Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"Capcom mixes the old with the new to make a great Wii shooter"

If you are looking for action and great Co-op fun, then Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is the game for you. RE: UC also adds to the Resident Evil storyline. Plots have been filled, as well as many questions you might have had about the first 3 installments (RE: 0,2 and 3). Capcom has also added a brand new chapter to the storyline called "Umbrella End". Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a on reails shooter. The graphics are really nice on the Wii console. The game looks better than 90% of Wii games to date. You can see that Capcom really tried on the real time graphics. Yes I said real time graphics. There are no signs of pre-rendered graphics at all. However, there are CG movies throughout the game. They look really good as well. The controls are really easy to use, just like every other RE game. You use the B button to shoot, the Up/Down D-pad buttons to scroll through the weapons you've obtained, and the A button to swap between the secondary actions. To pick up weapons you place your cursor over the item and simply press the A button. The secondary actions while holding the A button is to press the B button (while holding the A button "A+B") to throw a grenade. Throwing the grenade depends on where your cursor is pointing. So in other words if you point your cursor at the top of your screen, you will most likely throw your grenade behind all of the enemies, unless it takes a lucky bounce off of a ceiling. The other secondary function while holding the A button is to use your knife by shaking your Wii-mote. The knifing is pretty much responsive when you shake the Wii mote. You reload you weapons by shake the Wii mote quickly (while NOT holding the A button of course). The Wii Zapper is supported, but is not necessarily needed. Everyone has mixed feelings when playing the game while using the Wii Zapper. Some might like it and some might not. The nunchuck can be used to move the camera around and the Z and C buttons takes the place of the A button and the up/down D-pad buttons. The nunchuck isn't even needed to play the game. During missions you can find green herbs to regain health. If you are lucky enough to find First-Aid Spray, then if your health grade drops to zero, you will be revived with a full bar of health. Luckily First-Aid spray are easy to find and you carry up to three of them at a time.


The gameplay is purely action! There are 3 different difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard) that will suit all gamers, novices,casual gamers, as well as hardcore gamers. Capcom sure tried really hard to make this on-rails shooter a great Wii experience and they have succeeded. The game is fun! Very fun! The Co-op is very fun and everyone will have a blast while playing RE:UC. The game is really fun and the boss battles are superb! The Zombies are somewhat relentless and have a taste for pure un-infected blood. The game does feel rather realistic because there are plenty of objects that you can destroy. Objects such as Lamps, windows, tables, candles, doors, and many more can be destroyed. You can also choose the character you wish to play as (if the mission has 2 protagonist. Each character has their own specific counterattack! When a zombie grabs your character you can shake your wii-mote to perform a counterattack. If you use counterattack a lot you will have to shake the wii-mote faster in order to successfully execute the counterattack, or else you can just try to shoot the zombie off of you (the knife or the shotgun works well up close!!!). In Co-op mode the other player can bail you out if they shoot the zombie enough if you fail to successfully execute the counterattack. There are plenty of weapons in the game you can unlock. Weapons includes, shotguns, sub-machine guns, rocket launchers and grenade launchers. The Handgun is the default weapon and has unlimited bullets. Other weapons have a limit for bullets so use your limited guns wisely. The knife is very usful as well for close attacks and enemies that are hard to shoot and fly towards the screen. When you complete missions you will receive a grade. As you receive your grade you will receive stars and unlock various weapons, various items and reports as well. The stars you collect can be used to upgrade weapons you have obtained. However the handgun and the knife cannot be upgraded. Did I mention that there are multiple routes on the missions that you can take. I like the fact that Capcom added different routes for players to take, because it's exciting to see the different areas in the missions.

Although the game is fun, exciting and has great replay value, the length of the game is short. The game can easily be completed within 6 hours of gameplay. However, there are bonus/hidden missions to unlock. This adds tons of replay value. So if you include the hidden missions you can be looking at about 7 hours and 30 minutes of gameplay. Considering that this is a on-rails shooter, the game is really long for its type. Don't be surprised if you find yourself throwing in 20 hours of gameplay trying to unlock everything in the game! Another thing I did not like about the game was when the characters were looking around for no reason. I like what Capcom tried to do, but Capcom basically overdone the "looking around" when there were no enemies in sight. This can happen for up to 1 minute and takes away from the action. Looking around brings realism and nervousness into the game, but it's an over-kill Capcom. I can't understand how Capcom grades Co-op missions. Just like the single player missions, each category is broken own and graded. The grades in Co-op missions are pretty much always on average of "C", no matter how well you do. You will have to be lucky if you receive a "B" or a "A". There are hidden characters and missions for these characters to unlock. So getting a good grade on all of the missions really pays off! Other than a few pet peeves I have, Capcom shaped the game up nicely as you would expect from any other Resident Evil game. There are also explodable objects throughout a few chapters that includes oil drums/barrels and cars. Capcom has included a "Action Command". Basically, you press the button the pops up on the screen during missions. This makes the game even more intriguing and fun! You will press various buttons throughout the missions, espacially during boss battle. In Co-op both players share the same health bar and have their own "Action Command". Player 1 "Action Command" ison the left, while Player 2 "Action Command" is on the right. Both players must successfully press the correct buttons corresponding to what the game tells them to or else both characters will die or you will lose life. YES, you must press the "Action Buttons" as they appear, even during boss battles in Co-op!

Overall I think that Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a really decent game. The game is kinda short, but the replay value is very high which will add hours of gameplay. I think it was a smart move on Capcom part to make a on-rails shooter on the Wii, but sadly Capcom did not include Resident Evil 2, or Resident Evil: Code Veronica. This would have easily made the gameplay nearly 9 hours long. Too bad Capcom left those great games out of the bunch. You can see that Capcom got a little lazy in the development because you see the same zombies throughout the missions. it's pretty bad when you notice this so soon in a mission. Other enemies looks great. I feel that RE:UC is definitely worth the purchase.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles receives a 8.3 out of 10

*SKNMAK BREAKDOWN*

Graphics: 8.2/10
The graphics looks really nice. Everything is real time during game play. There are a few CG moments, but these are usually movies and/or intros for upcoming bosses or events. This game easily looks better than most Wii games to date. It's good to see that some developers are atleast trying in the graphics department on the Wii. The textures in the game looks passable and the enemies all looks great. Zombies eye's open and close as well as their mouths. You will notice even the smallest details on the enemies, including the amazing bosses. The explosions looks great!!! This game will satisfy your Wii eye candy.

Controls: 9/10
The controls are simple to learn and easy to master. The Wii Zapper is supported too. There are 3 different control schemes for the Wii-mote, including the Zapper control settings. You can also adjust the camera settings used with the nunchuck. Such as invert the Y axis for the camera controls. The nunchuck isn't even needed to play the game. All you need is a wii-mote, or two wii- motes for co-op play. The controls are very responsive and never lags. Even if you are playing during co-op the controls are always responsive. Both players can use nunchucks and control the camera, but you will have to set this up correctly in the options menu. The Zapper is also compatible for both players. Aiming depends on you 100%!

Gameplay: 8.6/10
One thing I can easily say about Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is that this game is action packed. I love the relentless enemies and the "zction commands". Capcom added all the ingredients needed for this on-rails recipe. you can move the camera around 180 degrees for the best camera angle positions. The boss battles are some of the best ever in a on-rails shooter. You even have to perform action commands during bass battles or else you will take damage. It feels really good when you (and a partner if you are playing Co-op) successfully execute a action command or a counterattack. Capcom has the difficulty down packed to suit all gamers. There are plenty of objects to destroy as well as hidden items to collect. The zombies looks nice, but you will see the same zombies plenty of times throughout the missions. Some zombies will have the same exact face with diffferent clothing (LOL). So you might eventually think "Didn't I just kill you!?". Some zombies just looks the same all together. The blood is there, but is almost nonexisting. The only time you really see a lot of blood is when you perform a critical hit on zombies. The results in there head magically disappearing and blood shortly squirts out the top of their head. That's basically it, other than beating bosses. No limbs fall off and there is basically little to no gore in RE:UC. We are used to Resident Evil games packed with blood and gore, but RE: UC fails in this category. The gameplay is still a strong point in RE:UC because the game is just so damn fun with tons of things to do and unlock. There are different routes you can take to battle different enemies and obtain more secrets in the game. Overall the gameplay is solid.

Fun Dactor: 8.4/10
RE: UC is undoubtedly one of the best games to play in Q4 2007. The replay value is very high because RE:UC offers more than just the typical on-rails shooter style of gameplay. There are so many things for you to do in order to stay alive. Things things include collecting items, using the environment to your advantage and just plain out blowing things up! The co-op is top notch and very fun to play for hours! The counterattacks are cool, but it would have been better if characters had more than one counterattack move. It would have been nice to unlock more counterattack moves or something. The breakdown of the grades are nice, but atrocious for co-op mode. Don't expect to get high grades during co-op! The single player graded is nice overall. There are a few plain textures in the game, but the graphics are really nice. There are plenty of enemies to defeat and they will try their best to dodge your attacks! Everything is well polished and visiting previous RE locations never looked so good. I really wish Capcom would've included RE: 2 and RE: Code Veronica. RE: UC is short. For the type of game it is I guess you can say it's kinda lengthy. The game can be completed very quickly, but the extra missions and unlockables makes the gameplay longer. It's really a blast and shooting zombies never felt so good. The game put you in the middle of the mayhem and it feels very realistic. Other than the pointless "looking around" that can last for up to a minute, the gameplay is really good. RE:UC has a lot promise and deserves a purchase in my opinion. Hopefully there will be a terrific sequel next year or year after next. Pick this title up ASAP.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/07

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