Better than brains! (Resident Evil - Code Veronica (DC))

Member Name: kero-chan

Product:	Resident Evil - Code Veronica (DC)
Date:	19/07/00 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful!!!!!!

Disadvantages: Maybe drags a little in the middle. Maybee

The fourth Resident Evil game out of the Capcom stable, Resident Evil: Code Veronica is the first in the series not to have been produced originally for the Playstation. This game was produced with the Dreamcast in mind, and as such there are a few differences.

This time around you start as Claire Redfield. After RE2, she is still looking for her brother Chris, which leads her to Umbrella HQ in Europe. Unfortunately for her she is captured during the break in and is transported to an Umbrella prison and research facility on a remote island. Being a Resident Evil game, it isn’t long before the T-Virus is spread across the island and you find yourself trying to escape the island with Steve, one of the few human survivors. Unfortunately there are less helpful, more mysterious human forces left on the island, determined not to let you live…

Perhaps more of a side story than a continuation of the RE series, Code Veronica is non-the-less one of the best titles in the series. The big, most obvious difference is that the pre-rendered backgrounds are gone. Instead, the game now features real-time 3D backgrounds. The strength of the games art-staff becomes apparent in that the backgrounds look just as nice as the pre-renders in the older games. Not only that, but now there are dynamic, panning cameras which are put to great use throughout the game, build tension and increasing cinematic flair. The use of real-time backgrounds also means the game has far greater real-time lighting, which looks really great. Finally, all the characters and monsters are also of far greater detail. All high resolution, too. Great all round, frankly.

If that was all what was improved then it’d probably be enough, but this game also boasts perhaps the most interesting story of the series (which I’ll not go into here, of course). It’s sufficient to say that it’ll keep you gripped to your Dreamcast for days on end.

Going bac
k to the original game, this entry into the RE series also tends to keep your ammo at very low levels. You really need to be careful about what zombies you shoot, as avoiding them when possible will conserve your ammo for the stronger beasties. This game has a few new monsters from the previous games, as well as some of those from the others. In fact, it brings back a few ‘old favorites’ from RE1, making the title a little more difficult and interesting for fans. In terms of weaponry, there are a few new weapons (including a sniper-rifle, which puts the real time scenery to good effect by being first person), plus the old classic – the shotgun. Strangely, the shotgun still kills the zombies in one hit when aiming for their heads but fails to destroy it. Seems strange, frankly. There are also some two handed weapons (such as two pistols), which is quite neat.

Musically, it’s the same minimalist affair as the previous games. For the most part it’s just fairly quiet, and tension building. During combat, you get louder, more brash music in order to assist you in feeling panicked. It works well. In terms of speech, it’s the same old RE ham that we know and love.

Character movement is the same as RE2 largely. Whilst it does have the 180-degree turn of RE3, it’s activated ala Dino Crisis and as such is less immediate. You still have to press a button in order claim stairs, however, and you still can move with your weapon drawn.

Like RE3, finishing the game gives you a bonus mini-game. This time around it’s a battle game in which you simply make your way around a series of disjoint rooms killing all the monsters which are present in them. You get a number of different characters you can select (performing certain actions in game can give you more), each of which has a different selection of weapons. The interesting part is that the battle game has a first person perspective mode, and whilst it still
plays and aims the same (and as such is no Quake) it really shows off the games visual quality.

This is also the first RE game I really consider to be the right length. Longer than any of the previous RE games, this can take up to 20 hours to complete, which proves much more satisfying a game. Some may consider it to drag, but I’m really happy for it to be this long.

The real problem is that it’s not so far removed from previous entries in the series. Whilst the story is enough to keep me going, the puzzle’s are largely the same as those in previous RE games. There are a few new additions, but not enough to be really all that notable. The controls are still far from perfect as well.

In all, this is very highly recommended. This is certainly one of the better Dreamcast games, and certainly an awful lot better than the PS2 launch line up. I repeat, very highly recommended.

Summary: