Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

[Shin_Seffron]

Well i picked this up from Tesco today for nigh on £30, and I've just finished the first level.

My early impressions are that it's quite good. I did hope that this was going to be good, but remained skeptical and now i'm pleasantly surprised. There seems to be definite replay value, as your graded on various things at the end of the level such as Enemies killed, Critical hits and Documents found. There also seems to be multiple routes, I've only encountered one so far but there may be hidden others as it says you can blow up some doors to gain extra routes.

The controls are to be expected, Aim and shoot with the Wii-remote, but to reload you have to shake the remote, You can shake it while holding A to slash your knife and Hold A and fire (Z) to throw grenades. The Nunchuck is a bit redundant so far, the analogue allows you to look around a bit more - but I've not really used this feature so far as im treating it like the on-rails shooter that it is. The useful thing is changing weapons with the C button, it does mean cycling through them all if you want the previous weapon but its easier than using up and down on the D-pad, which is the other method for changing your piece.

So far i do reccomend it, especially if you can find it sub £30.

...

*Waits for Ed to post link with it priced at £15 with a free TV*

[TopGunKnacker]

i preordered it off powerplaydirect, only got dispatched today so i wont be getting it until next week it was 27.43 though, quite good but im a bit gutted that powerplaydirect are shit

good to know youre having fun mate, i cannae wait

[illdog]

Im gettin this from my misses for christmas, look forward to more impressions.

[Manicm]

I can get this from work with 40% off so that what £17?? is it worth a go for that price??

Must admit im interested but have been banned from buying any games till after xmas but i might sneak this one in!

[TopGunKnacker]

manicm, can i buy games through you

[Hendo]

wiivo wrote:

Because there are 2 horrors out this month and I can only afford one im going to go for this one cus it looks scaryer:

W A R N I N G

You forgot about the Cheggers game.

Good to see some positive stuff about this game, I really want it but I shouldn't spend any more cash until Christmas is finished with.

[Manicm]

Sainsburys have got 25% of all DVD/CD/Games this weekend and also i get another 15% discount!! unfortantly i already pick up games for me and my brother!! and they keep asking why i wanted two copies of games!! i just tell them im a collector, one sealed one to play!!

[hinn888]

is there? i work in the games bit and they never tell me! 40% off, woo! :D:D

[Manicm]

Well unless someone at work is winding me up!! im off on holiday so havent been in but the misus told me it was on, so going to pick a bargain up tomorrow!!

[Sambob]

I got this on friday but didnt play until saturday, its really good actually, I found it a bit hard on the normal difficulty setting, but theres not been any levels that you couldnt do after a few tries.

I like the possibility for replaying the levels, because of the scores but also because there are hidden items when you smash objects (by shooting them) so sometimes they are more ammo and sometimes its a dosier on the background of the mansion incident or how the leaches from Resident Evil Zero were created etc.

Ive not played that far into the game but im liking how the stories are tying into each other, obviously it just takes parts from the various games that have been released. so far ive done the train and the mansion. The mansion was a particular treat to play because its recreated exactly as you play it but in a first person view. The view and on rails element to the game definitely works, I cant say whether it improves it or not, because its a weird comparison, but it definitely works well.

I cant see how the game would control with the zapper because of things like slashing your knife, or wiggling the control to do things like counter attacks or dodge boss attacks, and for the remote and nunchuck to be confined into the same shell would make this harder, and less fun.

The boss sections so far have been mixed, not because they werent good, they dont really differ from the same format that house of the dead used for its bosses, although there are added elements of having to carry out various button presses to dodge attacks. The reason that I say they are mixed is because sometimes you will have to shoot a part of the boss as it attacks you, tail or massive claw for example, rather than press a button to dodge it, so if you get to a boss with hardly any life left then you have to be really on edge to watch for the attacks (and its annoying if you die from an attack you could barely dodge).

All of the above, increased difficulty, added dodging controls, bosses being good, the levels recreation being excellent makes for a really involving good on rails addition to the Wii. Roll on pokemon snap!

[Sambob]

Bastard site, doubled my post.

umm, the games really good.

[TopGunKnacker]

awesome sambob. my copy has been dispatched, should turn up any day now :'(

[David]

So it's actually quite good then? I honestly was expecting it to be a bit shit.

I might see if I can get it for Christmas.

[Shin_Seffron]

Its is pretty good, it is basically a on-railes shooter, so dont expect it to change you life or anything. The important thing is its fun. Im off to try some two player action on this tonight!

[Manicm]

Played the first few sections, not too impressed but good fun two player! just a pity you cant shoot the other person!!

[Swallow]

I'm sure it's groovier in co-op, and it's good to fill in the Resi story, like.

[TopGunKnacker]

mine still hasnt come, not happy with this service at all! :ohmy:

came late in the day, yay

seems pretty good, i tell you what though its far more fun in 2player! my mate came round and we nailed some and then when he went home, the fun dropped a considerable notch.

[Hendo]

Is it as obviously House of the Dead but in the Resi universe, as it seems? If so, count me in.

[TopGunKnacker]

yeah id say so, its definitely different enough to be its own game, it feels resi, but it shares a lot with hotd. the immediately noticable differences are stylistic, it looks and sounds like a resi game, and of course most of the locales are recognisable to us fans.

the gameplay is different too in many ways; in most instances especially when getting further into the game, creatures are taking more punishment than their hotd counterparts. this makes running into a few zombies for example seem less trivial and brief than in hotd. the much maligned tiny weakspots you will have heard and read about are actually a neat feature i think, they make lining up a perfect shot a real goal, changing the pace of the game at times and adding a side to the gameplay that hotd never had. theyre also a nuisance sometimes because theyre so small, but isnt that what 'hardcore' games (read: games) are all about.

all the unlockable content by way of shooting background objects is awesome too, hotd had its golden frogs hiding in crates for points or whatever but this takes it to a whole new level, youll be shooting everything in sight, and beyond being just fun the rewards are basically hundreds of RE easter eggs. some good, some not so good, some well known mandatory RE knowledge some never-heard-before tidbits.

it seems long too, real long for a light gun game. as it should be, having had all the story and art direction worked out for it already from a handful of full length games, for the most part! they take a few liberties with the story like having 2 characters traversing an area when you know full well that in the original game they were opposite ends of the train or whatever doing their own thing, but you can forgive it. so it has the resi story and characters, and however bad they are sometimes that immediately elevates it above hotd if that kind of thing sways you.

the upgradable weapons are back from re4, you get stars at the end of each level and they act as currency to buy weapon upgrades, which then stay permanently upgraded for you to select at the beginning of each level.

all these features give the game much more depth than hotd, and if you like your shooters and can differentiate between them youll find this quite a different experience. so it shares the basic premise with hotd, shooting zombies, shooting bastardly annoying flying enemies, multiple routes, background destructability, big bosses with tiny weakspots or weakspots being randomly (or not so randomly) exposed, all these things but they are mainly conventions of the genre, not a direct ripoff. although im sure all the designers thought of hotd when they found out their next project was this.

so far id say its a must have for light gun fans, and a triple must have for dual resi and lightgun fans. not least because its an original game, but because it feels a bit unique in the shooter market, and its quite good, id rather have this than 'hotd2+3 Revenge' anyday.

longest post ev0r

[Hendo]

So am I right in saying that it takes in Zero, 1, 2 and 3? It doesn't have anything from 4 in it?

It would have been cool to have some kind of teaser for Resi 5 too.