Australian Gamer Feature :: Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

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Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

I hope this is not Yug's blood...actually, I hope it is.

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There once was a video game arcade in the Pacific North-West of the United States. I don't know if it still exists, either in it's original glory or in some mangled form of a "popular entertainment venue". Hell, it's probably a Starbucks now. Howard Schultz can kiss my ass.

Anyway, I went to this arcade several times when I was about twelve years old. You would pay a few dollars as an entrance fee, and from then on every game in there was only five, ten or at most twenty cents for one play (the most advanced game at the time, and the only one that cost twenty cents, was Cruis'n World). Essentially, you could get a bag of small coins and a full day's worth of arcade gaming for ten dollars at the most. Truly, it was paradise.

At the time, I was in love with Virtua Cop 2. The whole light-gun concept was so incredibly cool, and I pumped every last nickel into that machine, beating the game over and over again. I was always on the lookout for good shooters from that day onward, and despite my friend having a PSX set up with Time Crisis, I was never satisfied. The Wii has now arrived, with a unique controller that allows for a relatively realistic portrayal of light-gun action. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, the first game to fully embrace the shooting concept, is a rushed, sloppy and ultimately unfulfilling adventure.

Zombie clothing is soooooo 1990s

I'm not going to explain the storyline, as you should get off your ass and play almost every previous Resident Evil game before this one. One reason is that they go into much greater detail regarding the dastardly goings-on, and provide a deeply structured narrative. Another reason is that they are all better than Umbrella Chronicles. I'm only counting the original third-person survival horror installments - yes, the "it-controls-like-a-tank-but-I'm-an-idiot-who-doesn't-understand-that-it-heightens-the-tension-of-the-game -and-ultimately-makes-for-a-more-fulfulling-experience-beyond-mindless-shooting-action-which-is-exactly -what-the-series-was-trying-not-to-be" games.

Umbrella Chronicles is a rail shooter, which lightly revisits a select number of scenes from earlier Resident Evil games. Lightly is the key word - no doors to unlock, puzzles to figure out, or long stretches of ground to cover. Everything that made the Resident Evil games special is gone, replaced by a reasonably enjoyable, if shallow, action game. Ordinary rail shooters (or rail shooting segments in games that can't pick a genre) would require twiddling an analogue stick, but the Wii Remote gives full, instantaneous movement anywhere on the screen for pinpoint accuracy.

The action begins on the train from Resident Evil Zero, starring meek, uninteresting Rebecca Chambers and overconfident douchebag Billy Coen. The first chapter is the worst of the bunch, so don't give up hope right away when you find yourself yawning among the scripted carnage. This is to be expected really, considering that REO was the worst of the original games. Further on, you'll play through the very first mansion incident, and also head to town as Jill and Carlos to fight through the inevitable downfall of Raccoon City. A number of side missions also pop up along the way, including a solo adventure with Rebecca Chambers, and even a spell with Albert Wesker, a recurring antagonist in the Resident Evil series. Dialogue and cutscenes and corny and lame - but this is no different to any other Resident Evil game, and is somewhat forgivable.

The engine automatically guides you through every step of the game, and you simply need to shoot at various enemies as you go, and occasionally pick up more ammunition and health. The control stick is used to look around in a greater field of vision than the default screen, but your movement is still on rails and will continue endless, irrelevant of the fact that you may have wanted to examine one particular side of a room for a little longer. With this being said, you will undoubtedly miss a bunch of ammo pickups, and curse loudly when the rail train you are on just keeps on rolling.

It's ok, they're only zombies you're shooting - otherwise this game probably would be refused classification

Each chapter is fairly short, and you'll run through the game in a few hours. You have the ability to upgrade weapons and play side missions, but the replayability isn't high. The combat itself is frustrating enough due to the lack of character control (enemies charge at you endlessly, and you're either quick with the trigger on a dead man walking) there's no real incentive to punish yourself on a harder difficulty level.

Enemies range from standard zombies and dogs to Hunters, Lickers and spiders. Most are pretty cool, and the weapons do feel chunkily satisfying. YOu'll pick up shotguns, assault rifles and grenade launchers in addition to your standard handgun, which thankfully has unlimited ammo. Bosses are huge and intimidating, but the rail shooting doesn't make them any more intriguing to battle - shoot hard, shoot fast.

Different Wii Remote functions are required for various attacks. A quick shake will reload your active weapon, and shaking while holding down the A button will swing your knife, handy for taking out seemingly hundreds of little munchkin baddies who enjoy attaching themselves to the screen. Grenades can also be thrown, but the accuracy of the throw doesn't rely on motion control - only where your cursor is pointing.

The final aspect of control constitues Quick-Time Events. Various button presses and Wii Remote waggles will pop up occasionally, usually during boss battles. If you fail to press the button in time, you will take damage, but a successful movement will dodge an enemy attack. They are the saving grace of an otherwise completely linear rail shooter, allowing at least some form of control over how much potential damage you will take. Despite this, Quick-Time Events are hardly original, and their inclusion was probably out of necessity rather than as a gameplay enhancer.

Lights ... camera ...

Resident Evil games have always featured outstanding graphics, particularly due to the hyper realistic pre-rendered backgrounds. Resident Evil 4 was fully 3D and a better game for it, thanks to the powerful hardware of the GameCube. Naturally, Umbrella Chronicles needs to be in 3D, but someone had one too many coffee breaks at the office, because it looks pretty lousy. It's not woefully bad, but there are countless better looking games on all three systems from the previous generation. Textures are grainy (and not for an artistic effect), enemies look a bit blocky and even the CG pales in comparison to many older games. Nothing special here, and a bit of a letdown considering the quality of other titles in the Wii library, including Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3.

Umbrella Chronicles is short, shallow and ultimately not worth your money. It supports full multiplayer co-op throughout the main missions, which is pretty fun for a blast with one of your mates. However, the single player is a bit dull and won't hold your attention for longer than a single playthrough. Since the length is relatively short, this is good for a rental, provided you have a friend to blast away years of Resident Evil nostalgia with.

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