I don't really like anything about it from meeting Steve onwards.
Really should be considered part of the main series. I'd love to see a remake of this one. Only downside is it's very easy to find yourself in an unbeatable scenario, so be careful overwriting those save states!
Que jogo! Arrisco dizer o melhor de todos RE que joguei, mas ainda não tenho certeza. Um aspecto desse jogo, para mim, o faz genial e diferente de outros da franquia: a dificuldade elevada, escassez de recursos e as mudanças bruscas e inesperadas no gameplay te motivam e obrigam a retornar o save várias vezes (mesmo sem efetivamente morrer), e assim você revê os lugares novamente mas tecnicamente pela primeira vez. Por isso não coincidentemente o jogo te dá inúmeras chances de salvar que podem parecer excessivas, mas não são. Adorei como ele propõe esse modo de jogar, (lembrando vagamente o que Kojima fez) e que casa muito bem com o estilo survival horror. A história achei meio fraquinha mas honestamente nem importou, gameplay salvou tudo. Jogão!
Awesome goofy goodness and one of the best looking of the early titles!
Interesantes ideas, pero la narrativa empuja al gameplay demasiado, poniendote en situaciones muy desventajosas y un diseño de nivel cuestionable
I’m always on the lookout for new survival horror games to play, but I put off Code Veronica for a long time. It was the most divisive entry in the franchise until Resident Evil 6, and to this day, it’s the black sheep of the mainline entries. When I finally started it up, I was a little confused by all this negativity. It’s still pretty moody, there are some fun puzzles, and the upgraded tech smoothed out the movement and camera control. All the boxes for a next-gen Resident Evil experience were ticked, so I was gearing up to be one Code Veronica’s ardent defenders, but the cracks slowly started to appear. The story begins well enough, but the characters you meet start getting a little… eccentric. One of the main villains, Alfred Ashford, might have the worst voice acting in the series, which is a legendarily high bar. Your companion character Steve doesn’t fare much better, and he has the disadvantage of being a depressed teenager. Even if a character like that is executed properly, he’s going to annoy a lot of people. The enemies you encounter later in the game are notoriously obnoxious, attacking you from above where you can’t shoot, or from long distances you can’t avoid. Just for the cherry on top, the campaign switches characters halfway through, and any weapons and items you’re carrying at the moment of the switch will be unavailable for the entire second half of the game. There’s a couple shorter character switches near the end too, so this happens multiple times. You’re never warned beforehand, and the limited save system means you’ll probably have to repeat a good amount of content or a difficult boss if you want to fix your file.
If you really think about those issues though, they really aren’t game breaking on a moment to moment basis. It’s not like the balance is broken, it’s not buggy, and if you know when the characters switch, there's no problem. That's why Code Veronica is divisive rather than reviled, if you know what you're doing, you can still have a good time with it. Resident Evil games are known for their replayability and speedrunning potential, so from that angle, I totally understand the people who defend it. However, if you’re playing this for the first time and not using a guide, it feels silly and a little unfair in a lot of ways. You could do worse with a survival horror game, but you could also do a lot better.
If you really think about those issues though, they really aren’t game breaking on a moment to moment basis. It’s not like the balance is broken, it’s not buggy, and if you know when the characters switch, there's no problem. That's why Code Veronica is divisive rather than reviled, if you know what you're doing, you can still have a good time with it. Resident Evil games are known for their replayability and speedrunning potential, so from that angle, I totally understand the people who defend it. However, if you’re playing this for the first time and not using a guide, it feels silly and a little unfair in a lot of ways. You could do worse with a survival horror game, but you could also do a lot better.
An absolutely average classic style RE game. It is an interesting tonal midpoint between 3 and four though, now all I've got to do is play RE0 and RE1R and I've played them all!
Joguei no PS2. Naquela época tinha adorado esse jogo. Mas não sei se envelheceu bem.
This game has everything going for it Great visuals , one of the best soundtracks in the series and an extremely cheesy story and characters just the way I like my RE games. So How could they possibly fuck it up? well it all goes downhill the second you actually start playing.
From an really annoying section to where you have to drop all your items to continue for a short while only to have to pick them up one by one to the game lasting waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than it should.
You fight a Tyrant on a plane and I seriously thought that was the end of the game it seemed fitting and I was gonna say "hey that wasn't bad at all" only to discover that I'm still at the fucking halfway point so that was a fun discovery.
Steve.
It commits the cardinal sin of being extremely boring to get through even with all the positives I listed and it takes real talent to make that happen so good work capcom.
As much as I really hate people who say "yeah I "played" it I just watched a playthough on youtube" in this case It would be really hard for me to say "No actually play the game it's way better than just watching it" Fuck off.
From an really annoying section to where you have to drop all your items to continue for a short while only to have to pick them up one by one to the game lasting waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than it should.
You fight a Tyrant on a plane and I seriously thought that was the end of the game it seemed fitting and I was gonna say "hey that wasn't bad at all" only to discover that I'm still at the fucking halfway point so that was a fun discovery.
Steve.
It commits the cardinal sin of being extremely boring to get through even with all the positives I listed and it takes real talent to make that happen so good work capcom.
As much as I really hate people who say "yeah I "played" it I just watched a playthough on youtube" in this case It would be really hard for me to say "No actually play the game it's way better than just watching it" Fuck off.
Doing a Knife Only Run on this game is hilariously fun.
This is the classic RE formula stretched to its limit (stretch beyond the limit and you get RE Zero btw)
There are so many instances in this game where I legit stopped for a moment and thought "...why?". Countless baffling design choices that do absolutely nothing but make the experience of a first-time player much, much worse.
If you don't know what you're doing you will absolutely waste a lot of time either going the wrong way a lot of times (meaning door animations), or doing some insane backtracking. And if you don't know what to expect, you may even soft-lock yourself, forcing a reset. Great game design.
The story's cheesyness constantly crosses the line and becomes cringey, and Steve is a fucking idiot. Out of all the fiction I've consumed, he may very well be the worst character I've seen. He's so fucking bad he even makes Claire worse by osmosis.
The fully 3D backgrounds, while giving us some cool camera angles, means that backgrounds are much more sterile and forgettable that the previous 3 games.
You can skip nearly every single boss. That's not a positive nor a negative, I just find it funny.
Still, being the well-established RE formula means the game is still fun, even with the inexplicable design. But out of the "good" REs, it's easily the worst (that and Rev 2, but that's for different reasons).
(That was the actual review. Below is just me ranting about some of the dumb and/or bad design instances):
This game finds the idea of respawning zombies brilliant. Fuck off.
It also likes to spam a miniboss as regular enemy in the early game, these yellow hunter-ish creatures. With a long range attack! Cool.
At one instance, you must follow Steve, and put 3 medal things to activate a lift. Did you forget the medals, or didn't even realize they'd be needed (it's in a lift that's very easy to miss your first run through the area)? Too bad, go the item box 15 cities away and grab the stuff.
There are multiple instances of "all of a sudden you need a key item, and there's no item box nearby" actually. Like... why?
All because this game distributes the item boxes in such a strange manner. It always feels like the closest one is on the other side of the country, goddamn.
Save points however are spaced at complete random. Multiple times you find a lonely save point, implying there's a boss or something. But between it and the next save room, there's nothing. Literally nothing. ?????
The last area has the item box and the save point in completely separate rooms btw. Why?!
The "let's take 20 seconds to open the door" isn't tension-building, it's annoying.
Dear Capcom, don't have small, flying, fast enemies in your tank control RE. Bats and moths, yuck.
And also don't have tiny crawling minions on your final boss. Yuck.
Keep the damn extinguisher. You're not getting the Magnum without it.
Not that it matters actually, because explosive arrows are soooo much stronger than the Magnum... Unloading the Magnum at the final boss did nothing, but it died to like... 10 explosive arrows. Jesus.
And here's the big one: the second time you get control of Claire, if you give her too much stuff, you just soft-locked yourself. Fantastic design.
There are so many instances in this game where I legit stopped for a moment and thought "...why?". Countless baffling design choices that do absolutely nothing but make the experience of a first-time player much, much worse.
If you don't know what you're doing you will absolutely waste a lot of time either going the wrong way a lot of times (meaning door animations), or doing some insane backtracking. And if you don't know what to expect, you may even soft-lock yourself, forcing a reset. Great game design.
The story's cheesyness constantly crosses the line and becomes cringey, and Steve is a fucking idiot. Out of all the fiction I've consumed, he may very well be the worst character I've seen. He's so fucking bad he even makes Claire worse by osmosis.
The fully 3D backgrounds, while giving us some cool camera angles, means that backgrounds are much more sterile and forgettable that the previous 3 games.
You can skip nearly every single boss. That's not a positive nor a negative, I just find it funny.
Still, being the well-established RE formula means the game is still fun, even with the inexplicable design. But out of the "good" REs, it's easily the worst (that and Rev 2, but that's for different reasons).
(That was the actual review. Below is just me ranting about some of the dumb and/or bad design instances):
This game finds the idea of respawning zombies brilliant. Fuck off.
It also likes to spam a miniboss as regular enemy in the early game, these yellow hunter-ish creatures. With a long range attack! Cool.
At one instance, you must follow Steve, and put 3 medal things to activate a lift. Did you forget the medals, or didn't even realize they'd be needed (it's in a lift that's very easy to miss your first run through the area)? Too bad, go the item box 15 cities away and grab the stuff.
There are multiple instances of "all of a sudden you need a key item, and there's no item box nearby" actually. Like... why?
All because this game distributes the item boxes in such a strange manner. It always feels like the closest one is on the other side of the country, goddamn.
Save points however are spaced at complete random. Multiple times you find a lonely save point, implying there's a boss or something. But between it and the next save room, there's nothing. Literally nothing. ?????
The last area has the item box and the save point in completely separate rooms btw. Why?!
The "let's take 20 seconds to open the door" isn't tension-building, it's annoying.
Dear Capcom, don't have small, flying, fast enemies in your tank control RE. Bats and moths, yuck.
And also don't have tiny crawling minions on your final boss. Yuck.
Keep the damn extinguisher. You're not getting the Magnum without it.
Not that it matters actually, because explosive arrows are soooo much stronger than the Magnum... Unloading the Magnum at the final boss did nothing, but it died to like... 10 explosive arrows. Jesus.
And here's the big one: the second time you get control of Claire, if you give her too much stuff, you just soft-locked yourself. Fantastic design.
in my humble opinion this is one of the best games I played on ps2
Decent RE game, but is sorely in need of a remake.
Code Veronica é de fude irmão, de longe o RE mais épico da franquia.
primeiramente, o jogo é tipo, forma classica de Resident Evil em sua melhor forma, tem um dos melhroes backtracking da franquia, tipo, tu volta muito, tipo, MUITO MESMO em locais passados pra pegar coisas, e tem sinceramente pra mim uma das melhores coleções de puzzles da franquia, incluindo meu puzzle favorito de todos os tempos (o dos quadros lá no palacio)
cenarios, backtracking, bosses, inimigos, musicas e tudo que a parte classica da franquia pode oferecer de bom tá aqui na sua melhor forma, e algumas coisas diferentes, como por exemplo, a gameplay.
Ela tá bem mais dinamica e de boas para novas pessoas, e o jogo está mais ''facil'' também em item, tu nunca vai ficar sem, mas tirando isso, o jogo é muito desafiador em puzzles e em tudo que torna ele um bom RE classico.
Por fim, a historia é minha favorita da franquia, é uma coisa muito seção da tarde e tem muitas partes toscas, mas ela é tão descaradamente épica e misteriosa que caralho é muito bom, e também muito engraçado em umas partes, de longe a que mais amei.
É isso ai, Code Veronica jogo mais kino da historia e meu terceiro resident evil favorito. 10/10 certeza
primeiramente, o jogo é tipo, forma classica de Resident Evil em sua melhor forma, tem um dos melhroes backtracking da franquia, tipo, tu volta muito, tipo, MUITO MESMO em locais passados pra pegar coisas, e tem sinceramente pra mim uma das melhores coleções de puzzles da franquia, incluindo meu puzzle favorito de todos os tempos (o dos quadros lá no palacio)
cenarios, backtracking, bosses, inimigos, musicas e tudo que a parte classica da franquia pode oferecer de bom tá aqui na sua melhor forma, e algumas coisas diferentes, como por exemplo, a gameplay.
Ela tá bem mais dinamica e de boas para novas pessoas, e o jogo está mais ''facil'' também em item, tu nunca vai ficar sem, mas tirando isso, o jogo é muito desafiador em puzzles e em tudo que torna ele um bom RE classico.
Por fim, a historia é minha favorita da franquia, é uma coisa muito seção da tarde e tem muitas partes toscas, mas ela é tão descaradamente épica e misteriosa que caralho é muito bom, e também muito engraçado em umas partes, de longe a que mais amei.
É isso ai, Code Veronica jogo mais kino da historia e meu terceiro resident evil favorito. 10/10 certeza
chris apanhando do wesker, claire batendo em dois fudido, steve batendo as botas, melhor da franquia
I was scared Resident Evil turns to a romance... With a douchebag named Steve... Thank god that was prevented.
I still don't like the controls and the graphics were kinda horrible. (I had problems playing it on my big scree TV, because the picture got washy, everytime I ran. Both PS2 and Gamecube Version)
But what I really do like about this game is the great story. Also the puzzles are mostly interesting.
I still don't like the controls and the graphics were kinda horrible. (I had problems playing it on my big scree TV, because the picture got washy, everytime I ran. Both PS2 and Gamecube Version)
But what I really do like about this game is the great story. Also the puzzles are mostly interesting.
Felt like the game was coming to its natural conclusion then Chris is like NOPE, HALFWAY THERE! And I just caaaan't right now. It's fun but outstays it's welcome.
it sucks
It's some good old cheesy resident evil fun.
The map is a bit overwhelming and it isn't innovative in the slightest, but if you crave some classic RE, you really can't go wrong with it.
The map is a bit overwhelming and it isn't innovative in the slightest, but if you crave some classic RE, you really can't go wrong with it.
A solid entry that deserves a remake
Without a doubt the worst RE Game i played and a terrible misinterpretation on what made the older games the classics that they are today. Starting with the convoluted map design that combined with the linear progression makes navigation only more confusing instead of engaging and lackluster boss design those main idea of a difficult fight is a ridiculously small arena + Enemy with gigantic healthbar. The most infuriating aspect of the game is the character switching that happens without warning and doesn’t provide meaningfull gameplay choices unlike RE 2 Zapping System. Here it mostly goes like this: you know you about to switch characters so you dump all your stuff in the itembox and you’re good! Or you don’t know you about to switch characters and don’t dump all your stuff in the item box and potentially fuck yourself. Even the visuals are lackluster now, standing between the charming and detailed low res models and pre-rendered backgrounds from the ps1- titels and the excellent and extremely detailed models and pre-rendered backgrounds from REmake and zero, Code Veronicas foggy and detailless environments can’t generate the same pretty atmosphere those games could. It’s also sad that they scaled down the gore in this one, resulting in far less enjoyable combat. But the worst aspect of this game is, with no question, the voice acting. Both alfred ashford and steve burnside provide two of the obnoxious voice performances i ever heard in my life, trancending the amusing acting in older games into annoying torture. The story itself is bad but that is nothing new for the series. The only thing that i would call good about this game is the soundtrack and that you can dual wield weapons, It’s a shame that Code Veronica won’t get a remake because unlike RE 4, this could really need one.
PS: The game is also transphobic, fuck this shit game.
PS: The game is also transphobic, fuck this shit game.
I originally played this game on the NCB, but now I own two copies of the PS2 version. I'm hoping to own the Gamecube copy at some point in the future.
A weaker game than RE2 and RE3, not to even mention REmake which is still the best of them so far to me. The gameplay just isn't as good, but still a great game overall. Shout out to that midgame character switch that left me without 2 weapons on a character that really needed them early on, but I still managed with just the handgun for a while so it's doable even if you get screwed over. The one time I didn't rotate my saves this happened! It's been nearly 2 decades since I first played so I forgot about this, even though I'm replaying.
Anyway, every cutscene is so ridiculously amazing in this game, it's legitimately gold, specially whenever Alfred Ashford makes an appearance. He lowkey sells the game with how stupid everything about him is, and I mean that as high praise.
Aside: the PS3 version is a pretty standard HD port, looks blurry at times and I had an issue with pre-rendered custcenes becoming sporadically choppy. Solid otherwise.
Anyway, every cutscene is so ridiculously amazing in this game, it's legitimately gold, specially whenever Alfred Ashford makes an appearance. He lowkey sells the game with how stupid everything about him is, and I mean that as high praise.
Aside: the PS3 version is a pretty standard HD port, looks blurry at times and I had an issue with pre-rendered custcenes becoming sporadically choppy. Solid otherwise.
Code Veronica is in many ways the natural progression of the OG Resident Evil style, especially with its new 3D environments and lighting mechanic (albeit a bit underused). it also tries to tackle different types of horror, ranging from gothic castles and tragic family events to even adapting themes from classic horror movies like Psycho, for instance. Unfortunately, it also suffers from annoying voice acting (not in a it's so bad it's good kind of way), extremely out of place anime scenes and character designs and a pretty long campaign that doesn't help the fact that a lot of the puzzles and environments feel like boring padding. The game also has a few weird roadblocks, for instance: if you don't leave the fire extinguisher as Claire in the item box, you won't be able to progress as Chris and you have to restart the game all over again if you don't have an earlier save. But with all its issues though, it's admirable how batshit crazy this game can be and it still has that classic Resident Evil feel, except for every single time a character opens their mouth.
This was a pretty great RE game, but from me working backwards, the classic tank controls took a lot of getting used to. The soundtrack on this game has been the best I've heard from Resident Evil so far. The twins had me very interested and keep me wanting to see more of them.
I do have to say that some puzzles are rather cryptic, but from what I've heard that's more standard to classic RE than anything. And is it maybe my TV, but is the PS4 version just darker and harder to see things in? I checked other playthroughs to see if it was the game itself, but they were much brighter. Either way, I did enjoy my time with the game, albeit I was frustrated near the end because of instant death traps.
I do have to say that some puzzles are rather cryptic, but from what I've heard that's more standard to classic RE than anything. And is it maybe my TV, but is the PS4 version just darker and harder to see things in? I checked other playthroughs to see if it was the game itself, but they were much brighter. Either way, I did enjoy my time with the game, albeit I was frustrated near the end because of instant death traps.
Já digo, melhor Resident Evil
If you're an RE fan it'd be pretty hard to not love this game, it has everything you look for in that classic RE formula. Ridiculously cheesy and over-the-top dialogue and action scenes, great level design that is fun to traverse, clever puzzles, tense atmosphere and solid shooting mechanics.
Plus this game turned Wesker into a Matrix villain and that alone gives it bonus points.
Plus this game turned Wesker into a Matrix villain and that alone gives it bonus points.
The return of the Redfields!
The true continuation of the series!
Albert motherfucking Wesker!
Incestual love bonding!
It’s Resident Evil on a new generation console!
Oh yeah. Like with my previous three RE reviews, I shall now pick apart Code Veronica. I get quite a kick out of writing reviews like they’re fucking anime visual novels because I have a clear passion towards the games that I love to play. That and I just like to make my reviews both informative and entertaining to read.
This is one the first RE games I played when I was younger. I played RE4, then this game, then RE5, then I would go back and play the original trilogy. I played this franchise in a very fucked up order. I was scared shitless of the PS1 games when I was younger, so I wouldn’t properly play the games myself until the PS2 generation. Probably wasn’t the best fuckin’ good idea to start with RE4, you can imagine the sleepless nights I had after playing that shit.
Going from RE4 to Code Veronica was fuckin’ jarring to me, because RE4 is a game that has a completely different direction taken, with more action sequences than any other game before it, and the whole third person shooter perspective was a first for a Resident Evil game. Code Veronica is one of the last games in the series to have the classic style of the PS1 games and it just makes me wish that we could get games like this again. For fuck sake, is there anyone out there willing to make old school games like Code Veronica again?
This is a weird fucking game to talk about. It’s one of the black sheep of the Resident Evil franchise. It clashes with a lot of ideas and it feels more like an experiment to see what would work for future games rather than a single concept that works really well. Would I say it’s underrated? Not really. Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about this game has had good things to say about it. It’s more like the game is often overlooked.
But, there is a huge but
There are some serious flaws with the game that can affect just how motivated the player is to get through it, or even play through it a 2nd time, and I’ll get into that. Some of these issues are so severe that it can affect the overall quality of the game.
[ 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔 ]
The story picks up three months after the events of RE2 and 3. After Claire Redfield escapes Raccoon City, she splits up from Leon and Sherry and goes on a solo mission to find her brother Chris, supposedly in Paris. She gets caught in one of Umbrella’s secret facilities and is captured. She is then taken and imprisoned on Rockford Island, which is actually another testing facility for Umbrella. Just like in Raccoon City, the T-Virus leaks out and it causes a zombie outbreak on the island. The first FMV scene in this game starts off with an action sequence that would make John Wick and Michael Bay fucking shit themselves.
Seriously, it’s so fucking over the top it reminds me of the laser room from Resident Evil 4. While this is still a Survival Horror game, it’s the first one to really start having these campy ridiculous action scenes very reminiscent of The Matrix. This game started taking an action approach even more so than Resident Evil 3 did.
So just like in RE2, Claire must escape the island and discover the fate of her missing brother. After breaking out of your degraded cage you quickly run into your… throat clear
Ahem.... AH AH AHEM!! cough
Your PARTNER for this game, who goes by the name of Steve Burnside. I may bash the shit out of Billy Cohen from RE0 but good lord Steve is just obnoxious. While he is a sympathetic character at times, everything that he says sounds like he is whining, it’s just the awful tone in his voice. The more he speaks the more it becomes insufferable. Not long after that you stumble in the mansion of the Ashford Twins, Alfred and Alexia. And let’s just say that they’re quite uh… into each other if you know what I mean by that.
Japan am I right?
So uh, besides that disturbing shit, the Ashfords are some of the best antagonists in the series. They are so fucking campy and over the top they bring that unintentional cheese the series is known for. Alfred Ashford blames Claire for the destruction of his home and facility and thus seeks revenge on her, when in reality it was actually Albert Wesker who is responsible.
If you’re playing this game for the first time you’re probably confused as to how he’s still alive. He died from the tyrant in RE1 right? Well it turns out before that happened, he injected himself with the Progenitor virus, and when he died, the virus brought him back to life. Not just that but the virus gave him supernatural powers, giving him incredible agility and superhuman strength.
The origin of the virus is kind of touched upon in Resident Evil 0, which is a prequel to RE1, but, the less said about RE0’s narrative the better..
Hence how Albert kicking the living shit out of Chris like a punching bag has become a staple in the series. Speaking of Chris, it turns out he finds out that Claire has been searching for him, so he sets off on a rescue mission to Rockford Island to find her. But by the time he gets there, Claire has already escaped the island with Steve. So now Chris has to find a way to get to Claire who has been stranded a second time because of Alexia, this time on a base in fucking Antartica. This game is just ridiculous. This is the first game in the series where things just start to go off the rails.
I do like the relationship between Chris and Claire. They do bond like real siblings. They protect and save each other when the danger is imminent. And despite what I said about Steve being utterly irritating to listen to, there were a couple moments in the game where they actually managed to make me feel sorry for him. There’s one scene late into the game which I won’t spoil, but that shit hit me in the feels fuckin’ hard. Nice work Capcom.
The story is full of ridiculous corny shit but it’s a very fun joyride. The payoff is worth the journey, but the main issue with the story however is the pacing of it. Once the game switches over to Chris the pace of the game comes to a complete halt and doesn’t pick up again until you get to the Antarctic base.
Not that Chris’s segment is flat out bad, but it involves a large amount of recycled content, and this can get pretty repetitive, because you visit and run through locations that you already played through as Claire. Not to mention Chris’s puzzles are harder than Claire’s, so if you hate difficult puzzles like I do, then this can be a real ball breaker.
The ending of the game with Chris and Wesker makes up for this, it’s one of the best scenes I’ve seen in an RE game. I laugh my ass off every single time I watch it. But after this, we don’t see Chris and Wesker again until RE5, and by then Chris has toughened up and learned to take his vitamins like a good boy. BROTHA!
But the best moment in the whole game in my opinion is when you reach a replica of the Spencer Mansion from RE1. I never knew what this place was before but after playing RE1 I was like “Ohhhh, so that’s what that mansion looking place was in Code Veronica!”
[ 𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔 ]
This is one of the last games in the series to have the classic gameplay formula that made the franchise what it originally was. It still has tank controls, the 180 degree quick turn, the door loading screens, limited inventory space, limited saves, limited ammo and healing item pickups, and a third person camera but instead of fixed angles it instead moves around with the player.
However, like with the story, there are issues with the gameplay. It’s overall a very mixed bag for me. It still retains the survival roots, the risk/reward system with item conservation playing a huge part, but there are downgrades in terms of innovations. I already mentioned the whole pace breaker with Chris, but in terms of mechanics, it’s actually lacking the features that were present in RE3. Maybe this is due to the fact that this game only came out a year after RE3, so I imagine they didn’t have enough time to implement more gameplay mechanics.
There’s no more dodging mechanic, no ammo crafting with gunpowder, you can’t push zombies away like Jill could, there’s no more RNG to enemies and item placements, even just small things like having to push X to go up and down stairs again like in RE2. There are barely any new enemies to fight either. Most of the enemies you fight in this game are just rehashed from RE1 and 2. You can’t even get cosmetic skins to wear in a 2nd playthrough. But hey, at least you can still skip the cutscenes and blow up explosive barrels on enemies.
But there is the return of the Battle Mode from RE2 which is unlocked after beating the game. It’s just a gauntlet of killing enemies and progressing through each area until you reach the final boss as quickly as you can. Each playable character has their own set loadout but some are clearly better than others. It’s good fun. But the most interesting aspect of it is the First Person mode.
And this makes the game feel like a different one. It's one of the first times there is a First Person Perspective in an RE game, it's quite interesting seeing the game like this.
Speaking of new enemies, one of them is called a Bandersnatch. They’re able to smack you from across a room with their extendable arms. They can also stick to walls and vault over shit. To be honest, these things are a real pain in the ass to fight. They soak up a lot of ammo before they die, and they hit me 50% of the time. I try to just run past them as much as I can and only fight them if I really have to, because they’re just a waste of resources if anything. Hence if there’s a part where they show up I just say “FUCK IT” and just dash the fuck outta there. Seriously, even the Hunters are less of a bitch to deal with than the Bandersnatches.
And then there's the infamous moth corridor. Fuck this room. Seriously, fuck it. The main problem is that the moths fly around and they leave poison mist clouds in the air. But the room is so narrow that you can't run around it. It not only hurts you but it can also poison you.
The other issue is that the moth can unavoidably grapple you and lay an egg on you. And when it hatches a larva will come out and start biting you. And this also has a chance of poisoning you. But the thing is, the egg hatches at random. And you can't get it off. So there will be a chance you'll be running through an area in the middle of making progress but then the egg hatches and you get poisoned.
So you gotta either backtrack back to the Item Box to grab a blue herb, or use the stack of blue herbs in the same fucking room the moths are in. But then there's also the issue of using a blue herb only for the moths to poison you again immediately after you use it, so what the fuck, game.
And you're probably thinking "Why not just kill the moths?" If I could I wouldn't be complaining so much about them. You can kill the moths sure, but the problem is, they respawn. Yup, the moths respawn. So there is no point in fighting them. So every single time you go into this hallway, you just have to run straight for the door in the hopes that the moths don't lay an egg on you, or poison you with the mist clouds.
The developers put those herbs there because they must have known that this room sucked balls.
There is one new mechanic that wouldn’t be seen again until RE6 and that’s the ability to dual wield weapons. Well, kind of. There’s a pair of pistols that you can get very early in the game exclusively for Claire and it comes with quite a lot of ammo.
What’s cool is that you can actually aim at multiple targets. There’s a section in the game where Steve gets a pair of dual wielded sub machine guns and you actually get to play as him for a short while, and this shit is actually pretty fuckin’ fun, it actually makes me wish I could play as him more, not gonna lie. There’s just something about Claire dual wielding that just looks badass, you can see the evolution in her character after the shit she’s been through in Raccoon City.
There are however some serious roadblock moments in the game that can really affect players getting through the game. The first instance is the boss fight against a tyrant in the cargo plane. What absolutely fucking sucks about this part is that once you get on the plane, you cannot go back.
There’s a typewriter right next to the door where you engage it. However if you haven’t been conserving your items well enough, you can get into a position where you get stumped. Hopefully to God you found B.O.W. Gas Rounds for the grenade launcher and some explosive arrows for the bowgun and have saved them for this fight in particular.
Because Jesus Christ this fight is insane without them. The first issue is that the tyrant’s attacks are insanely difficult to dodge. He moves faster than Claire, so 80% of the time he’s gonna hit you. Sometimes he’ll knock you on the floor and you have to hurry and get up and move out of the way before he hits you again. And this tyrant isn’t a pushover, his attacks fucking hurt. This is one of those fights where Claire should have the ability to dodge.
Another issue is that you can only kill him by pushing him out of the emergency hatch by launching a metal container at him. However each attempt has a cooldown so you have to wait in between pushes. Another thing, you also have to inflict a certain amount of damage to the tyrant before he can be pushed out, otherwise you’re just wasting time.
But since there is no indication of how much damage you’re dealing, you’re not gonna know when exactly the fucker can be killed. So it’s just a fight that entirely revolves around trial and error, dying over and over and over again in the process. This shit fuckin' sucks, because I know friends who had to start the game over from the beginning or just stop playing entirely because they couldn’t get past this boss.
Another boss, the Nosferatu, is a boss you fight just before the game switches over to Chris, and this guy is no pushover either. His weakness is his exposed heart, and you get a sniper rifle just before the fight to assist in that, however the aiming is clunky, and you only get 7 shots. Even if you hit all 7 shots it’s not enough to kill him. You need more weapons. The AK is useful for this fight however if you missed it and you didn’t at least bring the knife with you, well then good luck trying to beat him now.
Also if you die, the checkpoint restarts just before the fight. But you can’t go back after you’ve picked up the sniper rifle. So you know what that means? You gotta reload your save file and play through again until you get to this point again and this time you’re prepared for it.
And yeah, I did just mention checkpoints in a game where dying actually sends you back to your last save. But this time, there is a checkpoint system but it’s incredibly vague on how it works. See, when you die, you can continue the game from your last save immediately instead of being booted back to the title screen and having to reload your save file.
But also, the game does get a few checkpoints at certain points. However the Nosferatu fight makes the checkpoint completely pointless. Because again, if you’re unprepared then you’re gonna have to reload your save file anyway.
These are just a couple examples of how player progression can be halted if you’re not aware of this shit beforehand. The game doesn’t warn you before you continue, so imagine all the people who jumped into this game blind and weren’t ready for this bullshit.
There's also a part in the game where Claire has to run away from a boss, but no matter what, the boss is gonna hit you. You NEED healing items to get past this, and this is just fucking stupid. I shouldn't have to use up precious healing items in such quick succession in a boss fight that isn't even meant to be fought.
You have to heal immediately after the first hit, because the second hit will kill you. At full health, a single hit will bring you down from Fine (Green) to Caution (Orange). You have to use mixed herbs or First Aid Sprays, because you just cannot take hits here.
There’s also the issue of how items transfer between Chris and Claire. The items you place in an Item Box are shared between characters. Let’s say I was playing as Claire and I put the Grenade Launcher in the Item Box and then the game switched over to Chris. That means Chris can grab the Grenade Launcher along with all the other items Claire left in the box. The problem with this as a new player is, unless you did the research beforehand, you’re not gonna know what items you’re gonna need for a certain section.
Let’s say I was playing as Chris, and I decided to put the shotgun in the Item Box, then the game switches over to Claire, then have Claire pick up the shotgun and any other items, but then at the end of the game it switches back to Chris again. If Claire had the shotgun and any other healing items on her, OOPS!!
Chris can’t use them for the rest of the game. I’m not joking. And don't forget that the Magnum is missable as well. When Chris gets to the Antarctic base there will be a room that is on fire. The Magnum is in there however you need the fire extinguisher to put out the flames.
But by this point the extinguisher is empty. There's a specific room you go into and there's a machine you have to interact with to fill up the extinguisher.
So if you happen to miss this, and then you give Claire the shotgun or the grenade launcher or any other powerful weapons or items, well then good luck trying to beat the final boss now.
And the other fucked up thing is, the game saves a checkpoint right before the final boss. So if you die, the game just restarts the checkpoint right before Chris activates the final countdown and fights Alexia.
So you know what that means? You gotta quit to the main menu, manually reload your save, and then you gotta play through Claire's section all over again.
God. Dammit.
So there are some serious issues you can create for yourself if you are not careful with your saves. I think this is why Capcom went back to a single playable character in RE4.
So yeah, the game is lacking gameplay features from the previous games, it has a few roadblock sections, and the item transferring gimmick is a problem as well. And while the game does give you a shitload of ammo at times, the game is very stingy with healing items. Even as a veteran player I still don’t have a whole lot of herbs by the end game. All of these issues makes Code Veronica the most difficult RE game in the series next to RE0.
This game is fucking hard. Unlike the previous games where the difficulty is warranted and forgiving at times, here it feels fucking brutal at times. But the difficulty just comes from the lack of polish in the gameplay. If it just had more development time it would have been ironed out, but as it stands, it’s a serious step down from the older games.
One last thing I should talk about are the weapons, and yet again, this is a step down. Remember how incredible the weapons sounded in RE3? Well in this game, almost all of the weapons have the same sound effects as the ones from RE2. The pistol, shotgun, grenade launcher, and the bowgun all sound exactly the same. Which is a disappointment but at least we got RE4 for that.
And speaking of the bowgun, the standard ammo sucks liquid ass sauce from a bendy straw just like in RE2, except somehow they’re even worse now. The bowgun shoots one bolt instead of three, so it actually takes longer to kill enemies.
And don’t even think about using it to kill enemies other than zombies or dogs, just fuckin’ forget about it. It’s way too weak. It takes at least 8 shots just to kill one zombie. Probably why they give you so much ammo for it.
There are good things about it however. It doesn’t need to be reloaded like a standard gun, and the explosive rounds you get for it are WAY better. They’re very good for bosses.
There are no more Freeze Rounds from RE3, so now it’s Acid, Flame, Explosive, and the B.O.W. Rounds which are insanely useful for the tyrant fight. The grenade launcher works the same as it did in the previous games. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it and that also goes for the shotgun.
Because of the robotic movements, the lack of nice beefy sound effects, and the fact that you can no longer blow off zombie heads and legs, shooting enemies feels nowhere near as good as it did in the older games. The lack of gore and good impact of my guns kinda defeats the purpose in my opinion.
[ 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝙉𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙏𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆 ]
I fucking love this game’s artstyle. It’s a very nice mix between science fiction and goth. That small castle where the Ashford twins live looks like Dracula’s Castle and a Party City fucked and had a bastard child. It’s just full of creepy dolls, piles of books all over, and these guys must really have a fetish for insects, because the insect symbolism is fucking everywhere.
And something about the walls and floors just looks quite unsettling. This looks like a place Chernobog from Disney's Fantasia would live in. What’s new for this game is that instead of pre-rendered backgrounds, all of the locations are fully rendered in 3D. No more 1998 2D textures from the PS1 games. The power of the PissStation 2 allows for more detailed character models, higher quality FMV cutscenes, and better looking environments.
For the time this game does look good but you can really tell it is a 2001 game because there are still quite a handful of imperfections. For example the animations. I don’t know what happened here but the animations for the characters and zombies are jank as fuck. The movements for the zombies are really robotic now. The way they fall over just looks like something I would see in a Three Stooges short, it’s just really comical.
The way zombies fall down stairs when you shoot them just makes me piss myself laughing. It's like I just shot Homer Simpson it's so ridiculously dumb.
There are also moments in the cutscenes where the movements for the characters just look really off like they just don’t flow right. But obviously this is the first RE on a new console and again, short development time, but all of these flaws and imperfections makes me wonder how much better this game could have been had they just spent more time on it.
There is one amazing part about the presentation and it’s the soundtrack. Holy fuck I absolutely love the music in this game. A good chunk of the songs have opera singing in them and it just enhances the mood of the game tenfold. The tone from RE3 goes from bleakness and paranoia to straight up dread in Code Veronica.
The save room theme is the best save room theme in the whole series, period. And the final boss theme is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in a Resident Evil game. And this may sound fucking weird if you don’t like opera music, but to me it’s very nostalgic because it reminds me a lot of the soundtrack to Parasite Eve. And I grew up with that game and the soundtrack in Parasite Eve is absolutely fucking orgasmic, it’s one of my all time favorites.
…
Fuck I wanna play Parasite Eve again now. Lmao.
And how about the music that plays during the Nosferatu fight? The shit is burned into my skull it's so intense and memorable.
[ 𝘽𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉? ]
This game has been released on the Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, PS3, Xbox 360, and it’s even been ported to the PS4.
The Dreamcast version is the worst to play. Because it has worse lighting than later versions, the load times for opening up the inventory are slower, and Steve’s hair design looks worse to me as well. But the most drastic difference is that the Albert Wesker story arc isn’t expanded upon in the game. The PS2 version of the game improves upon all of this, same with the GameCube.
However the best version in my opinion is the HD Remaster for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game runs at a nice 1080p resolution. The visuals and character models are sharper and cleaner, the load times are slightly faster, the menus look better, the FMV cutscenes are at a higher resolution, and there’s even a leaderboard feature where you can compete for completion times with other players and your friends.
But what sucks is that on the PS4 for some reason, the version of the game being sold on the PlayStation Store is not the HD Remaster, but instead an emulation of the PS2 release. Why is that? So if you wanna play the HD Remaster you’re gonna have to dust off that old PS3 or 360, or get a PS3 emulator on your PC. Otherwise, you’re just gonna have to stick to the PS2 version.
Thankfully it’s cheap as shit on PS4, or if you’re more old school like I am, physical PS2 copies are pretty goddamn cheap these days. I’ve seen copies being sold online for $15-25.
Xbox One is a different story, I think… Since the console is backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games, then you should be able to play the HD Remaster on that.
[ 𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙎 ]
Despite all of the rampant and terrible flaws that I talk about here, Code Veronica is still a great game. I personally still love this game despite all the gripes I have with it. The game is just really nostalgic to me. The charm is so goddamn memorable that it holds its own compared to all the other games. But I did have to put the nostalgia to the side and look at the game with the critical monocle. Looking back at it again, yeah, this game hasn’t aged very well. It’s a very polarizing 8 hour experience, and it could have been trimmed down if either Chris wasn’t in the game, or if his section was much shorter.
It’s a very odd game, it reeks of a “next gen PS2 game” but it’s a game that should be experienced at least once. Obviously I’m not gonna be too hard on it because of how long this game came out after RE3. I mean hell, it was released on the Dreamcast before the PS2, and it’s even more incomplete there than on PS2.
This game gets 7 Jill Sandwiches out of 10.
The true continuation of the series!
Albert motherfucking Wesker!
Incestual love bonding!
It’s Resident Evil on a new generation console!
Oh yeah. Like with my previous three RE reviews, I shall now pick apart Code Veronica. I get quite a kick out of writing reviews like they’re fucking anime visual novels because I have a clear passion towards the games that I love to play. That and I just like to make my reviews both informative and entertaining to read.
This is one the first RE games I played when I was younger. I played RE4, then this game, then RE5, then I would go back and play the original trilogy. I played this franchise in a very fucked up order. I was scared shitless of the PS1 games when I was younger, so I wouldn’t properly play the games myself until the PS2 generation. Probably wasn’t the best fuckin’ good idea to start with RE4, you can imagine the sleepless nights I had after playing that shit.
Going from RE4 to Code Veronica was fuckin’ jarring to me, because RE4 is a game that has a completely different direction taken, with more action sequences than any other game before it, and the whole third person shooter perspective was a first for a Resident Evil game. Code Veronica is one of the last games in the series to have the classic style of the PS1 games and it just makes me wish that we could get games like this again. For fuck sake, is there anyone out there willing to make old school games like Code Veronica again?
This is a weird fucking game to talk about. It’s one of the black sheep of the Resident Evil franchise. It clashes with a lot of ideas and it feels more like an experiment to see what would work for future games rather than a single concept that works really well. Would I say it’s underrated? Not really. Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about this game has had good things to say about it. It’s more like the game is often overlooked.
But, there is a huge but
There are some serious flaws with the game that can affect just how motivated the player is to get through it, or even play through it a 2nd time, and I’ll get into that. Some of these issues are so severe that it can affect the overall quality of the game.
[ 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔 ]
The story picks up three months after the events of RE2 and 3. After Claire Redfield escapes Raccoon City, she splits up from Leon and Sherry and goes on a solo mission to find her brother Chris, supposedly in Paris. She gets caught in one of Umbrella’s secret facilities and is captured. She is then taken and imprisoned on Rockford Island, which is actually another testing facility for Umbrella. Just like in Raccoon City, the T-Virus leaks out and it causes a zombie outbreak on the island. The first FMV scene in this game starts off with an action sequence that would make John Wick and Michael Bay fucking shit themselves.
Seriously, it’s so fucking over the top it reminds me of the laser room from Resident Evil 4. While this is still a Survival Horror game, it’s the first one to really start having these campy ridiculous action scenes very reminiscent of The Matrix. This game started taking an action approach even more so than Resident Evil 3 did.
So just like in RE2, Claire must escape the island and discover the fate of her missing brother. After breaking out of your degraded cage you quickly run into your… throat clear
Ahem.... AH AH AHEM!! cough
Your PARTNER for this game, who goes by the name of Steve Burnside. I may bash the shit out of Billy Cohen from RE0 but good lord Steve is just obnoxious. While he is a sympathetic character at times, everything that he says sounds like he is whining, it’s just the awful tone in his voice. The more he speaks the more it becomes insufferable. Not long after that you stumble in the mansion of the Ashford Twins, Alfred and Alexia. And let’s just say that they’re quite uh… into each other if you know what I mean by that.
Japan am I right?
So uh, besides that disturbing shit, the Ashfords are some of the best antagonists in the series. They are so fucking campy and over the top they bring that unintentional cheese the series is known for. Alfred Ashford blames Claire for the destruction of his home and facility and thus seeks revenge on her, when in reality it was actually Albert Wesker who is responsible.
If you’re playing this game for the first time you’re probably confused as to how he’s still alive. He died from the tyrant in RE1 right? Well it turns out before that happened, he injected himself with the Progenitor virus, and when he died, the virus brought him back to life. Not just that but the virus gave him supernatural powers, giving him incredible agility and superhuman strength.
The origin of the virus is kind of touched upon in Resident Evil 0, which is a prequel to RE1, but, the less said about RE0’s narrative the better..
Hence how Albert kicking the living shit out of Chris like a punching bag has become a staple in the series. Speaking of Chris, it turns out he finds out that Claire has been searching for him, so he sets off on a rescue mission to Rockford Island to find her. But by the time he gets there, Claire has already escaped the island with Steve. So now Chris has to find a way to get to Claire who has been stranded a second time because of Alexia, this time on a base in fucking Antartica. This game is just ridiculous. This is the first game in the series where things just start to go off the rails.
I do like the relationship between Chris and Claire. They do bond like real siblings. They protect and save each other when the danger is imminent. And despite what I said about Steve being utterly irritating to listen to, there were a couple moments in the game where they actually managed to make me feel sorry for him. There’s one scene late into the game which I won’t spoil, but that shit hit me in the feels fuckin’ hard. Nice work Capcom.
The story is full of ridiculous corny shit but it’s a very fun joyride. The payoff is worth the journey, but the main issue with the story however is the pacing of it. Once the game switches over to Chris the pace of the game comes to a complete halt and doesn’t pick up again until you get to the Antarctic base.
Not that Chris’s segment is flat out bad, but it involves a large amount of recycled content, and this can get pretty repetitive, because you visit and run through locations that you already played through as Claire. Not to mention Chris’s puzzles are harder than Claire’s, so if you hate difficult puzzles like I do, then this can be a real ball breaker.
The ending of the game with Chris and Wesker makes up for this, it’s one of the best scenes I’ve seen in an RE game. I laugh my ass off every single time I watch it. But after this, we don’t see Chris and Wesker again until RE5, and by then Chris has toughened up and learned to take his vitamins like a good boy. BROTHA!
But the best moment in the whole game in my opinion is when you reach a replica of the Spencer Mansion from RE1. I never knew what this place was before but after playing RE1 I was like “Ohhhh, so that’s what that mansion looking place was in Code Veronica!”
[ 𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔 ]
This is one of the last games in the series to have the classic gameplay formula that made the franchise what it originally was. It still has tank controls, the 180 degree quick turn, the door loading screens, limited inventory space, limited saves, limited ammo and healing item pickups, and a third person camera but instead of fixed angles it instead moves around with the player.
However, like with the story, there are issues with the gameplay. It’s overall a very mixed bag for me. It still retains the survival roots, the risk/reward system with item conservation playing a huge part, but there are downgrades in terms of innovations. I already mentioned the whole pace breaker with Chris, but in terms of mechanics, it’s actually lacking the features that were present in RE3. Maybe this is due to the fact that this game only came out a year after RE3, so I imagine they didn’t have enough time to implement more gameplay mechanics.
There’s no more dodging mechanic, no ammo crafting with gunpowder, you can’t push zombies away like Jill could, there’s no more RNG to enemies and item placements, even just small things like having to push X to go up and down stairs again like in RE2. There are barely any new enemies to fight either. Most of the enemies you fight in this game are just rehashed from RE1 and 2. You can’t even get cosmetic skins to wear in a 2nd playthrough. But hey, at least you can still skip the cutscenes and blow up explosive barrels on enemies.
But there is the return of the Battle Mode from RE2 which is unlocked after beating the game. It’s just a gauntlet of killing enemies and progressing through each area until you reach the final boss as quickly as you can. Each playable character has their own set loadout but some are clearly better than others. It’s good fun. But the most interesting aspect of it is the First Person mode.
And this makes the game feel like a different one. It's one of the first times there is a First Person Perspective in an RE game, it's quite interesting seeing the game like this.
Speaking of new enemies, one of them is called a Bandersnatch. They’re able to smack you from across a room with their extendable arms. They can also stick to walls and vault over shit. To be honest, these things are a real pain in the ass to fight. They soak up a lot of ammo before they die, and they hit me 50% of the time. I try to just run past them as much as I can and only fight them if I really have to, because they’re just a waste of resources if anything. Hence if there’s a part where they show up I just say “FUCK IT” and just dash the fuck outta there. Seriously, even the Hunters are less of a bitch to deal with than the Bandersnatches.
And then there's the infamous moth corridor. Fuck this room. Seriously, fuck it. The main problem is that the moths fly around and they leave poison mist clouds in the air. But the room is so narrow that you can't run around it. It not only hurts you but it can also poison you.
The other issue is that the moth can unavoidably grapple you and lay an egg on you. And when it hatches a larva will come out and start biting you. And this also has a chance of poisoning you. But the thing is, the egg hatches at random. And you can't get it off. So there will be a chance you'll be running through an area in the middle of making progress but then the egg hatches and you get poisoned.
So you gotta either backtrack back to the Item Box to grab a blue herb, or use the stack of blue herbs in the same fucking room the moths are in. But then there's also the issue of using a blue herb only for the moths to poison you again immediately after you use it, so what the fuck, game.
And you're probably thinking "Why not just kill the moths?" If I could I wouldn't be complaining so much about them. You can kill the moths sure, but the problem is, they respawn. Yup, the moths respawn. So there is no point in fighting them. So every single time you go into this hallway, you just have to run straight for the door in the hopes that the moths don't lay an egg on you, or poison you with the mist clouds.
The developers put those herbs there because they must have known that this room sucked balls.
There is one new mechanic that wouldn’t be seen again until RE6 and that’s the ability to dual wield weapons. Well, kind of. There’s a pair of pistols that you can get very early in the game exclusively for Claire and it comes with quite a lot of ammo.
What’s cool is that you can actually aim at multiple targets. There’s a section in the game where Steve gets a pair of dual wielded sub machine guns and you actually get to play as him for a short while, and this shit is actually pretty fuckin’ fun, it actually makes me wish I could play as him more, not gonna lie. There’s just something about Claire dual wielding that just looks badass, you can see the evolution in her character after the shit she’s been through in Raccoon City.
There are however some serious roadblock moments in the game that can really affect players getting through the game. The first instance is the boss fight against a tyrant in the cargo plane. What absolutely fucking sucks about this part is that once you get on the plane, you cannot go back.
There’s a typewriter right next to the door where you engage it. However if you haven’t been conserving your items well enough, you can get into a position where you get stumped. Hopefully to God you found B.O.W. Gas Rounds for the grenade launcher and some explosive arrows for the bowgun and have saved them for this fight in particular.
Because Jesus Christ this fight is insane without them. The first issue is that the tyrant’s attacks are insanely difficult to dodge. He moves faster than Claire, so 80% of the time he’s gonna hit you. Sometimes he’ll knock you on the floor and you have to hurry and get up and move out of the way before he hits you again. And this tyrant isn’t a pushover, his attacks fucking hurt. This is one of those fights where Claire should have the ability to dodge.
Another issue is that you can only kill him by pushing him out of the emergency hatch by launching a metal container at him. However each attempt has a cooldown so you have to wait in between pushes. Another thing, you also have to inflict a certain amount of damage to the tyrant before he can be pushed out, otherwise you’re just wasting time.
But since there is no indication of how much damage you’re dealing, you’re not gonna know when exactly the fucker can be killed. So it’s just a fight that entirely revolves around trial and error, dying over and over and over again in the process. This shit fuckin' sucks, because I know friends who had to start the game over from the beginning or just stop playing entirely because they couldn’t get past this boss.
Another boss, the Nosferatu, is a boss you fight just before the game switches over to Chris, and this guy is no pushover either. His weakness is his exposed heart, and you get a sniper rifle just before the fight to assist in that, however the aiming is clunky, and you only get 7 shots. Even if you hit all 7 shots it’s not enough to kill him. You need more weapons. The AK is useful for this fight however if you missed it and you didn’t at least bring the knife with you, well then good luck trying to beat him now.
Also if you die, the checkpoint restarts just before the fight. But you can’t go back after you’ve picked up the sniper rifle. So you know what that means? You gotta reload your save file and play through again until you get to this point again and this time you’re prepared for it.
And yeah, I did just mention checkpoints in a game where dying actually sends you back to your last save. But this time, there is a checkpoint system but it’s incredibly vague on how it works. See, when you die, you can continue the game from your last save immediately instead of being booted back to the title screen and having to reload your save file.
But also, the game does get a few checkpoints at certain points. However the Nosferatu fight makes the checkpoint completely pointless. Because again, if you’re unprepared then you’re gonna have to reload your save file anyway.
These are just a couple examples of how player progression can be halted if you’re not aware of this shit beforehand. The game doesn’t warn you before you continue, so imagine all the people who jumped into this game blind and weren’t ready for this bullshit.
There's also a part in the game where Claire has to run away from a boss, but no matter what, the boss is gonna hit you. You NEED healing items to get past this, and this is just fucking stupid. I shouldn't have to use up precious healing items in such quick succession in a boss fight that isn't even meant to be fought.
You have to heal immediately after the first hit, because the second hit will kill you. At full health, a single hit will bring you down from Fine (Green) to Caution (Orange). You have to use mixed herbs or First Aid Sprays, because you just cannot take hits here.
There’s also the issue of how items transfer between Chris and Claire. The items you place in an Item Box are shared between characters. Let’s say I was playing as Claire and I put the Grenade Launcher in the Item Box and then the game switched over to Chris. That means Chris can grab the Grenade Launcher along with all the other items Claire left in the box. The problem with this as a new player is, unless you did the research beforehand, you’re not gonna know what items you’re gonna need for a certain section.
Let’s say I was playing as Chris, and I decided to put the shotgun in the Item Box, then the game switches over to Claire, then have Claire pick up the shotgun and any other items, but then at the end of the game it switches back to Chris again. If Claire had the shotgun and any other healing items on her, OOPS!!
Chris can’t use them for the rest of the game. I’m not joking. And don't forget that the Magnum is missable as well. When Chris gets to the Antarctic base there will be a room that is on fire. The Magnum is in there however you need the fire extinguisher to put out the flames.
But by this point the extinguisher is empty. There's a specific room you go into and there's a machine you have to interact with to fill up the extinguisher.
So if you happen to miss this, and then you give Claire the shotgun or the grenade launcher or any other powerful weapons or items, well then good luck trying to beat the final boss now.
And the other fucked up thing is, the game saves a checkpoint right before the final boss. So if you die, the game just restarts the checkpoint right before Chris activates the final countdown and fights Alexia.
So you know what that means? You gotta quit to the main menu, manually reload your save, and then you gotta play through Claire's section all over again.
God. Dammit.
So there are some serious issues you can create for yourself if you are not careful with your saves. I think this is why Capcom went back to a single playable character in RE4.
So yeah, the game is lacking gameplay features from the previous games, it has a few roadblock sections, and the item transferring gimmick is a problem as well. And while the game does give you a shitload of ammo at times, the game is very stingy with healing items. Even as a veteran player I still don’t have a whole lot of herbs by the end game. All of these issues makes Code Veronica the most difficult RE game in the series next to RE0.
This game is fucking hard. Unlike the previous games where the difficulty is warranted and forgiving at times, here it feels fucking brutal at times. But the difficulty just comes from the lack of polish in the gameplay. If it just had more development time it would have been ironed out, but as it stands, it’s a serious step down from the older games.
One last thing I should talk about are the weapons, and yet again, this is a step down. Remember how incredible the weapons sounded in RE3? Well in this game, almost all of the weapons have the same sound effects as the ones from RE2. The pistol, shotgun, grenade launcher, and the bowgun all sound exactly the same. Which is a disappointment but at least we got RE4 for that.
And speaking of the bowgun, the standard ammo sucks liquid ass sauce from a bendy straw just like in RE2, except somehow they’re even worse now. The bowgun shoots one bolt instead of three, so it actually takes longer to kill enemies.
And don’t even think about using it to kill enemies other than zombies or dogs, just fuckin’ forget about it. It’s way too weak. It takes at least 8 shots just to kill one zombie. Probably why they give you so much ammo for it.
There are good things about it however. It doesn’t need to be reloaded like a standard gun, and the explosive rounds you get for it are WAY better. They’re very good for bosses.
There are no more Freeze Rounds from RE3, so now it’s Acid, Flame, Explosive, and the B.O.W. Rounds which are insanely useful for the tyrant fight. The grenade launcher works the same as it did in the previous games. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it and that also goes for the shotgun.
Because of the robotic movements, the lack of nice beefy sound effects, and the fact that you can no longer blow off zombie heads and legs, shooting enemies feels nowhere near as good as it did in the older games. The lack of gore and good impact of my guns kinda defeats the purpose in my opinion.
[ 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝙉𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙏𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆 ]
I fucking love this game’s artstyle. It’s a very nice mix between science fiction and goth. That small castle where the Ashford twins live looks like Dracula’s Castle and a Party City fucked and had a bastard child. It’s just full of creepy dolls, piles of books all over, and these guys must really have a fetish for insects, because the insect symbolism is fucking everywhere.
And something about the walls and floors just looks quite unsettling. This looks like a place Chernobog from Disney's Fantasia would live in. What’s new for this game is that instead of pre-rendered backgrounds, all of the locations are fully rendered in 3D. No more 1998 2D textures from the PS1 games. The power of the PissStation 2 allows for more detailed character models, higher quality FMV cutscenes, and better looking environments.
For the time this game does look good but you can really tell it is a 2001 game because there are still quite a handful of imperfections. For example the animations. I don’t know what happened here but the animations for the characters and zombies are jank as fuck. The movements for the zombies are really robotic now. The way they fall over just looks like something I would see in a Three Stooges short, it’s just really comical.
The way zombies fall down stairs when you shoot them just makes me piss myself laughing. It's like I just shot Homer Simpson it's so ridiculously dumb.
There are also moments in the cutscenes where the movements for the characters just look really off like they just don’t flow right. But obviously this is the first RE on a new console and again, short development time, but all of these flaws and imperfections makes me wonder how much better this game could have been had they just spent more time on it.
There is one amazing part about the presentation and it’s the soundtrack. Holy fuck I absolutely love the music in this game. A good chunk of the songs have opera singing in them and it just enhances the mood of the game tenfold. The tone from RE3 goes from bleakness and paranoia to straight up dread in Code Veronica.
The save room theme is the best save room theme in the whole series, period. And the final boss theme is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in a Resident Evil game. And this may sound fucking weird if you don’t like opera music, but to me it’s very nostalgic because it reminds me a lot of the soundtrack to Parasite Eve. And I grew up with that game and the soundtrack in Parasite Eve is absolutely fucking orgasmic, it’s one of my all time favorites.
…
Fuck I wanna play Parasite Eve again now. Lmao.
And how about the music that plays during the Nosferatu fight? The shit is burned into my skull it's so intense and memorable.
[ 𝘽𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉? ]
This game has been released on the Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, PS3, Xbox 360, and it’s even been ported to the PS4.
The Dreamcast version is the worst to play. Because it has worse lighting than later versions, the load times for opening up the inventory are slower, and Steve’s hair design looks worse to me as well. But the most drastic difference is that the Albert Wesker story arc isn’t expanded upon in the game. The PS2 version of the game improves upon all of this, same with the GameCube.
However the best version in my opinion is the HD Remaster for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The game runs at a nice 1080p resolution. The visuals and character models are sharper and cleaner, the load times are slightly faster, the menus look better, the FMV cutscenes are at a higher resolution, and there’s even a leaderboard feature where you can compete for completion times with other players and your friends.
But what sucks is that on the PS4 for some reason, the version of the game being sold on the PlayStation Store is not the HD Remaster, but instead an emulation of the PS2 release. Why is that? So if you wanna play the HD Remaster you’re gonna have to dust off that old PS3 or 360, or get a PS3 emulator on your PC. Otherwise, you’re just gonna have to stick to the PS2 version.
Thankfully it’s cheap as shit on PS4, or if you’re more old school like I am, physical PS2 copies are pretty goddamn cheap these days. I’ve seen copies being sold online for $15-25.
Xbox One is a different story, I think… Since the console is backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games, then you should be able to play the HD Remaster on that.
[ 𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙎 ]
Despite all of the rampant and terrible flaws that I talk about here, Code Veronica is still a great game. I personally still love this game despite all the gripes I have with it. The game is just really nostalgic to me. The charm is so goddamn memorable that it holds its own compared to all the other games. But I did have to put the nostalgia to the side and look at the game with the critical monocle. Looking back at it again, yeah, this game hasn’t aged very well. It’s a very polarizing 8 hour experience, and it could have been trimmed down if either Chris wasn’t in the game, or if his section was much shorter.
It’s a very odd game, it reeks of a “next gen PS2 game” but it’s a game that should be experienced at least once. Obviously I’m not gonna be too hard on it because of how long this game came out after RE3. I mean hell, it was released on the Dreamcast before the PS2, and it’s even more incomplete there than on PS2.
This game gets 7 Jill Sandwiches out of 10.
El RE más melodramático y con un voice acting tan atroz que es "so bad it's good". Aún así la historia es de las más decentes de la serie. Los Ashford son villanos interesantes, con más profundidad psicológica que el villano promedio de RE. Hay mucha exploración, puzzles y un diseño de niveles decente, pero lleva el backtracking al extremo y a veces es muy críptico dando muy pocas pistas de que hacer para avanzar. Con todo lo disfrute más que RE3 (el verdadero spin-off).
now THIS is resident evil, with a capital R. all the mechanics of the old games are there, stylistically it's pretty similar too. graphically, the dreamcast and the ps2 really make this game look amazing, obviously miles ahead ye olde ps1 games.
otherwise, this feels like the proper sequel to RE2. not to hate on RE3 nemesis, but it was so short it might as well be considered a sidegame. this one has everything: the cheese factor, the horror, the kickass music, the gameplay too. like this game takes all the good shit of RE3 too, like the 180 turn and stuff, tank controls feel really refined.
honestly if you were like me and skipped this one for some reason, you should play it. it's really among the best survival horror games on the ps2, and the franchise lol.
otherwise, this feels like the proper sequel to RE2. not to hate on RE3 nemesis, but it was so short it might as well be considered a sidegame. this one has everything: the cheese factor, the horror, the kickass music, the gameplay too. like this game takes all the good shit of RE3 too, like the 180 turn and stuff, tank controls feel really refined.
honestly if you were like me and skipped this one for some reason, you should play it. it's really among the best survival horror games on the ps2, and the franchise lol.