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Roderick

Umbrella Chronicles

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I bought it yesterday and played through it in one evening, co-op with a friend as per plan, and I thought it was quite good! Haven't played the solo extra missions, but it's a lot of fun to shoot up zombies with a buddy. The game felt quite solid, and has just the right amount of depth in the shooting: you get a little flexibility with the camera, you are encouraged to blast every bit of scenery (because of unlimited ammo with your standard handgun, the lure of higher scores and hidden pick-ups), and every enemy has a very precise weak spot that you can hit for massive damage.

This is no picknick however, because the areas you need to shoot are often very petite (the second frown from the top on the zombie's forehead) or dependent on the situation (gorillas and other jumping animoids are only vulnerable in mid-flight). Then there's also the continuously moving camera of course, so it becomes a great challenge to get a few nice, clean, gory exloding headshots. We nevertheless found that with some practice and luck we were able to rack them up respectably. The ability to upgrade your guns with earned currency is also great and works as a huge incentive to do your best and retry levels.

The bosses range from a bit bland in design (not just their visual appearance -mutated animal kingdom inhabitants- but also their attack patterns which were stereotypical or didn't give enough feedback on whether you are doing something right) to quite nice, with all of the above flaws absent. The game is nicely doable, until it hits the final three (of disappointingly only nine) levels. Raccoon City. Suddenly, the difficulty spikes as you are surrounded by incredible numbers of zombies in this hellhole of a town. And my god is it a riot. We died so many times, but kept coming back until we finished it. And the final level is a complete blast that I won't spoil.

So in short; Umbrella Chronicles is well worth it if you like a nice lightgun game and you can get it, like I did, for a nice price like 39 Euros. A willing friend to help shoot up the zombies comes very recommended. The added reticule and movement makes precise aiming more difficult, but the fun explodes to tenfold the singleplayer experience.

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Thanks, I love Zombies, and I love co-op games... this seems worth a try.

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Ah, just the remote. I don't care very much for the gun, I hear it gives you accuracy at the cost of speed, which isn't a good deal for me. It seems too cumbersome to wield hours on end.

Just to put my above review in balance; there are certainly some weaker points in the game, like its very short length. And the gameplay itself could have offered a bit more in terms of alternative paths, better feedback on what the enemy's weak points are and more alternative ways to get rid of foes. But there is also much to love; like the copying of huge amounts of cinematics from earlier games. Despite this giving sometimes weird jumps in quality (suddenly seeing original cinematics from Resident Evil 2 being used after the gorgeous ones from the REmake and Zero is a bit jarring), I love the great emphasis on story in this game. Also, the writing and voice acting is appropriately rubbish and over the top, which is exactly what I want from my Resident Evil.

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The RE4 Wii Edition is one of my most-played Wii games, so I'll probably pick this up if I don't get it for Xmas, even though it's a completely different style. I, too, love co-ops, and have a feeling that my friend and I would get a kick out of it.

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The only reason I'm not playing this game right now is that my birthday is in three days and christmas right after it. I try to not buy anything new for about a month before that just in case. Otherwise, goddamn I'm looking forward to digging into this game.

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I wonder if this is out over here yet. Sounds perfect to play with the little brother.

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I gather that as well, considering I'm holding the thing in my hand.

Actually, it's on the table here so that I can type.

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The only reason I'm not playing this game right now is that my birthday is in three days and christmas right after it. I try to not buy anything new for about a month before that just in case. Otherwise, goddamn I'm looking forward to digging into this game.

Ah. My birthday is just before Christmas, so I'm in the same boat on not buying anything. Oh wait, what's that? My birthday's today, is it?

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Why thank you. :woohoo:

I'll let y'all know if I get Ubrella Chronicles or not.

See that, that's on topic!

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Okay, what's the deal with co-op not being possible for some missions, like the Wesker missions? Okay, that one only has one character, but that doesn't make any difference in the gameplay. What about the missions which do have two characters, but only one playable? Stupid and annoying. The game isn't that much fun alone.

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