It's not a secret that Resident Evil is one of my favourite gaming franchises of all time. And while it has gone on to spawn many sequels and film adaptations, a lot of the later releases lacked the charm that the original games held, and many s...
It’s not a secret that Resident Evil is one of my favourite gaming franchises of all time. And while it has gone on to spawn many sequels and film adaptations, a lot of the later releases lacked the charm that the original games held, and many said it simply didn’t feel like Resident Evil. Capcom released The Umbrella Chronicles on Nintendo Wii exclusively, and while it filled in a lot of narrative gaps in the series, and hit at a time that made it rather welcomed, it now feels incredibly budget and lacklustre. Since then, games like House of the Dead: Overkill and Dead Space Extraction have without a doubt blown The Umbrella Chronicles out of the water. Thankfully, however, Capcom have once again teamed up with Cavia Inc. to produce a fully blown sequel to Umbrella Chronicles, ominously titled The Darkside Chronicles. Does it one-up its competitors, or is the series (and Capcom’s support for the Wii) in need for a new coat of paint?
The Darkside Chronicles has been billed by Capcom to explore the darker side of the Resident Evil series—and while to some extent that is true, none of the subject matter is really that overwhelming. Players take control of several key characters throughout the series, with the main ones being Claire, the protagonist from Resident Evil 2 and CODE: Veronica, and Leon, the protagonist of Resident Evil 2 and the recently released Resident Evil 4 (though no events from the latter are touched upon). The game essentially summarises the events of Resident Evil 2 and CODE Veronica into scenarios titled Memories of a Lost City and Game of Oblivion, respectively, with an extra chapter set between Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 that explores the relationship between Krauser (from Resident Evil 4) and Leon a bit further. It’s all, well, a little bit ridiculous in the end, but this collection is definitely some of the more interesting storylines that the series has to offer, and it’s nice to see them wrapped up nicely in a rather full package. Unfortunately, most fans will probably roll their eyes at the new additions to the series’ storyline, though.
Quite possibly one of the most talked about aspects of The Darkside Chronicles is its graphical presentation. Darkside Chronicles can be safely said to boast some of the best visuals you’ll ever experience on a Wii. Sure, the game never really dips into the silky smooth 60fps that Dead Space Extraction does at points, but for this concession the game makes up for it with pure detail. Textures are very nicely drawn, character models are absolutely stunning and the dynamic nature of the lighting is a very nice touch. Gunshots from each weapon illuminates the environments for split seconds, removing all light sources literally leaves your player characters in the dark, and bullet holes leave visible destruction in walls and floors. Generally speaking, the game has some very nice effects throughout that really immerse the player in the environment. Upon emerging from a dark area into a light one, the player will be temporarily blinded as their eyes adjust, while looking into the distance of some levels will render the environments quite blurry due to heat waves/distortion. It really is quite amazing how much graphical detail Cavia have manage to pack into the game and it really does pay off too.
Having a much larger budget this time around has allowed the team to present the story using pre-rendered cutscenes that are leaps and bounds ahead of Umbrella Chronicles. Using the same production and direction company as Resident Evil 5, Darkside Chronicles does not hold back in delivering some pretty awesome pre-rendered cinematics. Of course, there are a few areas that are a little bit, well, off. While you do get to view your partner’s character this time around, whenever they speak the lip syncing is terribly done. I cannot count how many times Claire will take a pause in her dialogue but her mouth continues to move randomly in-game. It is a bit of a minor hiccup but in this day and age we know it’s possible to actually get it right (thanks to, once again, Dead Space Extraction). Lastly, there are times (particularly in the new chapter) that the characters and enemies look amazing, but some background textures are notoriously low resolution or poorly rendered, creating a rather noticeable discrepancy between what the team put quality time into and what they really couldn’t be bothered to. Still, overall the game is without a doubt one of the best looking titles available on the platform.
Of course, I’ve said it countless times before and I’ll say it again, great graphics can only carry a game so far; you need to have good gameplay in the mix to create a truly good experience. Thankfully, Darkside Chronicles does its best to create an experience that carries both good gameplay and amazing graphics. For those not aware, Darkside Chronicles is a lightgun-style shooter in which players are guided through different environments and forced to clear their path along the way. The original Umbrella Chronicles had a reticule that was ridiculously slow and insensitive to movement, as well as some pretty unwinnable quick time events. Thankfully, these two problems have been removed and replaced with features that are sure to mesh with the player much more than Umbrella Chronicles ever did. As you would expect, the Wii Remote’s pointer is used to aim, while the trigger is used to fire. The face buttons are used to interact with the environment (mainly pick up healing items and such) while the Nunchuk is used to select weapons from four previously equipped ones. Holding down the A button and waving the Wii Remote aimlessly will initiate melee knife attacks, though these are fairly, well, pointless in most battles. The game also officially supports the Wii Zapper, but unofficially, the Wii Remote is just fine.
Those who played the previous game will remember that there were quite a few weapons available in Umbrella Chronicles. Darkside Chronicles effectively reduces this amount by quite a few, but has instead implemented an upgrade system that is much more competent. Players can collect money throughout the game by destroying items in the environment, and use it to upgrade weapon power, reload speed, stopping power, capacity and rate of fire. This feature is welcomed and becomes almost essential to survival in later areas of the game, particularly during the intense boss battles. In addition to treasure, several archives can be found at certain points that shed more light on the illustrious back story of Resident Evil, a welcome return from the previous games for fans.
The gameplay in Darkside Chronicles is definitely, overall, quite a mixed bag. There are several things incorporated that will both excite established Resident Evil fans as well as make them cringe, while newer players will just see it as being a rather varied ride. Darkside Chronicles takes a considerably faster pace than Umbrella Chronicles, upping the ante for the most part and bombarding the player with what seems like endless waves of enemies. When there’s little amounts of enemies, those that are present are incredibly fast—Zombies now run a lot more, creating a lot more tension in the game. What’s similarly quite impressive is that Cavia have tweaked the scenarios from the original games to be a lot more fast paced and, well, more fun. Naturally, some creative liberties have been taken, but the game is a much more enjoyable experience because of it. An example: In the original game, one boss encounter just comprised of running down a hallway away from the boss to escape. In Darkside Chronicles, this battle takes place in a circular, multi-level arena and features some pretty nice acrobatics from both the player and the enemy. This tweaking makes the game much more enjoyable to both fans and casual players, as it is unexpected and fun, respectively. It’s also nice to see the player character in a bit more compromising situations, such as tripping over enemies while running, missing large jumps and so on. These situations are reflected in the game’s camera work and really give the whole experience a Blair Witch or Cloverfield-style feel.
Of course, there’s a few things that are still pretty disappointing in Darkside Chronicle’s gameplay. The first is that there are much fewer destructible environments in Darkside Chronicles. Whereas Umbrella Chronicles let players destroy pretty much everything except for the walls, Darkside Chronicles only gives the player the ability to destroy a much smaller amount of objects. Yeah, it’s a minor gripe, but it’s still pretty disappointing to have something downgraded for a sequel that does almost everything much better. Similarly, the game’s shaky camera work can act as a detriment to a player’s accuracy during the gameplay and artificially enhance the difficulty of the game—and while it does steady up during moments where the player does have to aim, it can still be pretty hard to pull off that perfect shot. Thankfully, accuracy is not one of the criteria for getting a good ranking post-chapter, so this can be slightly forgiven. Finally, during some boss battles, even if you lower the boss’s health to zero, the battle will still continue, as if the game WANTS to show you something “awesome” before the boss dies, rather than letting the player’s actions actually affect the outcome of the game.
Thankfully, the developers did not skimp on the game’s audio offerings either. The soundtrack consists of some pretty nice and new pieces, as well as incorporating some very edgy remixes of themes that fans of the series will no doubt recognise from previous Resident Evil games. Thankfully, also, the voice acting in The Darkside Chronicles is very good, albeit the lines that have been written for the characters are very cringe worthy. It’s a shame that the scriptwriters couldn’t match the quality of their writing with the talent present here. Veterans of the series will also be quite pleased to hear that most of the original cast from the games have returned to reprise their roles from their respective games, with a few exceptions which are definitely for the better. Props to Capcom for keeping the same voice actresses for Claire and Ada throughout the series so far, though.
One of my largest concerns with Darkside Chronicles was that there would not be enough content to fill out two games, but thankfully Cavia have proven me wrong. Upon completion of the game on the hardest difficulty by myself, the game clocked in at around fourteen hours of gameplay, with my Wii itself reporting a longer time than the game (probably due to the many deaths I endured). Obviously this amount will adjust depending on difficulty and whether or not it’s played co-operatively with a friend, but for the most part Darkside Chronicles is a lengthy and enjoyable affair that never really gets boring. There are a few unlockables available but unfortunately no secret chapters that fill in the gaps between stories like in Umbrella Chronicles. Completionists will find for themselves a lot of gameplay time searching for all the previously mentioned archives, as well as perfecting their scores. On the topic of scores, the Nintendo WiFi Connection can now be used to upload scores and compare their own with others from around the globe—a nice touch.
Darkside Chronicles manages to totally usurp its predecessor in almost every fathomable way. Not only do we have a competent light gun shooter that manages to tell a decent story while still remaining fun, we also have something that feels as if quite a bit of money and attention has gone into it—a far cry from the original game. And rightly so, by today’s tougher standards, Darkside Chronicles is one of the most enjoyable light gun shooters available for the Nintendo Wii. Definitely one to keep for yourself, or play with friends, it really doesn’t matter. As long as you play it at least once.
Darkside Chronicles is definitely a step up from Umbrella Chronicles and a slight improvement over Dead Space Extraction; however, it sometimes falls a bit flat in areas that will remind us that this is still a relatively low budget project from Capcom. That being said, its still one of the best shooters available on the Nintendo Wii and definitely one of the most enjoyable ones too. Definitely worth it for Resident Evil fans, and still pretty high up there for the casual player, too.
Some of the most detailed environments and character models available in a Nintendo Wii game. Animations are great and the effects prevalent throughout the game are unlike anything weve ever seen before on the platform. A job VERY well done. Several lip syncing and consistency issues stop it from truly being perfect, though.
Very fast-paced and action packed scenarios ensure that the game never gets boring, something its predecessor used to do quite a bit. Some general scripting issues during boss battles, as well as some shakey camera work, prevent Darkside Chronicles from reaching its true potential, however.
Some of the best offerings for the seriesconsisting of both original pieces and some really nicely remixed pieces from previous games in the series. For a change, the voice acting is rather well performed, although the lines that these voice actors deliver are filled with cheese.
Quite possibly one of the longest titles in this genre, The Darkside Chronicles manages to successfully tell three rather long stories without falling into the realm of boredom. Co-operative play and collectibles are definitely going to extend the experience, with the competitive types finding even more solace in the online leaderboards.
Being a massive Resident Evil fan, I was impressed with how much Darkside Chronicles managed to retain, considering how much the original game cut out. Thankfully, the game is a very enjoyable romp that takes liberties with the story, but honestly, it really helps with the games playability.
It's Black, Back Again.
If these aren't the coolest graphics...
Loco Motive, MySims: Cozy Bundle, Stray, Nine Souls, Servonauts.