Resident Evil Code: Veronica

Review by miffo

I get scared easily. Too easily. Once a friend approached me in broad daylight and calmly said ''Boo.'' - I screamed loud enough so that everyone in the surrounding area heard me. That was the topic of discussion for the next few days. But I'm older now, and with age comes bravery, right? Eh...no. Playing this game was rewarding and challenging at the same time, and I collected more sweat in a few hours than I would in a few days worth of exercising. (Not that I ever exercise, mind you.)

Code: Veronica is the first Resident Evil game that I've ever played. They never really attracted me, but after seeing so many good reviews, I knew I had to try this. After popping it in and just watching the opening introductory movie, I was hooked. Throughout the game the player is treated with a mixture of real-time and CG sequences, all of which are impressive. The only beef I have about the cinematic scenes is the horrid voice acting - listening to it is just as scary as watching! There are moments where you'll be snickering at the voices when Capcom had planned for you to be wetting your pants. Oh well, maybe next time.

Having never played a game in the series, my knowledge of the overall storyline is hardly complete, but they do a decent job of introducing newbies such as myself into the creepy world. Claire Redfield has been imprisoned, but is later released when the complex has been overrun by zombies, which were created from an outbreak of the T-Virus. Escaping from the island isn't going to be easy, but Claire sets out with the help of Steve, a fellow stranded prisoner. (He shares a resemblance with Leonardo DiCaprio, but you ladies will be turned off by his nasally, Canadian-ish voice.)

Across the two-disk adventure, you'll see plenty of enemies to avoid, and become involved in the twisted story as it's told to you. Claire's brother, Chris Redfield, comes after them later on and you'll play as him for the second half of the game. The game flows unerringly and it never fails to make me jump at the right moments...well, almost. Like I mentioned earlier, there are a few instances where the voice acting is too silly to make you believe what's happening. The love sub-plot is a little stupid as well.

Controlling Claire and Chris is a bigger task than you might think. Getting through the game isn't a huge challenge, but starting off is the tricky part. You see, the controls are set up so that if you push forward it will be forward from the character's perspective, which is often opposite from where you would normally think to move. Using the joystick isn't an option either, and all movement is controlled with the D-pad. While not the most efficient way of doing things, you get used to it after a while. A very long while, though.

This game also opposes convention, and X is used as the main button rather than A as we're all used to - in fact, the A button cancels selections instead of B. During gameplay, however, A is used to run in conjunction with the D-pad, and a quick 180-degree turn can be accomplished by pressing down and A at the same time. X is used to activate switches, or to use your weapon while aiming with the R-trigger. These are the basic controls and you can get used to them over time. I just wish Capcom had done something a little more friendly so we wouldn't have such a hard time navigating the area.

But I must say that they did a great job in using both of the Dreamcast controller's slots. First off, is the VMU - the screen on it displays your current health status. Because there are no on-screen icons, you would generally have to see this through the pause menu. You can save yourself some time assuming that you're not playing in the dark. The Jump Pack is also used to it's full potential, and it shakes to fit the current situation in addition to simply vibrating when you fire a gun. For example, if you're about to enter a room that seems scarier than usual, the pack will mimic a heartbeat as you open the door.

Unfortunately, going through doors bugs me. A very simple animation is shown as the door opens and closes. In a way, it helps raise the tension because you don't know what to expect in the next room. But it wastes time, and the animations lack the graphical quality that the rest of the game has.

Fortunately, though, the rest of the game has gorgeous graphics. Everything is rendered beautifully and the lighting effects are excellent. Each source of light sets the mood of the room, and the dim lamps blowing in the wind can definitely creep you out. The character animations are lacking despite how pretty everything else is. They just don't turn realistically, and it looks a bit awkward.

I don't have a problem with the camera, and the stationary angles allow you to see only what the developers wanted you to see. You usually don't discover the horde of zombies until the camera pans around at the last second! There are times where you'll pass over an item due to camera issues, but I found it to be helpful the majority of the time.

As far as sound goes, don't expect a lot of music. It remains pretty quiet to give it more of a spooky feel, but the little music that's there sounds fine to me. The sound effects are great and give you clues as to what's going on.

So you can enjoy the sounds and graphics as you play. But how fun is it to actually play through it? Getting past the control issue, it can be fun. Gameplay basically consists of going to a room, finding a key, finding a place to put the key, then unlocking another door to go through. While it definitely goes deeper than that, the basic mechanics can be redundant and occasionally you might be bored of playing hide-and-seek with inanimate objects. Some puzzles are tricky and often frustrating, but it's always a great feeling once you've finally figured it out.

The baddies you encounter can range from intimidating to scream-inducing. Due to a limited amount of ammo, there will be times where you'll be fighting with a knife, and that really annoys me because I'm panicking whenever something big comes my way. I also wish that you could hold more items at a time - you can store items in special boxes, but visits to these are required more often than I'd like. You need to find a special item to save, and I'm against this completely. It'd be nice if we could save whenever we came to the save point.

The fun-level drops as you play with Chris and you'll have to do a lot of backtracking throughout the game, especially with him. That's the worst part about playing, but it's not extremely involving anyway. Really, watching the cut scenes and becoming engaged in the story is the best part. And it does a good job of that.

So...is it worth it? That's the big question, especially now that the PS2 version is out.

My answer: yes. If you have a PS2, I guess it would be better to get that version for the extra footage. Either way, just do yourself a favor and play Code: Veronica whatever way you can. It's a solid one-player adventure that's worth at least twenty hours, so you'll get your money's worth. Despite some control flaws, it's an overall great experience and one of the best Dreamcast games out there. Buy it!