Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"A Resident Evil shooter for the Wii... genius!"

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is an interesting video game to say the least. I think we all can remember earlier attempts at rail shooter type games and Resident Evil. So far they haven't been that well received. It seems that Umbrella Chronicles is going to be very different though. Like Resident Evil 4 this game breaks away from the usual Resident Evil mix with many new elements to it. I must admit that I was looking forward to trying out this game on the Wii. So was this game worth it you might ask. Well all in all I must say that yes it was. Played in a style similar to arcade rail gun shooter games Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles delivers a lot of fun though it is not without its flaws. Still I would say that this game is quit worth playing for Resident Evil fans and video game fans in general. So let's go ahead and review this game.

Gameplay: As everyone knows gameplay is the heart of a game honestly. A game can have great music, awesome graphics and such but without awesome gameplay no one will care. Granted I can't think of many games off of the top of my head that have great graphics and such but bad gameplay but either way that's besides the point. Umbrella Chronicles has some very amazing gameplay to it. At the core of it the game is a rail shooter type game. Like all other rail shooters you follow a preset path throughout the game. At certain points throughout the game you're given an option on which way to go this is nice as it gives a little bit of incentive to replay through levels and some slight variety. Along with this you might sometimes be able to choose a hidden path while in the middle of going somewhere or during a boss fight.

This is handy as it sometimes can help give you an advantage in a fight or avoid danger. This is especially fun in boss fights when you move to a better spot to attack from. Moving along the preset path is nice since it keeps things moving and also makes you feel like you are the character. Things move along in a fairly realistic fashion with characters seeming to analyze the situation and sometimes moving past rooms and such instead of simply always standing still for hordes of enemy's to chase them. This all helps to give the game a nice touch and also a creepy feel since you never know what's around the next corner. Gameplay is fairly fast and quick paced though at times it can vary slightly. Sometimes you will have only a few enemy's coming at you while at other times hordes of enemies will rush you all at once.

Along with this creatures randomly pop out of places and surprise you forcing you to react quickly. Despite this Umbrella Chronicles is a game which is more about accurate shots then simple mindless shooting. So this makes it more that you need to be sure of where and what you're shooting then just completely shooting like mad. Mostly this is nice but can get slightly annoying at times when fighting hordes of enemies. Enemies are usually fairly quick including the zombies which is nice. Along with this levels usually aren't to long. Probably between fifteen to twenty minutes for some depending on how fast you go. These things help make the levels feel long enough but not so long that they are dragged out without any end to them. Sadly there isn't anyway to save whenever you want but this doesn't really matter to much with how fast things move. Throughout the level are checkpoints so if you die you usually will start off very close to where you died at. Most every monger from the Resident Evil series appears ranging from the typical zombies to classics such as Hunters and Tyrants.

While the zombies make up the main enemy you'll fight plenty of other monsters before the game is over. This helps give the game some variety along with having a large arsenal of weapons. Your basic handgun is always your default weapon starting with unlimited ammo. Along with this you get to choose a secondary weapon to take with you to the start of the mission from weapons you have found through missions. Through level you pick up new guns and ammo. The variety of guns helps makes things interesting. Mostly you'll use the handgun a lot but swap to other weapons depending on the situation. You also have grenades which come in handy for clearing out large groups of monsters. Other then this you also have a knife attack for warding off monsters who are up close.

Health is pretty simple being a green bar at the top of the screen. As you take damage the bar drops down and changes colors. When playing with a partner your life bar is twice as long but you also share a life bar making it important for both players to avoid damage and work together. Healing is simple you simply shoot herbs to recover and first aid sprays to bring you back to life when you die. In a way similar to Resident Evil 4 there are various points when enemy's or bosses attack you and you're required to hit certain buttons. Usually this just involves shaking the Wii remote, hitting a button or something but these scenes are a nice diversion being quick and simple.

Gameplay is for the most part straightforward, simple and fun. You'll spend most all of your time running and gunning your way through hordes of monsters. Varying difficult levels can add to the challenge though playing with a partner makes things a lot easier and reduces any feelings of urgency. Despite this playing on cooperative play is amazingly fun. I have to say that this is one of the best games to play with a friend. For the most part you play the same as one player except with two people. There are other things to in this game such as shooting objects to reveal hidden items and also the fact that you can upgrade your weapons. After each missions ends your ranked in different categories on how well you did. After this you're awarded stars which are basically points to use to upgrade your guns with. Mainly these upgrades just upgrade the ammo for them but still it's rather nice to be able to improve weapons.

Boss battles are amazingly fun especially with a friend. On various parts you will be chased by bosses or have to fend them off before having a final showdown. Usually such fights are fun and straightforward. Along with this doing various things in the games such as running from bosses before finishing them off all help give the game a cinematic and enjoyable feel. It all helps add to the depth of the game making it that more fun. The load times are excellent being a minute at most. You never really feel like you're waiting when a level loads or anything so things never seem to take very long to keep moving. All this aside there are a few complains about the game. While minor they're still worth noting. One of the main problems is getting critical hits on enemies. I feel that this is one thing which they should have done some more fine tuning on. Basically when you move your targeting reticule over a certain spot on an enemy it will flash. If you shoot this spot it will kill them instantly. While this spot is located on all monsters and bosses it can sometimes feel a bit annoying to hit and takes away from some of the realism in the game since you have to hit them exactly there and not just simply near that spot. While mostly a minor annoyance this can be annoying at times.

Especially during things such as a boss fight when you need to hit the weak point on say a boss to stop an attack and it's annoying to hit this spot. This can sometimes happen with enemy's to. When hordes of them are ganging up on you it can seem odd. Sometimes you'll mow right through them while at other times it can feel harder to shoot them in their weak point then it should be and you'll feel annoyed at the fact that they take so many hits. Another annoyance is your counter attack. During battle monsters such as zombies might grab you. You will then be prompted to hit some button or shake the remote to counter. While the counter always works the annoying part is that it does a very short animation of your character knocking the enemy off and while this works the counter attack doesn't seem to knock back other guys who are nearby. While only minor this can be annoying at times when you knock a zombie off but it doesn't help knock away the other five zombies who are piling on top of you.

While in other games such as Resident Evil 4 doing such a move did clear away any nearby enemies. Other slight annoyances are that sometimes an explosive won't hurt an enemy if it's to far. Which is rare but can still happen and seems silly when it does. At least with the distances this happens at but like I said it's rare so its not much to worry about. There are a few other minor complaints but like I said they're all minor. Mostly these things are minor at best but are still flaws and slightly detract from things at times. Despite these problems things are fun and quick paced. Everything helps add to the Resident Evil feel of the game. Minor problems can throw things off but usually aren't to big a problem and playing this game with a friend is blast. For Gameplay I give Umbrella Chronicles a nine out of ten.

Difficulty: The difficulty feels about fitting for this game. Usually you can get through most parts of a mission on your first few tries without to much trouble. But some parts might slow you down. Three different difficulty levels help give you variety as well. I found the normal difficulty to be reasonable enough that most people with a steady hand and some practice should be able to get through things fairly easily and with only minor annoyance. This helps make things feel enjoyable without feeling like it is ungodly easy or extremely hard.

Controls: The controls for the game are fluid and fun. Weapons can be switched with the control pad or C button on the nunchuck making it easy to cycle through weapons very quickly. At the same time the nunchuck control stick can be used to look around to a limited extent to help you spot and locate things. Aiming and shooting is easy along with doing other things such as hitting buttons when you're prompted to or using your knife. For the most part aiming and shooting is simple and accurate. However shooting enemy's from a distance is harder then it should be at times. Thankfully this isn't to big a deal really. I haven't played the game with any gun accessories such as the zapper but I find that playing with the nunchuck and Wii controller works perfectly fine. I think I would have liked the addition of something like a dodge command which you could use and then maybe had to refill or something. More or less to help avoid damage on harder difficulty's but really there aren't any real complains about the controls.With smooth controls I feel that the control area deserves a ten out of ten.

Story: The story is interesting to say the least. Umbrella Chronicles is more or less a retelling of the Resident Evil series. You play through three main missions for Resident Evil 0, 1, 3 and also a brand new scenario where you see the final blow which is dealt to Umbrella in 2003 to bring them to an end. The story is fairly simple following the basics of the games though veering from them to an extent with characters working together all of the time and also with defeating certain enemy's such as Nemisis. In between missions text is used to summarize what happened in between missions. Other then this Wesker is narrator for most major story things and you also see the story from the perspective of the characters you play as from what happens to them during the missions. The game largely helps to flesh out the Resident Evil series explaining thing that happen to various characters. This includes Rebecca in the mansion, Wesker and what he does behind the scenes through all of the games, how Ada Wong survives the incident in Raccoon city and other such things. Being an avid Resident Evil fan I don't have any major complains. Taking place throughout all of the games the story isn't really for someone new to the Resident Evil series. However fans of the series will enjoy it and how it fleshes out a lot of things and fills some holes in the story. I must admit the story does raise some confusion though with what happens during certain scenes since it seems to differ from the games to an extent. Mainly I presume that the game mainly just explains what happens when characters were working together during the games or explains how things actually happened in the Resident Evil games since the games can sometimes contradict themselves. Whatever the case the story is simple enough and is an official part of the main series for Resident Evil as far as I know. My only real complaint is that Resident Evil 2 and 4 were not included and I'm not sure why. Still this game does a good service for fans explaining holes in the story and summing up the fall of Umbrella getting the story an eight out of ten.

Graphics: As we already know the Wii does not measure up to other game consoles of the seventh generation in terms of power. Despite this the graphics for Umbrella Chronicles look smooth and well done. All in all I would say that the games in game graphics and cut scenes are very smooth probably on par with most any other Wii game. There isn't any pixilating or anything like that as far as I can tell. This aside the game loads very quickly and everything moves fast and smoothly. The only real problem I have is that sometimes enemies arms or something will move through each other giving it a not fully real look. Things like this aren't often but do happen. This is minor at best though and not a real big worry. With smooth graphics I feel this area deserves an eight out of ten.

Sound/music: The sounds are all realistic from your bullets firing, knife slashing to zombies groaning and dogs running. The music is usually fits the situation. Often being slow and eerie but also more fast paced at certain times. Honestly I have no complaints. The sounds seem to fit the moment adding to the enjoyment of the game. I would say this area deserves a ten out of ten.

Overall: An excellent game to say the least I think Capcom did an amazing job with this and this is just another good example of what the Wii can really do. While I would like to give this game a ten I don't feel like it quit gets there. A few flaws in it with the gameplay along with the main game feeling kind of short in a way detracts from this. Along with this it's not really like a new person to the series can pick this up and get the story. Despite this I think this is an excellent shooter game for both Resident Evil fans or video gamers in general both casual and especially hardcore gamers. The game does have some replay value though I think this value is more for Resident Evil fans. If you're a fan of the series I think this game is worth adding to your game shelf this along with if you're a hardcore gamer or a shooter fan. The way this game brings back the fun of a rail shooter is just amazing. If you're a more casual gamer then maybe rent and then decide. Despite minor flaws some things are very fun and the cooperative play especially makes this good. Especially in a day and age when we need more cooperative games and such things like that and becoming a bigger and bigger things in games. The environment, the way you move, reacting to scenes and playing with a friend all help to get you into the game and have fun. With a good fun factor I feel that this game deserves a nine out of ten.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/07

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