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Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles

by Steven Rodriguez - July 14, 2007, 2:19 pm EDT
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A zombie zappin' good time.

One of the two Wii Zapper games shown off during E3 was Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. The demo level Capcom had was short and, admittedly, very early in development, but I got to see enough of it to understand its light gun arcade-style take on the series.

The demo dropped me into the cozy confines of Raccoon City, which has already been zombified. It was the typical post-apocalyptic setting, with fires and wrecked cars. While playing the level and shooting the zombies, spiders, and other creepy-crawlies that charged at me, there was conversation between who I believe were Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield. I don't know which character I was playing as (not that it matters, really), but since the story will takes players inside the evil corporation, it makes sense for in-game dialogue to keep its story moving along.

It plays pretty much like the trailers have shown. Stuff comes at you, and you need to shoot it all dead before it gets too close. Unlike in a more traditional arcade shooter like Time Crisis, this is not a one-shot-one-kill situation. Just like Resident Evil games before it, it'll take a few shots to fell a zombie. Perhaps taking a cue from Resident Evil 4, a pin-point shot on the very top of a zombie head will pop it off in a bloody mess. You can also shoot at their legs to trip them up and give you more time to blast away at their heads. There as a noticeable lack of effects when bullets made contact with objects, especially zombies, but given that this was an early playable build (and that trailers have shown better effects), I'll go ahead and assume these issues will be dealt with by the time the game is finished.

There are alternatives to shooting everything in sight. Shooting one of the red barrels strategically placed in the area will make it explode, taking out anything near it. There are also places where you can trigger environmental kills. Toward the end of the demo there was a stack of I-beams against a wall, with only a strap holding the beams up. Shooting the strap caused them all to tumble down, crushing the half-dozen or so zombies that were coming at me. There was a glowing pulse around the strap to convey it was interactive, so players will not need to randomly shoot all around the screen to find such less conventional methods of attack.

The weapons available in the demo were a handgun, a sub-machine gun, and a shotgun. The handgun has unlimited ammunition, so you needn't worry about conserving its ammo. The more powerful weapons have a finite amount of shots, however, so you'll have to find more ammo as you play. The amount of ammo available in your current clip is displayed around your cursor, and you'll be prompted on-screen when you should reload. If you don't have the time to wait for that, you can pull out your knife at any time and slash up threats. For more extreme cases, you can lob a grenade to clear a bunch of enemies all at once.

The front trigger (B Trigger) on the Wii Zapper is the primary fire button. Reloading weapons only requires a quick little shake of the whole controller housing, which is easy to pull off. If you'd prefer, quickly aiming the pointer off-screen and then back on again will also reload, since the motion required to do this will shake the remote enough for it to register the action. The C Button on the nunchuk switches weapons. Holding down the Z Button switches to your knife. To swipe with it you'll need to move the Wii remote around (as in RE4 Wii). Hitting Z and B together throws a grenade wherever the cursor is aimed, and the Z Button also picks up any items that you're aiming at, such as a grenade, new weapon or healing herb. And for those times when there's a zombie gnawing away at your ankles, you can look around and get a better viewing angle using the analog stick. This is also handy when being attacked by crows, which I am reluctant to report are just as annoying as the crows from previous games.

Using the Wii Zapper with this control configuration was somewhat awkward. It was difficult to get a stable hold on the controller because of all the trigger finger movement. I couldn't really decide whether to hold it left-handed or right-handed because I had to choose between shooting with my right (dominant) hand on the front grip, or better stabilizing the entire controller with it on the rear grip (nunchuk). Though I really didn't have a problem aiming where I wanted, the moment I started shooting I lost my precision. After playing the other Zapper game at E3, Sega's Ghost Squad, I can see that this is more of a control configuration problem than poor peripheral design. (To see why, check out my Ghost Squad impressions.) Hopefully Capcom will take feedback from the show and fix the control scheme.

Overall, Capcom showed off was a very rough demo of The Umbrella Chronicles. There is certainly the potential for a good, fun game; however, the developer has a lot of work to do if it wants to release a complete game this year. I'm hoping Capcom comes through.

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Biohazard: Umbrella Chronicles Box Art

Genre Adventure
Developer Capcom
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Release Nov 13, 2007
PublisherCapcom
RatingMature
jpn: Biohazard: Umbrella Chronicles
Release Nov 15, 2007
PublisherCapcom
Rating15+
eu: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Release Nov 30, 2007
PublisherCapcom
Rating18+
aus: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Release Dec 13, 2007
PublisherCapcom
RatingMature (15+)
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