Reviewing The Resident Evil Series

Posted by: Ron H. October 22, 2012 in Games, Opinion, Reviews, Slider

After Raccoon City was covered up, I’m sure everyone thought the nightmare would be over. However, that was far from the case. The outbreaks started creeping up in other places and the franchise’s key players made sure they responded before any incident got worse. The bio outbreaks weren’t global just yet but these were the days when you never knew where an incident would turn up. It wasn’t just local anymore, that’s for sure. Raccoon City was just the beginning.

Resident Evil Survivor
2000, PlayStation

Stay away from this game. Seriously, there is no redeeming quality to Survivor other than a mention of Leon.

This game takes place on an island and is if the first game in the sub-series of gun controlling Resident Evil games. Survivor pits Ark Thompson, who can’t remember who he is or what is going on, against zombies in a mission he can’t remember. Obviously you have to find out what is going on and resulting storyline is very, very forgettable. Gameplay is so off in Survivor, especially in the North American version where the ability to use the Ligth Gun or GunCon was taken out because of the Columbine tragedy that happened shortly before the release of this game.

Ark is never seen again in the franchise nor heard of or mentioned. A sort of subtle hint that Capcom knew what kind of crap they released.

Score: 1 out of 5

Resident Evil Code: Veronica
2000, Dreamcast

The only main game in the Expansion Files. Code: Veronica brings the Redfield children back together as we finally get to play as Chris again and Claire returns. This game takes place in two locations: an island near Paris and the Antarctic. Both of which house secret Umbrella facilities.

The story is a bit confusing at the beginning as Claire goes to this island looking for her brother who has been fighting the outbreaks. As she finds out, he isn’t on the island. Yet. Chris actually arrives on the island after being warned by Leon that Claire had been missing for some time. Either way, both Claire and Chris do end up on the island at some point in time.

Still, Code: Veronica is very important to the story of Resident Evil as it shows off Wesker as a true enemy. Before this it was hard to pinpoint one person as the face of the enemy in Resident Evil. We had scientists and projects and whatnot but no face. We knew Wesker was up to no good but he also thought he died. In Code: Veronica it is very easy to see that Wesker is working with Umbrella to cover up any issues, further research, and gain control of the virus strains. It is also important because we get to see how dedicated Chris is to fight this and how far he will go.

The gameplay in Code: Veronica was a nice step-up from Resident Evil 3 but was still old school in most aspects. This is a good game that answers some questions and raises more. It shouldn’t be missed if you’re playing the game for the story.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X
2001/03, PlayStation 2/Gamecube & 2011, PS3/360

Code: Veronica was re-released twice under the X and X HD titles. Both add a little something to the original game.

Code: Veronica X added some cutscenes and a story element to help Claire should an event during a specific battle happened. This added a bit more to the game which was fun to play through and was akin to when you needed to play as Carlos in Resident Evil 3 to help Jill. Aside from that X wasn’t that more of a departure.

X HD, on the other hand, added several features for leaderboards, better menus, graphics, cutscenes, remastered music, and a much better save system.

Both re-releases managed to make Code: Veronica a better game. The add gameplay and cutscenes made the experience longer and seem more grandiose. The definitive version is definitely Code: Veronica X HD for the current gen systems.

Score: 4 out of 5

Resident Evil Survivor 2: Code: Veronica
2001, PlayStation 2

Talk about an unnecessary game. Just because Capcom did not want to back down from thisgun Survivorsub-series, the Resident Evil franchise had to include another Survivor game. Worst yet? The whole thing turns out to be a dream Claire has while on the island. So not only is the game not canon like the first Survivor, it doesn’t even happen.

It boggles my mind why Capcom would make a sequel to a game that sold like garbage and got terrible reviews. This one didn’t do good, either. In fact, it doesn’t even make sense. If the time run out, the Nemesis comes out and chases you down. Wait. What?

Seriously, Survivor 2 should probably get the same 2 out of 5 rating I gave the first one but because this is all a dream and doesn’t matter at all, this is getting a one.

Score: 1 out of 5

Resident Evil Gaiden
2001, Gameboy Color

Gaiden takes place after the Raccoon City incident where Leon and a few other survivors have joined an initiative to stop the bio-terrorism and outbreaks around the world. Leon returns to the series as he is dispatched to a luxury cruise liner called the Starlight. It is rumored that a new strain of virus is hidden on the ship. Of course, the virus is released and Leon is caught on-board with infected.

Gaiden was a very interested and weird game. The gameplay was overhead style and whenever Leon ran into an enemy the combat would engage in a first person view. Here, players had to time attacks correctly to do damage and get away. It was very awkward and didn’t work very well.

The story of Gaiden really isn’t too important other than the fact that we get to see that Leon now belongs to a secret initiative tasked with ending these threats. We get to see Barry from the first game again but aside from that Gaiden is just… there. It really doesn’t serve a purpose other than to have the Resident Evil name on the Gameboy Color.

Score: 2 out of 5

Resident Evil Dead Aim
2003, PlayStation 2

Another Survivor-type game. However, this time Capcom went about it in a slightly different way. When out of combat, a third person perspective was used to navigate the game world which made more sense and honestly felt like a precursor to Resident Evil 4.

We’re back aboard a cruise liner. This time it’s called the Spencer Rain. We play as Bruce McGivern from an Anti-Umbrella unit put in place by the US government. Bruce infiltrates the ship and find another operative from China who was sent to obtain the virus. One to destroy, the other to take. Conflicting motives but they have to co-operate due to the new hybrid strain of virus being released.

Dead Aim is the best Survivor-type game for Resident Evil but that isn’t saying much, honestly. The game is still clunky and just generally unfun to play. It’s a tedious experience that does nothing to further the story along. At least Survivor 2 had a key character present in the game. Too bad that meant absolutely nothing. Dead Aim’s story is canon but it does nothing but introduce a new strain of virus and a shallow enemy.

Score: 2 out of 5

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
2009, Nintendo Wii

Whereas the Umbrella Chronicles followed actual storylines from previous Resident Evil games, The Darkside Chronicles was more of a personal retelling of the horrifying things some of our main characters have gone through. It is also a prequel to Resident Evil 4 in some respects.

We start off by seeing Leon and Krauser teaming up for a mission in South America. The other two scenarios that you play through are re-tellings that happen in the middle of the main scenario with Leon and Krauser. When Leon has to divulge information to Krauser due to their situation, Leon retells what happened in Raccoon City and then what Claire went through during Code: Veronica. This brings Krauser up to speed but also makes him distrust Leon as he begins to find him responsible for the destruction of Raccoon City.

We also get to see Krauser’s thoughts about the situation in Darkside Chronicles and what made him go down the path of power instead of the one of the loyal soldier. It’s a great insight into what happened before Resident Evil 4 and shows a more grown up Leon taking charge. It’s a shame it took so long to come out as seeing Krauser’s background would have made his parts in Resident Evil 4 so much better.