We Love Wii

Resident Evil: The Unbrella Chronicles

Released: November 13th, 2007
Genre: Survival Horror / Rail Shooter
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a brand new game in the Resident Evil franchise, with familiar locales from the entire series. This action/shooter hybrid reveals the back story behind the fall of the Umbrella Corporation by exploring locations from Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 and 3 as well as new never-before-seen locations, such as Umbrella’s stronghold. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles combines first-person, light-gun style combat with interactive pathways, multiple weapons and new enemies to create an entirely new Resident Evil experience that could only be delivered on the Wii.

Reviews

IGN: 7.9 out of 10
GameSpot: –
GameSpy: –
We Love Wii: 7.5 out of 10

We Love Wii Review

There’s no doubt about it. The Resident Evil series has been the pinnacle of survival horror and horror action adventure for the last few years. The series features great atmosphere, gameplay that improves as the series goes on, and a surprisingly detailed storyline that’s worthy of getting into. Not surprisingly, Capcom has decided to make a Wii-exclusive release that is part of the main Resident Evil series in the form of “Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles”. While this was good news to many, there were quite a few people who turned away from the game when it was announced because of the fact that it was an on-rails shooter which is a genre that is quickly dying because of the fact that their home, the arcade is losing popularity and the standards for console gaming are usually too high for them. Now, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is finally released and thankfully, it is a fun and likable game that manages to avoid many of the problems that on-rails shooters have and is a must have for Resident Evil fans but unfortunately, it still doesn’t manage to be a top tier Wii game.

Most likely, many die hard Resident Evil fans will be buying the game because of the story. The game isn’t exactly a separate Resident Evil game on its own, but what it does is summarize (very basically) Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil, and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. So basically, it’s a return trip to the past for fans of Resident Evil, although they will be a bit disappointed as many of the games’ notable areas and characters like Barry Burton have been taken away in the final version of The Umbrella Chronicles because the scenarios for each game only cover the bare basics. The game does make up for it by introducing extra scenarios which detail events that happen to various characters like Rebbecca Chambers and Albert Wesker that were never revealed in the other three games so most likely, that’s what fans will be looking forward to the most. To top it all off, there’s also an original scenario known as Umbrella’s End which details the end of the company that has been giving fans trouble all these years which is Umbrella and reunites Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, the original team that was in the first Resident Evil. While newcomers may be too busy shooting the zombie masses to care for the story, the extra scenarios which smooth out some of the rough edges of the entire series are sure to please the fans.

Of course, a game needs good gameplay to succeed no matter how much it fleshes out the story on an already successful series and luckily, even with the on-rails restrictions, the gameplay in The Umbrella Chronicles still manages to have enough depth to differentiate itself from other generic arcade light gun shooters that this game draws a bit of inspiration from.

The controls are actually rather simple. There aren’t really many complications and there don’t need to be. For the most part, you basically aim and shoot zombies and other mutated creatures, and maybe throw a grenade once in a while if things get a bit too crowded.The game also throws a variety of small enemies at you like bees, crows, and leeches which is where close range combat is used. Usually, those enemies are only beatable by using a knife which is done by holding down the A button and slashing your Wii Remote around everywhere. The game also uses a “counterattack” system which is used when a zombie gets a hold of you. If they do get a hold of you and are about to sink their teeth into your warm and delicious flesh, you still have a chance of resisting them by waving the Wii Remote or Nunchuk around. This is also used in certain cutscenes if you get ambushed, except instead of waving the Wii Remote or Nunchuk around, you usually need to press buttons instead.

While the control scheme and basic overview of the gameplay are simple, Capcom did add a neat touch to all the shooting. In order to add some precision to all the shooting, many enemies have a certain weak spot and if you shoot them in the right spot, it could result in a critical hit which either destroys the enemy right there, or deals lots of extra damage. While it is hard to hit these precision points because they are so small and sometimes our hands are really shaky, hitting them and delivering instant kills where the enemies’ heads are blown off is strangely satisfying. Delivering critical hits also helps in getting a better overall ranking in the stage so it is a nice addition indeed.

That’s pretty much all you do. It’s simple but fun, and it brings Nintendo’s whole “pick up and play” concept to a more mature audience. New gamers will have fun shooting zombies with all their weapons while hardcore gamers looking for more of a challenge can try their best to aim for critical hits. Like I said earlier, the game is simple, although, the simplicity does leave a bit to be desired as people who are used to having other moves in games like first person shooters such as strafing or doing occasional puzzles will occasionally get bored as the only new things that get introduced are new weapons so it’s basically a shoot em’ up style game from start to finish which can either be a blessing or a curse depending on the player.

The Resident Evil series has always boasted an incredibly good presentation and some pretty nice graphics and while The Umbrella Chronicles does a good job when it comes down to atmosphere, it is a total letdown in terms of graphical quality. At many times (usually during gameplay), the game looks considerably worse than the already relatively old Resident Evil 4 and has some messy and ugly looking textures. The lighting effects of the flashlight that is used sometimes during the game also look a bit ugly as the edges of the light are a bit jagged. Capcom also seems to have gotten lazy when it came to the Resident Evil 3 parts of the game as instead of faithfully recreating the game’s environments, they instead decided to recycle the environments of Resident Evil: Outbreak which may disappoint fans who were looking forward to visiting familiar places like the Clock Tower. The Umbrella Chronicles does do a good job on quite a few aspects of the presentation though. Like I said earlier, the game is still very atmospheric. Traveling through the dark subway stations of Raccoon City or a dark hallway only to find yourself ambushed by a Crimson Head (a zombie with enhanced agility and strength) is made all the much more exciting because of the eerie and moody feeling that the environment gives thanks to some particularly nice lighting effects. The enemies themselves are rather detailed too even though some of the zombies are re-used in later parts of the game.

While the graphics are technically a huge letdown as it never seems to make full use of the Wii’s hardware, the presentation is still excellent as it offers the same dark and moody atmosphere and situations that we’ve come to expect from the series.

In terms of music and sound effects, the game is pretty good. Some tracks are very silent and have a very creepy effect and add to the atmosphere but for the most part, there are now more fast-paced tracks which you would usually not see in an Resident Evil game, but The Umbrella Chronicles has more action than the average RE game so it doesn’t detract from the experience too much. At times, the fast-paced music is used in very slow and creepy placed and at those times, the music just doesn’t fit and can be painful to listen too.

The voice acting in the game is surprisingly good as the voice actors put quite a bit of enthusiasm into their work, however, the decent voice acting is pretty much ruined by an abysmal script. Terrible lines and some grammatical errors make it seem like the voice work is wasted on pathetic dialogue. The zombies thankfully have some pretty nice moans and squeals and the dogs that run after you do have some pretty menacing growls which do help.

The replay value and length was probably the issue that most people were worried about. Most on-rails shooters in the arcade last only 1-2 hours without many other gameplay modes and since The Umbrella Chronicles is an on-rails shooter, people feared that it would only last for a little while. Thankfully however, that is not the case as The Umbrella Chronicles is actually a solid and lengthy game which lasted me 15 hours on my first playthrough which may not be as impressive as other more notable games, but is still quite decent. Perfectionists will also be able to get in a few more hours with the game after finishing once as there is some replay value. All the weapons you get from shotguns to rocket launchers can be upgraded and customized and it takes quite a few playthroughs in order to maximize each weapon to its full potential. The game also features a ranking system. If you complete a stage and do a really good job on it (destroying as many objects as you see, delivering a large number of critical hits, collecting all the files, etc.) then you get a higher ranking so people who want to get the most time out of the game will play stages again and again in order to get the highest “S” ranking on each stage. These extra features can bring the length of this game to over 20 hours which is pretty impressive given this game’s genre of choice.

Overall, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a fun game that is worth a buy to the average Wii gamer and especially hardcore Resident Evil fans. Its simple control scheme makes it an ideal game for a more mature audience that isn’t quite adept at some of the more difficult games out there, and the extra scenarios detailing events that were never seen before are sure to please fans. However, the game has a lot of faults ranging from the graphics to the music and even the whole simplicity of the game’s controls but regardless, it’s still worth at least a rent to see if you’ll like it!