Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"One way to hold you over till Resident Evil 5"

It was simply back in 2006 when Capcom had announced a full Resident Evil game for the Wii. Of course, the whole Resident Evil fanbase was excited, because finally, one of the greatest game series ever had finally landed on one of the arguably greatest consoles ever.

As we all probably know, Resident Evil has been ridiclously sucessful, with six canon games before this, with an eight on the way. With six spin-offs and numerous ports and a remake, fans have obviously kept begging Capcom for more and more.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is nothing more than some ridiclously great fan-service to hold people over till Resident Evil 5. And while, yes, it fills in some of the plot that was left a mystery before, the portions of the game that are based off of RE0, RE1, RE3 (Yes, Leon fans, there is no Resident Evil 2 here) are really loosely done. The summaries do a good job giving people a general idea of what happened in those games, except for RE3. Key points in RE3 were totally bypassed for this game, literally rending the RE3 section non-canon. Even so, the game still delivers a hell of a time, and while maybe not as great as people expected before, it still delivers.

Now, The Umbrella Chronicles is divided into four sections. Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 1, Resident Evil 3, and a whole new plot. The four main sections (Zero, 1, 3, and the new plot) are divided into three sections each for a total of twelve levels. Along with these twelve levels, there are sub-sections that describe the events of that game into a bit more depth from different character perspectives. For example, the Zero sub-section deals with what Wesker's role was during the Ecliptic Express incident. The 1 sub-section(s) has to do with how Rebecca got into the mansion and another Wesker mission. I won't go into other details than that, but that's a total of 22 missions, with a special stage (that seems to serve no real purpose) that simply pits you against a bunch of zombies in a lab of sorts. Perhaps that's where the phrase "zap a zombie" came from?

Now, since this game is a rail-shooter, you'd think this game is short and has virtually no replay value. That's actually far from what this game is. Each level takes up about 15 minutes each, and just on the surface, you'd quickly assume about 5 and a half hours. No, actually, this game packs around 20 hours of gameplay. Due to the fact that there are multiple paths, hidden files, uprgadeable guns, and item tributes from the other games, it adds up to a huge replay value. You can't get every single path in one playthrough, you can get all the files, and the item tributes you HAVE to S rank the level. It's a lot harder than you think. S ranks hugely count on how many enemies you kill, how much time the level took you, critical hits, etc. If you get all S's and one B, you get an A rank. Maybe not the replay value of RE4, but hey, for a rail shooter, it's really great.

Now, what we've all been waiting for...the controls. There are three different settings for controls. Two Wiimote controls and a Zapper control. The Wiimote controls give no need for the Nunchuk, which only controls the camera ever-so-slightly. The B/A button to shoot, the A/B button to pick up an item, holding down the A/B button and swinging activates the knife, up/down on the D-pad to choose guns, flick the Wiimote to reload. It's all as fluid and easy as it sounds, and there aren't many difficulties using it. There's a slowdown in the game every so often, which doesn't interfere too much, but...it does get annoying after a while.

The sound, I think, fits the game well. A few of the voices are really out of place (particularly Billy and Carlos), but others fit just fine. Gunshots are nice, and the music fits pretty well, but obviously, it doesn't present the "horror" the old games did present. The graphics are great, in my opinion, and do a good job. The lighting is decent, nothing too good or bad. I like the zombie and enemy animations, and the enviroment looks great too.

All in all, this game lives up to some good expectations, but isn't the gem some of the other games were. Depending on your preference, this game can be hit or miss. For the most part, it's a hit, especially with the single-player experience. The dual wield single player is great too, along with the multiplayer. Lots of files to find, lots of items, and getting an S rank on all hard levels gets you UNLIMITED AMMO upgrades.

Overview:
+ Resident Evil for the Wii!
+ Great, easy controls
+ Nice enemy/environment models
+ Large replay value
+ 20 hour on-rail shooter is huge
+ Multiplayer RE or dual wield
~ Decent voice acting
~ Lighting/fire is really decent.
~ Decent story retelling
- Special Stage doesn't serve a purpose
- Ranking system is very hard to understand
- Bad RE3 retelling

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (US, 11/13/07)