I had a chance last weekend at PAX to score a private demo of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, Capcom's follow-up to 2007's The Umbrella Chronicles. Like its predecessor,Darkside Chronicles focuses on retelling the stories of past Resident Evil games (Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica, in this case) for the Wii audience. While I only got to try out the first chapter of the Code Veronica-inspired Rockfort Island scenario, I can safely say that the development team is mindful of what needed to change this time around.
Darkside Chronicles keeps Umbrella Chronicles' rail shooter style, putting the players in control of a targeting reticule as they cut a swath through the ranks of the undead. While the formula hasn't changed fundamrentally, the improvements to the experience are fairly significant.
The first difference most players will notice is that the camera in Darkside Chronicles is pulled in much closer, and that it shakes like a J.J. Abrams production. Bringing players closer to the action is a deliberate move meant to convey the sense of horror and panic that Umbrella Chronicles didn't quite achieve. Thankfully, the camera settles when it's time for pinpoint accuracy, and zombies and other undead enemies aren't as aggressive when the camera whips and bucks. These erratic perspective shifts won't result in cheap hits, though they are a bit unnerving at times.
The new camera direction really raised the tension during the demo. While the Capcom employee overseeing the demo assured me that the number of enemies and overall pace would increase as the game went on, the opening chapter was primarily a mood-setter. Instead of throwing out swarms of zombies right from the get-go, Darkside Chronicles is initially conservative with its enemy placement, resulting in an experience that feels a lot more like a first-person Resident Evil adventure and less of a House of the Dead ripoff.
The rest of the improvements read like bullet points, which seems like an appropriate way to list them:
- Lengthier scenarios - The 3 scenarios in Umbrella Chronicles felt like brief and incomplete retreads of their parent games. My handler promised me that Darkside Chronicles will re-envision the original source material in much greater detail.
- Headshots for all! - While instant-kill headshots were previously reserved only for the steadiest of hands in Umbrella Chronicles, they're much easier to pull off this time around. And if you're still unable to finish it in one shot, don't worry; zombies generally take fewer bullets to topple than before.
- Separate health bars - Both players now have their own health bars. Poor performance from one player will no longer ruin the game for both.
- Save your herbs - Health-restoring herbs are no longer used immediately on pickup, but are instead accessed through the new inventory management screen.
- Quick weapon swap - Managing your firearm collection in Umbrella Chronicles was a nightmare. Now, players can assign specific weapons to each direction on the d-pad or Nunchuk control stick for quick swapping mid-combat.
- Upgrade options - Darkside Chronicles uses a new gold system to purchase specific upgrades for each gun in lieu of the star-based upgrade system that didn't let players choose which aspect of a weapon to improve. Players can also upgrade the default pistol, which fires and reloads much faster than before.
While it's a little early to tell for certain, Darkside Chronicles definitely seems to be well on its way to addressing most - if not all - of Umbrella Chronicles' design issues. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is due on U.S. shelves November 17th, 2009.
arcus_angelus
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Oh wonderful, another game that I want to get in November. My Nintendo doesn't get much love lately, and it's because I wanted every system, but I'm not all into the whole Mario scene, but Resident Evil is my thing, and with all the improvements listed it looks like I'll have to be making a purchase. . .along with all my other November purchases. . .November will be a good month for gaming, a bad month for my wallet. lol! |
Darke
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You are right Arcus, November is going to be a very bad/good month for gamers this year. This game looks fun! Its not Modern Warfare 2, but thats not what the Wii is about. Kudos to Capcom for getting it right. |
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