Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Preview

• by Tae Kim
• October 19, 2009 00:00 AM PST

Much like Umbrella Chronicles, Darkside Chronicles provides another opportunity to revisit some of the more familiar set pieces from Resident Evil titles past and blast some zombies in the process. And really, that isn't a bad thing at all, is it?

Darkside is basically a re-imagining of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica in light-gun form; you go to the same areas and relive most of the same events but there are obvious concessions made in terms of gameplay and the new perspective. It was nice though, to jump into a level and instantly recognize it from my previous playthrough of Code Veronica; I was told that the similarities run pretty deep, even down to where and when zombies will appear. The first run-in with the Licker in Resident Evil 2, for instance, is faithfully recreated, which is a nice little boon for series fanatics who know the games inside and out.

Gameplay wise, it's very similar to Umbrella Chronicles, and really any light gun game you've played: the camera swings around, you point your reticle and kill zombies. Pickups like weapons and herbs are scattered around and you grab them with a slap of the A button. The action is much more hectic and there are way more zombies than in a standard Resident Evil title, and ammo is way more abundant but considering the light-gun nature, it all makes sense.

The other thing I immediately noticed was that the voice acting is still the same cheesy boilerplate material that's been assaulting our ears since the first title. Hardcore fans will probably appreciate the strict adherence to franchise history but personally I thought it sounded a little ridiculous; to be fair, it stays true to the spirit of the games it's mining for source material but I always thought the voice over work in Resident Evil games was groan-inducingly bad, so maybe it's just me.

But I still enjoyed the two levels that I was able to play. Head-shotting zombies is still satisfying after all these years and there's enough action to keep you on your toes. The attention to detail is also impressive, which fans of the series will no doubt appreciate. It remains to be seen if Darkside can keep gamers mashing the trigger button over the long haul but so far, Darkside is off to a good start.

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