Reviews

E3 2009: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Resident Evil Archives

To follow up the uber successful Wii on-rails shooter, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom brings to us a brand new horror story, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles.  In RE: TDC, you can play as either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield, the beloved duo from Resident Evil 2 as well as some surprise characters that have not yet been announced (although one of the screenshots does show Ada Wong…).  RE: TDC features a brand new storyline however, unlike the evil fought in the previous Resident Evil games, you will now fight your inner demons and now must deal with your fears as well as the undead.

This arcade style on-rails shooter has been upgraded significantly since its debut as The Umbrella Chronicles and features a sub-screen for weapon configuration – allowing for weapons to be upgraded and customized for each scenario – and the use of health recovery items.  In addition to the Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty settings, the new system will modify the difficulty level according to the player’s skills making the game accessible to the casual and hardcore gamer.

Another feature is the enhanced two player co-op where both players will be able to follow their partners on the same screen and they have improved the conversations and interactions to further enhance the experience.  You will occasionally see the other player’s character on screen which involves you more into the story.

You will even be able to revisit some of the classic Resident Evil levels like Raccoon City from Resident Evil 2 and the hidden Umbrella lab from Resident Evil: Code Veronica.  But there will be plenty of new scenarios in The Darkside Chronicles.

And of course, there will be plenty of collectables in the game like archive items like characters, enemies, old documents, and movies that can all be found in the game!

I got a chance to play the full demo levels for the Darkside as well as a level from Code Veronica and the most noticeable thing was the camera style.  Obviously, an on-rails shooter is a fixed camera but what’s cool here is that it’s shaky and often rather chaotic.  It really adds to the fear and tension of the stressful environment that you find yourself in.  I think that some people will find the spazzed out camera annoying but will hopefully stick with it.  I think that fans of the Resident Evil series will enjoy the game as will fans of the zombie genre and the rail shooter genre.  I sure loved it…I stuck around the Capcom booth playing it for over an hour!

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is due for release this winter and will only be available for the Nintendo Wii for $49.99.

In addition to The Darkside Chronicles, the Capcom booth also had a playable demo of the upcoming game, Resident Evil Archives.  Archives is a port of the classic Resident Evil game that was released for the Game Cube in 2002, which was a remake of the classic PSOne game that featured new rooms, items, and creatures previously not released in the original version.  You will use the Wii remote and nunchuck in this game to take control of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine to relive the horror that started the the survival-horror genre.

Included is a Survival of the Fittest Mode, where you can battle zombies, infected dogs, and the epic bosses.

I was really thrilled to hear that this was being released in the US as originally it was a Japanese only release.  The only thing that I really wished they had updated is the control scheme.  It follows the old forward is always UP and I was having a hell of a time with it.  In fact, I just kept moving around in circles!  No fault of the controller as I also downloaded Resident Evil: Director’s Cut on PSN and had the same issues there!  I’m sure there is a bit of nostalgia with the old Capcom controls and the Capcom camera angle, but if I had one wish, it would be configurable controls for this version.

You can pick up Resident Evil Archives on June 23 only on the Nintendo Wii for $29.99.

Tags: capcom, e3, e3 2009, Resident Evil, resident evil archives, resident evil: the darkside chronicles, resident evil: the umbrella chronicles