Movies •Books •Music •Food •Tv Shows •Technology •Politics •Video Games •Parenting •Fashion •Green Living •more >

Lunch » Tags » Video Games » Reviews » Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

2 Ratings: 2.0

Video Games

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 … see full wiki

Tags: Video Games

1 review about Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

Showing 1-1 of 1

Sort by:

Great game for a rail shooter

Mar 8, 2009

by elementalcobalt
posted in The Gaming Hub

Rating:

Before I start writing, I figure I should point out that I am in no way a resident evil guru. I played Resident evil 2 and beat it in rookie mode with the Gatling gun. I started playing the B part of it, but never finished. I also started resident evil 1, but only made it somewhere near plant 42. Suffice it to say that I loved the story, but the awkward gameplay and scare factor always kept me away, although I am interested in trying resident evil 4, which has a new gameplay as I understand it. Anyway, then this game came out, which gave me the prefect option to try something new. It was as much as I expected, no more or less.

Gameplay: The game is a rail/ light gun shooter. For those of you who are not aware of what that means, this is the type of shooting game you might find in an arcade. Area 51, Time Crisis, and house of the dead series are examples of this. Only house of the dead has been ported to the new functionality of the wii, making this title one of only 2 rail shooters available on a wii. If you love these kind of games, which suck up quarters in the arcade, then this is a great, and even money saving, game to purchase. Rail shooters follow a linear path, you point at the screen, shoot, reload, and shoot some more, occasionally tossing a grenade to shake things up. That is all the game has, so if the repetitive nature of this game overwhelms the fun of just shutting of your brain for a few hours, then this game is not for you, and you will not enjoy it. period.

Graphics: Graphically, I felt the game was lacking. To me, the graphics were as bad as House of the Dead 2, and not even as good as 3, which is pretty poor considering the House of the Dead is many years old. It was pretty much crap, the environment was not nearly as changeable as one would like, and it was simply lacking.

Story: The story, and the main reason to get the game, is that it pretty much summarizes resident evil 0, 1, and 3. The game has several scenarios you can follow. The first one is resident evil 0, you follow through the game as the characters from that game, fighting the same bosses and visiting the same areas in order, with a rough on the go story that summarizes more than explains. Then you follow the original, then 3, and there is an extra story too. So those of you like me, who were too scared to get through them, might find this game a bit better, after all, it drags your along the rail whether you are scared to open the next door or not. Personally I did not find it scary, I don't think it is, but that is really your call. On top of that, it has numerous unlockable subplots, which give you the story of the some of the other characters and their respective plot holes. Such as what happened with rebecca chambers between the end of resident evil 0 and her appearance in resident evil 1, or what wesker was doing during most of the games.

Features: The game had many unique features, and while there are many times where I could swear I was playing House of the Dead, there were plenty of times I did not. Differences between this and your basic shooter, you can switch between weapons, which are numerous, which do hold ammo, only hand guns are infinite. Reloading, rather than shooting off screen, requires you to jerk the remote awkwardly. Picking up weapons, avoiding certain scripted hits, and grenades require the A button, changing weapons require the up down arrows. You can "pan" left and right with the nunchuck, but that changes your view a little to the left and right. It may be useful for getting a better view of an enemy or item, but is pretty much useless. Plus, with your hand over the remote so you can change weapons or pick up stuff constantly, the ability to use the nunchuck is pretty much not there. I don't even plug the nunchuck in and I play fine. Mind you, I have the perfectshot gun for this game. While this is a great gun that adds to the experience of the game, I found that the game would probably play easier without it, which would allow you to control everything with one hand.

Overall: I found the game to be great, mindless fun, that still allows you to have a resident evil experience even if you are the type of person who can play a survival horror game. It can be frustrating at times. At certain times, headshots and bullets in general don't land where they're shoot, in two person mode, the receptacles do not do a good job of separating themselves in shape/color well, so you can get confused easy as to who is pointed where. The game will keep your interest for a couple hours of fun every once in a while, but don't expect to get sucked in by the greatness of gameplay or incredible graphics. The upgradables give you a little incentive to play, and desire to increase your score might get you a little replayablity, but don't expect much more than that. Own it if you LOVE rail shooters, or really want at least one in your wii library, otherwise, rent it for a trip down memory lane and nothing more.

What did you think of this review?

Helpful

Thought-Provoking

Fun to Read

Well-Organized