I feel conflicted about this game. Gameplay is true to form for classic RE and overall very enjoyable. Code Veronica takes a step back from the slightly action leaning RE3 and goes full survival horror with some pretty great gothic theming.
Acting and dialogue is the most hammy out of any RE games I’ve played with Alfred Ashford stealing the show in this regard. He’s one of the most ridiculous, poorly directed, and ill conceived villains I’ve seen in media outside of Sharlto Copley in Spike Lee’s baffling and appalling remake of Old Boy. Still can’t decide whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing to have in an RE game. I personally didn’t mind him since I was at least always laughing with disbelief when he was on screen. Similar situation for the angsty teenager sidekick Steve although he’s not nearly as bad and has a couple of genuinely nice moments despite being very cartoonish and poorly acted for most of the game. On a more positive note - Wesker returns in this game and is campy in the best way possible. Easily my favorite character in the game from a writing and acting standpoint. Story on the other hand is typical RE fare and has some decent moments and a couple fun twists and turns. Overall story is good with character concepts being promising but often very poorly executed. Instead of being fun campy Alfred and Steve are so bad you can’t help but laugh campy. I’ll let prospective players decide for themselves whether or not that’s a dealbreaker. It wasn’t something I minded but I can understand people being out off by it.
CV lives up to its reputation as one of the harder RE games. For starters it only has one default difficulty, so if you’re a new player and find it to be too difficult you’re out of luck. The gameplay ends up being difficult for a couple of reasons - both good and bad.
The good: resources in this game are truly scarce and many of the enemies hit harder than they do in other games. There are also quite a few parts of the game where save rooms are very limited - especially in the first half. All of these things ramp up the difficulty and tension of the game, which I enjoyed. This shouldn’t scare off prospective players however. CV is definitely the hardest of the classic RE games but not to an unmanageable or unfair extent - especially if you’re familiar with the series and the need to conserve resources. Puzzles are also the hardest I’ve encountered in the series, which isn’t saying much, but is a welcome change nonetheless. Contrary to what I’ve seen some people say online there aren’t any overly cryptic or moon logic puzzles in this game.
On to the bad: it’s more possible in this game than any of the other RE games I’ve played to soft lock yourself. This can be through resource mismanagement, which I don’t think is necessarily a negative, but it can also be from not being prepared for the character switch, which definitely is a bad thing. You can easily lose all of your weapons except the pistol and the knife when you switch from Claire to Chris if you don’t put them in the item box before this happens. This essentially bumps up the difficulty of the 2nd half to extra hard mode, which I imagine can be a potentially game ending situation for some players. Definitely be aware of this and look up when the characters switch before playing if you don’t want this to happen. There are only a couple of times when characters switch, but it is important to be prepared for each of them. Preparing for the switches is pretty easy and guides should be able to tell you how and when to do it without spoiling anything. The fact that you need to do this in order to avoid potentially getting soft locked and potentially needing to repeat hours of gameplay, however, definitely brought this games score down a bit for me.
Overall this game does a great job scratching the classic RE itch with great survival horror gameplay, a compelling setting, and some of the most tense moments I’ve experienced in the RE series. However, it has some of the worst writing and acting in the series (saved only by being hilariously bad most of the time), and it also has a pretty poorly implemented character switch mechanic that you’ll need to read a guide on to mitigate. I definitely enjoyed my time with it overall, but I can understand why this is such a divisive entry in the series.
Addendum: just finished The Darkside Chronicles which is an RE light gun shooter that contains a pared down and more cinematic retelling of CV’s story and holy shit it fixed everything wrong with the writing and acting in this game. Would def recommend playing it if you like CV and want to see its story done well. This game has so much potential. It has such a wonderful setting and it’s probably darkest and saddest RE game and can be genuinely emotionally impactful when done right. I think a good remake that maintains its survival horror elements, fixes the story, and takes full advantage of the game’s excellent setting with modern graphics would a home run. Capcom is definitely capable of producing something like this. It’s a shame we probably won’t get it though since they’ve already skipped over this game - as well as RE0 (another flawed but fun game that could be excellent with some small tweaks) - and I wouldn’t expect them to go backwards to remake these lesser known and poorer selling titles.
Acting and dialogue is the most hammy out of any RE games I’ve played with Alfred Ashford stealing the show in this regard. He’s one of the most ridiculous, poorly directed, and ill conceived villains I’ve seen in media outside of Sharlto Copley in Spike Lee’s baffling and appalling remake of Old Boy. Still can’t decide whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing to have in an RE game. I personally didn’t mind him since I was at least always laughing with disbelief when he was on screen. Similar situation for the angsty teenager sidekick Steve although he’s not nearly as bad and has a couple of genuinely nice moments despite being very cartoonish and poorly acted for most of the game. On a more positive note - Wesker returns in this game and is campy in the best way possible. Easily my favorite character in the game from a writing and acting standpoint. Story on the other hand is typical RE fare and has some decent moments and a couple fun twists and turns. Overall story is good with character concepts being promising but often very poorly executed. Instead of being fun campy Alfred and Steve are so bad you can’t help but laugh campy. I’ll let prospective players decide for themselves whether or not that’s a dealbreaker. It wasn’t something I minded but I can understand people being out off by it.
CV lives up to its reputation as one of the harder RE games. For starters it only has one default difficulty, so if you’re a new player and find it to be too difficult you’re out of luck. The gameplay ends up being difficult for a couple of reasons - both good and bad.
The good: resources in this game are truly scarce and many of the enemies hit harder than they do in other games. There are also quite a few parts of the game where save rooms are very limited - especially in the first half. All of these things ramp up the difficulty and tension of the game, which I enjoyed. This shouldn’t scare off prospective players however. CV is definitely the hardest of the classic RE games but not to an unmanageable or unfair extent - especially if you’re familiar with the series and the need to conserve resources. Puzzles are also the hardest I’ve encountered in the series, which isn’t saying much, but is a welcome change nonetheless. Contrary to what I’ve seen some people say online there aren’t any overly cryptic or moon logic puzzles in this game.
On to the bad: it’s more possible in this game than any of the other RE games I’ve played to soft lock yourself. This can be through resource mismanagement, which I don’t think is necessarily a negative, but it can also be from not being prepared for the character switch, which definitely is a bad thing. You can easily lose all of your weapons except the pistol and the knife when you switch from Claire to Chris if you don’t put them in the item box before this happens. This essentially bumps up the difficulty of the 2nd half to extra hard mode, which I imagine can be a potentially game ending situation for some players. Definitely be aware of this and look up when the characters switch before playing if you don’t want this to happen. There are only a couple of times when characters switch, but it is important to be prepared for each of them. Preparing for the switches is pretty easy and guides should be able to tell you how and when to do it without spoiling anything. The fact that you need to do this in order to avoid potentially getting soft locked and potentially needing to repeat hours of gameplay, however, definitely brought this games score down a bit for me.
Overall this game does a great job scratching the classic RE itch with great survival horror gameplay, a compelling setting, and some of the most tense moments I’ve experienced in the RE series. However, it has some of the worst writing and acting in the series (saved only by being hilariously bad most of the time), and it also has a pretty poorly implemented character switch mechanic that you’ll need to read a guide on to mitigate. I definitely enjoyed my time with it overall, but I can understand why this is such a divisive entry in the series.
Addendum: just finished The Darkside Chronicles which is an RE light gun shooter that contains a pared down and more cinematic retelling of CV’s story and holy shit it fixed everything wrong with the writing and acting in this game. Would def recommend playing it if you like CV and want to see its story done well. This game has so much potential. It has such a wonderful setting and it’s probably darkest and saddest RE game and can be genuinely emotionally impactful when done right. I think a good remake that maintains its survival horror elements, fixes the story, and takes full advantage of the game’s excellent setting with modern graphics would a home run. Capcom is definitely capable of producing something like this. It’s a shame we probably won’t get it though since they’ve already skipped over this game - as well as RE0 (another flawed but fun game that could be excellent with some small tweaks) - and I wouldn’t expect them to go backwards to remake these lesser known and poorer selling titles.