Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"A unique Resident Evil game that tries to fill in the story's gaps..."

Resident Evil games have always been more enjoyable from the third person point-of-view. The first person point-of-view Resident Evil games seems to have never appealed to a lot of fans of the series. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, however, takes the first person point-of-view games to a new level.

Umbrella Chronicles is a first person rail shooter. You do not control the path your character takes in this game. Instead, the game controls the character for you while your main goal is to defeat enemies and collect weapons and files. The game is split up into different scenarios that take place during different times of the Resident Evil timeline. One scenario deals with the events of Resident Evil 0 while another scenario deals with the Mansion Incident in the original Resident Evil.

The story of each of the scenarios is told from Umbrella's point-of-view. As a result, fans may notice that some of the scenarios are different from the main game they imitate. Each of the scenarios explain the devastation that Umbrella has caused with their experiments. Umbrella Chronicles also has special scenarios that are designed to fill in some of the gaps of the timeline. For example, one special scenario explains how Wesker managed to survive the explosion during the Mansion Incident while another scenario explains Ada's escape from Raccoon City.

Each scenario contains an array of familiar enemies that have appeared throughout the series. Each of the enemies have a weakspot that a player can exploit and score a critical hit. Some enemies require more powerful weapons to defeat. Each level has a variety of different weapons that the player can collect. Once the player collects a weapon, they can use it in ither scenarios. At the end of most scenarios are bosses that require a variety of ways to defeat them.

The player has the option of using the Wiimote or the Zapper to play the game with. The aiming in this game is a little glitched and as a result, the cursor is hard to handle at times. However, the Wii Zapper makes the game much more easy to hand. The player also has the option of using the nunchuck to move the character around in a particular spot in order to defeat enemies and collect items that are out of view. There are also some action cutscenes in this game which require different buttons to press or different motions of the Wiimote to be performed. These actions can also seem glitched at times, but still work rather smoothly.

Throughout each scenario, the player has the option of collecting Umbrella files. These files are mostly hidden in objects like crates, computers, lights, etc. The files that are collected are transfered to the games archives where the player has the option later on to read them. The files usually pertain to the characters or certain events in the game and can be an interesting read at times.

At the end of each scenario, the player is evaluated on how they performed during each scenario. The game ranks the player on the clear time of the scenario, number of kills, number of critical hits, and number of files collected during the scenario. The game gives a letter grade for reach of these categories that are then totaled to a final grade for each of the scenarios. The final letter grade is then converted to points that can be used to upgrade the weapons the player collects throughout each scenario. Each of the weapons have four levels of upgrade that usually upgrades the power of the weapon and the amount of ammo the weapon holds. The player can also collect past items from getting higher grades on each of the scenarios.

Umbrella Chronicles offers a large replay value. The game offers over twenty different scenarios with three different difficulties. Each scenario will require multiple playthroughs in order to collect unlockables and extra points and also to collect all of the Umbrella files. However, one big letdown was the lack of Resident Evil 2 in this game. This game could've easily covered the events of Resident Evil 2 in this game, which would've made it much more enjoyable. At the same time, the lack of locations from the original Resident Evil 3 used in the Raccoon Destruction scenario is also disappointing. Instead, levels from Resident Evil Outbreak are used for this scenario. However, it was nice to see some of the locations from Outbreak used in this game.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles offers a Resident Evil game that fans can play while waiting for Resident Evil 5. The only real flaws in this game are the controls and lack of locations from past Resident Evil games, but the story and action that each of the scenarios make the game a must buy.

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

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