Title Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles Date 11.23.2007 Genre Shooter Platform Wii Developer Capcom Publisher Capcom

I had been anxiously awaiting Capcom's first official Resident Evil rail shooter all summer as it seemed to combine my two favorite qualities; the innovative gameplay behind the "House of the Dead" series and the immersing story of the "Resident Evil" franchise. It was furthermore exciting to see that it invites new comers to learn the Resident timeline without having to play 3+ games while simultaneously intriguing long time fans by offering new story lines surrounding the fall of the Umbrella Corporation and the mysteries behind Albert Wesker (one of the main protagonists in the series). I reserved my copy months ago and headed right after my daily 8 hours in the work force to pick it up and began playing as soon as I could get the wrapping off the case and the frustrating Simpsons game out of my Wii. I didn't see the need to buy a Wii zapper as I'm perfectly comfortable using a Wii remote as a gun.

Upon finally playing I was initially, well not let down but more... offset. The term "hairline trigger" doesn't even begin to cover how accurate your shot needs to be. One of the handier features of the "House of the Dead" games was that with all the enemies headed at you, a shot in the general head area was good enough to take out a zombie quickly whereas Capcom wants you to quiver the site over the tip-top of the zombies' heads for about 3-7 seconds each for it to then turn into a "Critical Shot" opportunity to blow it to pieces. Zombie head shots used to be easily delivered in a single blow whereas in The Umbrella Chronicles you may as well be shooting them in the chest (3-5 shots!?). As I got to the final levels I finally started to get it and the setting was only on easy!

They also give you fewer opportunities to stop enemies from attacking while trying to give you more at the same time. If a zombie grabs you about to bite, you can easily call upon the helpful defense moves from the RE Remake on GameCube with a swift shake of the remote. Should a zombie try and slash at you however, a well placed head shot won't even stop the attack from happening every time. I hate to keep the "House of the Dead" comparisons coming but I do miss the old weird "enemy diary" that would come up before a boss battle and tell you upfront where its weak spot was. In The Umbrella Chronicles your partner might discuss it in the middle of the battle where you're too busy focusing on bigger matters at hand.

The massive weapon inventory to choose from and switch weapons on the fly are both a good time and a curse in that I found myself trying to stick to the handgun to conserve heavier firepower for a boss fight but we all now how a handgun fares against a sudden Raptor or Licker attack. The times reload feature from Resident Evil 4 has been brought in also (the bigger the gun, the longer the reload) which isn't as frustrating as it might sound though "other" 1st person rail shooters featuring zombies have a simple handgun reload times a little better than the Chronicles. Health features are one of the strong points especially working with the Wii controls in that instead of wasting a bullet to pick a health item or ammo up, you use the A (or "action") button. The health system is simple in that occasionally (usually toward the beginning of a level) you'll find a classic first aid spray which acts as an extra quarter and if you die, it revives you. And occasionally you'll find the trademark green herbs that refill your life gauge by about half. The environments are said to be fairly destructible and apparently you can shoot certain doors to enter rooms and split path ways. I found it a little difficult however to tell which parts of the environment exactly were destructible and which doors are there to be broken into and those that are merely there for continuity with the previous incarnations of the series.

On a graphics scale the game is fine. Smooth textured environments that may not have the detail of the Resident Evil Remake but still have a lot of effort. Plenty of detailed and sometimes seriously creepy enemies (the Lickers seemed a little to simplistic for my taste; I liked them muscley and veiny and slimy from their RE 2 days whereas here they are little more bubble gum and Play Do'ish). Another interesting quirk is that when an enemy dies it no longer dissolves or melts as I was beginning to get familiar with from Resident Evil 4. The body lays there which can occasionally make it difficult to discern if it is actually dead, and when there are 4-5 other zombies coming at me it can get pretty distracting. Another slight flaw is that when multiple enemies to do appear and get close it can slow down the gameplay significantly as the Wii can only handle so much in-your-face action apparently.

Music and sound effects are fine as far as synthy pulsey horror tracks and gun shots go. There are points however where the music gets completely drowned out by sound effects and dialogue. There are times (such as when using the submachine guns) that the subtitles come in handy. The voice acting is fine and delivered with little B-movie cheese; however true fans of the series will notice the significantly different and/or aged voice actors this time around. The cut-scenes are thoroughly entertaining and save points are minimal and not as boring as one may think.

In closing I see where I may have expressed more flaws in the game than positives. So why do I like it? Why give it such a good score? Because it's a good effort. The new material is more than worth playing for. Even tying a couple of features from the movies means they're definitely trying to please fans and buy time until the highly anticipated Resident Evil 5. Gameplay-wise sure, it's no House of the Dead (Last time, promise!) but this is Capcom and we should all have become a little accustomed by now to that idea that they take a few versions to get it right. Remember that it was Resident Evil FOUR that revolutionized the action game, not One. It is also still a fun game despite the tedious pin point accuracy required to perform above average. And I'm probably on that bandwagon with everyone in that I had seen enough Jill Valentine in the beginning and end of the game to wish that they had gone with the Claire and Leon (Resident Evil 2) side of the Raccoon Outbreak, but serious kudos to Capcom for making Nemesis and his "STARS" slogan very efficiently creepy on this outing.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Matt