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| Mysteries and deceptions lie ahead... |
STORY- Taking place two months after the conclusion of Resident Evil 2, we follow Claire Redfield, heroine of RE2 and sister to S.T.A.R.S. veteran, Chris Redfield as she infiltrates an Umbrella Corporation facility in search of Chris. However, Claire is captured and imprisoned in a remote prison island called Rockford Island. She manages to escape but only to find herself caught in another T-virus outbreak in the island. Determined to find her brother and the secret behind the outbreak, Claire sets out into the deadly island. Code Veronica's story is well-written and keeps you interested to find out what will happen next, despite it getting cheesy at times. Our S.T.A.R.S. Chris and Claire find themselves some colorful cast of characters including the game's wacky antagonist, Alfred Ashford. There's also references to other characters from prior games as well.
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| Familiar faces make a return. |
GAMEPLAY- Code Veronica function mainly like its predecessors. It's a survival horror game in which you control Claire, and later Chris, as they navigate through enemy-filled environments and solve mind-bending puzzles. Unlike prior games' fixed camera, Code Veronica's camera will follow and at times zooms at you when you move around, making the game's flow much smoother. You'll come across many items and weapons as you explore the game's areas, however, you can only carry few with you. Fortunately, you can store any excess ammo and herbs in the item box and use them later. You'll also come across story files which gives you a bit of background on the events that took place before the character's arrival. Furthermore, this won't be a complete review if I didn't mention Ink Ribbons, which are your means of saving your game. They are scarce in number and in location, so you'll have to make each save count.
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| The gameplay is a bit more fluid compared to the previous games. |
As with every other RE game, you have lots of weapons from the plain combat knife to the over-powered missile launcher to defend yourself from the enemies that you'll encounter. Even with all that firepower, I feel that Code Veronica is by far the most difficult of the classic RE games for some reason. There were times where I thought of restarting the game because i had little to no ammo left to survive a boss fight, though that could be my mistake for not searching more thoroughly. Still, some enemies such as the Bandersantchers are pain to since they can easily chop-down your health and exhaust all of your health supplies. That being said, there wouldn't be a sense of reward and accomplishment if things were a bit easy.
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| Get ready to shoot down some over-sized abominations. |
There were certain Resident Evil 3 features that could have been included such as the dodging mechanic, environment interaction, and the 180 degree turn that didn't make it to Code Veronica. This is possibly due to Resident Evil 3 and Code Veronica being developed by two different teams. Still, It feels like a missed opportunity that they didn't integrate those additions into the Code Veronica X revision.
PRESENTATION- The presentation is a huge departure from the low-polygonal visuals of the PlayStation. Character models and backgrounds are more detailed and are easy on the eyes as well. The pre-rendered backgrounds of previous games have been changed for full 3D areas, giving the game an increasing amount of visual detail. The game's CGI scenes has aged decently, though still showing their age. The HD treatment is good. Textures are a bit sharper and the lighting and shadow effects are neat as well. Strangely, the game feels darker in some areas. The voicework isn't the best highlight of the presentation, but it's decent at best. It can get a bit cheesy and cringe-worthy with the scenes with Steve and Alfred though. My favorite aspect of the presentation has to be the soundtrack. It's filled with suspenseful and interesting tracks that nails the atmosphere of the game. My favorite is the super relaxing "A Moment of Relief", which plays when you're in a save room.
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| There's lots of horror to be had in Code Veronica. |
OVERALL- I always considered Resident Evil: Code Veronica the weakest of the early games. That being said, it's by no means a bad game. The story is full of mystery and will keep you engaged as well. I loved seeing Wesker and Chris make a return and I grew to like the new characters such as Steve as well. The gameplay haven't aged gracefully, but still is playable if you get used to the camera and conventional controls. The voicework while decent get the job done and the soundtrack is just plain awesome. The HD update is pretty good for $20. Regardless, if you've been interested in playing Code Veronica for a while, now's the time to check it out.
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