Whereas I ultimately got here round to it, Resident Evil 4 felt like a turning level within the sequence that took it down a path I wasn’t actually desirous about. It moved into one thing extra action-oriented, taking me away from the basic drama of “Umbrella Academy” zombies with gameplay that focuses extra on thrills than chills.
To me, the tip of the period that I liked was Resident Evil – Code: Veronica on the Sega Dreamcast. I used to be a day one Dreamcast man, so Code Veronica was a no brainer for me, exhibiting off what a brand new console technology might do with the zombie franchise that I liked. Despite the fact that it ended up being considered one of my favorites within the sequence, I haven’t performed it because it got here out.
Now, 25 years later, I fired it up once more for its quarter century anniversary to see the way it holds up towards the remainder of the sequence.
Proper off the bat, I used to be greeted with a gap sequence that’s been seared into my mind. We see Claire Redfield raiding an Umbrella Company facility in Paris, looking for her brother Chris within the months following the occasions of the unique three video games. She leads Umbrella guards on a high-octane chase that ends together with her pulling off a badass transfer that entails faking give up, dropping a gun, then diving to the ground to catch it and shoot an explosive barrel. It instantly lets you understand that this sport, at the very least in its cutscenes, goes to be upping the ante on the Resident Evil system in a giant approach.
If you take management as Claire’s escaping from a jail advanced on Rockfort Island, Code Veronica provides you the gameplay that you just’ve come to know and love from the sequence. Fastened digital camera angles, tank controls, and a small stock to handle; all of the hits are there, however with big graphical leaps. Taking a web page out of Silent Hill, the sequence ditches the pre-rendered backgrounds for totally 3D environments, permitting the fastened digital camera angles to observe you as you progress via the areas. It’s a beautiful shift that provides a dynamism to the gameplay, including a smoothness to navigation.
The ante upping continues with the primary massive encounter of the sport, placing you in a cemetery that rapidly fills up with zombies that terrifyingly crawl out of their graves and encompass you. When you can undoubtedly discover the change between the pre-rendered and real-time parts of the cutscene, each of them look actually nice and transition completely into the motion. This entire first part is a good assertion piece for the sport, getting you into the mindset for what the subsequent technology of Resident Evil will appear like.
Early on, you’re given a pair of automated pistols, which looks like a giant change for the sequence as effectively. Being able to focus on two enemies directly makes it rather a lot simpler to regulate bigger crowds, which the sport is steadily throwing your approach. These have restricted ammo, however present a fantastic energy fantasy feeling whenever you’re utilizing them. It’s not as game-changing because the shift that Resident Evil 4 supplied, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable addition that feels good within the fingers.
Beginning off the sport with Claire is a good alternative, as she’s a basic character that followers love, however the first of the principle aspect characters launched is much less well-loved. After escaping from some zombies, you run into fellow prisoner Steve Burnside, who appears like late ’90s period Leonardo DiCaprio. The Resident Evil franchise is thought for having dialog of voice performing that leans on the cheesier aspect, however Steve finally ends up pushing that additional than some other character I can bear in mind, with a high-pitched voice that’s immediately grating. There are moments inside, significantly when he unloads all his ammo into his zombified father, which can be clearly going for some gravitas, however are robbed of any influence by his extraordinarily over-the-top efficiency. Not solely is the voice performing tough, however his characterization is inconsistent, oscillating between performing Max Payne-like badass strikes and performing whiny, all whereas falling hopelessly in love with Claire.
Additionally divisive are the villains of the story, the Ashford Twins. Launched in a genuinely unsettling video of them as kids, selecting the wings off of a dragonfly and feeding it to a colony of ants, these two had been undoubtedly essentially the most scenery-chewing villains the sequence had seen to date. Each line Alfred says is cranked as much as 11, however he personally works for me in a approach that Steve by no means actually did for me. When Alexia is finally raised from the lifeless within the later half of the sport, she has a fantastic presence as effectively, finally turning right into a horrific mutant the likes of which the sequence is thought for.
One a part of that doesn’t age significantly effectively is the best way it handles a giant twist in regards to the twins. Initially, you hear Alfred speaking to Alexia off display, solely to search out out later that he’s affected by a number of personalities and is dressing up as his lifeless sister. Whereas that is undoubtedly an apparent Psycho reference, it does really feel prefer it’s attempting to make the actual fact that he’s dressing as a lady into one thing that’s inherently creepy, going so far as having Claire name him a “crossdressing freak.” He’s already achieved such a fantastic job of being an oddball villain that we don’t must resort to transphobic-adjacent reactions that stigmatize this habits as one thing deviant. It looks like this twist didn’t actually add that a lot to the character, solely making a problematic layer that feels pointless, particularly since Alexia is introduced again to life later within the sport to nice impact.
After Claire and Steve escape the island and find yourself in an Umbrella facility in Antarctica, you find yourself switching to her brother Chris as he arrives on Rockfort Island. It’s nice to have the 2 Redfields in the identical sport, however he’s not the one particular person coming back from the unique Resident Evil. Albert Wesker is again, now enhanced with tremendous energy and velocity, together with some spooky cat eyes. Wesker is one other aspect of the sport that pushes it into that ridiculous anime-style with among the wildest cutscenes within the sport.
The truth that you turn up your characters as a part of one steady story, fairly than having two totally different campaigns that closely overlap, contributed to the significance of the story, regardless of this not being an precise “numbered” entry within the sequence. It finally ends up being longer than any of the opposite video games within the sequence, perhaps to its detriment, however total the larger scale made it really feel like that is what we might anticipate from the subsequent technology of consoles.
One unlucky a part of this bigger scale is that there’s a whole lot of backtracking concerned on this sport, and because it’s extra sprawling it doesn’t fairly reap the benefits of that tight, shortcut heavy stage design I’ve come to know and love from Resident Evil. There are all kinds of beautifully-rendered locations on Rockfort Island, together with a palace, a jail, a army coaching facility, and a non-public residence, and also you’re required to traverse from one to the opposite fairly steadily, generally with out a ton of steerage pointing you in that path. Whereas all of the areas are related, it may be a drag to go from one to a different, particularly because the maps aren’t as much as fashionable Resident Evil requirements with the quantity of knowledge they offer you. I believe there are some neat puzzles on this sport, however too a lot of them pressure you to tediously run backwards and forwards between areas.
Together with this comes an total extra demanding issue stage with some annoying spikes that may grow to be impassable in the event you’re not cautious. It looks like since we’re working with a console technology with extra energy, they wished to push the density of enemies in locations, making for some difficult areas to navigate. The boss fights, significantly the Tyrant you struggle as you’re escaping the island, are big useful resource sinks, requiring you to have rigorously managed your ammo to make sure you have sufficient to take them down. I’m an enormous fan of the basic survival horror useful resource administration in video games, however this pushes it to extremes in a approach that may be actually irritating.
The useful resource administration turns into much more irritating whenever you’re switching backwards and forwards between Claire and Chris in the course of the again half of the sport. If you place an merchandise into an merchandise field, it may be accessed by both character. It’s a cool concept, however sadly it will possibly very simply depart you excessive and dry with out a key merchandise if the character change takes you unexpectedly. It’s very simple to utterly tank your run by holding onto the incorrect factor and making issues overwhelmingly difficult for you, which is a bummer given the sport’s longer runtime.
This revisit was effectively price it, because it made me understand that this was really a midway level between the unique trilogy and the brand new path of the sequence that RE4 took. Mechanically, it nonetheless felt just like the outdated sport, upgrading the fastened views with a extra cinematic aptitude and retaining the puzzle fixing and useful resource administration elements. The brand new twin wielding mechanic allowed issues to get a bit extra motion packed, however the second to second was nonetheless pretty slow-paced in comparison with what would come later. The over-the-top villainous twins really feel like they had been paving the best way for RE4 characters like Salazar and his clockwork statue, and the globe-trotting nature of the setting felt like a take a look at run for the three most important video games that adopted.
Regardless of a few of my stage design and issue qualms, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica is a good instance of what the sequence does finest, discovering the proper steadiness between gory scares and campy characters and conditions. It’s the tonal candy spot in my ebook, making for some of the memorable survival horror video games of its period.
The 2001 revised model, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X, is obtainable on PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Sequence.
