You know, though I have been reviewing horror games for a while now, it’s been awhile since I reviewed a horror, or at least, a horror-themed rail shooter. The last one being a year ago, and that was… Rock of the Dead. Kind of regretting my look on that game, to be honest. Which is weird, because there are a few good horror rail shooters out there. Hell, House of the Dead was made on that premise. That and bad voice acting. But hey, speaking of bad voice acting, Resident Evil is a pretty good horror game franchise. (What a shitty segway). So, when you put the two together, what do you get? Resident Evil: Dark Chronicles… But I never played that one, so Umbrella Chronicles it is.



Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles lets you play through the stories of Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 1, and Resident Evil 3, as well as having a few added campaigns. The story for these games are as barebones as they can get. They only have the major points added into it, and skip all the unnecessary stuff…. But that also means ignoring Barry so fuck this game! But seriously though, I don’t think people ever really cared about the Resident Evil story, and I doubt Umbrella Chronicles would help with that fact. But you know what is pretty good. Getting to see the side of Wesker and his involvement with these games. Yeah, like I said, there are some bonus games here, but we’ll get to them later. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is a rail shooter that does the job of the shooter games. You start out with a handgun, and despite having unlimited ammo for it, it is the weakest weapon in the entire game, but can be useful if you know what you are doing. Along the way, you will be able to pick up more weapons, from shotguns to machine guns to rocket launchers. You can use grenades, but those are best saved for bosses, and the knife is only good when enemies are jumping at you, like leeches or crows. The enemies are the same ones you’ve met before in classic Resident Evil games. There’s the classic zombies, but also the zombie dogs, Hunters, Lickers, Nemesi, Crimson Heads, those stupid monkeys that were dumb in Zero and are still dumb here, and Leeches. You can unload an entire clip into the enemies, but if you aim carefully, you can get a critical hit and kill them in one hit, which helps with the points later on. Now, I was playing the Wii version of this game, so I found it to be pretty nerve wracking but a good idea to use motion controls. People will always talk about the bad of motion controls, and while I agree there is more bad than good, it works here. You’re fighting monstrous enemies, you have a few bullets, you don’t want to waste them, but you're nervous (Or your hand is getting tired of holding up the Wii remote). But there’s no need to worry, since you are allowed to destroy the entire area around you and find Umbrella files for more points. I just ended up destroying the entire place with my gun, while also lowering the property of the Spencer Mansion more than it already was.



Now, as far as horror in this game goes, that really depends on how much your nerves can handle. If you are able to get through the game and treat it as an action game, than I assure you that you won’t be scared. The only times I can think of when I was freaking out was during one of Rebecca’s missions, mainly because I made a dumb mistake and was low on health and had to fend off enemies before they hit me once, and the other time was one of the last missions in the game because enemies were constantly rushing me in packs and they just wouldn’t end. But it does have it’s fair share of creepy moments, like when you play though the HUNK level and hear the many different radio broadcasts around Raccoon City. That is some genuinely disturbing stuff right there and I love it. But that is as far as the cares for this game go. The rest is wander around the level and kill enemies. It’s fun, but nothing too scary. But if we want to talk about easy, let’s talk about the bosses in this game. Some can range from being pretty good to pathetically easy to why did they make this?. The bat boss in the Resident Evil Zero story is so pathetically easy, I just held down the attack button until I won. The fight with the two B.O.W.s in Wesker’s story was a lot of fun though, but that may be just because of Wesker jumping around the area. It was pretty funny to me. Lastly, there’s the final boss of the game… And this is where the game starts to kill itself. This boss is terrible. Same easy to spot attacks until he throws a hissy fit and bombards you with attacks. If you don’t have something like a rocket launcher or at least a health spray, you will die to this part, because he throws way too much shit at you for you to get it without at least taking a hit. Aside from that one boss, everything else about the game is just fine.



The game manages to have a lot of other characters stories to play through, and not just through the main one’s we’ve all played through before, like seeing Wesker escape the mansion and his involvement with Resident Evil Zero or seeing how Rebecca ends up meeting Chris or how Ada escaped Raccoon City after Resident Evil 2 (There’s no Resident Evil 2 in this game aside from this, maybe, and that’s as far as it goes). If you ever wanted to see Wesker take on Lisa Trevor as the Spencer Mansion is about to blow up, then this game is just full of them. You also may want to try and get the S rank in some levels, as not only do you get the satisfaction of getting a perfect run on the level, but you also get to unlock other powerful weapons and you get to try out other levels this way. It adds a ton to this game that you wouldn’t see in anything else. And if none of these sell you, than only one other thing can. Two player mode. Two player mode is a dying breed in the world of cooperative gameplay. It was big in the early 2000s, but with the rise of online gaming, people have stopped playing games with their friends on the couch and have gone on to play games with strangers. I don’t hate online gaming, but I much prefer on the couch co-op. And Umbrella Chronicles has just what you need. Now you can destroy more of Raccoon City than the zombies and B.O.W.s could ever hope to do with just a puny handgun. It really adds more of a style to this game if you ask me, and I think that, for Resident Evil fans, or fans of classic on rail shooters of the arcade era, that this is a game that you should get. It’s for both Wii and Playstation 3, and easily a worthwhile game.



Umbrella Chronicles may not be as good of a purchase as buying Zero or Remake or even the original 3 despite finally getting some damn good FMV from this game that the original 3 could never deliver, but I’d say that this game manages to be fun in it’s own rights, while also answering a few questions about Resident Evil. “But Nik, didn’t you say that no one cares about the story of Resident Evil?” Yes, but it’s dumb enough for some people to be interested. Shut up! If you want a game that is fun or if you just want something to pass the time while you wait for something else, than this is for you. But I’d say it’s worth more than just a few minutes of gameplay, especially if you have friends over. Take notes, Dead Space 3. This is how you do co-op. But in your case, don’t do co-op. Take care.