Resident Evil Viral

A Beautiful Darkside

by Adam Brown

June 17, 2009 - ResidentEvil: The Umbrella Chronicles had a very solid idea. Take a well-knownand beloved survival horror franchise and turn it into an on-railsshooter in order to cater to the strengths of the Wii. While thisworked pretty well, there was clearly still room for improvements.Hopefully, this is what the sequel, Resident Evil: The DarksideChronicles will be able to provide when it sees its release later this winter.Although this may seem like a long time to wait, we were fortunateenough to get a chance to try out a demo of this highly anticipatedtitle while at E3.

From the minute the gameplay started one thing became abundantly clear,this game was way more graphically impressive than The Umbrella Chronicles. The environments are extremely detailed and polished, the lighting effects add a great sense of realism and mood, and the zombies and main characters also look much more realistic. The lighting was especially striking as the glow from the random fires that littered Raccoon City’s streets in one of the levels bathed your path in a dim, flickering, and creepy fashion. There were even some nice touches suchas blood splatter and water droplets that seemingly affix to the game’s camera to further immerse the player in the experience.

Zombies also move and react more believably this time due to the use ofactual physics, so don’t expect the same canned animations every time you off one of the undead. For example, blasting a zombie in the chest with a shotgun will result in said zombie flying backwards accurately according to the shot’s placement. Shot location definitely still plays a vital role, as shooting a zombie in the lower leg will often make them take a knee, providing you with more time to finish off him and his friends. Headshots are also quite useful, as you will not only deal more damage with your shot but you may also blow the zombie’s head off, which is always a nice touch.

As you may already know, the backdrop for The Darkside Chronicles will incorporate reimagined segments from both Resident Evil 2 (RE2) and Resident Evil Code: Veronica (RECV). In this demo two levels were made available, one from each of these two titles. The first was from RE2 and was called Memory of a Lost City. This level had players controlling either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield as they fought theirway to the police station in a very accurate recreation of the opening of RE2. All the major things you’d remember are there such as the gunshop with a munched on owner and the zombies banging against the chain like fence that surrounds the back ally basketball court. It was a very eerie and welcomed trip down memory lane.

The second demo level was entitled Game of Oblivion and it was taken from RECV. This level took place on Rockfort Island when Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside first met and gave players their choice between controlling either of the two characters. While not as well versed in RECV, I still thought this level felt like a good on-railshooter recreation of my vague memories of the title. I do have to say, though, I especially enjoyed the stormy weather that left rain dropletson the camera while combating the zombies that were pulling themselves out of their own graves.

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