locate GAME,play on MACHINE,feel DISAPPOINTED (Resident Evil - Code Veronica (DC))

Member Name: buttonman

Product:	Resident Evil - Code Veronica (DC)
Date:	21/05/01 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics, Cut Scenes, Wesker is back!

Disadvantages: Familiar, Dull key collecting

It was for this game alone that I recently bought my Sega Dreamcast console.Having played all four previous games of this series on Playstation I was itching to try out this latest and supposedly best instalment.Always last to buy any console I finally took the plunge spending my birthday cash on a machine (£100),the requisite memory unit (£20) and this game (£24.99).So did it live up to expectations?,sadly not.

The problem for me is that the game was too familiar.I know it's a proven genre,but even the puzzles stay the same!.The game starts well with an excellent full motion video sequence telling us the story up to the end of the last game RE:Nemesis.In this Raccoon city was totalled by the evil Umbrella Corporation whose T-Virus has caused untold carnage in the form of zombies and mutations.

Our heroine is Claire Redfield who is trying to find her brother Chris who appeared in the first game of the series.The FMV shows her discovering some nasties at Umbrella's European HQ before she is captured.We take control of Claire as she awakens in a remote island prison.Predictably it's become overrun with zombies and her kindly jailer decides to let her go.She soon meets Steve,a well named but annoying character who is gung-ho and has a fancy for Claire.After searching the prison,a military facility and a mansion the pair escape on a plane only for it to be diverted to an Antartic base which is overrun by,yup you've guessed it zombies!.

After scrapping for a while the action shifts back to the first location where we take control of Chris,Clare's brother,who is searching for his sibling.After a lot of key and object hunting Chris too heads for colder climes where he has to save his sister and sort out the zombie problem for good,or for this game at least.

The plot is pretty poor and concerns the Ashford family,the founders of Umbrella Inc.The current family head Alfred is a nutter with a panchant for ladies' wea
r.To try and restore the family to it's former glories he started the bio-experiments which lead to the zombie problem.As ever the voice acting is poor but compensated by gorgeous graphics.The Dreamcast's higher power means better cut scenes and lighting with marvellous sweeping camera angles enlivening the dull search for herbs.The 'opening door' shots between each room are still present although accompanied by a heartbeat noise in times of tension.

The scenarios were too familiar though.The house from RE:1 and many of the rooms from RE:2 were used intact.This was possibly to show Alfred's eccentricity but more likley to save time.Familiar routines of shoving boxes and finding jewels are all preserved intacted.It takes ages to find a single key - why wont it let us blow the doors open with our grenade launcher!.

The bosses are at least new with a gas belching Nosferatu the best.The final boss is the mutant Veronica herself complete with 'self destuct countdown' as always!The rest of the enemies are the familiar zombies,mad dogs and hunters each of whom succums to your usual arsenal of shotgun,grenade launcher and bow gun.New additions include a sniper rifle complete with first person perspective,although we only get seven shots with it and nifty exploding bow gun arrows which again are in short supply.

Don't get me wrong this is a great game and if it's your first Resident Evil you'll be impressed.It's just not much better than the Playstation outings and it feels that it's a bit of a rush job.Once finished Chris says "Let's take out Umbrella for good!",but Leon said that at the end of RE:2 - three games ago!.I feel Capcom don't want to kill this cash cow by resolving the storyline,but this lack of progress has lead to a rather dull installment where little happens.

I've now finished it twice with a 'D' and a 'B' ranking which took seven and fiv
e hours respectivley.I see from the web cheat pages that a 'S' ranking is needed for the goodies of the infinite ammo weapons and frankly I doubt I'll bother.Once finished you do get a 'Battle mode' which involves running through a combination of rooms killing all enemies.This is not bad but not much different from the actual game.You start with two characters (three if you found Steve's gold Luger!) and earn more by finishing the missions.

Soon to appear on Playstation 2,I feel Capcom will need to do better to keep this franchise going.RE:Gun Survivor was poor and RE:3 was'nt a patch on RE:2 but it was still more fun than this.Disappointing and a wasted opportunity.Can't wait for the next installment though...

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