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Developed and released on March 28, 2000 in North America by
Capcom, Resident Evil -- Code: Veronica brings
third-person, zombie-fighting, survival horror to the Sega Dreamcast
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As much Resident Evil as I played on my GameCube, I somehow never played
any on my Dreamcast. I eventually picked up a copy of the short-lived Dreamcast
exclusive (short-lived meaning it wasn't an exclusive for long),
Resident Evil -- Code: Veronica, but for some reason, I never played it...until now. How does
Code: Veronica stack up to the other Resident Evil games of its
generation?
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The Resident Evil game of the millennium...at least as far as
release date goes
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Code: Veronica's story is one of the better of the earlier
Resident Evil games. The tale begins with Claire from
Resident Evil 2,
on the hunt for her brother Chris, from the original
Resident Evil. She
is captured and brought to a military island just North of Antarctica. She
then awakens in a cell to find the island has been overrun by zombies. Claire
is freed, only to have to fight for her life, while searching for Chris. Along
the way, she meets the psychotic owner of the island, makes a friend named
Steve, and discovers the truth behind what happened on the island...then she
ends up on Antarctica herself, and the perspective switches to Chris.
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The character design is top notch Capcom, and the characters, like
Claire here, feature far more polygons than before
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Code Veronica's story features some pretty shocking twists and
turns. It is engaging, whether the player has gone through the first couple of
games in the series or not. I particularly like the way the sibling
relationship between Claire and Chris is positively portrayed, as well as how
it is paralleled by the game's villains. Overall, the story is quite
satisfying, without ever intruding upon or holding back the gameplay. In fact,
the story drives the gameplay quite well.
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Is it even a Resident Evil game without a dimly lit study?
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The graphics at the service of the story and gameplay are also quite
good. For the first time in the series, Capcom (and everyone they got to
help...including Sega) uses 3D backgrounds instead of prerendered ones. In
fact, all objects in the game are 3D, and the Dreamcast pulls this off without
a hitch. While the graphics might not be up to the level of
Resident Evil 4 on the more powerful GameCube a few years later, they
look great for Dreamcast (and there's a general Dreamcast feel to them). The
game seems particularly happy with its advanced lighting engine, and shows it
off as much as possible, particularly when shadows are involved. Claire and
Chris' animations, as well as those for the monsters and villains are smooth,
and the game runs without any slowdown, even when there's complex action
onscreen. The character design is memorable and top-notch. The game also
employs FMV's and they look great--a definite step above those found on the
PS1.
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Code: Veronica shows that lighting and shadows engine off
immediately, by giving Claire a lighter before it gives her a gun
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A an old musty room, lit almost entirely by gunfire...yep, must
be a Resident Evil game!
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The sound is also up to the Resident Evil standard. Gunshots and zombie
moans are effective. The voice acting is solid (some of the actors are better
than others) and there is quite a bit of it. Most importantly for a Resident
Evil game, the music is on point, though unique, as it definitely has a
Dreamcast flavor. In particular, the safe room theme, with its piano and
chimes, sounds like it is from a sick and demented version of Shenmue.
Considering safe room themes are often the most memorable and iconic music in
a Resident Evil game, it's cool that there's one that's so iconically
Dreamcast.
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At this point, I'd buy a coffee table about Resident Evil safe rooms
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| I don't care if it's an experimental military base beneath the Antarctic ice, it needs a safe room! |
As far as
Code: Veronica's gameplay goes, I found it a little
shocking. It's not the fact that the game uses the early entries' "tank" controls, a
sort of reverse axis form of moving, where the player must stop in order to
fire weapons, though this is one of the last entries in the series to fully
employ this type of control system. I figured it would. That is expected, just
as the third-person survival horror, fueled by puzzle solving and bursts of
violent action, is expected. The shocking part of
Code: Veronica's
gameplay is that it is a very long game that is surprisingly difficult. For
reference, I have never found a Resident Evil game to be difficult before this
one.
Code: Veronica doesn't even have difficulty modes. There is only
one, and it is
HARD.
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| Kill them, Chris! Kill them all! Or better yet, run away and conserve your ammo. You're gonna need it. |
There are a number of reasons
Code: Veronica is more difficult
than most games in the series, and many of them are frustrating. The puzzles,
generally somehow both oblique and rudimentary in other Resident Evil games, are far more esoteric here. This isn't what makes the game frustratingly
difficult, though--it's all of the game's frustrating elements working together
in concert. For instance, there are many weapons in the game that are quite
easy to miss and never find. Ammo for the weapons the player does find often
runs short--this is expected, as after all, this is a survival horror and a Resident Evil game. However, there are numerous areas where the zombies and
monsters regenerate, and when the player is wandering back and forth, trying
to figure things out, it's very easy to run out of ammo, despite the careful
planning that serves well in other games in the series. Most frustratingly,
the game switches perspectives about halfway through without warning.
Generally, the length of a normal Resident Evil game would match Claire's
adventure in
Code: Veronica. Then, the player would be given the choice to
start a new game as Chris, and play through his campaign. Not here.
Code: Veronica combines both characters' stories together, into one longer game.
However, the game gives no warning that Claire's adventure is suddenly going to end
and Chris' adventure is beginning. Therefore, just about every bit of weapon, ammo, and
health items that Claire is carrying when her game ends is unobtainable by
Chris during his campaign. That means weapons like the grenade launcher,
machine guns, and assault rifle are off limits for Chris. They are only usable by him if the player just happened to dump them off in an item box before finishing
off Claire's story. Thankfully, the few item box locations across the game are
all connected to each other, meaning they all hold every item the player has
dumped into any respective item box. But if they weren't dumped into the item box, and Claire was holding them, Chris is out of luck.
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| At least he gets the shotgun, no matter what |
Thankfully,
Code: Veronica does feature a workaround to
its frustrations: frequent saving opportunities. It feels as if the game
offers the player far more typewriter ribbons than in the surrounding games in
the franchise. Ribbons are used with typewriters, strewn throughout the game,
often, but not exclusively found in safe rooms (the franchise's enemy free
rooms where a player can save and enjoy the relaxing music). There are so many
ribbons here to save frequently, if the player
does indeed save frequently, it's easy to go back to a
previous save once a puzzle is finally solved, or after the perspective changes (which
happens more than once!), so the player can offload weapons and other useful objects into an item box. Of course, the issue here is that I didn't realize there were
more than enough save ribbons lying around until I was late in the
game, and I still had 22 in my inventory. I'm telling you, the reader, this
now, so you know, but I wish I had known. I would have saved far more often and
saved myself a lot of grief.
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| Hmm...I wonder if something is watching me? |
There is also some sadistic design in this game. For instance, one of
Claire's safe rooms is right next to a nest of poisonous zombie moths who
constantly regenerate. They are there literally every time Claire goes to save
or has to pass through the area, no matter how many times she kills them, and
they are
remarkably good at poisoning her. This almost feels like the Resident
Evil take on the Japanese version of
Super Mario Bros. 2 at some points.
There's nothing like having to fight a boss that requires tons of ammo and
health right after you've stored most of your item and health items in an item
box--hope you saved! Watch out for those moths!
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| Also, watch out for that Tyrant! |
Thankfully, this
is a Resident Evil title, and
Code:Veronica is very fun for
much of its considerable playtime. The game boasts some great
action scenarios and a perfectly bleak Resident Evil atmosphere that makes
most of its runtime a joy. The boss battles are epic, terrifying, and fun. I
got angrier playing this than I have any other Resident Evil title, but that
anger was generally punctuated by longer moments of enjoyment. The difficulty
level even adds to the sense of accomplishment throughout the game, like when
the disc is finally switched (this game is so huge, it plays across two discs),
and most importantly, at the end. Watching Chris get pingponged around as he
tries to survive a massive explosion in the post-final boss FMV actually got
me a bit emotional--I put so much energy and time into keeping Chris alive, and
the action movie on steroids final video of his attempt to escape made me
genuinely worried it would all be for naught.
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| The most accomplished...and relieved I've ever felt watching a Resident Evil game's end credits |
Despite the longer gamelength, there is some post-game content here unlocked
after beating
Code: Veronica, namely the Battle Game, where different
characters with different loadouts (including unlockable characters) can be
selected to go through a gauntlet of rooms. The coolest option here is to play
through the Battle Game in first person, as a first person perspective in a
Resident Evil game at this time was pretty novel. The first-person view is a
bit simple (the controls and aiming don't offer any more freedom than the
third-person mode), but it's still a nice touch.
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| Look ma, only hands! |
I did enjoy
Code: Veronica. I also found it more
frustrating than almost any Resident Evil game I've ever played, and a far cry from the all-time greatness that is
Resident Evil 4. I greatly enjoy
this franchise, and I enjoyed this game...but I can't pretend like I didn't
want to rip out my VMU and throw it across the room at points. I yelled...a lot. If you're a fan of the
series, though, and a fan of the Sega Dreamcast,
Resident Evil -- Code:
Veronica must be played. It may have later been ported to other systems...but
it feels like a Dreamcast game, through-and-through.
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