Resident Evil - Code: Veronica

People might complain a lot about the controls but this, my friends, is Resident Evil. This is what the series should never have ceased from being. It’s not that the series doesn’t work as action-driven third-person shooter, it’s mainly because anything works as action-driven third person shooter. Resident Evil took its massive brand, interesting story and memorable characters and swallowed the most mainstream genre around to become a behemoth of popularity. In the name of sales it would be unwise not to do it, but in the name of everything that makes Resident Evil what it is the old formula must thrive as well.

This title might sound a bit different, but fear not, this is not in any way transitional. What you get here is still the tank controls that debuted with the series and lingered until right about here as well. Resident Evil did learn a few things as it went by but this installment still suffers from much the same problems the first three games did, for the better or the worse.

You have Claire Redfield, the girl from Resident Evil 2, who embarks on a journey to find and rescue her brother Chris Redfield, the guy from the first game — yes, again. She manages to follow his trail to a mysterious island. Upon infiltrating said island she gets taken and arrested by the islanders. After a while, a guy suddenly releases her, saying she’s free to leave the complex, if she can, of course. The island was attacked by the evil corporation known as Umbrella and is now overrun with zombies. You know the drill.

The story unfolds nicely as you discover what role old-time antagonist Albert Wesker has in all this, as well as some details about the residents of the island, particularly two twins, brother and sister, their twisted relationship, their family and their past. It moves the main story of Resident Evil quite well, introducing a few new stuff to keep account for, like a new virus being developed, namely Veronica-virus. Of course, not everything will be coming back in future games and get deeply conceptualized into the lore, but they all serve a purpose here in a meaningful manner and add depth to an already rich backstory.

If you’ve played a legacy Resident Evil you know the scheme. You have several pre-rendered background you can traverse while exploring, gathering items and equipment. The camera is mostly static though it does feature movements from time to time, it adds to the flow of the action. The tank controls are necessary in this scenario because the camera can change at anytime to suit a better view, and if your character followed regular vectorial directions, you’d go insane trying to reroute your inputs at every single moment the camera angle changed place. In this case, you’ll simply move forward and change direction based on wherever your character’s facing. Hence the tank controls, you move forward and adjust.

A lot of people see this type of controls as extremely outdated for modern standards. It wasn’t well-received even at the time, so it’s always worth noting that if this control scheme is not your thing, if you ever experienced it in the past and could not get past how clunky it is, then this game is not for you. I happen not to mind this kind of control at all, I can’t say I’m a fan of it since I don’t remember playing many games that had it, to tell the truth, but it works well on Resident Evil, and I can’t see how they could have done a game like this without them.

You can walk and press a button to run. By pressing backwards and the run button you perform what is called a quick turn, an 180º degree turn. This is essential for adding a little more depth to a very limiting set of controls. By cleverly using this trick you’ll be able to avoid some nasty bits here and there. By pressing a shoulder button you enter the shooting stance, and by pressing the action button while in this stance you shoot. Unfortunately, you can’t reload your weapon by merely pressing a button, you’ll have to it by the menu or wait until the clip is over.

The graphics, from a strict technical point of view, are nothing incredible, it wasn’t for the time and it just got worse. The CG scenes seem to be worse than previous games, maybe it’s just an impression but I can guarantee the intro for Resident Evil 2 looked better; instead you get more cutscenes but they don’t look particularly nice. In the artistic department we have a solid deal. The game shines brightly in its horrific showcase of bizarre horror. Death is everywhere, destruction is always around the corner and the survivors can’t always be trusted.

It constantly keeps sending a chilling terror, not only because of subsequent locales, but because the island also feels stripped of any resourcefulness. While the first game had the mansion as its primary focus, the second had hints of letting the player go wander about the streets of Raccoon City, but the police district was still the focus, the third one actually explored outside locations much better. You could say that Code: Veronica traps you within an outside location; the Resident Evil franchise works better like that.

The voice acting is a bit weird, you get used to it but the overall work can only be called decent. The sound design does the job in continuing the gory aspect of the overall work, zombies moaning, electric circuits malfunctioning, the sweet sound of a door getting unlocked, the wind hurling outside, the biohazard alarm speaking words of imminent doom, or simply the sound of your own steps stomping at different surfaces. The background music is rarely noticed and that’s a sign of a job well done in a case like this. Boss battles generally get to have a more frantic track but that’s about it.

Speaking of boss battles, it’s worth noticing that Resident Evil has always had a problem with those. Capcom seems to think boss battles must be essential for any game because of reasons, but they aren’t. Resident Evil works well as a story-driven exploration game that limits the player’s resources to a bare minimum, making them always afraid of not having the necessary means to keep on going. That’s the psychological terror the game impregnates within the mind of whoever is playing. By changing the focus of that to a more learn-and-respond type of game where you need to actively fight is a bad decision.

The boss battles aren’t interesting at all, none of them, and it always feels like it was inserted to follow the unspoken rule that video-games must have climaxes with overpowered bosses or otherwise it all falls apart. Resident Evil would work pretty well without those lame fights where you can’t really dodge your opponent and simply has to stand there tanking whatever it throws at you while still maintaining damage output. They always ruin an otherwise pristine experience.

If they really wanted boss battles to be in the game they should find ways to make them less invasive and always requiring a method for beating the boss. Controls for the main character are extremely limited so you can’t feel in command if your only job is to tank as much damage as you can before you’re able heal; can’t heal too soon and can’t heal too late. Make them so you need to activate something in the room or simply run for your life trying not to take damage.

One of the most exciting things in Resident Evil is coming upon writings from people who lived in the places you explore telling the bizarre occurrences. Some of them are simply letters or diaries that ex-Umbrella employees maintained narrating their mundane, day-to-day routines; some are memos addressed to higher degrees of hierarchy and shed some light on the organization’s evil doings. One thing they all have in common is how refreshing it is to have the details of the story told in such an ingenuous manner. You can almost feel the desperation on the words of people telling about their friends getting kidnapped and never returning or of the terrible howls heard at night.

To deal with zombies you have various firearms and a knife if you’re really feeling brave — or lacking resources. Ammunition is pretty scarce all around so as it happens in all legacy Resident Evil, your best bet is to save as much ammo as you possibly can. You then stand on the known dichotomy of the series, use ammo or take damage. Sometimes it’s better to just take some damage rather than spending dozens of bullets on zombies in a room you’ll never return, sometimes it’s wise to avoid having to use healing items and save them for bigger, tougher battles. It’s a decision the player has to take, and whatever it is you choose you will harvest what you sow later on.

Dealing with the items in your possession and keeping close attention to whatever happens around you is essential not to get stuck in a game like this. You might come across a mechanism that takes an octagonal crank to make it work, if you don’t have what it takes to deal with that at the moment, chances are you will sometime in the future; remembering stuff like that can save you a lot of trouble and incessant backtracking trying to move further.

The puzzles are all pretty well thought-out, most of them can be circumvented if you just keep an eye out for that clever hint the developers throw at you at the right moment. Stark exploration is always the key, you’ll need to constantly keep searching for items and analyzing the furniture looking for clues of what to do next. Remember that even in places with zombies you’ve already killed, as the game progresses, more of them will spawn. So again, you have to always balance the gain between moving around too much and risk getting lots of encounters, and managing to solve the riddles quickly and swiftly, avoiding to take too much damage and, possibly, death.

In the pause screen you have the items you’ve gathered at your disposal as well as access to you map and files. The items must be used at the right spot for them to work properly, while the guns can be equipped. Sometimes you can examine the items to reveal hidden uses or other items; for example, by getting a vase, you can examine it to reveal something hidden inside of it, if you don’t, you’ll never progress. At the same time, you can also combine two or more items to create another, learning how this is possible and which items allow that to happen is highly situational and should come logically by playing the game.

Everything that can be said to be a staple for the series is present here. Ink Ribbons to save the game — limited, mind you —; the use of a lockpick to pick simple locks; the use of emblems, in many occasions, they exist in groups of three and in three different colors; the weird presence and usage of small animals; the use of music for puzzle solving; computers requiring passwords; logical puzzles that require the use of information gathered from journals and diaries found in many locations; bad voice acting; awful boss battles; intense backtracking; tankish control scheme; dark atmosphere; questionable production. This is Resident Evil we all learned to love and respect, I’m the first to admit it’s not for everyone.

Resident Evil Code: Veronica marks the last release with the old formula before the series would embark in a revamp toward what would become some sort of revival for the series. It would eventually become one of Capcom’s most profitable franchises, and it simply tied appeal to more and more people. While the old Resident Evil might not be the most accessible game around, few others pack more soul. It’s almost depressing to think we might not ever get another Resident Evil as true to its roots as this one. A truly necessary title for those who enjoy the series in what it did best: survival horror.