Resident Evil Code: Veronica X

Pros • Showing a little age perhaps, but still scary, better-looking, and with a marginally enhanced storyline for PS2 owners	Cons • It is, after all, the effectively same game we saw a year-point-something ago; I'm just sayin'
Bottom Line As of the time of this writing, your last and best chance to get scared via your PS2...before Silent Hill 2 hunts your ass down. One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces Let's get down to corroded tacks: If you've already played Code: Veronica on the Dreamcast, should you bother purchasing this newest descendant? No, not really; the graphics aren't soul-wrenchingly improved, and the scant additional cutscenes won't heal your (doubtless already-wounded) psyche enough to make a difference. If you have NOT played REC:V, should you now purchase, for your PS2, a port of a game more than a year old? Yes, oh yes--and God help you, too. Because if you somehow haven't been exposed to Resident Evil Code: Veronica by this point, you're missing out on one of the peak survival horror gaming experiences...and frankly, at this juncture, we still desperately need every A-level PS2 game we can get.

In this newest incarnation you play Claire Redfield, the luckless S.T.A.R.S. agent who finds herself where the teratomorphic doodoo is deepest: The island-prison-nightmare of the Umbrella Corporation itself, the entity that started this whole zombie mess to begin with. Claire is in search of her brother Chris and must think, run and gun her way through a gauntlet of undead dogs, reanimated corpses and worse, stranger things in an effort to shut down once and for all the evil Umbrella mega-corp. The game is also bloody as hell and offers a wide range of shudders, shocks and plain old cheap-jack scares. Serendipitously, if you're "up" on your horror films, you might stand a statistically better chance of avoiding a particularly hideous death. That has to count as some kind of bonus, in my book.

REC:VX is mechanically similar to previous RE games, but utilizes a newer, dynamic camera that is not limited to static room-views: the player's point-of-view can now actively track the onscreen character down stairs and corridors (with crossbeams, glass walls and other impedimenta floating in between) and even float in retrograde to lead the desperate, running Claire toward the "camera" as pursuing monstrosities close in from behind. Dramatically, cinematographically, it's a subtle world of difference. Speaking of cinematography, REC:VX not only makes some advances from previous RE games (there are some genuinely horrific and emotional moments, as opposed to the across-the-board B-movie hokum of earlier RE games), but also features some additional minutes of dramatic footage further detailing the villainous involvement of...well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

Graphically, there is a difference between the DC and PS2 versions--a certain telltale colouring and smoothness of backgrounds and textures--but you'd have to have wwwwaaaayyyy too much time on your hands to have a ready gripe about them in one direction or the other: If you must dwell on such things, know that the PS2 comes off as the marginal winner, eye-candy wise...but it's still a close, almost meaningless call. If your PS2 excursion into Capcom's survival horror nightmare is your first, you needn't envy anyone...and if you've already experienced REC:V on the Dreamcast to the end...what the hell are you doing? Read a book! Chase a girl! We'll send you the extra footage! (please address all responses to this offer to bonnie@eleclay.com, who will be happy to address your inquiries...just as soon as she disposes of one editorial body).

REC:VX is a well-produced game, and while it shares precisely the same gamelay flaws as its predecessors--wonky inventory, considerable backtracking and an "inspirational" lack of ammo--it also offers perks such as a battle and first-person mode (for those with the sheer willpower to finish), as well as a dramatic wrap-up to some of the more lingering storyline issues. It's also, in this writer's opinion, the flat-out ickiest of the series, with a few minutes of cinema that go well beyond zombie-blasting gore and toward the realm of unease that the original Silent Hill so thoroughly explores. If you're a Resident Evil Veteran, this is the smartest and most polished of the series. If by some chance you're totally new not only to the PS2 but to the entire RE series...relax, come on over here, boy, have a cigar, you're going to go far. And kindly ignore that unsettling stuff everybody's probably been telling you. Enjoy the local flora, red, green and blue. Never mind the fauna. Everything's fine. Nobody but us in here.

Nobody but us.

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