TGS Round-up! Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles!
Again, not edited. Sorry! Let me know if you spot mistakes!
I am a girl who likes her some Resident Evil. Old school Resident Evil, with actual zombies, horrible voice acting, tank controls, and “Holy crap that thing came out of nowhere!” moments. Resident Evil 4 and 5, while being good games, are too action-like to truly satisfy my RE needs. That’s why I’m thankful games like Umbrella Chronicles, and now Darkside Chronicles, exist.
Umbrella Chronicles covered RE Zero, RE 1, and RE 3. RE 2 is my favorite of the series, and despite it taking place at the same time RE 3 does, it wasn’t included in Umbrella Chronicles. At first I was disappointed, but now that I’ve seen Darkside Chronicles I know they were just saving the best for last! Darkside Chronicles covers the events of RE 2, RE Code Veronica, and it also features a new storyline involving when Leon and Krauser first meet and work together. This storyline takes place in South America. They didn’t show much of it, but I do know a girl (I believe her name is Marion, or something similar) is involved as Krauser and Leon work their way through the jungle.
The line to play the demo was massive. Stepping into line was the first thing I did at opening time and it still took almost two hours for me to be able to play. But I had some nice trailers to watch and some Professor Layton to get me through it. Once players reach the “almost” point in line, they’re given a card with controller instructions on it. Capcom did me a favor by giving me a card in English!
Here’s a quick rundown. First off, there is no nunchuck use at all, just the Wii remote. Moving the remote moves the target reticule on the screen (duh). The B button is fire, whereas the A button is your general action button (and also how you use your knife). 1 pauses, - is the status screen, + uses herbs or heals you with whatever you have, and the d-pad changes your weapons. Shaking the remote reloads and “performs various actions when grappled by zombies”. I didn’t do any zombie-grappling in my run, so I’ll have to wait for the whole game to come out to see what that’s about.
I think getting rid of the nunchuck threw things off for me a little balance-wise; I kept thinking my other hand should do something. That feeling will probably be cured as long as one uses a Wii zapper/perfect shot/gun holder of some sort.
After I had memorized my controller card, it was finally time to step into the dark, fog-filled room to play! Yes, they actually filtered in fog when it was time to bring a new lot of demo-players in. I liked the effect. ^_^ First I was asked whether I wanted to play single-player or co-op with someone. Seeing as how it was my first time and I didn’t want to risk embarrassing myself, I chose single-player. I was pointed to a girl wearing a replica of Claire’s outfit from RE 2 (they all were, actually), and she greeted me (in English, no less) and got me started. My second gameplay decision was which campaign to play. Did I want to go back to my nostalgic past and play some good old RE 2 action? Did I want to see how they shoved all of Code Veronica into a rail shooter? Or did I want to experience the new storyline involving jungles and two sweaty men escorting one lost little girl?
Lol, sorry if it disappoints anyone, but nostalgia won me over and I chose RE 2.
As much as I would have liked to watch the very gorgeously animated CG sequence introducing the campaign, my guide wisely suggested I skip it in order to get to the gameplay. Still, from the brief bits I saw, the CG is nicely done, so that’s another thing I can look forward to when the actual game comes out.
Seeing as how Leon and Claire stay together in this version of the story (to make the co-op gameplay work), the story changes a bit and the both of us start in Raccoon City by the Weapon Shop. Right away I was assaulted with zombies! And shaky-cam! Ah, yes, the “new style” they’ve been talking about. Shaky-cam. It works all right for the most part, keeping the “What the heck is happening here?” mood, but there are other times they go overboard. It gets hard to shoot accurately when the camera is having an ADD seizure. I guess this is supposed to add to the atmosphere and scare factor (you know, swearing at the game as you flick the remote left and right, trying to get headshots so you don’t waste ammo but failing miserably thanks to the shaky-cam), and I will admit it does make the rail-shooter style more dynamic.
I started out with only one gun (just a handgun) and tried to get some good headshots in, but for the most part I fired like crazy and shook that remote to reload! At the weapon store (no interaction with the owner, he just dies) I snagged some health, grenades, a machine gun, and a shottie! (That’s shotgun for those who don’t know.) Normally I would conserve ammo, but I only had about ten minutes to play, so I went all out by blasting the Raccoon City zombies with everything I had!
The scenes were very familiar (they even have the part where you’re standing on top of a dumpster and a female zombie is slowly shuffling towards you), but the graphics are much better than the PSX, lol. I came upon one large group of zombies that just kept coming. Leon said something like “There’s too many!”. The shottie was effective, but not good enough. Reload! Reload! Ouch - couldn’t reload fast enough!
And then I remembered I had grenades. ^_^ They make zombie hordes explode into tiny zombie chunks. Zombies to the left of me - zombies to the right - zombies from behind! Rail shooter or no, I had some moment of panic trying to shoot all of the enemies before they could sink their teeth into my flesh. There was nothing genuinely frightening, but that may have been because I knew every twist and turn of the old RE 2. That does not mean I didn’t enjoy the game! Far from it! I was having tons of fun plugging zombies full of holes and trying to get to the Police Station. There was a point where I could choose which direction to go, which seems to imply there will be more situations like that in the game. Does that also mean replay value by going different ways? It probably won’t effect the story, but I imagine you’ll only be able to get all the collectibles by choosing every path.
Finally I made it to the hulking manor that is the Raccoon City Police Department, but sadly that was also the end of my demo time. Fog filled the demo area again and my Claire-look-a-like helper congratulated me on reaching the Police Station as I turned over my Wii remote.
My final thoughts? I liked it! RE 2 has been crying out for a remake of some sort for so long, so for it to be this good is fantastic! I’m also really interested in the Krauser and Leon storyline since it’s brand new to the RE universe. I have always been a rail-shooter fan so I like the gameplay already, but for those who find them boring, the new dynamic camera system might help out. The feeling and atmosphere worked well, and what I could hear of the sound was great too (I had headphones on, but there were 70,000 people and hundreds of screens with trailers and demos playing at the same time). Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles is going to be awesome!
On a side note, the pre-order bonus for this game at Gamestop is a wicket cool T-shirt that when flipped over someone’s head gives them a zombie face. The shirt is free with the reserve pick-up, but cost about $40 at the Tokyo Game Show. So, that might help you get some pre-orders!
I am a girl who likes her some Resident Evil. Old school Resident Evil, with actual zombies, horrible voice acting, tank controls, and “Holy crap that thing came out of nowhere!” moments. Resident Evil 4 and 5, while being good games, are too action-like to truly satisfy my RE needs. That’s why I’m thankful games like Umbrella Chronicles, and now Darkside Chronicles, exist.
Umbrella Chronicles covered RE Zero, RE 1, and RE 3. RE 2 is my favorite of the series, and despite it taking place at the same time RE 3 does, it wasn’t included in Umbrella Chronicles. At first I was disappointed, but now that I’ve seen Darkside Chronicles I know they were just saving the best for last! Darkside Chronicles covers the events of RE 2, RE Code Veronica, and it also features a new storyline involving when Leon and Krauser first meet and work together. This storyline takes place in South America. They didn’t show much of it, but I do know a girl (I believe her name is Marion, or something similar) is involved as Krauser and Leon work their way through the jungle.
The line to play the demo was massive. Stepping into line was the first thing I did at opening time and it still took almost two hours for me to be able to play. But I had some nice trailers to watch and some Professor Layton to get me through it. Once players reach the “almost” point in line, they’re given a card with controller instructions on it. Capcom did me a favor by giving me a card in English!
Here’s a quick rundown. First off, there is no nunchuck use at all, just the Wii remote. Moving the remote moves the target reticule on the screen (duh). The B button is fire, whereas the A button is your general action button (and also how you use your knife). 1 pauses, - is the status screen, + uses herbs or heals you with whatever you have, and the d-pad changes your weapons. Shaking the remote reloads and “performs various actions when grappled by zombies”. I didn’t do any zombie-grappling in my run, so I’ll have to wait for the whole game to come out to see what that’s about.
I think getting rid of the nunchuck threw things off for me a little balance-wise; I kept thinking my other hand should do something. That feeling will probably be cured as long as one uses a Wii zapper/perfect shot/gun holder of some sort.
After I had memorized my controller card, it was finally time to step into the dark, fog-filled room to play! Yes, they actually filtered in fog when it was time to bring a new lot of demo-players in. I liked the effect. ^_^ First I was asked whether I wanted to play single-player or co-op with someone. Seeing as how it was my first time and I didn’t want to risk embarrassing myself, I chose single-player. I was pointed to a girl wearing a replica of Claire’s outfit from RE 2 (they all were, actually), and she greeted me (in English, no less) and got me started. My second gameplay decision was which campaign to play. Did I want to go back to my nostalgic past and play some good old RE 2 action? Did I want to see how they shoved all of Code Veronica into a rail shooter? Or did I want to experience the new storyline involving jungles and two sweaty men escorting one lost little girl?
Lol, sorry if it disappoints anyone, but nostalgia won me over and I chose RE 2.
As much as I would have liked to watch the very gorgeously animated CG sequence introducing the campaign, my guide wisely suggested I skip it in order to get to the gameplay. Still, from the brief bits I saw, the CG is nicely done, so that’s another thing I can look forward to when the actual game comes out.
Seeing as how Leon and Claire stay together in this version of the story (to make the co-op gameplay work), the story changes a bit and the both of us start in Raccoon City by the Weapon Shop. Right away I was assaulted with zombies! And shaky-cam! Ah, yes, the “new style” they’ve been talking about. Shaky-cam. It works all right for the most part, keeping the “What the heck is happening here?” mood, but there are other times they go overboard. It gets hard to shoot accurately when the camera is having an ADD seizure. I guess this is supposed to add to the atmosphere and scare factor (you know, swearing at the game as you flick the remote left and right, trying to get headshots so you don’t waste ammo but failing miserably thanks to the shaky-cam), and I will admit it does make the rail-shooter style more dynamic.
I started out with only one gun (just a handgun) and tried to get some good headshots in, but for the most part I fired like crazy and shook that remote to reload! At the weapon store (no interaction with the owner, he just dies) I snagged some health, grenades, a machine gun, and a shottie! (That’s shotgun for those who don’t know.) Normally I would conserve ammo, but I only had about ten minutes to play, so I went all out by blasting the Raccoon City zombies with everything I had!
The scenes were very familiar (they even have the part where you’re standing on top of a dumpster and a female zombie is slowly shuffling towards you), but the graphics are much better than the PSX, lol. I came upon one large group of zombies that just kept coming. Leon said something like “There’s too many!”. The shottie was effective, but not good enough. Reload! Reload! Ouch - couldn’t reload fast enough!
And then I remembered I had grenades. ^_^ They make zombie hordes explode into tiny zombie chunks. Zombies to the left of me - zombies to the right - zombies from behind! Rail shooter or no, I had some moment of panic trying to shoot all of the enemies before they could sink their teeth into my flesh. There was nothing genuinely frightening, but that may have been because I knew every twist and turn of the old RE 2. That does not mean I didn’t enjoy the game! Far from it! I was having tons of fun plugging zombies full of holes and trying to get to the Police Station. There was a point where I could choose which direction to go, which seems to imply there will be more situations like that in the game. Does that also mean replay value by going different ways? It probably won’t effect the story, but I imagine you’ll only be able to get all the collectibles by choosing every path.
Finally I made it to the hulking manor that is the Raccoon City Police Department, but sadly that was also the end of my demo time. Fog filled the demo area again and my Claire-look-a-like helper congratulated me on reaching the Police Station as I turned over my Wii remote.
My final thoughts? I liked it! RE 2 has been crying out for a remake of some sort for so long, so for it to be this good is fantastic! I’m also really interested in the Krauser and Leon storyline since it’s brand new to the RE universe. I have always been a rail-shooter fan so I like the gameplay already, but for those who find them boring, the new dynamic camera system might help out. The feeling and atmosphere worked well, and what I could hear of the sound was great too (I had headphones on, but there were 70,000 people and hundreds of screens with trailers and demos playing at the same time). Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles is going to be awesome!
On a side note, the pre-order bonus for this game at Gamestop is a wicket cool T-shirt that when flipped over someone’s head gives them a zombie face. The shirt is free with the reserve pick-up, but cost about $40 at the Tokyo Game Show. So, that might help you get some pre-orders!