3RRDC RE CV

At the time of its release, Resident Evil: Code Veronica was causing
quite a stir among Resident Evil fans, and average gamers alike. It was
Resident Evil's (Biohazard in Japan) first step into the wonderful world
of 128 bits. And to sweeten the deal, it was (then) exclusive to the
Sega Dreamcast. Since then it had an import only director's cut on
dreamcast, a PS2 version, and a Gamecube version will soon hit
American shelves. This was my first Resident Evil game, and one of my
favorites not only in the series, but one of my favorite Dreamcast
games overall.

The story has shifted place to Europe as foreshadowed in Nemesis. As
you know the Midwestern town of Raccoon City has been annihilated
by the t-virus. In Resident Evil 2, Claire Redfield (sister of Chris from the
first game) traveled to the zombie town in search of her brother.
Thankfully she made it out of the city and now 3 months from Resident
Evil 2, Claire has received some leads that Chris may be in Europe. So
she sets off for there. But she is captured by the evil Umbrella Inc., the
creators of the t-virus, and sent to Rockfort Island, a prison alone on
an isolated island. Here she will come face to mangled face with even
more horrors, and we might learn a thing or two about Umbrella. Even
though it was the first resident evil I ever played, I found the story easy
to get into and very interesting. This game has a lot of cool characters
both new and old, alive and dead, and overall I was excited to jump
into the world of resident evil.

As with the standard Resident Evil games, there are two playable
characters. Here we get 3 to play as. 70% of the game is spent playing
as Claire. You also get to play as Chris Redfield and new guy Steve
Burnside at certain points in the game. Steve's kinda annoying with his
voice and all, but the Redfields are cool. The first thing you'll notice
about the game is that it is 2 discs long, but unlike Resident Evil 2
which had a disk for Claire, and a disk for Leon, this is all one giant
adventure. Gameplay is practically unchanged from Nemesis and 2.
You shoot zombies, and try not to get bitten by them. You push boxes,
climb boxes, and solve puzzles. There are items called herbs and first
aid sprays that can heal you, there are multiple weapons to equip such
as the basic knife and handgun, to the magnum and shotgun. When
checking items, now new to this game, you can view the item in 3D and
zoom in and out around it. This will help solve some puzzles. You can
still combine items, and there are still item boxes scattered around
where you can drop off items. Getting damaged from zombies will
cause you to go from fine, to caution, to danger, take more damage
and you die. Collect ink ribbon and find a typewriter to save your game.
Not much new added in this installment, like in Nemesis, but on the up
note the knife is much more powerful in this game then any other
Resident Evil. Just a word for the wise.

Location wise, it's nice to be out of Raccoon City and explore the story
of Cmbrella Inc. on a much more larger scale. But don't worry. There
are still plenty of puzzles, memos, and characters that call back to the
older games, that will put a smile on the Resident Evil fan in the know.

Just remember to conserve ammo. Use the knife on zombies in this
game, for the majority at the start of the game. On my first play
through with my lack of RE experience, I had arrived near the end of
the second disk at the final boss with hardly any bullets left for any
weapons and thus I had to restart and play through it again.
Frustrating, but a re lesson learned.

Another thing that should have made you smile back in 2000 when this
was released, were the graphics. They were some of the best in the
business when the game was released. It was a good time to own a
Dreamcast, let me tell 'ya. Character models looked much better than
all the previous Resident Evils. Also backgrounds in this one are not
pre rendered, but in real time 3D. While I think that it doesn't allow as
much detail, and in my opinion I like the pre rendered stuff since it
looks better, there is more interaction with the environment and
technically it's on a higher level. While today with the release of
REmake and REzero on Gamecube, this game doesn't shine as good, it
still looks decent and better than the earlier offerings. Kind of in the
middle, but leaning more towards the newer stuff. Zombies are much
more detailed than before, as are all the other enemies, like some
certain mean green killing machines. Look out for some long armed
freaks too. Enemy selection is overall pretty good, as the standard
zombie comes in seven fun clothing styles from soldier zombie, to
naked zombie, it's all good! Bosses are also some of the highlights of
the game, but I don't want to go into spoilers. Lets just say you'll have
fun.

More minimalist sounds and creepy atmosphere for the music. The
music for the save room is a sad piece that is really effective. The
more adrenaline filled tracks are also very good as they fit with the
mood and situations of what is happening on screen. The voice acting
in this game is good overall. Many complain that main character Steve
Burnside has an annoying voice but that's what makes him such a
memorable character to poke fun at. Claire gets the same voice actor
from Resident Evil 2. There are other human characters as well, some
you'll meet for the first time in this game. And one that will have
hardcore Resident Evil fans begging for more. Being that Resident Evil
is very much story based, the voice acting and dialogue is very
important. Capcom did a class act on this one, getting out of their
slump with the voice acting from resident evil survivor on PS1
(although I still kinda like that game for some odd reason.)

Unfortunately, this one didn't have much in store for unlockables. The
biggest treat was a battle mode. A 1-player mode where you go
through a set amount of rooms in either the normal 3rd person view, or
a 1st person view. Fight your way through all the rooms as fast as you
can and fight a boss at the end. There are 4 main characters you can
unlock for this mode. In the normal mode there is also a way to unlock
a rocket launcher with unlimited ammo. But the conditions are very
hard. The battle mode is fun, and there are secret goodies in it. Like
D.I.J's journal for instance.

Maybe it was because it was my first Resident Evil, but I found this one
to be the hardest one I've ever played. I bought the game new packed
with Prima's strategy guide and I had to consult it many times. My
favorite part of the game wasn't the gore, but the story. I had some RE
background. I knew about there being a mansion, and then the town
outbreak, but I didn't know the details. This game has very interesting
plot development about Umbrella Inc. that any Resident Evil fan will
want to know about. But the thing is, a Code Veronica complete (or
CVX as it was known on PS2 and soon to be Gamecube) included more
cut scenes that add to the story. So would I recommend the
Dreamcast game to someone with either one of those systems? I
haven't played the PS2 one, but I plan to buy the Gamecube version
when released. But the Dreamcast one would be a cheaper option.
Besides, I liked the story and this game so much, that I went on to buy
RE1 (Saturn), RE2 (DC), RE3 (DC), REmake (GC) RE0(GC) and REsurvivor
(PS1). Resident Evil has become one of my favorite video game series
and Code Veronica is one of the shining stars (ha pun I know) in the
series. My favorite one besides REmake. So go out there and kill some
zombies. And tell Umbrella that Orochi Sonic sent you. And that he's
impatiently waiting for RE:outbreak (PS2) and RE4 (GC), but also for the
updated version on Gamecube. Becuase paying another 50 dollars will
be well spent to give me the chance to relive the adventure again. (I
already played through the Dreamcast one 3 times.)

Review by: Orochi Sonic