Review
Played on: Xbox One XReleased: 2011
Originally released: 2000 (Dreamcast CV ver.), 2001 (PS2 CVX ver.)
Introduction
When Resident Evil - Code: Veronica X HD finally went backwards compatible on the Xbox One family, I decided to play it all the way through. I already owned it digitally from my Xbox 360 days, but never found the time to play it back in 2011 when it released. However, RECVX is not a new game as such for me, I've played it back on the PlayStation 2.As a funny side note, I actually borrowed the PS2 version solely to play the Devil May Cry demo that was bundled with it. After completing the fantastic DMC demo I decided to give RE:CVX a try and was hooked. I played it to completion before returning it to my friend. I gave a vague memory of liking it and that it was a big RE title to sink into. But in recent years looking back, I also recall it being frustratingly hard and outstaying it's welcome before completion.
This is why I decided this year to go back and replay Code: Veronica to relive those memories from PS2.
A little back story to the development of the game first. RE:CV is actually RE3, confused? Well, it was intended and developed as a sequel to RE2 back in the day. However, RE3 also became a thing alongside the development and as such RE:CV seems like a fourth release, but it wasn't intended to be so. It continued the story of Claire Redfield from RE2 and took the advantage of being developed for the first sixth generation of consoles, namely the Sega Dreamcast.
A year after the Dreamcast release in 2000, it got a PlayStation 2 release in 2001. PS2 was outselling the DC like hell, so go figure. With a new X in the title, referring to some added cutscenes, RE:CVX became a large success on the PS2. It retained the old RE gameplay but left pre-rendered graphics behind in favour of fully 3D graphics.
Replaying RE:CVX has been a nostalgic experience, almost 18 years later, but not exactly a pleasant reunion. I must warn that this review contains plot spoilers.
Plot and setting
I really appreciate the premise and location of RE:CVX. It's about Claire Redfield looking for her missing brother, after the events where she escaped Raccoon City in RE2. She's captured by Umbrella and sent to a prison island. This remote location is intriguing and a unique idea. Within the island we have mansions, a castle, an underwater submarine base, dungeons, a prison camp and a military training facility, to name a few. All connected into a huge environment to explore.It even changes locations, albeit to a sub-bar quality, to an Antarctica facility later on in the story. This latter location is fairly uninspiring and a boring sadly, perhaps adding a little too quantity over quality. RE:CVX is a large scale RE in other words.
After escaping the prison island, Claire unintentionally is forced to Umbrella's Antarctica base, and after completing her tasks here, the game switches once again back to the island location where you play as Chris trying to save Claire. I guess this is a sort of return of how RE2 had two playthroughs with Claire and Leon, but in RE:CVX it just continues as one huge continuation, rather than two more segmented episodes.
After escaping the prison island, Claire unintentionally is forced to Umbrella's Antarctica base, and after completing her tasks here, the game switches once again back to the island location where you play as Chris trying to save Claire. I guess this is a sort of return of how RE2 had two playthroughs with Claire and Leon, but in RE:CVX it just continues as one huge continuation, rather than two more segmented episodes.
It becomes a drag, to say the least. It feels like the story outstays it's welcome almost twice during it's duration. It should've been way shorter, maybe staying only at the island location or segmenting the as Claire and Chris parts in two separate playthroughs like RE2 did with Claire and Leon.
Gameplay and features
RE:CVX plays exactly like the Resident Evil titles prior to it, if you can't tackle this old tank controlled gameplay, then stay away. Even this HD remaster, retains the exact same controls. Granted, RE:CVX has a quick turn button, like RE3 and Dino Crisis, aiding in getting out of tight situations a little easier.There are a lot of weapons and items at your disposal, but then again the amount of zombies is heavily increased. RE:CVX is not only a lengthy game, but one that makes conserving ammo absolutely vital, even more so than RE1-3. Conserving for the vast length of RE:CVX becomes exhausting to say the least. I would strongly advice to use the knife frequently when zombies are down on the ground, to save that precious ammo.
What really suffers the most in it's lengthy playthrough is it's pacing. There are some serious choke points mid game. Points of no return, with no forewarning, that can completely screw you over if you don't conserve the best ammo and lots of health in your item box.
What really suffers the most in it's lengthy playthrough is it's pacing. There are some serious choke points mid game. Points of no return, with no forewarning, that can completely screw you over if you don't conserve the best ammo and lots of health in your item box.
An example of this is when you board the airplane to leave the island. Without warning the game throws you into a completely unfair, brutal, boss battle. Set in a crammed cargo space on an airplane, screwing you over with the slow tank controlled movement and a boss with a huge claw. You're stuck with whatever items you saved prior, a game breaker if you don't have the ammo and health to take him down.
Be warned, even a while prior to entering the airplane, this boss will emerge and smash areas up, thus locking away possibilities of backtracking main parts of the island to scavenge items.
Ruthless and utter bullshit game structure.
Sadly, more annoying boss fights hamper it down further. There's an Antarctica boss that requires shooting with a sniper rifle. In what has to be the most terrible first person shooting mechanic I've ever witnessed. Added to the frustration, the boss throws endless, annoying, poison gas at you. Which in turn sends you in and out of the first person mode in damage animations for Claire. Then, to really top it off, the sniping requires you to hit the heart of a sporadic moving boss, with only seven bullets at your disposal. Seven bullets.
The end boss is equally annoying, with tons of small bugs attacking you while you're trying to concentrate on actually hitting the main boss. In, you guessed it, another utter shit sniping section. With the worst first person controls conceived in the history of gaming. Fuck you Capcom.
It's been a while since I've played through something so frustrating and I was even prepared for the choke points. More often than necessary, it throws you into long lasting segments with no saving available and smaller boss fights thrown in too.
Sadly, more annoying boss fights hamper it down further. There's an Antarctica boss that requires shooting with a sniper rifle. In what has to be the most terrible first person shooting mechanic I've ever witnessed. Added to the frustration, the boss throws endless, annoying, poison gas at you. Which in turn sends you in and out of the first person mode in damage animations for Claire. Then, to really top it off, the sniping requires you to hit the heart of a sporadic moving boss, with only seven bullets at your disposal. Seven bullets.
The end boss is equally annoying, with tons of small bugs attacking you while you're trying to concentrate on actually hitting the main boss. In, you guessed it, another utter shit sniping section. With the worst first person controls conceived in the history of gaming. Fuck you Capcom.
It's been a while since I've played through something so frustrating and I was even prepared for the choke points. More often than necessary, it throws you into long lasting segments with no saving available and smaller boss fights thrown in too.
Matter of fact, even the amount of save rooms is limited, requiring long stretches to backtrack. At the very least, it has certain continue checkpoints, that set you back before bosses, regardless of saves.
This use of fully 3D environments gives it an overall more organic look and is put to well use. Subtle camera angles can now move and follow the player character. Cool angles, like following an elevator down the elevator shaft, or seeing something from an enemies point of view, come to mind. I was actually quite impressed how well they used the 3D angles here and they way camera angles are smoothly moved around, considering the age of the release.
Video
In hindsight, RE:CVX is not exactly a pretty game. The washed out and low quality textures have aged less favourably. At least the overall presentation is consistent and kind of grow on you as you start appreciating the artistic approach. The use of 3D everywhere clearly has it's benefits as the character, enemies and item models blend into the environment better than they did on the pre-rendered backdrops. It actually makes items a little tricky to spot, as they don't stand out anymore from the background!This use of fully 3D environments gives it an overall more organic look and is put to well use. Subtle camera angles can now move and follow the player character. Cool angles, like following an elevator down the elevator shaft, or seeing something from an enemies point of view, come to mind. I was actually quite impressed how well they used the 3D angles here and they way camera angles are smoothly moved around, considering the age of the release.
They handled the move over to 3D from pre-rendered well. Capcom did so with Dino Crisis too the following year. It's well up there with the cinematic Metal Gear Solid or Shenmue titles from the same time period.
Video quality sees a nice bump up from the muddy PS2 output of 480i to a cleaner 720p resolution. The PS2 used a horrible blur effect to cover the interlaced resolution too, leaving long ghost trails behind characters movingt, this version does not and neither did the original Dreamcast release.
Video quality sees a nice bump up from the muddy PS2 output of 480i to a cleaner 720p resolution. The PS2 used a horrible blur effect to cover the interlaced resolution too, leaving long ghost trails behind characters movingt, this version does not and neither did the original Dreamcast release.
The higher resolution brings out the smaller details in the background. What I really like in this HD version, though, is the brand new lighting engine. Light sources are swapped for real-time ones, allowing lighters, candles and lamps to all cast proper shadows that move and flicker when needed. It brings a finer visual consistency and looks better than the original DC/PS2 lighting.
Sadly, the game retains the 30fps framerate. At least European players that originally suffered the squashed and slow PAL version on PS2, can see this HD version at proper speed and 16:9 aspect ratio. There's also a new water effect added, although I found this nothing special compared to the old one.
Nothing is enhanced for the backwards compatibility on Xbox One X, which I played on, the only benefit being a forced 16xAF on the system. I would've enjoyed seeing it bumped up to a 4K resolution. As a fun fact though, if you want to go more traditional and play on an old CRT TV, then this game actually outputs 4:3 if you use a Xbox 360! You're down to 576i though, but with new lighting added and the blurry movement trails gone from the PS2 counterpart.
The music score is great and classic RE, with chilling and atmospheric melodies, and of course, another fantastic save room theme! The music scores from this era of RE releases was great and RE:CVX shows it. Recognisable, tense and even soothing when needed.
Sadly, the game retains the 30fps framerate. At least European players that originally suffered the squashed and slow PAL version on PS2, can see this HD version at proper speed and 16:9 aspect ratio. There's also a new water effect added, although I found this nothing special compared to the old one.
Nothing is enhanced for the backwards compatibility on Xbox One X, which I played on, the only benefit being a forced 16xAF on the system. I would've enjoyed seeing it bumped up to a 4K resolution. As a fun fact though, if you want to go more traditional and play on an old CRT TV, then this game actually outputs 4:3 if you use a Xbox 360! You're down to 576i though, but with new lighting added and the blurry movement trails gone from the PS2 counterpart.
Audio
It's a standard, 90s, RE in the audio department. The sound effects are simple and recognisable from previous RE releases of it's era. Nothing exciting for newcomers, guns sound tinny and weak with the lacking bass thumps of modern titles.The music score is great and classic RE, with chilling and atmospheric melodies, and of course, another fantastic save room theme! The music scores from this era of RE releases was great and RE:CVX shows it. Recognisable, tense and even soothing when needed.
Summary
To be honest, this hasn't exactly been a pleasant reunion. Sure, it's enjoyable revisiting the environments I have distant memories of, all those 18 years ago, but the actual game? It's just aged badly. The juvenile and terrible characters, combined with a badly written and oddly paced story.Add to this some terrible, early 2000s, slow motion, John Woo choreographed, sequences in cutscenes and the super annoying douchebag, Steve Burnside, it doesn't even sail past "cute and cheesy nostalgia". It's just plain bad in many places, even worse now I'm no longer a teenager not knowing better.
At times it feels like a RE parody, pulling you straight out of the atmosphere every time there's a sequence either evolving cocky Steve, super powered Wesker or the over dramatic Ashford twins.
The actual game enjoyment suffers too. I replay the old RE1-3 titles from time to time, with tank controls and all, to much enjoyment. However, RE:CVX just isn't amusing to play, even though it controls the same. The incredibly unfair boss battles, difficulty spikes, constant sparse ammo and long time frames between save rooms, make it a truly frustrating affair. For players that have never touched RE:CVX before, you're in for a brutal awakening of difficulty and a micro managing item nightmare with so much unnecessary backtracking.
I went back to a title I initially did enjoy, only to realise it had aged badly. It falls right down with some of the worst RE titles when you consider changes they could have done to make it more enjoyable. It's a crime the HD version doesn't fix some of these annoying issues with bad sniping controls, or allowing for an easy mode for newcomers.
The actual game enjoyment suffers too. I replay the old RE1-3 titles from time to time, with tank controls and all, to much enjoyment. However, RE:CVX just isn't amusing to play, even though it controls the same. The incredibly unfair boss battles, difficulty spikes, constant sparse ammo and long time frames between save rooms, make it a truly frustrating affair. For players that have never touched RE:CVX before, you're in for a brutal awakening of difficulty and a micro managing item nightmare with so much unnecessary backtracking.
I went back to a title I initially did enjoy, only to realise it had aged badly. It falls right down with some of the worst RE titles when you consider changes they could have done to make it more enjoyable. It's a crime the HD version doesn't fix some of these annoying issues with bad sniping controls, or allowing for an easy mode for newcomers.
Is it even worth recommending? Well, for fans of the original that want to replay it, then this HD version is by far the best one to play.
As for newcomers, I can positively say that the environments and island setting are still cool, but the rest is just a brutal reminder of an almost comic RE farce of story and annoying difficulty. You need to be really good at RE1-3 before even considering to attempt this.
Resident Evil - Code: Bad
Resident Evil - Code: Bad
