RESIDENT EVIL

CODE: Veronica

Review


Developer: Publisher: Release: Genre: Cost: Players: Age Rating:
Capcom EIDOS Out Now! Survival Horror £39.99 1 15+


Prologue
The mid-western town of Raccoon City was completely decimated by the T-virus outbreak, an incident instigated by the international corporation: Umbrella.

Claire Redfield, who travelled to Raccoon City in search of her lost brother Chris, managed to escape from the city along with rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy.

But their ordeal is only a prelude of things to come.

Now, 3 months later...


Survival Horror hits Dreamcast!
The scary-brown-pants-thrill ride that is Resident Evil has got it's first Dreamcast exclusive and boy, it was worth the wait!
The special thing about this game is that it is the first to be rendered in completely Real-Time 3D! Which means that the camera isn't just stationary, like in previous games, it means that the camera can pan left, right and round corners and zoom in and out making the angles more dynamic and exciting. Like, say, there is a zombie is out of view around a corner and you can see Claire/ Chris looking at it and they walk closer to it and the camera will pan round so you can get a view of it just before you kill it with Handgun, Shotgun, Knife, Grenade Launcher, Bow Gun, M-100P, Assualt Rifle, Sub Machine Gun, etc.
The music still makes the game great and keeps the spooky atmosphere. Some of the music from the first game is there (as well as a few other things...).



Gruesome Graphics!
The graphics for the game are amazing! Remember when Resident Evil 2 came out? And people said that the graphics were amazing? Well RE CODE: Veronica looks about 1000 times better! The humans in the game like Claire look pretty amazing and some of the most impressive faces in a game and almost rivalling Shen Mue! Claire looks beautiful! Why? Because the amount of polygons used on her face make her look better than ever! Steve looks just like Leonardo Di Caprio because of the amount of polygons being used! (Bound to get the girls playing!) And Chris is looking better than he did from the first game.
One other thing you will notice that's different from the other games is that when characters speak their mouth's move with the words. Also if you look closely you'll see them blink! Simple stuff for Dreamcast! While some games have slowdown CODE: Veronica has none at all and runs at a smooth 50 frames per second (there is no 60 Hz mode unfortunately).
The Real Time 3D backdrops are more detailed than their Pre-rendered forebears! Oh, and the Cut-scenes are amazing too! Especially the one when Chris makes his appearance!
Finally, the zombies and monsters. In a word "Eeeeuuuggghhh!" The Discusting, Festering, Decomposing zombie scum that like to try and take chunks out of our necks we all know and love (to kill) are back and looking better than ever! Some new monsters await too like the Banders with it's stretchy Dhalsim-like arm. Unfortunately you can't blow zombies in half or shoot their heads off any more. (It would probably be too realistic then.)


Spooky Sounds!
The sound for the game as you'd expect is very much like the music from previous games and sets a very spooky environment for the player and builds up a tense atmosphere just before you get the crap scared out of you from a zombie! Remember when you played RE1 for the first time? Walking down the quiet corridor and only the spooky music playing... "Dum-de-dum, dee-de-dee, hmm-h...!!! CHRIST!" as dogs jump through the windows.
Also if you've played the previous games you will remember the "Shuffle, shuffle" of the zombies as they stumble their way towards you. Then the "Bang, Bang, Bang... Squelch, Splat, Uuuuggghhh, *THUD*"
Well those sound effects are still around for CODE: Veronica and just as greusome.
The stepping sound changes too so if you step into an old wooden floor you get creaky, wooden footsteps; onto a marble or hard floor in an empty room you get the echoey, kind of clunky footsteps, on gravel a gravelly crunch footstep sound and what ever you step on you get a sound for it. eg. Glass, water, etc.
Explosions are GREAT! BOOM! KABOOM! KAAAABOOOOOM!!!!!! and er... Bang. Fire sounds are also there.
And, of course, the standard zombie "Uuuggghhh..."

(VooDoo) Practice Playability!
The controls for the game are almost exactly the same as the previous games and it works just as well and you have the 180 degree turn which is basically a quick turn to face the opposite direction so if a zombie tries a sneak attack all you do is a 180 turn and shoot his face!
Er... what else can I say to fill this section up? Oh Yeah!
If you haven't played the other Resident Evil games it will take you a while to get used to the controls. Up- Forward, Down- Back, Left- Turn Left, Right- Turn right and Down+Run- 180 turn incase you don't know and A- Action, Select; B- Run, X- Status screen, Y- Map screen, R- Aim and L- Change aim. The game plays just as well as the others and is just as engrossing and addictive. You can use either the D-pad or the analogue stick but I prefer the D-pad cos it's easier to use.


(Ever) Lasting Lastability?
You may be thinking that once you have completed the 2 discs of CODE: Veronica there won't be much to get you back after that first time that took you about 15 hours but, there is! What? You may ask. To find stuff you may have missed, to get a better rank, to finish it quicker and if you do well enough secrets like the rocket launcher and Hunk will be yours! Obviously if you don't use the best weapons to be found and save your ammo for bosses your rank will be better and if you remember where everything is in the game and run to everywhere as quickly as possible your time and rank will be better and if you don't save your game and play all the way through without dying during the game you will get the best ranks in one go and the secret stuff will be yours if you're good enough.


The Game Overall!
A truly terrifying and gruesome game that requires a bit of brain-power for the brain-testing puzzles as well as an itchy trigger finger. This game will have you coming back for more blood, guts and the beautiful Claire! A definite buy.


The Mark!
Graphics 97%
Sound 95%
Playability 93%
Lastability 94%

Overall 95%

Barry the SuperScot


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