Despite deciding to take a little break from the forums to catch up on homework and such, I still find time to play old games that the majority of you haven't given a shit about in a long time. This time it's the last main-series Resident Evil game I needed to play: Code Veronica. I have played RE1 on the DS, RE2 on the N64, RE3 on the Gamecube, and now this on the PS2, which I find kind of funny since these are all ports from their original platforms. But enough exposition, time for some Reviewing!(?) Stuff.
Code Veronica was originally released on the Dreamcast (and then ported to the PS2 and Gamecube with roughly 3 new cutscenes, which somehow warrants a
Unlike RE3, Code Veronica dedicates a strangely generous amount of time to it's story, which I found to be bad in some spots, and laughably terrible in others. I got the feeling that RE1 and even RE2 and 3 were trying to go for a B horror movie vibe. Not this game. . From the creepy, almost incestuous relationship between Alfred and Alexia to the LULZ attempt at a romantic subplot, to the attempts at making it feel like an action movie despite the fact that you control like a tank, this is questionable writing at it's best, because the cheese is all gone, and all that is left is a pizza that nobody wants to eat (if you get that metaphor). It doesn't even try to be scary, which is sad. However, I may have said too much and given off the impression that I care about the Resident Evil story, because I don't. The sheer number of plot holes, retcons, and lame twists rival that of most comic book superheroes, and if Albert Wesker has to choke a bitch, he may do so.
But enough about the story, how does it play? Like a Resident Evil game. /thread. Just kidding. No really, it plays a lot like every other Pre-RE4 Resident Evil game in that you pick up things to use on things, shooting zombies and generally run around like a tank. So I like it, right? Sure. Kind of. The thing about Code Veronica that really stuck with me was the length. I could probably finish all four scenarios of RE2 in the time it took me to get through this game (roughly 10 hours), and "survival horror" (which is still not a genre) doesn't exactly work well with that amount of length. The length feels a little artificial, given that most of it comes from backtracking all your steps like this was Castlevania or something. Maybe someone else liked this change of structure, but I found the plodding pacing to be (once again) contradictory to the "YO ZOMBIES ACTION GUNS" tone that I was getting.
Otherwise it's fine, albeit a little to familiar for its own good. You play as Claire for most of the game, and then switch over to Chris for roughly the last 1/3rd or 1/4th of the game. Chris is better because he has a shotgun and magnum and can take more hits, just like how Leon was better in RE2 for having the... shotgun and magnum and being able to take more hits. At least Jill got everything. Another thing to note that I actually enjoyed: The knife is actually a viable option for zombie removal. That's right, a knife slash can do about as much damage as the Handgun and even though ammo isn't usually a problem, it is cool. Oh, and the Bowgun is garbage unless it has explosive bolts, and Bandersnaches are a tie with the dogs from REmake in the "Most annoying enemy" category.
So, in conclusiveness, Code Veronica is in a weird spot. I found the gameplay to be solid and some of the puzzles to actually be quite clever, but the action vibe (You get an AK-47 and a Sniper Rifle for crying out loud), the laughably bad story, and the length 2 hours too long kind of turn me off. That's not to say that it's a bad game... just that it is my least favorite classic style RE game... That's right. My least favorite. But I still like it. Really. Don't hurt me. 8.8
Hell, here's my list: 1. REmake 2.RE2 3. RE0 (what, RE0, really?) 4. RE1 5. RE3 6. Code Veronica.
And with that, I own and have completed every single main series Resident Evil game, and unless someone tells me that the Outbreak series is fun and viable to be played offline (which I doubt), I will be playing Disgaea until Dragon Age comes out. Then, at that point, I will probably not blog for a while. Hooray for the holidays.
Next: At this point, who knows?
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