Hated, hated, hated this game. It's actually a really great Resident Evil experience, but you're too often able to put yourself into unbeatable situations unwittingly. The Tyrant plane is basically a guaranteed full-game restart if you don't know it's coming.

Yep, the boss fights in this game are maybe the weakest in the mainline series, apart from 6 of course. The last boss absolutely sucks just because it's so frustrating. The tyrant on the plane is terrible, too. Just too many fights with very little room to maneuver. Aside from the bosses, I do think the game is really good. Although I do kind of hate fighting the bandersnatches, too.

I can't possibly fathom how you liked Steve, though. He's such a whiny douche that it's almost unbearable even though he's not in THAT much of the game.

I agree on the story beats. The Alfred/Alexia plot is really twisted and weird in a way that you wouldn't ever expect from a game like this, which inherently makes it interesting. The fact that it's also told pretty well is almost a bonus. I also like the story because it's where the Wesker stuff start going totally off the rails. I would have to imagine that there a lot of fans like you, who never played this game and have no perspective on why Wesker is such a fucking bonkers character.

Out of curiosity, did you bring the fire extinguisher to Antarctica?

@onekillwonder_: to help my playthroughs not waste too much time, I try to find a few hints or tips on the game that aren't spoilers but just ease the experience. Bring the extinguisher was one of them.

And it was really nice to get the wesker bridge of just a bad scientist in 0 and 1, to crazy moster guy in 5. Something that I never had before until now.

As far as I understand, the only major differences between OG Code Veronica for the Dreamcast and Code Veronica X are that they added a few more cutscenes with Wesker and changed Steve's haircut. There are no real gameplay differences.

The first time I played this game the Tyrant on the plane totally killed my run because I didn't have enough ammo. That is one of two times that nightmare scenario has actually occurred in a Resident Evil game for me, the other being an aborted speedrun attempt of Zero years ago. Did you feel like the game was sorta stingy with ammo during Claire's portion but weirdly generous during Chris'? Are Bandersnatches the worst? Or are hunters the worst? How ridiculous are those Infinite Rocket Launcher requirements? (FYI they are: Beat the game in under 4:30, no saves outside of the freebie where the disk swap would be, and no continues.)

I guess I've made my feelings on this game pretty clear though, in that I think it's my least favorite old-style game in the series. I know people like to dump on RE 0, and that game is sort of weak, but this game has a half-dozen little things that annoy me a lot more. Even then, I'd still say it's a totally okay, totally serviceable Resident Evil game with some pacing issues and terrible boss fights. But at least it's better than the light gun games! I hope you have move controllers or something, because I can't imagine your experience being great without them.

Oh Code: Veronica... I'm quite surprised to read that you enjoyed it as if I had to guess it's the least liked game of the classic survival horror entries. That's not just my own bias trying to steer the narrative or anything I should say :P, and that I have genuinely seen Veronica get thrown under the bus more often than not when it's brought up, including these forums of course.

I don't really know where I stand with the story, though. This is the moment from where Capcom tried to come up with a crazy backstory behind Umbrella and to try and elevate them from ''faceless, evil, ominous scientist people'' into ''evil, ominous aristocratic, preppy scientists''. Umbrella had usually functioned as a means by which to give the zombies and such some sort of origin, where Veronica tries to give them a little motivation beyond 'let's be evil''. On the one hand, however, I could definitely see why this is the point where it goes off the rails for some, and how Umbrella existing as this big unknown added to their mystique and any attempt in trying to give them a backstory destroys that. Still, Alfred in particular is so much of a fucked up character that he's akin to a Resident Evil's interpretation of a Silent Hill character. He's largely rather absurd, but that only adds to his appeal and overall memorability I find. I'd say he's a much better villain than Wesker at the very least.

All the same, I've always loved how the original RE in particular tolds its story rather minimally. Most of it is told via files and diaries you'll uncover, explaining how the mansion incident came to be. It would drop bits and pieces of information gradually, whereas every RE since then has relied more on regular cutscenes. Diaries and memos still exist, but they quickly got to be about on the same level as the files and such, giving the games a more Hollywood feel than the original's b-movie aesthetic. I do like that Capcom at the very least decided to come up with as a weird a backstory to give Umbrella as possible without involving aliens. A preppy, potentially incestous family of redheads? Ha, OK then.

Though I do also think it's a tad disappointing that they never used Wesker's revival as a means to potentially consider what it's like to not only die, but then resurrect with that feeling still firmly locked into your mind. It could have attempted all of the tropes regarding an existential crisis and wondering what's beyond life ect. Wesker was already an egomaniacal nutjob, so his transition amidst Veronica just seems like what it would look if aforementioned nutjob is then give a crazy amount of power. I would have liked if the experience had actually broken Wesker, and while he'd still be crazy, he'd be less 'maniacal cackling crazy' and more 'I literally have no idea what I'm even doing' crazy. I suppose that's expecting too much from a series like Resident Evil, though.

I do at least like the framing of ''Redfields vs Ashfords - fight!'' with the whole sibling thing. In fact I suppose family in general plays a pivotal role within the game, not the least of which concerning Steve Burnside having to kill his dad. But on that note, fuck Steve Burnside. I mean not only is his voice acting irredeemably bad--but not the funny bad ala the original RE--as a character he's just such a whiny fuck up of a wanker. I mean, he's a teenager, so I guess that justify him being as much of a nuisance. But he thusly shouldn't have played such a big role in the game. I mean, he takes those damned luger pistols and doesn't even give 'em to you? Even though you saved him from potentially dying of dehydration/starvation? Well fuck you very much you ungrateful shit! Then there was the moment where he inevitably destroyed the bulldozer (I think?) because he was too transfixed on Claire's ass. Again, teenager, but even though he does eventually bite it he should have died much, much sooner. Soon enough so Claire wouldn't then, for some reason, grow an attachment to him. He's just such a useless git, though it is a funny twist of events that he's constantly having to be saved by Claire and is very much a... don in distress? I also found it to be really strange as to why they let him play as him for literally, like, 5 minutes or whatever to test out his submachine guns. Also, remember that time he starts firing into nothing--wasting all of that ammo that you collected for him--during the aftermath of that segment? Seriously, fuck that guy. Claire should have been constantly scolding him akin to a little brother that has a temper tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants, not falling in love with the bloody twat.

...In any case, I also find Veronica to be pretty mediocre for another whole host of reasons, most of which I had already posted in your previous blog:

• The art style sucks and makes the game look more akin to a Dreamworks movie. And as you yourself said its 3D backgrounds pale in relation to the pre-rendered work of every other classic RE game. The backgrounds in Veronica as a result just look super bland.

• It features none of the awesome new features that RE3 introduced beyond the 180 degree turn. The only new mechanic really is your ability to dual-wield a couple of firearms.

• You once again have to press the action button to automatically walk up/down stairs? Really? And what's worse is the zombies can totally start walking up/down themselves, which in turn forces you to have to wait for them to make their ascent/descent before you can use the staircases.

• Zombies heads no longer explode when shot with a magnum... A small gripe, but a gripe nonetheless.

• There are barely any unlockables, and what is there is rather piecemeal. The Battle Game minigame is also easily the worst minigame the RE series has seen, speaking for the mainline games anywhoo.

Then there's the bosses, to which I see they at least you're willing to agree are made up of all the bullshit. That tyrant boss on the cargo plane is infamous for how fucked it is. Like, its attacks are seemingly impossible to avoid, and running out of ammo seems to be a common occurrence for most for a first playthrough. Then there's of course Alexia's blob form, to which you're constantly being swatted over and over again by those little pod things. The small size of the arena, and the awkward camera placement, results in an absolute clusterfuck. The thing is bosses in classic RE games shouldn't be difficult. Because the combat's so simple to begin with, bosses should exist purely as a means to force players to expel their ammo, to try and stop the possibility that players eventually start accruing too much. The actual fight itself should be relatively easy and otherwise exist for spectacle.

However, I do think the Nosferatu boss was interesting. The poison smog is annoying, but the idea of actually heading into first-person was intriguing. Staring down your scope in your attempts to shoot its heart, waiting for it to slowly come out of the fog, I always thought was incredibly chilling.

Another thing I do also actually like about Veronica are the number of hidden choices you can make. The most prime example being whether or not you give Rodrigo the medicine to heal his wounds or not; if so, he'll give you a lockpick, which not only allows you to open a number of lockers/drawers ect., but also results in he giving Chris the lighter necessary to unlock the submachine guns. The Nosferatu boss too is clever for how if you manage to avoid getting poisoned by it, then you won't have to find the medicine to heal Claire as Chris later on. On the flipside, the way you can actually transfer items via the item box between Claire & Chris feels borderline unfinished. Because you obviously won't know when the part where you'll switch to Chris is coming on a first playthrough, it's insane that they actually even feature such a concept. It also means that upon knowing this fact you can eventually gift Chris basically everything in the game when you temporarily play as Claire again in another playthrough. After all you can't beat the Steve boss, so you don't need to hold onto anything beyond your pistol and some handgun ammo, so everything else you have you can dump in there and have waiting for Chris. But that they don't explicitly tell you you can do that seems so peculiar. You'd think they would have made something more out of it, such as potentially having you switching between Claire & Chris at will similar to RE0, but instead what you have is an idea that nobody on a first playthrough is going to even realise is in the game.

Also, as @arbitrarywater said, the only additions the 'X' version added is a couple of new cutscenes with Wesker (specifically when Claire is kicked around by him outside the mansion, and the ending cutscene where Chris & Wesker fight) and Steve getting a new hairstyle... for whatever reason.

I think the HD remaster of this added better environmental lighting.

I recall that this game started off really easy and then got difficult when they started throwing handfuls of bandersnatches at you in Claire's scenario. And then went back to easy once you've stockpiled a bunch of health items and weapons. I'm trying to remember how you can get stuck in this game. Was it because there are points in the game where item boxes aren't available? Or was it because you can lose important items if you don't go back for them in that metal detector box?

As for the story, it definitely was a turning point in the RE series. It's probably when the series' overall tone shifted heavily towards action. I used to think that that opening CG of Claire breaking into Umbrella was cool, but looking at it back now... Well, at least least we got Leon's amazing one-liners out of all this.

By the way, how stupid was the lack of animations for turning in this game? I used to find it hilarious. That unlockable first person Gun Game mode or whatever it was called was pretty cool though.

Yup! That opening is just so dumb when I think back to it now. Every other game featured the characters just barely escaping from a horde of zombies or dogs, with RE3 in particular featuring an entire police force, and even an army, getting wiped out. Then Veronica arrives and has Claire managing to avoid helicopter fire, in slow-motion of course, and then there's that scene where she drops her handgun only to catch it and fire at the barrels and god fucking damnit why. Veronica was released around the time of the movie wasn't it? That's probably what made them decide to start anting the action up. To which they then scale it all back down again with the remake and RE0.

@nightriff: Yeah, the Chronicles games have local co-op. Just throws another reticule on the screen.

CVX is totally okay. While it has some really stupid stuff in it, the dumb story bits are actually dumb enough to be really entertaining. Plus, I genuinely enjoy all of the Wesker scenes that CVX added. Another new scene for CVX was Wesker fighting Alexia in the mansion. Before, she shot fire at him and he scrambled out of the mansion. All in all, his CVX presentation is much more consistent with his RE5 persona, as well as the rest of the series starting with the REmake.

Gameplay-wise, it has some serious flaws, but it is what it is.

@quarters: Great to know that there is local co-op, will it be used....I'm doubtful but I will push her to play with me at least once or twice.

@yummylee: Guess we found the RE game that broke Yummylee :), Interestingly enough I found your RE ranking list and was surprised CVX wasn't lower.

I feel weird trying to defend some of these games. Something about playing an older/controversial game years later tends to allow me to forgive things about it them. This leads to a weird desire to defend (at least parts of) games that I maybe ought not to. All I can say is when it was all said in done I enjoyed my time with the game. Most of my positives do have counter points that I absolutely understand and even except. While I though the game looked quite good, a lot of the environments are plain, but when they did nail an environment (most of Antarctica I would say) it led to a far more engaging experience at the end. I did forget about the non-animations throughout, I was super annoyed with no turning animation when I first started playing, but eventually I just didn't care anymore.

Then no unlockables do suck, but I honestly accept that this very well be my only experience with these games so a lack of unlockables doesn't bother me.

Crazy enough I have a love hate relationship with the Tyrant boss on the plane. I think with some very minor changes that boss fight could be quite memorable and maybe one of the best in the series. If they only: a) gave you more room to maneuver and thus had a better chance to avoid his attacks or b) gave more stun animations and/or more clues as to when you can knock him out, that fight would've been great! But I now sit here writing and say that the fight wasn't all that bad as it was incredibly difficult and memorable. He was a puzzle, a difficult puzzle and it was very satisfying beating him when even strategies I found online didn't work and I had to figure out my own (yet not that creative) thing to beat him. Its the fact that the other bosses were more annoying is what led to my rant of the bosses. And I absolutely agree with you on the bosses mentality that these games should've had. I would say all of them except DC had a incredibly annoying boss fight that was way more difficult than it ever should've been.

I did mention it a little in the blog, but I appreciate both styles in story telling that appear in these games. On one hand, I like being told/shown what is happening, sometimes I just don't put 2 and 2 together and I miss things that are either important or I would appreciate knowing. The other hand realizes that with little story in the beginning led to memorable puzzles, places, atmosphere and encounters. Partially why I give so much credit to the story telling in CVX, they actually tried to do somethings that were interesting and different from the previous games, most hit for me but quite a bit sounds like it missed for you.

@thunderslash: @arbitrarywater: I have to side with arbitrarywater on this one, Claire's early game is incredibly difficult but near the end it gets easier (I some how managed my ammo enough so the tyrant didn't totally sap everything, those explosive darts are the way to go with him). For at least the first hour+ I was scrapping by on ammo, and was actually tense in playing as I didn't know when I would get any more ammo, a vast difference from RE3.

The bandersnatchers suck ass, but they are in very little of the game so by the time they were gone is when bosses really started to bother me, I totally had forgotten about them. Weirdly enough the hunters were a non-issue, I was shockingly able to either evade them or the shotgun took them down with two rounds, kind of crazy that I was that successful against them considering my past experiences against them. And I was nowhere close to the infinite launcher, CVX easily is the RE game that I saved the most so far and I personally clocked my playtime at around 5:30, but I had 10 continues, not even sure where those continues came from as I decided to go back to a previous save after I couldn't beat Alexia with the weapons I brought, and the tyrant I just kept reloading the save rather than used a continue, Nosferatu was only a handful of times.

And to counter the last part arbitrarywater, I like/enjoy both CVX and RE0. They are not bad games by any stretch of the margin. I personally do think people dump on both games more than they actually deserve, but both have quirks and issues that are very hard to defend and at some point its just up to the player on how much you are willing to put up with.

And to everyone's comments on Steve, I thought he was fine, again my biggest issue was Claire falling for him. Other than that, he served a purpose (it was weird that you literally control him for 5 minutes but that might be stretching it). I won't sit here and defend his terrible VA, but so far every RE game has had at least one terrible VA so I give him a pass on that.

@nightriff: Eh, the disdain I may have for Veronica doesn't begin to compare to the amount of ranting & raving I've done about RE6. I wish I could try and write up another blog to further reflect on my evolving thoughts for that game, but honestly I always have so much to say about that game that I'm finding it difficult to muster up the motivation to try and write it all up so it resembles something coherent. Then again I've always wanted to write up something about RE5 as well, though I've long planned to at least wait until its inevitable remastering that's surely on its ways after RE0. And cheers for the list recommendation.

More importantly, Code Veronica was released a year after a little movie called The Matrix. Because yo, Wesker is just The Matrix and the intro to that game is totally The Matrix. But if we want to ask "Where did the story of Resident Evil start going off the rails into crazy-town?" then I think we can all agree it's Code Veronica, the game you and I are in agreement about. Still love that you put way more time into RE6 than I did even though you seem to hate it more than me!

@nightriff: After playing it again at the end of last year, I can't say that Zero is substantially better than Code Veronica, but I still like what it does with mood and atmosphere a lot more. It's still easily the black sheep of those old style games though. I couldn't tell you where Code Veronica sits in terms of broader reception (i.e. from people who aren't as crazy as Yummylee and I), but anyone who puts it anywhere NEAR RE2 and REmake is objectively wrong and also a poop-head.

Riiiight, of course! And the RE movie was released in 2002, which is after the X re-release let alone the original. So yes, The Matrix was indeed likely an inspiration for where they wanted to tonally take the series. That would also explain the peculiar inclusion of dual-wielding weapons, too!

@yummylee: I think between the two of us, we could write a 100-page doctoral thesis on the failings of RE6. Fuck that game to kingdom come.

I also loved the opening cut-scene to CVX as a kid. Looking at it now, it's no doubt incredibly stupid but it still has its charm. Resident Evil Apocalypse lifted a good portion of that opening wholesale for one of its many action scenes, too. And then realizing how much the RE movies became The Matrix later on, the entire thing becomes this convoluted, incomprehensible clusterfuck of "what influenced what?". Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Resident Evil Survivor was instrumental in the success of The Matrix.

Jeez, even at their worst I'd still much rather play the dregs of RE than watch any of their movies. OK, maybe discounting the spin-offs at least... Operation Raccoon City is the sort of bad that deserves to be wiped clean from history. I would rather play all four campaigns of RE6 again than go through a RE movie marathon is what I'm saying anywhoo.

@onekillwonder_: @yummylee: so what you guys are saying is I should not do a movie marathon at one point like I was potentially planning on doing? I've only seen the first 2, first one is a mediocre film, 2 was a fun bad film that I enjoyed.

@nightriff: I legitimately and unabashedly enjoy the first three movies. I think the first film actually has a pretty good atmosphere and some cool moments, while also being a slow-burn horror/thriller. Not perfect, but there is far, far worse out there. Apocalypse is exactly as you described, "fun bad". It's hokey as hell but the action is almost non-stop and the characters are actually kind of endearing and fun. Extinction is my favorite of the series, and it's structured and paced like a more typical action film. It has kind of a "Mad Max with zombies" feel to it. It's got its share of dumb moments, too, but overall I'd say this is the best of the bunch from a production standpoint. I like the setting and the action quite a bit.

I'm having trouble remembering what 4 and 5 are called right now. The fourth movie is far and away the worst. It's got an interesting set up, and the first 10 minutes or so are cool, but I fucking hated that every single action scene was completely laden in slow-mo. It felt so fucking gimmicky and cheap, more than most movies that try that shit. This is also the point where the over-arching plot of the series starts to reflect on the bat-shit insanity of the games' plot. Except here it's just bad dumb instead of fun dumb. The fact that Umbrella is still a corporation is still vying for some type of control when the entire planet is a scorched hellhole makes no sense at all. I wouldn't say it's unwatchable, and there are surprisingly many who consider it the best in the series rather than the worst, so you may like it more than me. But fuck those people anyway.

The fifth film is like a mix between the second and fourth. It retains the visual style of the fourth and still has a bunch of slow-mo, although it doesn't go overboard. Like Apocalypse, it also has nearly non-stop action and very little plot. It's a fun watch, and they bring back a bunch of old characters in a stupid way, which I liked. Also, Leon and Barry are in it for some reason.

@nightriff: Well I wouldn't recommend it, but then if you managed to get some enjoyment out of Apocalypse then the others might be worth a watch? I've only seen the first two myself, both of which I thought were abysmal, and I was in my early teens! I watched like the first 10 minutes of... the fifth one? I don't even know. Whichever one first introduced Chris Redfield into the movies. Anywhoo I attempted to sit through it by as said before I only made it to like 10 minutes before I had had enough.

Also, the CG movies really aren't much better. Damnation in particular is just terrible, though it does have an OK fight scene between a Tyrant and some lickers.

I stopped playing this game around the time when Steve turns into a monster and you have to run away from him in the hallway. He would always get 1 hit in. I would die. There were no herbs around to find and I only had one save before this part. So said fuck it.

@yummylee: I watched the first CG when it was first released (friends around that time were big RE fans) and remember thinking it was ok. I think you should at least give the first RE movie a shot again. Even the Ryan Davis thought the movie had its own merits. Me liking 2 was because it was "its so bad its good." I don't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure there was a scene near the end where Nemesis and Mila (whatever the hell that characters name is) where going to kiss ala Alien vs. Predator ending. I also loved how Nemesis was this slow movie, robotic character more akin to a terminator rather than this vicious, terrifying beast. Even though I hadn't played RE3 at the time, I knew at least what type of bad guy he was.

@vierastalo:Sad to hear that, you were literally 20 minutes away from the ending. A tip I read was bring a few healing items when you start as Claire again so when I got into that room, just how the scenes are framed I knew it was a running fight rather than a battle, so he only hit me twice but I had full heals ready to go and made it out.

@nightriff: The thing is I have actually seen the first relatively recently. I mean it still musta been a few years ago but it was long after I had first seen it. And yet all repeated viewings have lead to me disliking it even more. I'll admit I thought it was OK the first time, but as time went on I started to question whether I actually liked it or if I was just going along with the common mentality that ''well, compared to the other movies it's really not that bad!''. After watching it with the intention to truly judge it for myself... I found it to be really boring; the laser hall scene is still cool, but that's just it. The first RE movie basically has one good scene in it and the rest just feels like filler.

I never liked Degeneration all that much to begin with, however. Like the first RE live-action movie I just first it was kinda dull, and how Leon in particular was painfully boring and much more stoic than his goofiness in RE4. That, and I don't think either of the CG movies visually look very good. The lip syncing is rubbish and everybody looks like mannequins. The cutscenes in RE5 look much better funnily enough, and are not to mention better directed. The flashback sequence featuring Chris & Jill getting whupped by Wesker in Spencer's Mansion is more entertaining than both CG movies combined I'd say.

@yummylee: I think it's telling that I totally forgot there was a second CG Resident Evil movie.

@yummylee: @arbitrarywater: I'm planning on watching those cg movies as they are canon. I think I'm going to write about 5000 words on them just to annoy you guys.

I routinely forgot its existence leading up to its release, with the occasional reminder somehow falling into my peripheral vision. I didn't watch it as soon as like I did Degeneration, but that I still eventually bought that bloody thing on bluray left me with a slight tinge of buyer's remorse upon watching it...

Ehhhhh. I mean, Degeneration sorta fits in if only for introducing Terra Save, but Damnation really has nothing going for it story-wise. In fact I was often left perplexed as to just where the Hell it fits in the timeline. Nothing substantial occurs in Damnation anywhoo, so even if it is technically canon I could just as easily handwave it away as officially sanctioned fan-fiction.

@arbitrarywater: I wish I listened to you and got move controllers previously or at least the wii version, I found the railshooters basically unplayable with the controller and absolutely infuriating to try and beat (on easy too).