Umbrella Chronicles Review
After beating the game and all scenarios in it, I'm not finally ready to give my overall review of the game.
The first issue overall that I'll tackle is the presentation of the game. In that, most of it shines. Capcom did a very good job revisiting previous locations and summing up their events into short scenarios, and in doing such, gave, especially the fans, a good bit of nostalgia on the series. The only things that lacked in this area, I thought, were some of the ways they cut things from the games. Granted, they don't have enough time to put into it every single little detail/event, however, it does end up missing some of its flavor without it. Best example I can think of? Barry Burton. After all, he was a pretty major character in the first game, it stands to reason they'd include him SOMEWHERE in the Resident Evil Scenario. But alas, unless you try to see him in the helicopter when Jill escapes Raccoon City, you don't see hide nor hair of our beloved acting lessons-less Barry.
I don't think as well that the cutscenes made to start out the scenarios were made to be entirely cannon so to speak, just to give an essential bit of information on the entire way things actually went. After all, how hard is it to imagine that yes, Jill went with Chris, but at the same time, that Wesker was actually the one who instructed them to do so, for instance. I think in these situations, it's best to take the actual story from the actual game and combine it with the brief cutscene beginnings for more completion in the storyline because yeah, they're NOT, how do you say, 'filling' enough considering the intense situations to be fitting for the entire plot.
If no one got what I said in the last paragraph, then just skip over it lol...xD
As for gameplay, in some areas I'm very happy, in others, I'm not. The aiming is not clunky or too fast to get the hang of without some practice, and in that area, I was relieved. However, other aspects, such as the weapons system, kind of makes me urk. The reason being is that say you have a list of five different weapons you have to shift through. Say three of those weapons run out of ammo. Well, they should remove those weapons from the list until you pick up ammo for the gun again. But instead, no, you have to shift through these empty weapons to get back to the gun you're trying to use. Also, you have to pay careful attention because if you're saving a rocket launcher, and the handgun is what you're wanting to get back to, then you need to know you're on the HANDGUN and not the ROCKET LAUNCHER so that you don't spend your precious kill-a-tyrant-rocket.
The only other thing, and I could see this coming from before, is the rail you're on. Given there's not many times for boredom as you do usually have some type of monster coming at you blah blah, it still makes it incredibly annoying when you're waiting on said character to move through an area, and going "CAN'T YOU RUN!?" Or maybe I'm just impatient like that hehe xD!!!
Just a personal nit pick though heh x.x
As for graphics, in some areas, I'm pleased, in others, I'm not. They did do a good job of 'resurfacing' the graphics and the characters so to speak, but I'm not so enthused with the fact that this is an entirely new gaming system, yet things still seem to look like they did back on the gamecube and such. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the graphics are a total waste of space at all, no no, they look VERY good, but I guess I just wish they could look a little BETTER than they do, that's all.
As for the storyline (not of the games we already know, but of the parts we don't know) there's parts, once again, I'm very pleased with, and parts I'm not. For instance, Sergei Vladimir, as a badguy, did not impress me much any. He seems to be either a rehashed character (ie. Jack Krauser and Nicholai Ginovaef combined) or just a thrown together badguy so that Wesker could have someone to tango with. Not that I don't like the exchange between Sergei and Wesker, but the quickness of it all leaves it feeling bland. I would have been much more satisfied if Wesker had to face off with some B.O.W. controlled by the Red Queen and then taken Spencer down (beat the game to know what I'm talking about heh x.x) instead of this guy here who makes the Red Queen a side story it seems, not to mention Spencer himself who is far more important.
But I ~AM~ pleased with the scenarios nevertheless. Much more of Wesker's persona is revealed than ever before, a new twist is put onto Ada's character, and HUNK is also more explained, though his chapter seemed a little bit odd to me, as if anti-climatic, and I thought they prolly shoulda had his chapter be opened BEFORE the last chapter was. The voice acting is also a spot on, though yes, there ARE some cheesy lines (As Harrison Ford said to George Lucas, you can write that shit, but you can't say it) though what/where would Resident Evil be without the cheesy lines, and Richard was everything I thought he would be minus a couple of personal qualms with the actions he takes throughout his scenario.
Overall, I'm definitely pleased with this game. I wouldn't take it back for anything, and I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoyed a FP game or a shooter game, as well as to any veteran of the series, because yeah, it does reveal some very important information in it. My gaming experience with it has been very fun, and I can see myself playing it again in the near future just to try and find all the things I didn't find the first time around, not to mention I'm just a sadly obsessed yet happily to stare at him Wesker fangirl and this game DOES seem to be made to cater to his whole story in general. So out of ten, I'd have to give this game overall a 7.5. XD
Most of the hype was lived up to, so I commend Capcom on that. But for future reference, Capcom, and this is probably my biggest qualm with the whole game, STOP TAKING SHIT FROM THE MOVIES AND PUTTING IT INTO THE GAMES!!! THE MOVES WERE SHIT!!! THE GAMES RULE!!! QUIT THINKING THE FANS ADORED THE MOVIES SO THAT YOU MUST COMBINE THE TWO!!!
The day Alice shows up in a game is the day I hang myself in my bathroom with dental floss. x.x
The first issue overall that I'll tackle is the presentation of the game. In that, most of it shines. Capcom did a very good job revisiting previous locations and summing up their events into short scenarios, and in doing such, gave, especially the fans, a good bit of nostalgia on the series. The only things that lacked in this area, I thought, were some of the ways they cut things from the games. Granted, they don't have enough time to put into it every single little detail/event, however, it does end up missing some of its flavor without it. Best example I can think of? Barry Burton. After all, he was a pretty major character in the first game, it stands to reason they'd include him SOMEWHERE in the Resident Evil Scenario. But alas, unless you try to see him in the helicopter when Jill escapes Raccoon City, you don't see hide nor hair of our beloved acting lessons-less Barry.
I don't think as well that the cutscenes made to start out the scenarios were made to be entirely cannon so to speak, just to give an essential bit of information on the entire way things actually went. After all, how hard is it to imagine that yes, Jill went with Chris, but at the same time, that Wesker was actually the one who instructed them to do so, for instance. I think in these situations, it's best to take the actual story from the actual game and combine it with the brief cutscene beginnings for more completion in the storyline because yeah, they're NOT, how do you say, 'filling' enough considering the intense situations to be fitting for the entire plot.
If no one got what I said in the last paragraph, then just skip over it lol...xD
As for gameplay, in some areas I'm very happy, in others, I'm not. The aiming is not clunky or too fast to get the hang of without some practice, and in that area, I was relieved. However, other aspects, such as the weapons system, kind of makes me urk. The reason being is that say you have a list of five different weapons you have to shift through. Say three of those weapons run out of ammo. Well, they should remove those weapons from the list until you pick up ammo for the gun again. But instead, no, you have to shift through these empty weapons to get back to the gun you're trying to use. Also, you have to pay careful attention because if you're saving a rocket launcher, and the handgun is what you're wanting to get back to, then you need to know you're on the HANDGUN and not the ROCKET LAUNCHER so that you don't spend your precious kill-a-tyrant-rocket.
The only other thing, and I could see this coming from before, is the rail you're on. Given there's not many times for boredom as you do usually have some type of monster coming at you blah blah, it still makes it incredibly annoying when you're waiting on said character to move through an area, and going "CAN'T YOU RUN!?" Or maybe I'm just impatient like that hehe xD!!!
Just a personal nit pick though heh x.x
As for graphics, in some areas, I'm pleased, in others, I'm not. They did do a good job of 'resurfacing' the graphics and the characters so to speak, but I'm not so enthused with the fact that this is an entirely new gaming system, yet things still seem to look like they did back on the gamecube and such. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the graphics are a total waste of space at all, no no, they look VERY good, but I guess I just wish they could look a little BETTER than they do, that's all.
As for the storyline (not of the games we already know, but of the parts we don't know) there's parts, once again, I'm very pleased with, and parts I'm not. For instance, Sergei Vladimir, as a badguy, did not impress me much any. He seems to be either a rehashed character (ie. Jack Krauser and Nicholai Ginovaef combined) or just a thrown together badguy so that Wesker could have someone to tango with. Not that I don't like the exchange between Sergei and Wesker, but the quickness of it all leaves it feeling bland. I would have been much more satisfied if Wesker had to face off with some B.O.W. controlled by the Red Queen and then taken Spencer down (beat the game to know what I'm talking about heh x.x) instead of this guy here who makes the Red Queen a side story it seems, not to mention Spencer himself who is far more important.
But I ~AM~ pleased with the scenarios nevertheless. Much more of Wesker's persona is revealed than ever before, a new twist is put onto Ada's character, and HUNK is also more explained, though his chapter seemed a little bit odd to me, as if anti-climatic, and I thought they prolly shoulda had his chapter be opened BEFORE the last chapter was. The voice acting is also a spot on, though yes, there ARE some cheesy lines (As Harrison Ford said to George Lucas, you can write that shit, but you can't say it) though what/where would Resident Evil be without the cheesy lines, and Richard was everything I thought he would be minus a couple of personal qualms with the actions he takes throughout his scenario.
Overall, I'm definitely pleased with this game. I wouldn't take it back for anything, and I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoyed a FP game or a shooter game, as well as to any veteran of the series, because yeah, it does reveal some very important information in it. My gaming experience with it has been very fun, and I can see myself playing it again in the near future just to try and find all the things I didn't find the first time around, not to mention I'm just a sadly obsessed yet happily to stare at him Wesker fangirl and this game DOES seem to be made to cater to his whole story in general. So out of ten, I'd have to give this game overall a 7.5. XD
Most of the hype was lived up to, so I commend Capcom on that. But for future reference, Capcom, and this is probably my biggest qualm with the whole game, STOP TAKING SHIT FROM THE MOVIES AND PUTTING IT INTO THE GAMES!!! THE MOVES WERE SHIT!!! THE GAMES RULE!!! QUIT THINKING THE FANS ADORED THE MOVIES SO THAT YOU MUST COMBINE THE TWO!!!
The day Alice shows up in a game is the day I hang myself in my bathroom with dental floss. x.x