Resident Evil Code: Veronica Review - DetroitOtaku Reviews
Oh, man. This game is a pain.
After three Resident Evil games on the PS1, all very successful, Capcom went back to the drawing board for the series' next entry. The 6th generation of gaming was just starting up with the release of the Sega Dreamcast in 1998. So Capcom decided to turn their focus away from PlayStation for the next Resident Evil, and made the next entry in the series a timed exclusive on Sega's new home console. The end result of their efforts was one of the best, yet arguably the most frustrating entry in the entire series. Believe me when I say that, because this game is HARD. Like, really hard. This game will push you to the limit and try your patience. It is also one of the more darker entries in the franchise as well, as the series dives into some rather...touchy topics (such as the "I" word). But it is nonetheless one of the most important entries in the Resident Evil franchise.
This is Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Resident Evil's swan song on Sega platforms, as it came out on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000 as a timed exclusive. It was also ported to the PS2 a year later (as Code: Veronica X, which is also on Dreamcast). I've played both Code: Veronica and its X port on PS2, and both games are pretty much the same except for some added cutscenes at the end of X.
The Plot
Code: Veronica takes place in December 1998, three months after the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and just before the start of the new year. Raccoon City has been wiped off the map by a nuclear explosion in an attempt to eradicate the T-virus outbreak, and the surviving officers of the Raccoon City Police Department's S.T.A.R.S team have traveled abroad to investigate the Umbrella Corporation.
The story follows Claire Redfield, the younger sister of RPD S.T.A.R.S officer Chris Redfield, who is still looking for her brother. During her search, she raids an Umbrella facility in Paris for answers, but is met with fierce resistance from Umbrella security forces. She nearly escapes, but is captured by Rodrigo Juan Raval, an Umbrella security commander, and taken to Rockfort Island, an Umbrella stronghold in the southern Atlantic Ocean. She is brutally interrogated and later imprisoned. Shortly after, a bombing raid occurs on the island, and Rodrigo decides to free Claire, but warns her that she has little to no chance of making it off the island alive. She soon discovers why - those responsible for the island's bombing have caused a T-Virus outbreak on the island, transforming guards and the dead into zombies.
Claire manages to get a gun, and she runs into another inmate on the island, Steve Burnside. The two of them decide to figure out a plan to escape the island and return to the U.S.. After splitting up for a while, Claire investigates a mansion on the island, where she runs into Rockfort Island’s mentally unstable commander, Alfred Ashford. Alfred is the grandson of Edward Ashford, one of the founders of Umbrella. He is intent on hunting down Claire, because he believes that she played a part in the T-Virus outbreak on the island. After escaping from Alfred, Claire meets up with Steve again. While plotting their escape, the both of them run into a zombie, who is revealed to be Steve's father. Steve goes into shock, but eventually comes to his senses and kills him to save Claire.
Steve reveals to Claire that his father was an Umbrella employee who was caught selling the company's secrets to the highest bidder. As a result, Steve's mother was killed, and he and his father were captured and forced into slave labor on Rockfort Island. Claire agrees to leave Steve alone for the time being and continues her investigation. A while later, the two of them reunite to investigate another mansion located right behind Alfred’s mansion, which supposedly is the home of Alfred’s sister, Alexia Ashford. After fending off someone who looks like Alexia, it is revealed that it was Alfred who was pretending to be his sister, and that he has developed two personalities – him and his missing sister, Alexia. Shortly after, Alfred activates the facility's self-destruct mechanism and flees. Claire and Steve steal a plane and manage to escape from the island, as well as Alfred’s grasp...or have they?
After a while in the air, Alfred hijacks the plane from a computer, sets it into autopilot, and flies Claire and Steve to an abandoned Umbrella facility in Antarctica. The two of them work together to escape the base, and eventually fight Alfred again. Steve manages to mortally wound Alfred, and he and Claire steal a digger to travel to an Australian outpost. But before dying, Alfred crawls into a laboratory and activates a frozen sleep pod. Inside is Alfred's sister - Alexia Ashford, who had been in cryogenic sleep for 15 years. She comes out of the sleep pod to comfort her dying brother, and then uses her powers to capture Claire and Steve.
A while later, back on Rockfort Island, Chris arrives, having received information about Claire’s whereabouts from Leon S. Kennedy. However, when he arrives, he finds the island in shambles due to Alfred using the self-destruct system. Chris then runs into Rodrigo, who tells him that Claire already escaped the island, but is then killed by a giant worm. After investigating the island some more, Chris runs into none other than Albert Wesker, who was responsible for the T-Virus outbreak on the island. Wesker reveals to Chris that he has his own agenda and that he is working for a competitor of Umbrella, pursuing an unknown interest. He also tells him that Claire escaped to Antarctica, and that he is searching for a sample of the T-Veronica Virus - a variant of the T-Virus which causes hosts to manifest arthropod traits in their mutations, such as hard carapaces or insectoid limbs, as well as severe mental degradation. Alexia infected herself with the virus, which is why Alfred is interested in pursuing her as well.
He and Chris get into a fight, but Chris is no match for Wesker who has managed to develop incredible strength since their last encounter. Then, Alexia appears on a monitor, laughing at Wesker. He then lets Chris go, and heads out to Antarctica. Chris also makes his way there eventually, and is reunited with Claire. The two of them then set out to find Steve, who is now under Alexia's control...
The Gameplay
RECV has many similarities to it’s predecessors when it comes to gameplay. The game still retains tank controls, and it utilizes the same Metroidvania-style gameplay as its predecessors, with a map system, save points, puzzles, locked doors, and endless forks in the road.
RECV is the first game in the series to use 3D backgrounds instead of the pre-rendered ones of past games.
For the first third of the game, you play as Claire with some segments where you play as Steve. During the second part of the game, you play primarily as Chris as you investigate Rockfort Island for clues about Claire's whereabouts. In the final act of the game, you play as both Claire and Chris as you search the Antarctic facility for Steve and the final boss fight with Alexia.
Like in past games, items you collect can be viewed on the status screen. Some items can be examined to find clues to solve puzzles. The map and file menu can also be viewed in the status screen. Claire, Steve, and Chris can all carry up to 8 items in their inventories, and in the case of Claire and Chris, their inventory space can be increased to 10 spaces once you find and equip the Side Pack for both characters.
Both Claire and Chris start out with typical 9mm handguns and combat knives (Claire gets a Beretta M93R, Chris has his police-issued Glock 17). Other weapons in the game include a shotgun, magnum revolver, bow gun, grenade launcher, an AK-47, a sniper rifle, two sub-machine guns, and at the end of the game, rocket launchers.
Like in past Resident Evil games, the healing herbs make a return. There are 3 different types of healing herbs in this game – Green, which can be used to restore health. Next is Blue, which is used to cure poison. And lastly, is the Red herb, which can be mixed with the Green herb to restore your health fully.
The mixing combinations are the same as in the first three games: G X 2, G X 3, 1G X 1B, 2G X 1B, 1G X 1R, 1G X 1B X 1R.
One feature of RECV that is exclusive to the Dreamcast version is the use of the Dreamcast's VMU (Visual Memory Unit). The VMU is the primary memory card for the Dreamcast which also acts as an auxiliary display during normal gameplay. The VMU displays your current health condition, saving you the trouble of opening up the status screen to view your health bar.
The Characters
Claire Redfield – Age: 19 – Claire is the main protagonist of Resident Evil Code: Veronica. She is the sister of former Raccoon City Police S.T.A.R.S officer Chris Redfield, who trained her in military combat techniques and has learned how to handle herself in hand-to-hand combat, as well as being able to master tons of weapons such as combat knives and firearms. After the events of Resident Evil 2, where she escaped Raccoon City with Leon S. Kennedy, she heads off to search for Chris, who had traveled to Europe with the surviving S.T.A.R.S members to investigate and expose Umbrella's crimes. She gets captured while raiding an Umbrella facility in Paris and is taken to Rockfort Island, where she escapes and meets up with Steve Burnside. The two of them work together to take down the Ashford twins and escape.
This was Claire's last appearance in a mainline Resident Evil game until Resident Evil: Revelations 2.
Chris Redfield – Age: 25 – Chris is the secondary protagonist of RECV. He is the brother of Claire Redfield. After the destruction of Raccoon City, he and the surviving S.T.A.R.S members agreed to travel to Europe and investigate the Umbrella Corporation and expose their role in causing the Raccoon City outbreak. However, he is forced to put his investigation on hold, as Leon S. Kennedy notified him that Claire was captured in Paris by Umbrella and taken to Rockfort Island. Chris sets off to rescue Claire, as well as eliminating the Ashford twins.
Chris returns as the main protagonist in Resident Evil 5, as one of the main protagonists in Resident Evil 6, and makes major appearances in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village.
Steve Burnside – Age: 17 – Steve is the third main protagonist of RECV. He was a prisoner of Umbrella on Rockfort Island who was forced into slave labor. His father was a researcher for Umbrella who was caught selling information about the company. As a result, both Steve and his father were imprisoned on the island, and his mother was killed. He joins forces with Claire when the T-Virus outbreak took place on the island, and like Claire and Chris, is determined to take down Umbrella to avenge the death of his mother and father. During the events of the game, he takes a liking to Claire and eventually develops a crush on her.
My Thoughts
I first played Code: Veronica when a friend of mine got a copy of the original Dreamcast version of the game. It was a rather interesting experience. There were many things that I liked about the game, and some things I absolutely hated.
Overall, the game controls and handles fine. The puzzles were challenging, and the music was very chilling at times. The plot was very good, as it leaves you guessing the whole way through, and the in-game files were very entertaining to read. Though the game's story does dive into some very touchy subjects - mainly the hint of potential incest between the game's two main villains - Alexia and Alfred, and the dark background of the Ashford family in general.
The weapon upgrades were very good, though not as good as Resident Evil 2's. Another improvement over past entries is that your character can fire weapons at a faster rate than in the previous games. You can view the status of your character’s health bar thanks to the Dreamcast’s VMU screen, so you don’t have to go into the inventory to view what level your character’s health bar is at. However, the voice acting, in traditional old-school Resident Evil fashion (with the exception of RE3), is still somewhat corny. It's an improvement over the voice acting in RE1 and RE2, but still corny and awkward at times. Especially for Steve and Chris, who somehow have developed Canadian accents in this game – words that have the letter “O” in them like “Sorry” are pronounced in typical Canadian fashion, if you know what I mean. Alfred's dialogue also comes off as corny as well. But I'll give it a pass.
However, there are some flaws. As mentioned before, Code: Veronica is arguably the series' most difficult entry. It is a very challenging game for a Resident Evil game. Enemies in the game deal out serious amounts of damage to your characters, more so than in the first three games. While you do get lots of items in this game, the enemies are so tough that you are forced into depleting your inventory and even item boxes just to scrape by certain sections of the game. Don't be surprised if you see yourself being forced to go through more ammo and health items than expected.
What’s worse, there are even some areas where enemies RESPAWN!!! Yes, this is the first game of the series where enemies will actually respawn in certain locations. I’ve had tons of moments where I would just ragequit at a certain part of the game because it is just THAT hard. The extreme difficulty makes this a bad choice for newcomers to the series. The camera angles are also not the best in this game, as it is very hard to see around corners, and the camera will do some surprise turns when you turn a corner or explore a different part of the area you're currently in. And don't get me started on the Bandersnatchers and the Moths. Especially the Moths. Those fuckers will have you consuming your blue herbs constantly. They will plant eggs on your characters, which is an automatic poison. So make sure you have lots of blue herbs on you, and make sure you're near a blue herb box when you're hit.
However, even with it's faults, some major ones even, Code: Veronica is still one of the series' best and most important entries. The positives still outweigh the negatives, and it still remains one of the best games in the Sega Dreamcast's library. If you have a Dreamcast or PS2, pick this one up.
But this game is in dire need of a remake. Seriously.
8.5/10
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