Resident Evil: Code Veronica X
Battle of the siblings.
Lot of Cooks in the Capcom Kitchen
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4, Flagship, XAX Entertainment, Nextech
Platforms: Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 via PSN,
With PS1 having a great run, and the PS2 not quite out yet, Capcom was still in full development mode and had many Resident Evil projects in the pipeline. Aside from Sony, they wanted to move this franchise on other systems like Nintendo and Sega’s Dreamcast. With 4 still a ways out (and going through many incarnations, but that’s another story) Capcom wanted a hit, so Shinji Mikami was put to task to bring Resident Evil into the next generation…kind of. Sega’s Dreamcast would be their last attempt at the home console market, after the Sega Saturn tapped out at 14 million, compared to Sony’s Playstation 100 million. They would go out with the proverbial bang with critical darling after critical darling both 1st and 3rd party exclusives. It was too late, though I don’t know how they would handle general 3rd party games without dual analog sticks, which Sony standardized. Still, Resident Evil was brought in taking advantage of new hardware in both technical and artistic deliverly to create a gothic horror title.
Looking to get some additional sales after Sega went to publishing software only, they released Code Veronica X with slight gameplay changes and released on the PS2 and Gamecube, re-released to HD systems sometime later.
For this review, I’ll be reviewing the Code Veronica X. Don’t let the fact that its not numbered fool you, this is just as important to the Resident Evil timeline with Chris and Claire Redfield going up against the Ashford siblings, featuring a colorful supporting cast. I acknowledge there is a remake coming out in 2027, simply title Veronica. As with previous remakes, most likely it will be re-imagined, adding and subtracting general story beats with modern gameplay. In the meantime though, let’s go over this one which had a polygon count that you can no longer count on your hands.
Sound: Not Quite There Yet.
While the visuals got an upgrade in both the creative and technical department, the sound is one of the areas where it felt a step behind. The sound effects don’t quite hit as hard, from your weapons such pistols and grenades, to the new bowgun which sounds like it was made by Nerf. The undead and monsters are stuck in the PS1/Saturn era, which is a shame, though the voice acting still delivers that camp we’ve come to know and love. Newcomers Steve Burnside is delightfully Canadian, Wesker is even more pompous, and the Ashford siblings commit to the bit. The musical scoring is ok, though the nursery rhyme which acts as the theme goes from subtlety eerie to full on opera with a literal operatic interpretation during the final battle. It won’t be until Resident Evil Remake in 2002 where the sound and music catch up to 21st century standards.
Graphics: The Lighter Lights the Way.
Here, we get a new engine that can do things such as more realistic lighting, areas can be dark, with only your lighter guiding your way for example. Characters have moving mouths and facial expressions during cutscenes, now more of them done in-game which add to the b-movie charm. Enemies can crash into walls and lean into the edges, meaning that its not just all 3D character models on 2d backdrops. Art wise, it steeps itself deep into Gothic horror during the areas where you enter the Ashford estate. Other areas such as the prison compound and the research labs are what you’d expect, but now have this sort of shine to it, now that everything is 3d. The undead are just as varied from former prisoners to castle staff, and new monsters such as the bandersnatch have this sinister, rubbery quality. Other bosses such monster under the stairs have this fleshy quality as well.
Control/Gameplay: There's Gold Lugers.
Set months after Resident Evil 2, Claire Redfield takes her search into Europe where a she unsuccessfully infiltrates Umbrella Corp’s European HQ. She’ll get transferred to a penal colony close to Antarctica that is under the watch of Alex Ashford, grandson of the Ashford family, who helped co-found Umbrella. As expected, the Ashford siblings are as smart as they are deranged, a standard for Umbrella. It doesn’t take long for a zombie outbreak to shake things up, and she’ll have to escape alongside Steve Burnside, a young prisoner who was also dragged into Umbrella’s clutches. The T-Veronica Virus is the infection-du-jour, with the theme of insects, ants specifically. Later, Chris Redfield does pick up a distress signal, though he’ll have to contend with Albert Wesker, whose death was greatly exaggerated, but his new abilities aren’t.
Gameplay wise, this is still the same survival horror that we’ve known, though it continues to be refined. You’ll still have tank controls, though the fixed camera angles have some degree of flexibility in some areas. Ammo and resource management is still key, as you’ll juggle that with keys and puzzle items needed to proceed and unlock other areas. In a small, but welcome addition, if your inventory is full and need healing, you can go to an herb/first aid spray and have the option to use it right then and there. This alleviates those runs when you just got out of an intense sequence and got hit bad but are full of weapons and keys. The environments can be just as dangerous, picking up from 3, where the innocuous ground and watery areas may seem safe at first, but will have their own threats upon back tracking.
Claire will get some familiar weapons from 2, as well as some new ones like automatic ones, the bowgun to help with crowd control. When its time to for Chris to take the lead, he’ll have to contend with Wesker’s machinations as well as the madness of the Ashfords. You’ll be going through a prison community, a castle, to an Antarctic research lab, and do a boss battle on a plane. For a title that takes place in an isolated, seldomly visited region, Capcom was able to get quite a few scene changes at such a deft pace.
Its been said this is one of the more difficult titles, with its limited saves via ink ribbons and type writers, though series vets should be able navigate this, though don’t be surprised if some patented jump scares will make things interesting.
Fun Factor: Bridging the Legacy.
Code Veronica acts as a bridge from the classic, numbered entries, to the remakes, newer entries that would follow soon after. Once completing the game, you can do speed runs to improve your ranking to get new weapons, and there is a first-person-mode where as it sounds, will go through key locations in first person and shoot, shoot and shoot some more to get to the next area. It is a bit tougher than most, and while the sound doesn’t catch up the new visuals and gameplay refinements, is still a decent entry in the ‘old-style’ library. It will be interesting how the confirmed remake will re-imagine this chapter of Claire and Chris’ saga of taking in down bio-organic-weapons, or BOWs, though in the meantime, if you want to get familiar with the broad strokes, curious about this piece of Resident Evil history, give it a run, keep that bowgun loaded, and watch for bandersnatches over long stretches of land.
