11 Mar, 2011
We all love a zombie game. There’s something charmingly pitiful about the walking dead that will make even the stoniest heart go “Ahhhh”. Before blasting them in the face.
So it was no surprise when Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise was catapulted to flagship status almost instantly when it kicked off on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn 15 years ago. Effortlessly combining dramatic action set-pieces, spooky locales, worryingly satisfying amounts of gore and some of the most brilliantly-shit voice acting known to man, Resident Evil was a sure-fire hit and is still regarded as one of the best horror franchises ever created.
One of the best, but probably the least-played in the core series was Resident Evil: CODE Veronica. Initially released on Sega’s doomed Dreamcast console in 2000, CODE: Veronica has since been described as “the true sequel to Resident Evil 2”, despite being marketed as a spin-off. Claire Redfield is captured breaking into Umbrella’s secret European HQ in search of her brother Chris and swiftly carted off to a prison island.
She awakes in a dark, dirty cell to the sound of planes flying overhead and explosions in the distance. Her jailer sets her free but warns her, “You have no chance of getting off this island.”
Sounds like a challenge, Rodrigo, my good man.
Unfortunately, a terrorist attack is the least of Claire’s worries; Umbrella’s experimental T-virus that’s already reduced Raccoon City to a corpse-littered ruin has leaked throughout Rockfort Island, turning prisoners, guards and goodness knows what else into brain-dead, bloodthirsty monsters.
Some of the environments, like this prison dorm, are unashamedly grim.
The first in the series developed for a next-gen console (it was at the time at any rate… anyone else feeling old?) CODE: Veronica was also the first to eschew the pre-rendered backgrounds of its predecessors in favour of fully 3D environments and dynamic camerawork. Like Resident Evil’s survival-horror contemporary Dino Crisis, this kind of visual engine allows for a much more effective use of action sequences to inflict copious amounts of stress and tension upon the player.
While we’re on the subject of copious amounts of stress, Claire’s sidekick in CODE: Veronica, a young Leonardo DiCaprio-a-like prisoner by the name of Steve Burnside, honestly has to be one of the most irritatingly smarmy and poorly-voiced characters in the history of gaming ever. EVER. Luckily he doesn’t feature especially heavily at any point in the game, despite his short playable section where you can give the new dual-wielding-but-not-really shooting system a whirl with a pair of UZI’s so effortlessly cool Lara Croft’s holsters would shed a silent tear for them.
Plenty of classic weapons make a glorious comeback in CODE: Veronica, including your trusty pistol, the bowgun and, of course, no Resident Evil game would be complete without a super-powered magnum hand-cannon capable of disintegrating a zombie’s cranium at fifty paces. Well, it can in any other Resident Evil game. However, CODE: Veronica suffers from some sort of bizarre censorship whereby all forms of decapitation have been removed in favour of wild, splattering brains. Which is, of course, infinitely more acceptable.
Zombies, mutant Dobermans and a fairly typical assortment of your favourite bio-demons appear in CODE: Veronica, which also introduces a few brand new T-virus horrors. Zombies come in a much wider array of flavours this time around, dependent on location, which makes for a nice sense of variety compared to previous Resident Evil games.
The story is split into two distinct halves. When Claire becomes otherwise engaged at Umbrella’s Antarctica base, her brother and original Resident Evil star Chris Redfield takes the reins, retracing his sister’s steps to try and track her down. This is always a dangerous move, as treading old ground can often become stale and repetitive. However, Chris’s Rockfort feels fresh as he gets to explore areas of the island that were inaccessible to Claire and, within the context of the story, revisiting your old stomping ground – quite literally in some cases – actually works really well.
As ever, it’s CODE: Veronica’s loopy supporting cast that steal the show, like nutcase twins Alfred and Alexia Ashford, plus the shock return of Resident Evil’s original arch-villain.
Chris claps eyes on a familiar adversary, back from the dead.
I would like to point out that this review-cum-retrospective is specific to the original Dreamcast version of CODE: Veronica. The “complete” version released later for PlayStation 2 and Gamecube incorporated extra scenes that not only felt like a contrived cut-and-paste job, but one particular scene added to Claire’s section took all the shock and awe out of a big reveal later on, ruining one of the best twists I’ve ever seen in a video game.
Don’t let that put you off experiencing this fantastic survival-horror title, but if you have access to a Dreamcast, I highly recommend tracking down a copy of the original version.
In short, CODE: Veronica is not only one of the better Resident Evil titles, but one of the best horror games I’ve ever played. Rockfort Island in particular is a blast to break out of, the prison area and Alfred and Alexia’s ‘house on the hill’ being especially twisted. Ammo is scarce and your enemies soak up more bullets than ever before, making your fight for survival feel all the more desperate. Resident Evil has never felt more deserving of its survival-horror moniker.
It’s not for the faint of heart, not just because of the vile procession of deadly T-virus abominations on display, but also its unrelenting difficulty curve. Grabbing that elusive ‘A’ rank has never been so tough (no first-aid sprays, no saves and no deaths, anyone?) but as a result, CODE: Veronica is a much more rewarding experience than its predecessors. If you love horror you owe it to yourself to experience this superb game. It’s never too late.
The Good
+ Still looks absolutely stunning over a decade on.
+ Brilliant cast of characters. Mostly.
+ Locales are genuinely disturbing.
The Bad
- Steve Burnside.
- That is all.
[rating:5]
Resident Evil CODE: Veronica is exclusive to the Dreamcast. The complete edition, Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X, is available for PlayStation 2 and Gamecube.
Very enjoyable to read ^.^
I never got to play CODE:Veronica, in fact I have only played RE, RE2 and RE4. I’ve just watched LPs of the others!
This definitely seems like an awesome game, although I much prefer SH’s type of survival horror to RE’s
AWESOME REVIEW.
Hmm. I need to play this again ..
Thanks guys xD
Yes Vixx, I do believe a CODE: Veronica playthrough may be in order this week. I still remember the first time I ever played it!
non of the RE series will ever be “forgot” :O
Absolutely not, I wouldn’t allow it! Hence this little reminder. ;)
It did pass a lot of people by though, for a lot of reasons – poor sales of the Dreamcast console, a lot of negative reviews for the PS2 and Cube versions on the basis that they didn’t have an abundance of extra features despite the fact that the game is simply awesome and the ports were released to broaden the audience that got to play the game. Madness!