Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

"The ultimate RE fan-service"

Flashback to 2007. The Wii is still a new phenomenon, and every game developer is ready to jump on the bandwagon and take full advantage of its unique opportunities. Capcom already ported Resident Evil 4 over to the Wii to great success, but with RE5 still far in the distance (and not getting a Wii release), they decided to give Wii owners an exclusive treat in the meantime. That treat became Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and next to Sega's House of the Dead: Overkill it's one of the most fun shooting galleries you'll ever play.

Umbrella Chronicles is an arcade-style lightgun rail shooter that takes players through re-tellings of Resident Evil 0, REmake, and 3 (and to an extent RE2 also). Each game is considered a ‘chronicle' and is broken down into 3 stages. For example, for the REmake chronicle (titled ‘The Mansion Incident'), the first stage takes you through the mansion, the second stage is the courtyard, residence and aqua ring, and the third stage is the laboratory. The characters you can choose to play as are dependent on the game you're playing (for RE0 you can choose between Rebecca or Billy), although the characters are purely aesthetic; both characters work together no matter what.

Presentation

UC is a very polished title, right down to the menus. The Wii Remote's IR cursor is king, and every choice you make will be done by point-and-click. The menu is meant to look like a bulletin board you'd find in the STARS office, with different menu items being polaroid pictures, ID cards or magazine clippings. Memorabilia is everywhere, and fans of the classic RE series (i.e. everything before RE4) will feel right at home.

Luckily, the controls are also spot-on. Your cursor always appears on-screen (it also monitors how many bullets are left in your clip) and will tell you if something can be shot at (and also tells you if you can make a headshot). The IR cursor is quite accurate, which is crucial. The B trigger fires, and a quick flick of the remote is your reload. The D-Pad will cycle through your weapons (and there's a lot to choose from and they all handle differently). Holding down A will bring out your trusty combat knife and flicking the remote will swipe it across the screen (it's great for getting bats out of your face). Holding down A and pressing B will throw a grenade. Zombies can grab you, and by shaking the remote (on cue) you'll use a defense item (just like REmake). Throughout the stages are also some QTE events (kinda similar to RE3), and the button presses are randomized each time you play. It might sound like a lot to remember but after a very short while it will feel like second nature. The Wii Zapper is also supported, but I've never used it. The remote handles well enough on its own.

Graphics

To this day, I consider REmake to have the best graphics I've ever seen in a video game EVER. However, those graphics are pre-rendered (from fixed camera angles) to look so good. UC involves an active camera, therefore more things are polygonal (especially props). Because of this I'd consider UC's graphics slightly inferior to REmake's, but they are still amazing. Those of you who have always wanted to walk through the Spencer Mansion in a first-person perspective, your dreams have come true. For once you feel like you're ‘in' the game, not just watching it from security-camera perspectives. (This is also probably the closest we'll ever get to a graphically REmade RE2 and 3.) Real-time lighting is in full force, and when you shoot all the lights out things can get pretty freaky, especially because zombie retinas glow in the dark (the RE3 subway scene comes to mind). Character models are on-par with REmake, zombies look great and headshots emit fountains of blood from their neck. Unfortunately, up close some textures can be really muddy, but that's just nit-picking.

Audio

UC's soundtrack is mainly ambient, yet still uneasy. Most of the audio from UC comes from the sound effects, of which there are many. Gunshots and reloads are loud and realistic, zombie moans are better than ever, and headshots sound just the way they should. You'll also find some sound effects from RE4 thrown in there for good measure. UC also utilizes the remote's internal speaker: gunshots, reloads, and health powerups all come out of the speaker as well as the TV. The Result screen also plays a great remix of the classic Save Room theme.

The original RE was notorious for its voice acting, then REmake came and helped alleviate that a bit. UC's voicework won't win awards, but it's still better than the original RE's. During the game the characters will hold side-conversations, which although is realistic, it's still odd to hear them speaking so calmly while trying to shake off a zombie.

Gameplay

As I said earlier, UC is basically a shooting gallery that takes you through re-tellings of previous RE games. As well as shooting down zombies, cerberi, spiders, leeches, etc, the environments are highly interactive. Part of your stage ranking is attributed to how many environmental things you shoot, be it furniture, light fixtures (which will blackout the room), paintings, even some doors (which will lead to bonus rooms). Some objects will hide green herbs (health increase), extra guns, and files (more on those later). You can even use these objects to your advantage: you can shoot down chandeliers to land on/kill oncoming enemies.

Story-wise, the re-telling of RE0 is fairly accurate. The REmake chronicle shakes things up a bit from the original game. Richard is found wounded in the library instead of the attic hallway, and the only fight with Yawn is now the library fight (after Yawn chases you through the mansion in a really cool bit), which was originally a second boss fight much later in the game. Classic RE diehards will find these discrepancies and ask the question ‘which version of the game is true canon?'. RE3's chronicle is very loose, tying in more with the RE movies than the game. Most of Stage 3 goes through RE2 locations, and the final Nemesis battle is on the roof of the police station. (I was disappointed too when I realized we wouldn't be going to the clock tower, hospital, or park.) UC also features an exclusive chronicle starring Jill and Chris that takes place in Russia, set just before RE4 (Feb 2003 to be exact) that illustrates the true fall of Umbrella (and true rise of Wesker).

Replay Value

Similar to shmups, rail shooters are often plagued with short length. Thankfully, that is not the case with UC. There are 12 main stages, and they average about 10-12 minutes each. (Compare that to some stages in House of the Dead 2 which are over before they begin.) By ranking high in the stages, you'll unlock bonus stages. These are brand-new adventures that take place during the chronicle which will answer age-old story loopholes. For example, there are a few REmake bonus stages where you take control of Rebecca and Richard, wandering through the mansion before Jill and Chris even arrived. You'll also control Wesker after his Tyrant attack, where he races against the time bomb through the mansion, bracing onslaughts of Hunters and Chimera, all while being stalked by Lisa Trevor. (We also finally see the true death of Lisa.) RE3's bonus stages are great as well. There's a bonus chapter where you control Ada Wong through the infested Raccoon City streets (this also sets up the RE4 quest ‘Assignment Ada'), as well as a chapter starring HUNK which re-tells the ‘4th Survivor' quest. It's one fan-service after another, and it's great. After completing all the stages there's an unlockable ‘Special Stage' which is a true shooting gallery involving comical zombies in one of the labs.

Hidden among environmental objects in each stage are Files (they appear as Umbrella logos and are accompanied by the ‘get item' RE4 sound effect). These files are catalogued onto an extensive list and re-tell the stories of the chronicled games in text. Also to be uncovered are important files from the original games (like George Trevor's diary) and files describing the origins of the characters/creatures/locations and etc. It's great to have a place to find all these RE documents compiled.

There are 3 difficulty settings in UC, and each stage must be S-Ranked on each difficulty level for true completion. Ranking is based on time spent, enemies killed, enemies killed with a headshot, environmental objects destroyed, and files collected. S-Ranking stages on Normal or higher will also unlock a ‘key item' from one of the previous games on the File screen (like Rebecca's mixing set from RE0 or the Square Crank from REmake). High ranks will also give you a certin number of Star Points. Star Points are used as currency to buy upgrades for your weapons. (Each one can be level up to 5.)

Not to be forgotten is the 2P co-op mode! Because there are always two characters together on each stage, two players can work together to play through the stages. They share a single life bar, so it's important that both players do their best. Scores are tallied separately, bringing in a small feeling of competition. 2-player games almost-always result in very low ranks because the would-be score is essentially split in two (so you can't cheat an S-Rank in Hard mode by playing co-op because instead of an S you'll both get Bs). Bonus stages that star only a single character, appropriately, cannot be played in co-op.

Overall

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is a great Wii title worthy of the lofty RE name. It's essentially one giant fan-service that brings new RE followers up to speed and clarifies some new things with RE veterans (while also re-writing what was once canon =\). Those of you looking for a satisfying and mature experience with the software-maligned Wii will find great solace in UC. The idea is great and the execution is greater. It's great to see that Capcom saw success with UC, as they are now in the middle of developing the Darkside Chronicles, which will properly chronicle RE2 as well as RE: Code Veronica (at least that's all they've told us so far). I have no doubt that DC will be a great companion to UC and can't wait for its release!

Final Comment: I really wish the Special Stage actually had a point to it…

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/09

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