Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"Hit and Miss lightgun shoot 'em up, but great for the fans."

This is by far Capcom's flagship series, and Capcom have delivered a well-constructed game for its beloved fans. Don't be put off by the fact it's an on-rails shooter. The game lasts a fair amount of hours for an on-rails blaster. Around 8 hours for the main game, with more time for collecting files, weapons, etc.

The game is split into different chapters, with sub-chapters in each. Each chapter is reserved for one of the Resident Evil games, with an extra chapter for a brand new level. Games featured include RE0, RE, RE3, and a little from RE2. Your favourite characters make an appearance, such as Jill 'Sandwich' Valentine, Chris Redfield, Rebecca Chambers (still looks 12 years old), and Wesker. Of course, your favourite enemies appear too, including zombies, crimson heads, hunters, Lickers, Tyrants, Nemesis, and a few new enemies, human and monster.

The game is rather hard, even on Easy mode. Of course, as it is an on-rails shooter, the whole ammo-conserving method isn't as important. You are given a standard handgun with infinite bullets, and another weapon of your choice with limited bullets. This means you aren't stuck with no bullets and a single zombie limping up to you, leaving you helpless.

The gameplay is rather simple. You are moved around and you blast everything on screen. Everything. Even non-moving objects, as you get points for them, which are added to your overall score at the end of the chapter. Zombies and crimson heads have special critical points, on their heads, which if you hit, their head explodes, killing them instantly and awarding you with more points to contribute to your overall score. The critical point is rather hard to hit and is more of a bonus feature.

Where the game falls down, unfortunately, is where they forget that they're making an on-rails shooter, where you're supposed to shoot enemies as much as possible. Gun fights are interrupted with moving around, waiting for more enemies. Capcom tried to include some of RE's creepy atmosphere, but it doesn't really work on an on-rails shooter. With an on-rails shooter, you want to have mad gun-fights and shoot-outs, which Umbrella Chronicles has, but it incorporates some of the RE tension that the old games were famous for. It was a good idea, but it didn't really work here.

New enemies are frequent at the start of the game, but after that, the same enemies keep reappearing. The only difference is the bosses. The bosses are rather spectacular, and require some strategic shooting to take down, as real damage is caused by hitting their weak-point, which can be concealed at times.

One thing I noticed is that enemies fall to the ground in a similar manner to as they did in Resident Evil 4. They make the same motions as the enemies in RE 4, which gives the impression that Capcom have recycled some parts of their earlier games to save time. The same goes for some graphics. The levels look recycled too, and the new level looks like work experience designed it. Some graphics look nice, but can be a step back from RE4 at times.

To preserve longetivity, extra stuff has been added, such as sub-missions, like Fourth Survivor with HUNK. Files have been included. Files can be collected during your levels, and give information about the game, such as Marcus' Diary telling you about his creation of the leeches, or Tyrant Notes, telling you about the creation and use of the Tyrant B.O.W.s. There are loads of files to collect, and they'll keep people playing longer. They're rather hard to find, hiding in places such as behind paintings that you have to shoot down. You must find them quick as your view keeps changing.

Weapons can be collected. The majority of weapons can be found by simply playing through the game, while some must be found by playing the sub-missions. Once you find them, you can choose to use them at the start of a level, along with your infinite-bullets handgun. Weapons can be upgraded in the Main Menu screen using stars that you get for completing missions. The higher your rank at the end of a level, the more stars you get. You can upgrade the amount of bullets it can hold, the amount of bullets the gun can hold at one time, and the power. Another longetivity-increasing feature.

The game is designed with the Wii in mind, and the controls are extremely easy to get to grips with. Simply aim and press B to fire. Other actions, such as lobbing a grenade, are performed with the help of the A button. Knife swipes are made by swinging the Wii remote. You can also attack enemies that grab you by swinging the Wii-remote, similar to the style in RE4. Also returning from RE4 are the dodge commands, which also appear in some cutscenes.

Movement is very limited. You'd expect that with an on-rails shooter. You can move slightly from side to side using the nunchuck controller and you can chose which path to follow sometimes.

This is a very solid game that has a good fun factor, with a few minor flaws. Any RE fans will love it, while lightgun fans with no love for zombies will probably be put off. A nice summarisation of the Resident Evil series. A good 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/08

Game Release: Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (EU, 11/30/07)