the lines of The House of the Dead but it’s a bit more methodical and deliberate than the run-and-gun zombie shootfest Sega’s token-chomper is. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but for those of us who are used to the twitch-based gunplay of arcade lightgun games, you may feel that the action gets stretched out a bit during some points. More details about that in a bit.

So, to the dissection. Let’s talk graphics first. The visuals in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, while not exactly groundbreaking, does the job in what it sets out to do: give us an entirely new perspective on the locales we’ve already been in from the previous games. You can tell by the way that each recognizable landmark, set piece and creature is so detailed and polished that the entire thing has been a labor of love for the fans of the series. The bosses themselves are graphical monuments in their own right, as they’re easily recognizable and ooze with the same major boss attitude that they’ve exuded the first time we faced off against them. There’s also no noticeable slowdown during gameplay, with everything from the cutscenes to the act of shooting up zombies themselves running smooth as silk (barring a few minor glitches). All in all, if you bought this game for the eye candy, then you’ve bought your money’s worth, if a bit underwhelming.

The sound department is where Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles shines. The ambient music, while forgettable, does the job of raising the tension at key points in the game – but it’s when the screams, groans and roars of the undead are involved is when  you realize that you’re actually playing a Resident Evil title. They evoke the same amount of dread and panic to this day. The loud reports of the firearms you’ll be using also sound suitably deadly and formidable, a stark contrast to the rather weak reloading noise, as well as the rather wooden voice acting (on that note, Wesker sounds like every bit of the badass he is).

 

What about gameplay? As previously stated, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is not a House of the Dead, nor is it a Gun Survivor title. With that said, the game’s main activity – that is, shooting zombies – is fun for the entire family, but you may find it a tad more difficult (even more so if you think that all the time you’ve spent in the arcade shooting up zombies with a lightgun is going to help you). Here’s why.

First off, the zombies come at you in droves – bullet-soaking, slow-moving droves. You begin the game with what appears to be the military equivalent of a peashooter, as well as a fully-automatic version of the military equivalent of a peashooter, and it takes a lot of hits from these formidable weapons of hot lead death to successfully down a zombie (and even then, there’s the off-chance they might get up for more). You’ll also get the shotgun during the first stages of the game, but the base effect of it is pretty much underwhelming as well. More often than not, you’ll find yourself switching to a fully-automatic weapon most of the time just to make sure that they go down permanently.

That’s not to say that the guns stay that way, as completing chapters will net you resources you can use to upgrade them to have more of a kick, as well as more bullet capacity and faster reload times. But the fact that your firearms don’t quite have the badass zombie-blasting ability right off the bat can cause a bit of frustration with those new to the series, or want to shoot zombies strictly for stress relief (as you’ll find yourself also scrambling to reload after you’ve emptied out a clip and your target is still interested in having a little nibble).

  

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles tries to counteract this with hidden weak points on every creature you come across. Unfortunately, these weak points are not only hard to hit, but the camera doesn’t give you any chance at all to try and hit them. This is where the differences between Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and other lightgun titles show up. While in The House of the Dead, the camera may zoom forward to give you a cleaner shot at an approaching zombie’s juicy bits, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles‘ camera stays where it is – rooted to the same line of sight as the protagonist. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it not only gives the game a greater sense of realism, but also forces you to be more accurate with your shots. However, it does give rise to the fact that you have to have a very steady hand if you want to get those critical hits regularly.

This brings us neatly to the headshot. In Resident Evil, head shots have always been a moment that can be described as pure chocolate – meaning, it’s one of the high points of the game. In Umbrella Chronicles, the art of headshots is more of a hit-and-miss affair, in the sense that you won’t be able to do it as much as you’d like to. Blatant snipes to the head, sometimes even in point-blank range, often register as a non-head shot – and even when you get one, the effect is not as gratuitously violent or cathartic as in previous games. Nope, no geyser of blood here, just exploding chunks of gray matter.

Other quirks include the annoyance of having to slash away leeches and bats that fly into your face with the knife – the act of which is displayed as a gray-and-white streak flashing on your screen. While it’s obvious that the main focus of the game is to shoot zombies and not cut them up, it would’ve been nice to use the knife as a viable weapon to use against foes too close for comfort. Always the boyscout, however, Umbrella Chronicles takes care of this with scripted counterattack events that are unique to each character and bleeds a whole lot of awesome. Rebecca’s, for example, has her pushing a zombie away and then braining it with a grenade. That’s class right there.

 

These minor issues aside, you WILL have fun with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, whether you’ve followed the series faithfully or just looking for a fun game that involves guns, zombies and a whole lot of shooting. The graphics are good, the soundtrack has its up and downs, the shooting gameplay does its job and the challenge is pretty much what you’d expect from a Resident Evil game, only harder. And the cake at the end of the portal – that is, the boss fights – are moments of pure adrenalin and Resident Evil lore heaven that you’ll keep coming back for more. The fun is doubled when you’re with a friend, although the tension is downplayed somewhat when you’ve got a buddy to cover you in the helpless moments when you reload. All in all, this is a solid title that should not be missed.