Resident Evil - Code: Veronica

Code Veronica X was one of best ps2 launch titles you could find. The very first game I played when I got my ps2 on that fateful Christmas day and to this very day is a fantastic survival horror game, that sadly lacks alot in the replay value aspect.

Code Veronica is set only a few months after Raccoon Citys destruction, and anyone who can remember correctly from canon Leon S. Kennedy's scenario B ending from Resident Evil 2 (and Claire Redfield's epilogue from RE3) would of easily guessed it centres around Claires search for her brother, Chris Redfield, the hero from the original Resident Evil.

Upon infiltrating an UMBRELLA complex on Rockfort Island she is eventually taken capture after a daring and intense chase sequence given to you as the games opening cinematic. Soon after though, the base appears to be under attack by unknown forces and predictably the many virus' stored throughout the base are unleashed. The whole island is soon filled with the typical kinds of monsters that always seem to appear whenever UMBRELLA are located.

Claire is freed by her captor and left to fend for herself. Only equipped with a knife initially you must already fight your way through a small batch of nude (nude, but still with little for any censors to hide...) zombies. Luckily however,Veronica is the first in the series for the knife to actually become a very formidable weapon.

Of course Claire will come across many more effective firearms along the way but I kid you not when I type the knife can certaintly be very useful for conserving some much needed ammo.

So, gameplay wise Code Veronica doesn't bring all that much new to the table, if anything actually. You still have the same FANTASTIC---Tank controls :P, limited inventory, item box's, ink ribbons, herbs ect.
In fact surprisingly Code Veronica has taken a few steps back from RE3 in that the brilliant and satisfying dodge manaeuver has been taken out. You also cannot manually walk up/down staircases, you again must use the action button to trigger going down a staircase. Strange indeed since the zombies may still come up staircases, at that time your basically stuck since you are then the stairs become temporarly unavailable until that friggen zombie sloooowly paces his way up to you...
What is new though is some duel weilding weapons such as a pair of submachine guns. When equipped you may target two different enemies at once, or of course just shoot a single enemy with both. Not exactly revelating but still pretty cool to see. Whats more now aswell is even if your inventory is full, if you happen to come across a healing item you may have the option of using right there if needed. Which at the time was a very welcome add-on but these days with REmake and RE Outbreak its still annoying how you can't place down items or even trade items with another at least.

I suppose a notable difference in Code Veronica is the surprising amount of weaponry, sure the RE games before hand all had many different toys to inflict some serious pain to whatever came in your crossfire, but Veronica furthered that with even more weapons of mass destruction ranging from, again, duel submachine guns, an AK assault rifle and even a sniper rifle.
This is still survival horror though so trying to find ammo for all these wonderous firearms will still force you to think before pulling the trigger. But of course ammo isn't totally scarce in Veronica, sometimes if your skilled enough, espeically with the knife, you could find yourself pretty well equipped for whatever comes your way.
This may be survival horror, and a good S-horror game at that, but I think this may be where the thoughts for turning RE into action horror may have started :(.

Other than those minor differences its practically what RE veterans are used to. Camera angles galore, its all here.

But still this ain't just a 'Been there, done that' title. Well sure to some, but for RE fans this is an excellent addition.

The story for one is surprisingly strong and while still cheesy and over-dramatic at times its one of the best RE storylines so far IMO. Twists that are so twisted they'll choke the life out of yah, and some key plot points that may even cause an unexpected tear or two.

Whats more Veronica also has IMO one of the best RE soundtracks to date, it of course still has a very comforting save room theme, but also many different gothic themes are littered throughout that give the game a very appropiatly creepy and unerving feel compared to the typical zombie horror/warzone themes from the rest.

So while this is sort of a traditional RE game lifted up very high indeed by the quality of the story and sound, it still has some problems. Now the story this time is much longer than the first three RE games usually taking around 10-12 hours long instead of the usual 3-5 hours, now that may still seem pretty short but from the year 2001 when the ps2 was still young it was a very succesful acheivment and was somewhat able to make up for the lack of replay value.

Sadly Veronica could be one of the weakest in terms of replay value. You at least will still get ranked from D to S which is enough motivation to play again to beat your last rank, but besides a single minigame, which is sadly a very mediorce one at that, theres nothing to aim for. Theres no unlockable costumes or weapons, least not for the main game. And theres only the single ending. The minigame you unlock is where you will unlock the tid-bits that you'de expect would be available for the main game, but even whats available isn't all that glamourous...well except of course a particular playable character in the minigame that is :D.

But ignoring the replay value, Veronica just like every other RE out there is a must own to witness the brilliant story and have your ears filled with possibly the best RE voice acting so far...which ok might not mean much considering the usual quality but its still rather good when being seen as simply a story focused game.