3RRDC REJK

Resident Evil Code: Veronica (CV) is one of those hyped up games that
put water in your mouth just thinking about its release date. And in
late March of 2000, the Resident Evil series was back again to bring us
into the unforgiving world of survival horror on the Dreamcast. There
aren't many videogame series that have the ability to make you say
every game in the series is a good game. CV is a decent game, but I'm
sorry to report that the Resident Evil franchise is way past its prime
and CV is a true testament to it.

I've been playing the Resident Evil series ever since its Playstation
debut in the mid-90s. I can actually admit that that was truly the only
game that has ever scared the $#!& out of me and gave me
nightmares. From the first cut scene of a zombie eating my S.T.A.R.S.
member's head, to the final battle with the infamous "first" Tyrant,
Resident Evil still gives me chills. But in videogames, it's hard to top a
smash hit with a sequel. RE2 was still as fun, but the scares were
lacking. Two new characters, a much bigger horizon to discover,
better weapons, and an all right story line game me a sense of
satisfaction. But RE3, to me, was plain crap. The same map, same
zombies, and a character I didn't care for from the first game, really let
me down. And now, we have Resident Evil Code: Veronica. I didn't
start playing the game till early this year so my RE skills may have
been a little rusty, but thanks to a generous offer from a friend who
had two copies of CV, I was finally, and thankfully, able to experience
it.

Gameplay

I can honestly say Resident Evil games have never been a favorite for
me control-wise. The controls are really awkward, the camera angles
sometimes create problems with the controls, and you just really can't
do enough moves. A strafe move would've been great, and a running
and shooting attack would've done wonders for the game.

The monsters really haven't evolved enough to be considered cool.
You still have your same basic zombies, a new creature called the
Bandersnatch with a long arm that can be equivalent to RE2's Licker,
and your basic spiders. Making another appearance is another Tyrant.
One monster that makes occasional cameo appearances when playing
as Chris but disappointed me, were the Hunters from RE. I loved these
in the first game but seemed watered down in CV.

The bosses I thought were pretty decent. As mentioned before, there
is a Tyrant, a giant worm as in RE, "Nosferatu", sort of a modified
tyrant who I actually liked and will explain in the story section, and
your macho end-boss. Not bad.

Graphics

This is where CV shines. After playing the first three RE games on a 32-
bit system, I greatly welcomed the 128-bit era with CV. The character
models were well rounded and smooth. The backgrounds are very
realistic looking, but offer limited environmental interaction. Besides
the obvious opening of doors, pushing buttons and switches, and
climbing ladders, you didn't see much: no glass shattering between
shots of a shotgun or items falling off shelves. One thing I loved about
this game was the decrease in loading screens. In previous games, you
would have to load after every door, staircase, or ladder. Now they are
just in areas where you have to make an apparent area change.

Sound

Ah, the lovely footsteps of an approaching zombie. Music to my ears!
I've grown to love the mumbles, feeding, and walking sounds of
zombies. As in all RE games, CV draws the player into the game with
its sounds. The creepy orchestral music creates a nervous tension
that something catastrophic might happen, but sometimes never does.
Light tapping on floors raises your heart rate in anticipation, only to
find blood dripping. Aggressive shaking of metal makes you think of an
angry zombie, only to find a little trapped rat. Just when you think
you've been tricked enough and you're walking down the hallway with
no music playing, something scares the $#*@ out of you! That's the
beauty of RE games. They've literally taken the phrase "Less is more"
and put it into effect to create an extremely horrific, "can you handle
the tension?" game.

Story

This is where I'm going to give my potshots at the game and the
reason for my ending score. It's hard to keep a game series fresh
when you are limited to ideas. When we are blessed with a new RE
game, we know a few things for sure: some sort of an outbreak of a
virus infected many and you must escape from them or die, that virus
is always new and improved, and there is always some weird twist that
makes you gasp. RE had the twist of Wesker turning on you, RE2 had
Ada Wong lead you on as if she was a good girl but was just using you,
and so on. CV is no different and had the worst twist ever to me, which
I'll get to in a minute.

CV starts with the heroine (Claire) being captured and brought to a
secluded island in attempt to figure out what has happened to her
brother (Chris) while trying to stay alive. As she lurks around finding
things out, she digs up that the source of the viruses by the Umbrella
Corp. are directly linked to this island. Claire discovers the famed
members of the Ashford family were the first ones to start the virus
and are working on the new ultra virus, T-Veronica, Code named:
Veronica (hence the title) named after the renowned Veronica Ashford,
the families well-known ancestor. After a couple generations, we
come to Alexander Ashford who is heading everything and this is
where the family begins to get its bad reputation because of
Alexander's mistake in creating the first T-Virus. Alexander has two
genetically created twins, the male Alfred, and the female Alexia.
When Alexia finds out about her father's mistake, she takes it into her
own hands to alter the virus and create the ultimate virus at the
expense of her father and her slave brother, Alfred.

Now that you have the background, here is my view of it. In this
installment of the RE series, CV made a really bad move and tried
extremely hard to bring back the first RE game. You have two
characters return, my favorite monster returns in a bad cameo
appearance, a replica of the mansion, the "push the picture in
chronological order" puzzle, and another Tyrant-ish boss. When I saw
these features, I just shook my head and finally admitted that the RE
series had seriously nothing else to come up with.

SPOILER ALERT: if you do not want to know any of the extras skip the
next two paragraphs.

After playing through the first disc with Claire, I was pleased except
with the aforementioned twist. After meeting Alfred and Alexia
Ashford, you would think they were two different people. No, you are
completely wrong. Alfred has a serious fetish and envy for his sister
that he cross-dresses as his own sister. Good idea? Or social
commentary about how it is becoming accepted in the new
millennium? Whatever the answer is, it's a horrific and disturbing idea.
But don't worry; there actually is an Alexia Ashford later in the game
that you will meet in person who also has the same annoying, cackling
laugh as her brother.

Wesker makes his new and improved appearance as a gravity defying
super-human with red eyes. This comes as a shock because he was
supposed to have died in the first game. Once you are playing as
Chris, he even has a surprise for you. The unforgettable Hunters are
back, but not with a vengeance. It's not unusual for

Tom Jones to keep trying for a late career comeback, but the Hunter
had no business coming back to a bad storyline, reduced role, and
being less scary. You will always know when they are around because
of cameras that spot you and tell the Hunter of your location.
Whatever happened to the good ole days of them opening doors
behind you and slapping off your head without even a warning?

END SPOILER-ALERT

A little about Chris, I was tremendously nerved once his portion of the
game started. After playing the whole first disc on the island, I was
glad to be off it. Little did I know, but I had to do a decent size of the
island again as Chris, just for him to find out where Claire is. I
remember my brother and I being completely disgusted once we saw
where Chris was climbing to in the cut scene. Which brings me to
another problem in this game, backtracking. If you don't play the
game in order as the strategy guide tells you, you will do gaudy
amounts of backtracking. Yes, there is room for a little, but there are
times you are running around everywhere the entire map on the first
disc just to find pieces for a puzzle.

Something that has become customary in RE games, and really gets on
my nerves, is the helping character that you meet along your journey.
This game's version is Steve Burnside, a prisoner along with Claire who
is trying to get off the island. His teenage look, high-pitched voice, and
carefree attitude should have been his demise in the beginning of the
game. I never understood why this helping character always seems
like a tough person and runs off in their own separate direction with
flesh-eating zombies walking around. Makes no sense to me. If that's
me, I'm telling that person never to leave my side.

All right, enough about the bad. Don't want to ruin the game
completely for you. I liked a couple things about the story in CV. I
liked the part about Alexia and Alfred's father, Alexander and his
torture. It is told that he is tortured for over a decade and chained
down in the basement after an experiment on him went wrong. Under
the name Nosferatu, you encounter him a few times throughout the
game. I also liked the fact that this experimentation has become a
global battle, instead of being confined to Raccoon City.

Overall

Resident Evil Code: Veronica is a great game for players just getting
into the series or gamers who are just fans of the series. For the die
hard followers and who actually thought about what they just finished,
this game comes as a good game with no real advancements in the
series. Same old story, monsters, weapons, and even mansion replica
really hinders the games performance. Great graphics and top of the
line sound techniques really help out the game's quality. But hype can
go along way when previewing a videogame, movie, or CD. In this
case, the hype outweighed the true quality. Let's just hope that
upcoming RE games like RE: Outbreak aren't just hype.

Review by: JayKay