Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"One for the fans!"

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a first person shooter on the Nintendo WII based upon the immensely popular Resident Evil series. In it, you will take on the role of a number of Resident Evil characters, either by yourself or playing co-op, as the game moves you through different environments in your quest to escape (while killing innumerable amounts of zombies and other mutated creatures).

Story: 9/10

As you may know, much of the story is simply a re-telling of many Resident Evil games already released, including Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil, and Resident Evil 3. The story is broken into Chapters in the game, each of which contains several different scenarios for you to play through. For example, the first chapter you have access to is the Resident Evil Zero Storyline, where you can play as Rebecca Chambers or Billy Coen, the lead characters of that game. Once you beat the first scenario, you unlock the next one to play through. As you go through the game, you'll eventually also unlock some new scenarios that haven't been featured in previous games. These include showing us exactly what Albert Wesker was doing behind the scenes, what Rebecca Chambers did between Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil, and the ultimate downfall of an Umbrella facility in Russia, as well as some new scenarios for Ada Wong (how she survived) and HUNK.

The story as a whole is excellent, and the new material in the game does a very good job at not only filling in the holes but providing fresh new content as well. I do wish they had represented Resident Evil 2 more than they did. It should also be noted that due to the story, some missions can only be played with one player (as only one character was present in those situations). I should also note that they choose to overlook some key plot points in some of the scenarios in order to have co-op in them. For example, Jill and Chris went their separate ways in Resident Evil, yet you can choose from either of them when you start that segment. Since this game is so fun in co-op mode, these omissions are easy to overlook, though Resident Evil fans will surely recognize many plot points being overlooked.

Gameplay: 10/10

As I stated before, the game is an “on-rails” shooter. This means that the game will move you through the environment as you use your wii-remote to point and shoot at things. As you start the level, you can pick who you want to play as and what secondary weapon you want to bring along. Your primary weapon is a handgun, which you will never run out of ammo for. Every other weapon has a limited ammo supply, so you're forced to conserve your more powerful ammo for times when you'll really need it. Thankfully, you can find more ammo and health items as you traverse through the level, most commonly found hidden in the levels many breakable items (wooden boxes, lights, etc.). You can also find files that help to establish the series plotline hidden in the level as well. Upon reaching the end of the level, you will usually be required to fight a boss.

To look deeper into your weapon choices, you are initially only armed with a handgun, grenades, and a knife. Obviously, to shoot, you only have to aim and press “B”, but to use your knife or grenades you simply have to hold down a button to switch to them. For the knife you will also have to make a swiping motion with your remote. You will find yourself using the knife a lot to take care of the smaller enemies such as leeches and bees. As you play through the game you will find new weapons, which you will than be able to keep and choose to use on other missions. You can also level up your weapons on the main screen, somewhat similar to Resident Evil 4 in that you can upgrade their ammo capacity, clip capacity, and power ratings, except that you must level them up in that order. To do this you must obtain stars, which you receive from completing a stage. At the end of the stage you are graded on how well you preformed, being rewarded more stars for a better performance.

I should also note that there are times when you will have to press certain buttons in order to dodge certain enemies or obstacles, very similar to how Resident Evil 4 played.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics in Umbrella Chronicles are amazing. The environments look very good, and do a great job in portraying the chaos that is going on around the player. The amount of detail they put into every scene, in not only re-creating how previous Resident Evil environments looked, but also in adding in little details, like background flora, is definitely appreciated. The new areas look great, as well, though some of them can be kind of bland (most notably the lab area's, where I'm sure they meant to keep it bland to convey a sense of organization and cleanliness). You won't be disappointed by the graphics in Umbrella Chronicles at all, as I'd say they are on par with Resident Evil 4. Just make sure to take a moment to look at the details in between your shooting sprees.

Music/Sound effects: 8/10

I was less impressed with the music in Umbrella Chronicles. I expected it to be a mixed bag of all of Resident Evil's previous game tracks, and it was, more or less, but the timing of the songs seemed to be off. The music itself was good (even if it seemed overbearing at times), but it wasn't very prevalent at all, which I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not in this type of game. The only time you will notice this is when you're moving through a stage, not shooting at anything, but waiting in that ominous silence for something to jump out at you. Other than that, you'll hear most of the music in the menu screen, which consists of a single track being played over and over.

The sound effects is what you will be hearing the most of, particularly the sound of your weapons being fired over and over, mixed in with the sounds of various enemies dying. The sound effects are pretty much what you would expect to hear, though the enemies scuttling around and their dying noises are particularly well done.

Re-playability: 9/10

There is a lot to do in this game. As I mentioned before, you can collect information files as well as power up your weapons. Since these files are hidden in the levels, some levels may require multiple play-throughs to find them. This will also let you earn more stars in which to power up your weapons further. The levels are also fairly short, ranging from five to twelve minutes apiece, with checkpoints in the middle of each level, making them the perfect length for a quick “pick up and play” game. Combine all this with multiple difficulty settings and the whole multi-player co-operative aspect and you're guaranteed to play beyond just the main storyline.

I should also note that you can play Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles with the all-new Wii Zapper, which you can place your Wii remote in to make it resemble a gun.

Overall: 9/10

Overall, one of the better games you can pick up for the Nintendo WII right now, and a “must-have” pick for any Resident Evil fan, though any fan of shooter games should definitely check it out. If you're not sure whether or not you'll like the game, go try it as a rental. You may find yourself buying it afterwards, to play through with any friends who also enjoy shooting at zombies. Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/07

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