Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles Review

Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles Review | May 4, 2014
Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3

If you miss playing arcade rail shooters, you love zombies and Resident Evil, then you might want to take a chance a Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles. Here you get to replay Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica in a different way with some retelling of the story. This game is better the Resident Evil The Umbrella Chronicles but some problems are still here and some new problems show up even with the improvements. We did like Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles mostly even with the game mechanics problems.

This game is single player or co-op. In single player your partner and partner’s health is also on screen and in many cases you need to protect their health as well as your own. Fortunately you can’t accidentally attack your allies. The game has this slow measured pace to it and it works. It builds up the suspense of things coming at you and gives you time to find secret items and money. The weapon upgrades have been completely changed for the better. You only get one weapon with unlimited ammo so upgrading is important and upgrades for other weapons make a difference. Fans of Resident Evil will love seeing Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica in a 1st person view. You also get to play Leon and Krauser’s first mission together and find out what happen to Krauser’s arm. The biggest problem is the aiming. You are always trying to line things up and it is so difficult because of the camera is always moving, even at times when there is nothing happening and you are trying to target paintings or light bulbs to find secret stuff (and there is a lot of secret stuff to find). It gets worse in some case when you are fighting enemies especially during boss battles.

The reason why it is worse during boss battles is that you have three different things moving at the same time, the enemies, your camera view and the aiming icon. All three are almost always moving at the same time, all while you are trying to shoot a small target. The game has an aiming assist and it works against weaker enemies but it is useless against some bosses that only take damage it a certain spot and the auto aim does not focus on that spot. Many times defeating boss is blind luck because you can’t hit that spot or you have no idea of how to defeat them. This problem holds the game back, not enough to make you want to quit but enough to make you wish it was different. This game is more good than bad. It does look good graphically and we did love seeing some of the older Resident Evil games again. It takes about 7 to 10 hours to play through and it has an above average replay value. We think that it has all of the original voice actors from the older games and the story retelling does not affect the timeline. The weapon upgrade system is better than Umbrella Chronicles but takes too long to upgrade. It is worth buying under the $20.00 price.

8.0 out of 10
Good Game

8.0 out of 10
Good Game

Rated
M for Mature

Rated
PEGI 18