I beat Code Veronica last night and I have many things to say about it.
Whew. So, when I finally finished this game I breathed a sigh of relief, and it wasn't because of the whole survival horror aspect. It was 'cause several parts of Code Veronica became a slog for me, and even though the game wasn't terribly lengthy (12 hours, about the same as both discs of RE2), it felt so much longer than any other entry in the series so far. I think I can attribute this to the aggravating backtracking, convoluted puzzles and the fact that almost every major boss battle seems like it should be the END of the game...BUT THEN WE JUST KEEP GOING! I feel like at least an hour or two could have been cut to create a tighter game, and the environments certainly could have been condensed. I actually didn't mind backtracking in the police station in RE2. In this game, moving between the prison/military facility/palace and private residence? Just a little too much.
There were things that I really loved though. Being able to explore environments in 3D while still retaining those cinematic camera angles was excellent, and Chris and Claire both controlled very well. I enjoyed seeing both of them fighting together as a bro/sis duo, and the rest of the story...while pretty dumb...was appropriately Gothic and a nice change from the setting of Raccoon City.
In the end, I've very glad that I beat this game, and in some ways it is the epitome of the classic RE formula. But I don't think I'll play it ever again!
I'll write some more detailed final thoughts a little later...but for now, all I'll say is that I won't miss Steve.
- First of all, thanks to the people here who mentioned that the knife is a force to be reckoned with in this game. With Chris, I decided I'd try to conserve ammo as much as possible in favor of the art of knife fu, and thanks to some practice I got pretty good at stabbing the heck out of zombies - and even hunters! WHY is the knife so OP? I don't know, but I dig it. In the last three games I'd automatically toss it into an item box but not so here. (Unfortunately, saving up lots of ammo also meant that I'd have to do more inventory wrangling, which was a pain.)
- Actually, it's a good thing that I got gud with the knife since I messed up the beginning of Chris' game and didn't save Rodrigo from the worm fast enough. I ran instead, and by the time I went back to deal with the worm Rodrigo was already dead, so I couldn't get those fancy guns.
- It was enjoyable to play as Chris since he wasn't a doofus like Steve, but several of the pacing issues that had bothered me during Claire's game returned. One of the main issues that I have with Code Veronica is that there are too many puzzles spread out all over the place, and you often don't find the items you need to solve these puzzles until much later. I kept forgetting what I needed to pick up to open a door or unlock a control console, and when I'd find the item I needed, I was often out of inventory space and had to jog to an item box and then jog back. This was prevalent in the other RE games, but it just seems SO MUCH WORSE in this one, maybe because the environments are bigger. This especially became bad in the Antarctica base, where I couldn't figure out what I needed to do for the longest time and kept running in circles until I looked up a walkthrough which told me that I needed to use the octagonal valve that I'd left behind in Claire's game. I couldn't locate the stupid thing because it blended into the background too well (see the pic below). By the time I found it I was just annoyed. Also, don't get me started on the tiger eye jewel puzzle and how you need to turn the power off to keep the thing from moving. Just convoluted.
- Thanks to these frustrations, by the time I reached the re-creation of the Spencer Mansion, what I assume was supposed to be a nostalgic moment kinda just washed over me. I was just like, "Oh, okay, it looks like RE1... Meh." It felt sort of pandering, especially when I saw the statue of the woman drawing water.
- On the plus side of things, Steve got his most glorious moment yet, where he transformed into a BOW and finally got to be naked with Claire, but probs not in the way he imagined. Can't say I'll miss him and his Canadian accent. (Why couldn't Rodrigo have been my companion instead of this dude?) Also the "boss" battle with him (if you can even call it that) seems poorly designed, as it basically requires you to have healing items in your inventory and cheese your way to an escape. I was doing okay on herbs at this point but I can see how others have gotten stuck in a hideous death loop.
- Finally I got to witness the so-called "Matrix bullshit" with Wesker that ya'll have been talking about in this thread! Since when did Wesker transform into a cross between Agent Smith and M. Bison? I can practically hear him screaming PSYCHOOOO POWERRRR
- There was a thread on this board recently about "the best title drop" in gaming. Well, I respectfully submit... (Not really, but it's still cool. Kinda.)
- Chris versus Alexis/Jenova! I had a shitload of weapons remaining at this point and tried to kill her with the AK-47, which I thought would be good. No dice, only the magnum did any substantial damage. Now I understand why people here were telling me to make sure I didn't lose my fire extinguisher in a security box in the early game. If I had, I wouldn't have had the magnum, and I can't really imagine winning this boss fight without it...especially because I had left the bow gun with Claire by accident. I feel like Code Veronica has a lot of these rough boss fights where you kinda *need* a certain item or have to resort to cheesing, and it's one of my pet peeves with the game.
- I thought we were done, but NO, there's more Wesker bullshit! He beats the crap out of Chris and the two of them jump everywhere before a fire starts and Wesker rages bio-mutant testosterone before cackling that he'll see Chris "NEXT TIME!" Oh my god this writing
- Finally finished, and Chris gets to have the last line which is pretty much a repeat of Leon's from RE2. And my final stats are a lie - I retried a buttload of times, but since I started abusing save states like crazy about two hours into this game (I have no regrets about this) I guess my retries weren't registered.
- I only checked out the Battle Game briefly but was amused to find that it actually has a first person option. This was a fresh change, but then I realized that it's first person mode with tank controls, which just...doesn't work that well. When it takes forever to turn around and when the camera keeps flipping back to third person when a zombie latches onto your leg or attacks you, it feels like they kind of implemented this control scheme as a throwaway option because the series has always had dreams of dabbling in the FPS genre. (The bottom pic is that supposed concept art of an early FPS plan for RE1 which has been floating around the internet for years.)
- Last but not least, my notes. As you can see, it's mostly me trying to keep track of all the items and puzzles. So much crap.
Whew. So, when I finally finished this game I breathed a sigh of relief, and it wasn't because of the whole survival horror aspect. It was 'cause several parts of Code Veronica became a slog for me, and even though the game wasn't terribly lengthy (12 hours, about the same as both discs of RE2), it felt so much longer than any other entry in the series so far. I think I can attribute this to the aggravating backtracking, convoluted puzzles and the fact that almost every major boss battle seems like it should be the END of the game...BUT THEN WE JUST KEEP GOING! I feel like at least an hour or two could have been cut to create a tighter game, and the environments certainly could have been condensed. I actually didn't mind backtracking in the police station in RE2. In this game, moving between the prison/military facility/palace and private residence? Just a little too much.
There were things that I really loved though. Being able to explore environments in 3D while still retaining those cinematic camera angles was excellent, and Chris and Claire both controlled very well. I enjoyed seeing both of them fighting together as a bro/sis duo, and the rest of the story...while pretty dumb...was appropriately Gothic and a nice change from the setting of Raccoon City.
In the end, I've very glad that I beat this game, and in some ways it is the epitome of the classic RE formula. But I don't think I'll play it ever again!
I'll write some more detailed final thoughts a little later...but for now, all I'll say is that I won't miss Steve.