Right time for a post on a video game for a change of pace and I have gone for one of the Resident Evil games so I've opted for Code Veronica X which was released all the way back in 2000. So let's gear up, get the guns and get ready to face the zombie hoards that lie ahead.... (well not really but you know what I mean!).
So a bit about the plot as the story begins with its main character, Claire Redfield who breaks into an Umbrella corporation facility in Paris as she is searching for her brother, Chris, however she is captured and placed on Rockfort Island. Soon after her arrival though, Claire is released by an Umbrella security guard in the aftermath of a T-virus outbreak on the island. Claire then teams up with another inmate, Steve Burnside who are soon confronted by the island's commander, Alfred Ashford. Alfred is shown to have developed a split personality as he takes on the personality of his sister, Alexia. During their escape Claire and Steve are attacked by a zombie, which turns out to be Steve's father, who was a researcher who tried to sell information but he was captured along with Steve. Steve has no other choice but to shoot his father and mourns for his death as he explains why he is there to Claire. Claire and Steve however eventually manage to escape via plane, but they are soon attacked by a version of the Tyrant BOW sent by Alfred, which Claire defeats by blasting out of the plane using an explosive. Alfred also has the plane set on auto-pilot as it arrives at another Umbrella facility in the Antarctic, where his sister, Alexia is being kept in cryogenic freeze in order to keep the symptoms of the virus she was injected with subdued. And from here Claire and Steve must find a way to fight their way off the island and to stop Alfred as well as Albert Wesker, who it is later revealed that he was the one who released the T-Virus at the other facility.
Code Veronica is an excellent addition to the Reisdent Evil series and it saw the series take a few leaps forward in terms of its graphical presentation and also the gameplay. The game itself moves forward from the pre-rendered backdrops of the previous three games and instead adopts a more 3D approach as the camera swings around albeit at fixed angles to follow the player's movements. It also features the ability to use dual wield pistols as Claire early on in the game picks up some dual pistols which feature a large supply of ammo to take down the zombies or other enemies. It also adds in the features of the previous two games such as explosive oil barrels which you can use to take out multiple enemies at once as well as the crossbow weapon along with a new feature which is explosive crossbow bolts, which Claire finds in certain stages of the game and very effective against most enemies in the game, particularly the bigger ones. The game also features the handy side-pack which allows the player to store more items, which also featured in Resident Evil 2.
In terms of the character gameplay there are two playable characters, Claire and Chris Redfield, with Claire being the main primary character for most of the game, but Chris also has his own fairly long segment, which sees him access the areas of Rockfort island that Claire couldn't. Steve is also briefly playable in the game but that is in just one segment where he must clear a basement of zombies on the Rockfort island. Movement wise the game is also very similar to the previous games as the characters simply either walk or run but also have the ability to make a 180 degree turn aswell as to auto-aim at an enemy when shooting them. Other than that though the character's movement at certain times are dependant on pushing the action button, such as pushing crates, climbing boxes or ascending and descending stairs. The game also features the typical loading scenes between rooms when your character enters a room and this is sometimes accompanied by a heartbeat to add to the tension of a scene especially when danger lurks nearby.
Graphically speaking the game for its time is excellent and it is a big step up from the graphics of the first three games as it was originally released for the Sega dreamcast console but has since been ported to other game consoles such as the PS2 and the Xbox 360 where it was remastered in HD. The character models this time are a big improvement and we no longer have the blocky looking models from the earlier RE games, which visualy looked pretty basic. The 3D backdrops are also impressively rendered even though the game isn't fully interactive overall its a really good presentation and again the environments are pretty varied. Music wise Code Veronica is also pretty good although the score is somewhat dated sounding as it largely synth based and it appears the series is still stuck back in the mid 90s, but despite that it still has some nice atmospheric and creepy moments.
So moving onto the flaws does Code Veronica have any worth moaning about???? Actually yes it does, for starters perhaps the most frustrating thing about the game is the static movement of your character, as Claire for e.g. can only either run, walk or make a 180 degree turn, which makes for a very static and uninteractive gaming experience. Claire or Chris's movement is also compounded by the fact that they are pretty sluggish at getting up after being attacked, this is particularly noted in the scene where Claire has to fight the Tyrant on the plane, as the Tyrant knocks her down too easily and is way too fast for her to outmanoevure and as Claire tries to get up, and very SLOWLY I might add, she will suffer another, possibly fatal blow from the Tyrant before she can. This is also notably a problem with some of the other enemies in the game such as the bandersnatchers, who have one long arm, which they can stretch out far to attack their prey and again in these moments Claire can't evade their attacks and as a result loses health, which she probably shouldn't. And for me one of the game's most infuriating enemies are the giant moths because combined with their peskiness and Claire's sluggish movement its all too easy for her to get attacked and poisoned by them, as leap onto Claire's back and infect her with their eggs, which she has throw off her back and before you knew it she's poisoned and this happens time and time again! So this really does highlight a big issue with the gameplay mechanics and the fact that the game has no intuitive dodge or counter-attack modes and it really took Resident Evil 4 to overhaul the series gaming experience for the better, but such as it is, this can make Code Veronica quite a frustrating experience.
Another really annoying flaw in the game comes from the inconsistency in terms of the ratio between the amount of ammo available in the game and the big amount of baddies in the game as well, as there are times where your character is virtually out of ammo because they have had to shoot alot of zombies that stood in their way! And this is where the player has to be very careful to conserve ammo and health supplies otherwise they could come to a crucial stage in the game and find they don't have either ennough health or ammo to defeat one of the game's bosses. The game also still involves alot of tedious running back and forth between certain areas simply in order to gain access to keys to enter rooms or other areas but this has been a problem with the series in general up to this point and in comparison to the original for example its not too big a deal and rather just a minor annoyance.
Then there is the voice acting and the character of Steve, who is undoubtedly one of the most irritating characters in the RE series as he starts off a cocky little dweeb, who eventually does show his worth and he falls in love with Claire as the game progresss, but when he is finally offed you're not too sad to see him go. And this is the game (at least I think it is!) where Wesker starts to adopt a transatlatntic accent which is now starting to verge on being English, which in the following games they started to make Wesker sound more and more English! And for me this was always one of the mistakes of the series was to change Wesker's American accent so drastically as it makes him sound just more like a comical Bond villain than anything else especially when RE5 came around! (although technically speaking its RE6 as Code Veronica was the fourth entry in the series).
However all that aside Resident Evil Code Veronica is still an excellent entry in the series and despite its limitations and flaws its still well worth playing to this day and if you like the RE series its a game that's worth a visit.
And well I shall leave it there.
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