Disappointment of E3 07: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles

After seeing the Wii Zapper in the press conference I was stoked to play Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up because the E3 demo was a letdown. First the good news, it’s a ground up Wii game that takes advantage of tilt control. You don’t have to point your gun off screen to reload, you shake the zapper off screen. Also while you are running on rails you can use the analog stick on the nunchuck to look around. Sometimes zombies will come at you from the side and you need to use the analog stick to shoot them or you might need to turn to pick up green herb.

The problem with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is the zombies are slow moving like in the other Resident Evil games. They sort of stand in place, slowly creeping towards the screen and are easy targets to shoot with the zapper. Only three to five sluggish zombies appear on screen at a time, instead of dozens in the House of the Dead games. You don’t ever get the sense of being overwhelmed by a horde of brain hungry zombies or even that you are in danger. As Jill Valentine, you can calmly aim the zapper at a sloth-like zombie’s head and fire. Headshots are important in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles because the available ammunition is limited (no unlimited bullets for you!) and a headshot is an instant kill. Once you are out of bullets you have to rely on the survival knife, which you can activate by pressing the Z button.

The graphics aren’t great either. Dim lighting from flickering street lights and cars on fire give the game an eerie feeling. However, they also give the ruined city an ugly orange hue. What makes Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles even more of a downer is Sega has Ghost Squad coming out at around the same time. Ghost Squad might not have zombies, but it knows what kind of game it is, a solid light gun shooter. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles teeters between two genres survival horror and blasting zombies with a light gun. But like convergent cell phones it is only decent at both. You’re left with a mediocre experience, short of the quality that usually comes from Capcom’s Resident Evil games.

Update: I realize this is generating some controversy, but it's just an opinion, my opinion about Resident Evil: UC. Take it for what this (and everyone else's impressions on Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, reviews in general, etc.) it's an opinion, everyone is entitled to one right? So what would you rather me do? Gush because the game has Resident Evil in the title. Placate Resident Evil fans early on and have potentially disappointed readers when they purchase the game? If I did that I wouldn't be telling the truth from my experience playing it. I prefer honesty and I believe that you are entitled to that.