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Resident Evil: Code Veronica Review
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
Resident Evil makes it's 128-bit debut.
This is a truly momentous occasion. A whole new Resident Evil on a whole new console. Adios Senor PlayStation, hello happy pappy Dreamcast. As far as exclusive games go, Resident Evil is a biggie. This latest Dreamcast installment, Code: Veronica, has already revitalised the flagging career of Sega's console in Japan as well as outselling Shenmue. No small feat when you consider that Sega were billing Shenmue as the greatest game ever.
Veronica has Claire Redfield returning to the horror after her wonderful contribution to the effort in Resident Evil 2, and fortunately she's got rid of that awful sleeveless pink number. She has left Racoon city to find her brother who is leading the Redfield family offensive on Umbrella. In an opening sequence that is so good you'll weep, we witness Claire breaking into the French HQ of Umbrella. But before she can start snooping about, the guards peg it after her. She is eventually captured but not without first opening a family size can of whoop ass on a small Umbrella army.
She is then hauled to the company's island military prison a long way from Europe and it is here that the adventure begins. Three guesses about what the indigenous wild life is -- that's right, it's the wild life that originates naturally on the island. And there are zombies there as well! So the challenge is set, the gauntlet is thrown down, and Claire has to make like a tree and get off the island. But you're in a prison and they're always awkward to escape from... and therein lies the heat of the game.
This is Claire's slice of life and so she has the daddy portion of the gameplay, but on her troubled travels she meets fellow prisoner, the whiny voiced, Di Caprio-looking, Steve Burnside. Steve has a few issues he has to deal with, but rather than spanking his inner moppet he channels much of his adolescent angst into filling zombies' faces with lead. You only get to control him for a fleeting five minutes but he's a major player in the cut-scenes. The other playable character is old man Chris who makes his way to the island to rescue his sister.
This is a two disc game, but unlike Resident Evil 2 the discs aren't separate adventures. The switching between all the characters is determined by the plot developments -- when Claire gets in trouble, Chris steps in and vice versa. The trouble with this is that they share the same storage spaces so you have to be careful who you leave in possession of the guns and the trousers. But the way the gameplay is woven into the plot soon draws you into this new world.
The plot is the familiar blend of action and intrigue, but has less to do with conspiracy and plotting. The threat of Umbrella as a huge company has already been established. We know it's big -- if it was actually a real Umbrella I reckon it could have kept a small country completely dry for a few years. So instead Code: Veronica has moved away from corporate paranoia and returns to the Resident Evil series' horror roots, using chaotic and unsettling images to create the tension.
Resident Evil has always been about the physical. The monsters are all products of genetic tampering and mutating viruses. The thrill of playing revolved around the guts, gore and what you saw. The supernatural had little to do with it and owes much of its bent to sc-fi films. But Veronica attempts to create more of a disturbing atmosphere by using less tangible and spooky qualities. The embodiment of these qualities are Alfred Ashford and his creepy sister Alexia.
Both are obviously one can short of a six-pack and spend most on-screen time proving they are more unhinged than a loose door. Probably for tax reasons they have chosen to reside in a huge mansion on the island and this is Claire's first port of call after she escapes from prison. The traditional haunted house setting is a contrast to the urban techno of series members 2 and 3 and its dusty clutter hides clues to the Ashford's warped upbringing.
Within their creepy bedrooms and secret playrooms Code: Veronica uses childhood imagery in very similar way to Silent Hill. Music boxes and carousels, innocent on their own, take on a much more sinister appearance given the surroundings, while the chills have a more ethereal form -- especially as Alexia develops. Rather than zombie films, it owes more to Hitchcock's Psycho in parts.
The Silent Hill vibe continues towards the inclusion of the game when you end up in a mansion that look suspiciously like the one from the first Resident Evil, with doors leading to room from earlier in the game. Spook! While it fails to reach Silent Hill's chaotic dimensional switching it has a similar unsettling and disorientating effect. So, for the first time, the Evil starts to play with your mind as well as your nerve endings.
This is a move away from the gun toting high action Resident Evil 3: Nemisis. That was less survival horror, staying alive and being defenceless, and more ''hey look and my great guns'' and ''what new interesting way can I kill those pack of zombies over there''. Evidence of this is the inclusion of the mini games at the end of the adventures. Also much of the improvements included in Nemisis -- namely the dodging, exploding scenery and the gunpowder -- were designed to give the title an extra dimension.
But all these improvements are noticeable by their absence in Code: Veronica which means a return to the ''stand and present arms'' combat of the first two games in the series. Consequently, the fun is diluted as zombies are not the threat they were originally. The thrill of encountering them is not defined by the fear you have for them but by the delight in what you are going to do to them.
Resident Evil 3 was short. But the game was so well designed and the mix of action, plot and puzzles so well balanced that you never felt the story changed. Unfortunately, Veronica is much more laboured. The maps are huge and riddled with hundreds of rooms and simply finding your way around is a test in itself as the expansive world is not used in the most inspired fashion. Basically, it's one big running track. Instead of using puzzles as a tester the majority of the game involves gathering one item and running to the other part of the map then going all the way back to where you were before hitting a switch and starting off on another trek. You'll need plenty of patience and stamina but only rarely does it test your inventiveness or cunning.
It really takes the piss when you start to play as Chris. You've just fought tooth and nail as Claire to get off the island and your reward is to return and retread the same areas. Rather than building on the improvements of Resident Evil 3: Nemisis this is the return to the standard gameplay of Resident Evil 1 and 2. The one compensation for this is the quality of the graphics and that is one sweet compensation.
This game is beautiful. There are scenes here that quite often take your breath away. The room detail and variety, the creature animation and looks are all majestic but what really hits the spot, what makes you rub your kness in glee, are the outstanding lighting effects. The game now uses a 3D engine. So gone are the static rendered backgrounds which means that changes in the light sources have a real-time effect on the environments around them. Lights swing in the wind, lightning silhouttes characters against the scenery and a gun flash will light up the face of the enemy just before the bullet enters it. This, combined with the twisting camera, makes for the most cinematic and exquisite looking 3D adventure on any console to date.
The new 3D environment also effects the gameplay with the introduction of first-person views. This is sparingly employed however -- only for the brief use of a couple of weapons. Obviously, Capcom don't want to tamper with the third-person gameplay that has served them so well but it seems a bit of a waste ro not explore it's potential a bit further, especially as the puzzles could have benefitted from a bit more invention.
This is really just nit picking at the subtle faults so I have to make it clear that this is a great game. But Capcom have set themselves such high standards in the past that they can't always match expectations. The gameplay is so finely tuned that any slight niggle, that would be overlooked in many other titles, seems to be amplified vastly here. That said, to give this less than 90% would be an injustice, but we were all hoping that Resident Evil Code: Veronica would sweep us off our feet, whisk us away and marry us.... Oh well.
