Resident Evil Code Veronica X
System: Dreamcast (original version)
Release date: February 3, 2000
Welcome to Resident Evil 3 that’s not named RE3 but Code Veronica. Like I was explaining in the previous post, this game was originally intended to be RE3 but due to it not being ready in time, Nemesis was released as RE3 and this one become Code Veronica, call it a marketing ploy to take advantage of 1999 Christmas sales.
Veronica is often reported as the hardest of the RE series and after going through it I have to disagree with that statement. While it’s not the easiest, it’s also not the hardest if you are a bit familiar with the series structure and I think this is where the hard reputation comes from. If that was your first time playing a RE game then yes, this would seem very hard, if you had played the previous games, not so much.
All in all I found it to be a decent entry in the series. It was fun enough but not as much as the previous games I played. It’s hard to explain but I’d blame it on the pacing, the game goes from very intense moments to long periods of calms. Also, there’s so much going back and forth is sometimes kill the flow of the game. So not a bad game, but not the greatest.
The making of Umbrella
What RE lack in gameplay it makes up for it in story. Veronica is probably the first game to try to tie all of the story together and shed some light on the Umbrella corporation and its key actors. We learn about how the company got started (three buddies who found a deadly virus), about Wesker plans (world domination) and we learn why exactly Umbrella is creating monsters (money).
I think it’s worth spending some time on the three founders at this point. Umbrella was founded by Oswell Spencer, James Marcus and Edward Ashford after they discovered a virus in Africa. Spencer saw a business opportunity in the virus and convinced Marcus to do the research and Ashford to fund the enterprise. While all three had different motives, they all saw a good opportunity and founded Umbrella. Ultimately, their divergent goals would result in the catastrophic events of Raccoon city.
Meet the Ashfords
Edward Ashford ambitions are at the center of Code Veronica. While the other two founders where interested by power and science respectively, Ashford wanted to restore his family and name to a prominent position. The Ashfords are a dying dynasty and Edward wants nothing more than to see it restored to its former glory. So how do we achieve this? By creating mutated freaks of course!
So Code Veronica in a nutshell is Chris Redfield and his sister Claire fighting off against the deranged grandchildren of Edward Ashford, Alexxia and Alfred. During the game we blow up not one but two secret Umbrella bases, fight giant monsters and learn that running around in Antartica with no coat is not that bad after all.
At the end of it all, Umbrella is starting to look shaky after the destruction of so much of its assets and the destruction of Raccoon city and we are promised a future fight with Albert Wesker that won’t happen until RE5.
Bonus round! Shooting gallery
Before heading in RE4, I’ll be making a detour through Umbrella Chronicles, an on-rail shooter for the Wii. It’s mostly a fun ride through the RE0, 1 and 3 but it does add some bits of story by following what our friend Wesker was up to during the various events.
