Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) Review
Capcom have been offering some steady support for the Wii lately. With their first title, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, they brought over one of the finest games and made it even better with implementation of Wii sensitive controls. For their second outing on Nintendo’s little white console, they bought along a fresh new franchise, known as Zack & Wiki. Zack & Wiki is somewhat of a fan favourite among all Wii owners, offering a unique fresh experience that utilises the Wiimote as much as possible in the most unique ways. So far, it’s pretty safe to say that Capcom’s record for the Wii is clean. With Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom’s latest outing, it’s safe to say they want to keep it that way. And this reviewer can tell you, they do. With Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom has managed to yet again breath life into a slowly dying genre – the on-rails shooter.
The storyline for Umbrella Chronicles is pretty self explanatory. It is essentially a game that chronicles the fall of Umbrella, the evil corporation behind the pharmaceuticals responsible for the creation of these horrific monsters encountered throughout the Resident Evil series. Starting from the Ecliptic Express and working its way through each game, Umbrella Chronicles tells the story of each game in what can only be described as a very succinct version of the story, while adding a final showdown at the Umbrella Stronghold in Russia. Fans of the series may see large room for criticism in making this choice (as I did when playing with a non-fan) though it’s safe to say that for the sake of entertainment and pacing, it’s probably the better choice that Capcom made. Suffice to say that strangely, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica were not included in the games initial line-up, leaving some fans to speculate a sequel may be on the way. Essentially each “game” within Umbrella Chronicles will have you spending a good one and a half hours on, with a few extra “sub-chapters” in between which add more story to the game’s series. To put it simply – newcomers will love the story for it’s brief nature, while hardcore fans won’t appreciate the removal of some key bosses from some chapters. All in all though, it’s all done appropriately to facilitate the co-op play. Fans also might be put off by an introduction of a brand new character, Sergei Vladimir, and the instantaneous incorporation of him into almost all the storylines of the games, though they do fit quite nicely, no matter how “unbelievable” it is.
Feature’s wise, Umbrella Chronicles was designed with the hardcore fan in mind. There is so much fan service found within this brilliant game that it’s quite simply overwhelming at first when you access it all. Almost all items found in certain areas can be found in their Umbrella Chronicles’ counterpart, albeit in a file form. These files can be accessed between missions for fans to reminisce or for newbies to catch up on the “in-between” bits that Capcom didn’t include in the main gameplay. Furthermore, when first opening up the game you are treated to an interesting cutscene which acts as a sort of exposition to the characters, narrated none other by Albert Weser, one of the more villainous characters in the series. Two player co-op play is provided also (a possible reason as to the butchering of the storyline) and is available to any chapter with two characters playing at the same time (more on that later).
In terms of graphics, Umbrella Chronicles does take a hit. Although the game does look admittedly nice for a Wii title, it simply does not compare to other games in the series. Although this may seem like a controversial statement to all fans of the game, it isn’t so much that the graphics aren’t good – it’s just that they aren’t consistent enough. While on one hand some of the environments look AMAZING, some of them simply look rehashed. The areas built specifically for this game are the ones that will shine, such as the Resident Evil Zero, Remake and original final chapter. Other areas, such as the ones used as a backdrop for Raccoon City, look dull and dried out. My initial suspicions were that to cut development time and cost, areas from the PS2 versions of Resident Evil Outbreak were used, and I can pretty much confirm that playing through such areas. All in all though, the game does hold up visually, although not running at a smooth speed of 60fps but still holding up great for a Wii title. It must be noted however that the graphics in the Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero sections may not look as good as their original Gamecube counterparts, but it must be considered that the previously pre-rendered environments had to be converted into full real-time models and thus reducing the quality of the in-game character models. All in all though, running in widescreen 16:9 at 480p the game does look alright.
The game is presented nicely too, with the whole game being as if you opened a dossier on all the involvement Umbrella has had with the public in the past. Each game gets its own folder, listing the collected items in an “Archive” for later reading as well as allowing the user to customise their pre-mission layout. The archives themselves are a fan’s best dream, sorting the items collected in game by the game they can be found in, as well as profiles of all the characters involved. These files contain some new interesting facts for hardcore fans of the series, though nothing absolutely ground breaking.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is the first in the series to play in this manner. The game isn’t quite a light gun shooter, but rather an on-rails first person shooter. There is simply no other way to describe it properly. From the start you are able to equip your chosen character with one weapon to go with their standard issue pistol. Fans of the previous games will instantly recognise the weapons available and will enjoy looking for more to add to their personal pre-mission load out. Such inclusion of weapons is an excellent example of Capcom’s giving the fans [mainly] what they want. After choosing your weapons and jumping into your mission, you will be introduced to a small cutscene detailing the beginning of the game, such as the train crashing during the events of Resident Evil Zero. These cutscenes and almost all of the cutscenes in the game are narrated by Albert Wesker, the only surviving member of the fallen Umbrella Corporation, and the most constantly encountered villain.
Once jumping into the first mission you are presented with several somewhat interruptive tutorial messages designed to teach you how to play the game. Basic aiming is done with the Wiimote. The D-pad changes weapons, A is the action button used to pick up items thrown about levels, as well as to choose which path to take when your character encounters a fork in the road. Alternatively the A button can also be used to unholster your knife. The trigger is, naturally, used to fire your weapon at whatever you are aiming at. The Z button on the Nunchuck is used to equip your knife also, with the C button being used to change weapons. Holding A or C while pulling the trigger will lob a grenade in your reticules general direction. Reloading is done with a quick waggle of the Wiimote, while waggle is also incorporated into RE4-esque quick time events. Lastly, as a last resort, holding A and waggling the WiimMote will result in several knife slashes.
Essentially, you can play the game with the Nunchuck or without it. Playing without the Nunchuck means you won’t be able to look around the level – though many might not see a need to if they don’t want to experience all the fanfare placed within the game. Your ammo is represented in your cursor, encircling it and giving you a visual representation of what ammo you have left. The reticule will reshape depending on what weapon you have equipped to resemble the bullet chamber of your equipped weapon. A nice touch. One more thing – this game WAS NOT designed to be used with the Zapper, I cannot stress this enough.
Gameplay is fairly simple in that your character will automatically move until you encounter enemies, during which you defeat them and move on to the next area. Aiming is fairly well implemented in this game though it’s not as smooth as the previously released Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, which is strange considering just how RIGHT Capcom got it last time. When shooting zombies and creatures they will react accordingly to where they got shot. Shooting them in the right spot of the head will prompt a head explosion, shooting them in the legs will make them fall and so forth. Although the zombies can be responsive to shots and specific areas, the game does play a bit of a “selective hearing” with us, in that it doesn’t always respond to shooting specific areas. None the less, it is a fairly immersive experience.
The greatest drawcard that Umbrella Chronicles has for it’s fans it that of the extra collectables in the game. The whole environment in Umbrella Chronicles has been made destructible, almost anything can be destroyed. The game actively encourages you to destroy as much as possible because not only does it heighten the tension shooting out all lights, but it also allows the players to pick up items. At the end of each mission, such items will appear in your “Archives” as items, weapons or character profiles designed to inform both new fans and old fans of their use, which games they appeared in and what role they played in the story. It’s mainly this inclusion that should bring alot of old fans coming back to relive what they may see as Resident Evil’s “glory days”.
The biggest downfall with Umbrella Chronicles comes in the voice acting. Although the voice acting in Resident Evil has always been reknowned to be terribly bad – it doesn’t quite hit bad in Umbrella Chronices. It hits atrocious. NONE of the main characters have had their original voice actors return, and instead they’ve enlisted the local drama theatre drop outs to voice all our favourite characters. Rebecca sounds obnoxious, Carlos is no longer Hispanic and Wesker just sounds like a pretentious American trying to act out a British accent. All in all it simply doesn’t work. In some levels of the game, the music does match the atmosphere and even some tracks have been directly lifted from their original games, though it doesn’t happen a lot. Typically the same menacing music will play that we’ve all heard in the trailers during all the levels. While not a bad thing, you do wish for certain extra tunes to be playing and grow tired of the constantly recycled ones.
In terms of value for money, Umbrella Chronicles is worth the price of entry. There is at least 10 hours of gameplay here, with the main game being approximately 7 hours on the standard mode, which gets pretty hectic at times. On top of that, there are several interesting canonical sub chapters designed to shed some light on what other certain characters were up to during the events of certain games. Though I don’t quite want to spoil anything for those wanting a surprise – you’ll see a few familiar faces AND that Resident Evil 2 ISN’T necessarily excluded from the game. I’ll give a hint – that one deals with an escape and another is a remake of a popular sub-game. Furthermore, this will be the first game where you will play as Wesker in the main game, telling us what he was up to during the events of Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero. All in all these sub-chapters will appeal to older fans of the series as they were events that were never quite touched upon in previous titles. All these chapters and sub-chapters, coupled with co-op play for most chapters and the “Archives” provides a solid package worthy of a purchase.
Capcom really hit it big with Umbrella Chronicles, providing fans of the old games with enough new content to entice them to purchase this “different” package that they are usually accustomed to, while still being mainstream and accessible enough to appeal to that mainstream audience (after all, who doesn’t like a fast paced zombie basher?). Playing Umbrella Chronicles on Wii makes me wonder what else Capcom has in store for the franchise on the Wii – there’s definitely a lot of untouched potential, and with the exclusion of RE2 and Resident Evil Code veronica, I hope that Capcom can see that another Umbrella Chronicles including these games, or perhaps even a brand new side story wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Although it may kill hardcore fans inside to be changing around their beloved Resident Evil for the sake of playability, it’s quite acceptable given the amount of fun it provides with both it’s single player and co-operative modes. Umbrella Chronicles is a fresh reminder of why we spent so many dollars in the arcades playing games like Time Crisis – it’s just downright fun.
In summary:-
- + Amazing amount of fan service for Resident Evil fans
- + Great variety and fleshing out of a typically short genre-style game
- + Sub chapters provide a great enticer to fans of the series already
- + 2 player co-op is a joy to play with a mate or even dual wielding by yourself!
- + Essentially skill based game with sense of accomplishment as you get better and more accurate.
- – Graphics can be somewhat drab and dull at times
- – Storyline is effectively butchered for sake of playability (Chris and Jill never split up? Barry doesn’t exist? What?)
- – Makes wrists and arms sore after a good day’s play.
