reucreview

Play It:
For the Wii only.

Story:
For those of you who haven't played a Resident Evil game, allow me to elucidate you. A pharmaceutical company called Umbrella also dabbles in creating biological weapons. However, their weapons (read: monsters) are hard to control and often escape from captivity and wreck havoc on the world. A special police task force named S.T.A.R.S. crosses paths with Umbrellas creations. Now their mission is to put an end to Umbrella's research.

The game gradually reveals this, but the intro pretty much spells the gist of it. Speaking of which, the story in this game follows the events (with some liberties taken) of the Resident Evil remake, Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and even has some original stories thrown in. Those who haven't played the survival horror games be warned that this game only covers the 3 earlier games at a glance and assumes that you have knowledge of the stuff you will see. Almost nothing is explained in the story (although the files do provide some explanation) and some things are referenced only once or twice. For example, at one point a character mentions that "Edward's dead." The deceased man named Eddie never appears in the game at any point so those without knowledge of the events RE0 would have no idea who the hell Edward was.

Graphics:
Pretty good... for a Wii game. To be more informative, the graphics are pretty good, though let's be honest, not 360 or PS3 worthy.

Sound:
Very good overall, although the audio could be mixed better. The gunshots are a little too loud compared to everything else but not too bad. However, the FMV's are considerably quieter than the gameplay so you will have to either keep adjusting the volume or put up with it. The music ranges from good to great. Some tracks sound creepy, though the game is not scary otherwise. Now as for the voice acting, it is much the same as the games. They've gotten better, but flat delivery and borderline retarded dialog pepper the experience.

Challenge:
Somewhat high. There are 3 difficulty settings, which get markedly harder as you go. If you pick hard right off the bat, you're in for a very rocky ride. I got killed several times right off the bat so I went ahead and downgraded. However, the game gets much easier as you progress as you can get better weapons, and make the lesser weapons more powerful and carry more ammo. Then hard becomes only moderately difficult. Working your way from scratch upwards on hard will take some time.

Enjoyment:
This game suffers a bit from an identity crisis. Much like the Wii Zapper and Perfect Shot are controllers like lightguns, the Umbrella Chronicles is a Wii game like a lightgun game. It is just like one, but not quite. The fact that we've got a not-quite lightgun game with a not-quite lightgun naturally makes for a bad combo, but I can't blame Capcom for that.

The main problem I have with this game is that it is just too complicated for its own good. Lightgun games are fun because they're simple: point, shoot, maybe have a button for selecting weapons or activating an ability. This game requires you to shake, change weapons, do context-sensitive actions, and even look in different directions. For those of us playing with just a Wiimote and nunchuk, this is an easy task, but with a gun you are condemned to either clumsily fiddle with the weapon, or hold the gun in one hand and the nunchuk in the other. Not the way I want to play a shooter. Plus, you can't recalibrate the cursor here.

Normally, you shoot powerups to pick them up. Not here! You have to aim and press the action button, not the trigger, to get them. You are required to almost constantly change weapons to keep up with the multitudes of enemies. Your handgun is insufficient against some enemies and you will not get past some areas unscathed with it. Some of the bosses can initially be a nightmare to beat when your weapons are at their starting stats unless you've got an RPG tucked in your back pocket. They can absorb a lot of punishment, and if the fight requires quick response prompts it becomes very tiring when the fights drag out. The flip side to this coin is once you upgrade the weapons is they pretty much cease to be very difficult at all.

The game also doesn't quite work the way it should all the time. Quick response prompts that ask you to shake or die require you to shake so vigorously that at the time of this writing, I have only managed to succeed on ONE occasion. My house was then promptly destroyed in the resulting 5.7 magnitude earthquake. This problem is compounded by the fact that if your peripheral is connected to the Zapper, it has a harder time detecting your shaking. On at least one occasion an enemy refused to come onscreen so I could blow his head open. I stood there for 2 minutes before he finally came out. A glitch in a lightgun shooter? Never saw THAT before. Plus, I realize zombies can only be killed by brain shots, but unless you nail them precisely square in the forehead, they take close to 10 bullets to kill, even if you are still hitting the head. Considering their numbers, that just seems excessive. MOTHERFUCKER LAY DOWN!

Now I'm kinda getting bitchy, but I don't know why they didn't just go ahead and include a section for the events of Resident Evil 2 (Leon and Claire's part) or Code Veronica. I'm sure everybody was just fucking dying to play as Rebecca. Maybe in The Umbrella Chronicles Volume 2? I guess this is inevitable, but this game warrants a cynical eye. The general premise is similar to House Of The Dead. It has multiple paths, just like HOTD. You shake your stuff to avoid taking damage, just like HOTD (4). The game lacks the cool "OH SHIT!" enemy entrances of HOTD, or more strangely, the REGULAR Resident Evil games. Rarely will an enemy come crashing through a door or window, or even anything more interesting than simply appear onscreen.

So overall, do I like it? Yes. The game just has some substantial design flaws that lead to some frustration. Not hair-pulling rage moments, but more like "How are you not dead?" and "C'mon, I totally mashed the hell out of that button!" Also, this is by far the LONGEST lightgun game (sort of) ever. Each chapter (and there are 4) is almost as long as the average game. You won't be able to sit down and play through this entire game in one sitting unless you're crazy. In this world of games that you can beat on your first try this is a very welcome experience. If you thought lightgun games are overpriced compared to their content, you'll be pleased to find what your money buys you here. This game will likely take at least 10 hours to simply complete, which is RPG-length for a lightgun game. I read that it will take 30 hours to unlock all there is to the game, and that is probably accurate. As of publishing my section, I have logged about 50 hours into this game.

Replay Value:
There are several choices of paths to take throughout the game. However, there's not nearly as many as even the original The House Of The Dead. In fact, not even half of the stages feature choices. However, there are plenty of tricks to learn and you may be discovering new things you didn't notice the first couple times around. It sorta seems silly to me to complain that there should be more choices when this is already probably the most replayable lightgun game (sort of). So I'll just say high.

Rant Session (spoilers):
The beginning of the end, as Wesker puts it, starts with an outbreak in the forested area of Raccoon City. Seems some Umbrella scientist named Marcus got gunned down, but his special research leeches somehow brought him back to life. Now Leechman decides to take revenge on Umbrella, and the world too because he's evil like that. Meanwhile, Wesker begins his traitorous ways. Seriously, he's in the story for like 3 seconds before he betrays Umbrella, with his first sentence being "It appears Umbrella is finished." I guess they figured "well, we all know what he's gonna do so let's just not even bother with silly things like plot development."

Coincidentally, at exactly about the same time, another Umbrella facility nearby has an accident (or sabotage, I forget which.) Wesker runs from the forest back to the police station to take a second S.T.A.R.S. Team back into the Arkley Mountains, I think. The game is kinda vague on him being in Marcus's facility and then immediately afterwards leading a Team We all know how the main characters got out of the mansion so let's focus on Wesker. He is pursued by Lisa Trevor, because she's already an established character and the design Team had to get back to work with their hookers. So, after Chris, Jill, Barry, and Wesker had their turns blasting the fuck out of her, Wesker finally fells her by bonking her on the head with a big chandelier.

Sometime afterwards, Umbrella decides to steal a new strain of their virus from one of their own employees. Some vials are destroyed in the attempt, resulting in the entire city becoming infected with the virus. Jill makes her escape, and Hunk manages to get his mission done but let us look at how Ada managed to escape after either falling down an abyss or having Mr. X lay the smack down upon her. Nope, the game just establishes that she got 'badly injured but not killed'. However, Wesker happens to get in touch with her and supplies her with a grappling hook gun, which he left there because he obviously knew she would get the vial and have to make stunt jumps in order to escape the city. Makes sense.

In case you were wondering where that Sergei guy was fitting in, the final chapter is an all-new story of the fall of Umbrella. Chris, Jill, and Wesker all head towards a lab where their last hurrah is in production. However, JUST before they show up, there's a... you ready for this? BIOHAZARDOUS OUTBREAK which turns everybody into zombies. Well everyone except Sergei. Is it an accident, or perhaps sabotage? Not important; it's a plot device. Nevermind all that stuff about government inquiries, how come Umbrella hasn't just up and annihilated themselves yet? At my count, they've caused at least 3 outbreaks due to negligence, and haven't done a good job hiring stable employees who wouldn't unleash another 2. Wesker confronts Sergei who transforms into a... you ready for this? A TYRANT! "Your lack of creativity disappoints me", says Wesker. Sorry Capcom, having a character in the story call something unoriginal does not make the unoriginal idea in question any more original.

Bottom Line:
A lightgun game (sort of) with some SUBSTANCE. A few flaws in the design will lead to a few bad moments but overall a good game. Even if you don't like shooters in general, you may find yourself liking this one.


	THE WORLD ACCORDING TO WESKER

	Play It: For the Wii only. Story: For those of you who haven't played a Resident Evil game, allow me to elucidate you. A pharmaceutical company called Umbrella also dabbles in creating biological weapons. However, their weapons (read: monsters) are hard to control and often escape from captivity and wreck havoc on the world. A special police task force named S.T.A.R.S. crosses paths with Umbrellas creations. Now their mission is to put an end to Umbrella's research. The game gradually reveals this, but the intro pretty much spells the gist of it. Speaking of which, the story in this game follows the events (with some liberties taken) of the Resident Evil remake, Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and even has some original stories thrown in. Those who haven't played the survival horror games be warned that this game only covers the 3 earlier games at a glance and assumes that you have knowledge of the stuff you will see. Almost nothing is explained in the story (although the files do provide some explanation) and some things are referenced only once or twice. For example, at one point a character mentions that "Edward's dead." The deceased man named Eddie never appears in the game at any point so those without knowledge of the events RE0 would have no idea who the hell Edward was. Graphics: Pretty good... for a Wii game. To be more informative, the graphics are pretty good, though let's be honest, not 360 or PS3 worthy. Sound: Very good overall, although the audio could be mixed better. The gunshots are a little too loud compared to everything else but not too bad. However, the FMV's are considerably quieter than the gameplay so you will have to either keep adjusting the volume or put up with it. The music ranges from good to great. Some tracks sound creepy, though the game is not scary otherwise. Now as for the voice acting, it is much the same as the games. They've gotten better, but flat delivery and borderline retarded dialog pepper the experience. Challenge: Somewhat high. There are 3 difficulty settings, which get markedly harder as you go. If you pick hard right off the bat, you're in for a very rocky ride. I got killed several times right off the bat so I went ahead and downgraded. However, the game gets much easier as you progress as you can get better weapons, and make the lesser weapons more powerful and carry more ammo. Then hard becomes only moderately difficult. Working your way from scratch upwards on hard will take some time. Enjoyment: This game suffers a bit from an identity crisis. Much like the Wii Zapper and Perfect Shot are controllers like lightguns, the Umbrella Chronicles is a Wii game like a lightgun game. It is just like one, but not quite. The fact that we've got a not-quite lightgun game with a not-quite lightgun naturally makes for a bad combo, but I can't blame Capcom for that. The main problem I have with this game is that it is just too complicated for its own good. Lightgun games are fun because they're simple: point, shoot, maybe have a button for selecting weapons or activating an ability. This game requires you to shake, change weapons, do context-sensitive actions, and even look in different directions. For those of us playing with just a Wiimote and nunchuk, this is an easy task, but with a gun you are condemned to either clumsily fiddle with the weapon, or hold the gun in one hand and the nunchuk in the other. Not the way I want to play a shooter. Plus, you can't recalibrate the cursor here. Normally, you shoot powerups to pick them up. Not here! You have to aim and press the action button, not the trigger, to get them. You are required to almost constantly change weapons to keep up with the multitudes of enemies. Your handgun is insufficient against some enemies and you will not get past some areas unscathed with it. Some of the bosses can initially be a nightmare to beat when your weapons are at their starting stats unless you've got an RPG tucked in your back pocket. They can absorb a lot of punishment, and if the fight requires quick response prompts it becomes very tiring when the fights drag out. The flip side to this coin is once you upgrade the weapons is they pretty much cease to be very difficult at all. The game also doesn't quite work the way it should all the time. Quick response prompts that ask you to shake or die require you to shake so vigorously that at the time of this writing, I have only managed to succeed on ONE occasion. My house was then promptly destroyed in the resulting 5.7 magnitude earthquake. This problem is compounded by the fact that if your peripheral is connected to the Zapper, it has a harder time detecting your shaking. On at least one occasion an enemy refused to come onscreen so I could blow his head open. I stood there for 2 minutes before he finally came out. A glitch in a lightgun shooter? Never saw THAT before. Plus, I realize zombies can only be killed by brain shots, but unless you nail them precisely square in the forehead, they take close to 10 bullets to kill, even if you are still hitting the head. Considering their numbers, that just seems excessive. MOTHERFUCKER LAY DOWN! Now I'm kinda getting bitchy, but I don't know why they didn't just go ahead and include a section for the events of Resident Evil 2 (Leon and Claire's part) or Code Veronica. I'm sure everybody was just fucking dying to play as Rebecca. Maybe in The Umbrella Chronicles Volume 2? I guess this is inevitable, but this game warrants a cynical eye. The general premise is similar to House Of The Dead. It has multiple paths, just like HOTD. You shake your stuff to avoid taking damage, just like HOTD (4). The game lacks the cool "OH SHIT!" enemy entrances of HOTD, or more strangely, the REGULAR Resident Evil games. Rarely will an enemy come crashing through a door or window, or even anything more interesting than simply appear onscreen. So overall, do I like it? Yes. The game just has some substantial design flaws that lead to some frustration. Not hair-pulling rage moments, but more like "How are you not dead?" and "C'mon, I totally mashed the hell out of that button!" Also, this is by far the LONGEST lightgun game (sort of) ever. Each chapter (and there are 4) is almost as long as the average game. You won't be able to sit down and play through this entire game in one sitting unless you're crazy. In this world of games that you can beat on your first try this is a very welcome experience. If you thought lightgun games are overpriced compared to their content, you'll be pleased to find what your money buys you here. This game will likely take at least 10 hours to simply complete, which is RPG-length for a lightgun game. I read that it will take 30 hours to unlock all there is to the game, and that is probably accurate. As of publishing my section, I have logged about 50 hours into this game. Replay Value: There are several choices of paths to take throughout the game. However, there's not nearly as many as even the original The House Of The Dead. In fact, not even half of the stages feature choices. However, there are plenty of tricks to learn and you may be discovering new things you didn't notice the first couple times around. It sorta seems silly to me to complain that there should be more choices when this is already probably the most replayable lightgun game (sort of). So I'll just say high. Rant Session (spoilers): The beginning of the end, as Wesker puts it, starts with an outbreak in the forested area of Raccoon City. Seems some Umbrella scientist named Marcus got gunned down, but his special research leeches somehow brought him back to life. Now Leechman decides to take revenge on Umbrella, and the world too because he's evil like that. Meanwhile, Wesker begins his traitorous ways. Seriously, he's in the story for like 3 seconds before he betrays Umbrella, with his first sentence being "It appears Umbrella is finished." I guess they figured "well, we all know what he's gonna do so let's just not even bother with silly things like plot development." Coincidentally, at exactly about the same time, another Umbrella facility nearby has an accident (or sabotage, I forget which.) Wesker runs from the forest back to the police station to take a second S.T.A.R.S. Team back into the Arkley Mountains, I think. The game is kinda vague on him being in Marcus's facility and then immediately afterwards leading a Team We all know how the main characters got out of the mansion so let's focus on Wesker. He is pursued by Lisa Trevor, because she's already an established character and the design Team had to get back to work with their hookers. So, after Chris, Jill, Barry, and Wesker had their turns blasting the fuck out of her, Wesker finally fells her by bonking her on the head with a big chandelier. Sometime afterwards, Umbrella decides to steal a new strain of their virus from one of their own employees. Some vials are destroyed in the attempt, resulting in the entire city becoming infected with the virus. Jill makes her escape, and Hunk manages to get his mission done but let us look at how Ada managed to escape after either falling down an abyss or having Mr. X lay the smack down upon her. Nope, the game just establishes that she got 'badly injured but not killed'. However, Wesker happens to get in touch with her and supplies her with a grappling hook gun, which he left there because he obviously knew she would get the vial and have to make stunt jumps in order to escape the city. Makes sense. In case you were wondering where that Sergei guy was fitting in, the final chapter is an all-new story of the fall of Umbrella. Chris, Jill, and Wesker all head towards a lab where their last hurrah is in production. However, JUST before they show up, there's a... you ready for this? BIOHAZARDOUS OUTBREAK which turns everybody into zombies. Well everyone except Sergei. Is it an accident, or perhaps sabotage? Not important; it's a plot device. Nevermind all that stuff about government inquiries, how come Umbrella hasn't just up and annihilated themselves yet? At my count, they've caused at least 3 outbreaks due to negligence, and haven't done a good job hiring stable employees who wouldn't unleash another 2. Wesker confronts Sergei who transforms into a... you ready for this? A TYRANT! "Your lack of creativity disappoints me", says Wesker. Sorry Capcom, having a character in the story call something unoriginal does not make the unoriginal idea in question any more original. Bottom Line: A lightgun game (sort of) with some SUBSTANCE. A few flaws in the design will lead to a few bad moments but overall a good game. Even if you don't like shooters in general, you may find yourself liking this one.

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	All HTML/web design copyright 2008 stickghost. All rights reserved. Resident Evil and all related items are the property of Capcom.

All HTML/web design copyright 2008 stickghost. All rights reserved. Resident Evil and all related items are the property of Capcom.