Resident Evil: Code: Veronica

Let me just start by saying that Resident Evil: Code Veronica is a great game that may have been released a bit ahead of its time. And in allowing me to explain that, let's go back in history to the early 2000s.

Capcom has just released RE3 for PlayStation, while another group is working on what is then considered a 'sidestory' for Sega called RE: Code Veronica. Despite that, the series producer has ambitious plans for it: he uses the development time and Dreamcast hardware to their fullest to deliver a game a year later that has some great innovations and fresh story ideas. So much so that this 'small project' is considered by many to be superior than the official threequel. It happens. The Lion King was supposed to be a little movie to keep Disney's 'team B' busy, while 'team A' would knock it out of the park with Pocahontas. However, history decided otherwise.

It's no secret that technological innovations can come in quick succession. Barely two years later, the same company and producer release a remake of the first game on the GameCube. It features nearly photorealistic graphics, genuine shocks, much improved voice acting and an amazingly creepy sound design. It was a technological leap that is almost mind-boggling. Within 6 years, the series had matured into a realistically looking interactive horror movie that made the previous four games almost look like an animé comic book by comparison.

RE:CV was released just prior to that revolution, right before I got hooked on the series with said remake which I thoroughly loved. l took it upon myself to play the rest of the series as well, and despite signs of ageing, there was enough to like in the earlier installments. Especially RE:CV made good use of a 3D-engine that allowed more camera movements instead of just static angles, and a bold new direction in story. But still, how would it have been had it debuted on the GameCube?

With a new direction comes a change in surroundings. Producer Shinji Mikami (always good for a major revolution within the series) decided to leave the familiar environment of Raccoon City, and injected the game with influences from European gothic horror. We end up in places that look like concentration camps, airfields and Antarctic research bases, which contrast pleasantly with lush palaces and private mansions in Louis XIV style. As with any good RE game, the surroundings almost become a character in their own right.

Most previous RE games weren't too heavy on narrative, with most of the story told through scattered files and the occassional cutscene. However, CV is a genuine operetta of plot, drama and scripted events, with a corporate power struggle, betrayal and a lot of family drama at the very heart of it. It features some familiar faces, old enemies, but it introduces one of RE's most notorious villains, Alfred Ashford. This maniac and his disgraced family tend to turn up at unexpected moments in the story to hunt you down, which provides the game with welcome moments of adrenalin-pumping tension whenever the traditional shocks or jump scares falter a bit. Diving into the mad history of the Ashfords fuels the entire story, where you get unexpected help from time to time, leading to a shocking third act that plays the emotions like a beautiful but tragic symphony.

The story alternates its focus between siblings Claire and Chris Redfield, which perfectly supports a nice change in gameplay. RE2 already experimented somewhat with a complementary A and B scenario, but in RE:CV, what happens in one storyline directly and indirectly affects the other. Great use is made of this in the location design: Claire may be able to access some areas and not others, but due to story progression and scripted events, the maps can be completely different in Chris' scenario, which makes the mandatory back-tracking a lot less tedious.

For the rest, not too much has changed. Zombies, Cerberus dogs and Hunters and are still the main enemy, with an occassional new creature (like those pesky yellow Bandersnatches) just begging to be put out of its misery by a blast from your shotgun. The horror game clichés are still pretty much adhered to: vital objects just "happen" to be in a corner of a room full of corpses that just "happen" to wake up when you grab it, and rooms that you've cleared are suddenly sprawling with undead life when you need to revisit them. Every now and then, there is a boss fight that forms a good challenge, but I only found the one in the back of the plane and the one in the finale to be genuinely memorable. Fortunately, the game's creepy score is top-notch, and one of the reasons why you're sometimes afraid to proceed.

As I said, this game is easily the best-looking of the first four RE games, but knowing that there was a graphical revolution just two years away, that makes CV paradoxically having aged a bit worse than the games that came before it. It is just too bad that this game couldn't also benefit from that amazing graphical overhaul that the remake got. If it had, it would have played and looked really amazing.

Although not my favorite installment in the series, I have to admit that this is one that stuck with me. I have played it at least three times to relive that descent into the Ashford family's madness, and I recently even downloaded and played it on the PS4, so I guess that makes it a memorable one, despite its limitations. And who knows? Now that RE2 and RE3 have gotten a full HD reimagination, we may expect something like that for RE: CV as well. I await it patiently...

I just can't believe that these games can get so much better, but they do. Unfortunately I had to rent a Dreamcast to play it, but even though I did beat it I can't wait to buy it for PS2. This is the only series of games that I must own all of them even if I have beaten them many times over. I hope they never stop making this type of game even if the series must come to an end.

This game ranks above all so far. I had the honor of playing mine on PS2 so the graphics were really good. The voice acting was above standard. The difficulty level is just right. Wesker has to be the best characters in the RE series in my opinion. The story amazed me and took many different twist that I wasn't expecting. The only rating this game deserves is great.

This is one of the best of the series, ranking up there with Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Or Biohazard: Last Escape) The game has a very good storyline in which you play as Claire Redfield in the search for her brother,Chris Redfield (Whom you probably know from the original Resident Evil) It is as scary as the other Resident Evil, and contains alot more cutscenes.

My Rating: **** out of ***** Stars (Rating based on comparison to other videogames)

Resident Evil is one of the most popular video game series of all time for a number of reasons, not least among which is the somewhat non-linear structure of play. Although certain items have to be found before other areas can be explored, that's literally the extent of linearity in this game. As a result, the replay value, while not as great as some other games, is incredible. Another contributing factor to the replay value is that Capcom, in their infinite wisdom, decided that between a shorter game and one that makes the player feel as if there is no way to win, the shorter game is preferable. Not that this is much of a factor where Code Veronica is concerned. This game is long. Longer than Titanic, longer than The Godfather Part II, this is one piece of televisual entertainment that you cannot easily get tired of. It is also of substantially better quality than just about anything that the rest of the video game industry has cranked out lately. That, in and of itself, does not make it a perfect game, but it is oh so very close.

Unlike previous entries in the series, the game only offers one path through the myriad of mazes. This limits the replay factor somewhat compared to Resident Evil 1 and 2, but this is an aside. Compared to some other video games that lose all their thrill as soon as one completes them, Code Veronica is like the classics of old, such as Jumpman or Impossible Mission. Flawed in their own ways, but still the preferred choice. Unlike Jumpman or Impossible Mission, however, Code Veronica grips the player in this almost unshakable manner because of its storyline. Indeed, once one has grown tired of fighting the nth zombie or Hunter, the thing that keeps the player going is anticipation of the next cutscene. Indeed, it is this anticipation that keeps the player playing in spite of some flawed moments such as a trap that can instantly kill your character and send you right back to the start, or programmers getting a little too enthusiastic with the mutant spawn.

The voice acting is, as you might expect, terrible. Half the lines sound as if they were recorded through a public address system. I don't know who delivered Steve Burnside's dialogue, but he alternates between sounding seventeen and seven years old, often within the same line. Richard Waugh, on the other hand, absolutely shines as the voice of Albert Wesker. Bringing to mind images of a not-so-friendly David Bowie, the voice-over is totally consistent with the character - smooth, calm, totally in control. It's just a shame that the character models in the game do not even come close to being in sync with their voiceovers. Not that this is terribly important in a video game, but it does distract at times. Nonetheless, a quick listen to all the cutscenes will leave one in little doubt as to why Waugh is one of the few alumni of the Resident Evil series to have attained any work outside of video games.

The gameplay, aside from the aforementioned moments when the programmers got carried away with traps or icky blob monsters, is fairly smooth. Getting used to the way characters in the Resident Evil games move is a little time-consuming, but the investment of time is well worth it. The real meat of a Resident Evil game, as any player will tell you, is inventory management. Throughout the game, one only has a small number of spaces to put items in, and one must constantly balance between two elements. These being pieces of the puzzle and weapons. Yes, the monsters encountered often resemble a cavalcade of B-movie escapees, but often the fun comes from discovering their origins. I don't think it is really revealing anything to say that the games wear their Night Of The Living Dead influence on their sleeve, anyway. Counting all the B-movie influences to be found in this Resident Evil is almost as much fun as playing the game.

If I were giving Resident Evil: Code Veronica X a score out of ten, it would be nine. Some of it is less fun than the player has a right to expect, while most of it is so much more than the competition has delivered in the past ten years. Those new to the series might be better off getting an old copy of the PlayStation or PC versions of the original, but for those who are somewhat familiar with the Resident Evil universe, this is pure gold.