Resident Evil: Code Veronica

At one point in our gaming industries history Capcom's Resident Evil was about the scariest thing going. It also was unlike anything we had ever seen before on a console. But as the years went on, and imitations flooded the market, Resident Evil started to show it's age. So it's no wonder that Resident Evil: Code Veronica both succeeds and fails when brought to the next generation.

Perhaps I expected too much, but instead of going back to the drawing board and giving gamers something new, Capcom has brought us a sequel will better graphics. Yeah ... the graphics are a lot better, but frankly, the game just isn't as much as it once was. A lot of the genre clichés seem old and tired. And outside of upgraded graphics and sound, this new Resident Evil is really more of the old.

The story is good, featuring a lot of conclusions to loose ends found in other Resident Evils. It would have been nice to see a new story, perhaps some less predictable twists and turns. The characters aren't nearly as interesting, either. Outside of the return of several well known faces, the rest of the cast is pretty dull compared to Jill ... "the master of unlocking".

The control has the same old Resident Evil flavor ... even though you have an analog stick standard on the Dreamcast control. While I have nothing against the control in Resident Evil, it's been five years since the original, and the control hasn't changed all that much. With the release of Devil May Cry, perhaps Code Veronica will be the last Resident Evil that uses this stiff and downright frustrating control scheme.

Though, as disappointing as Code Veronica is, there are so few survival horror games on the Dreamcast to enjoy. Resident Evil has seen better days, but never looked better (except for the PlayStation 2 version). And if you really MUST buy all the Resident Evil's you can't go wrong with this version. But if you're expecting something better than what you've seen on the PlayStation then you'll likely be deeply disappointed. Flawed, but still pretty good.