Umbrella Corps Hands-On: Many Ways To Die

Death came in different forms while playing through the demo of Umbrella Corps at PAX East. While it might not kill you, a single hit from an opponent would mean a whole lot more trouble in the zombie, ganados, and kijuju-infested maps.

Players would start a match equipped with a Zombie Jammer, which keeps the undead uninterested in the player. Should that jammer get shot – as a fairly large target on the player’s back, it likely will – the zombies will begin to attack that player. The demo map, which played in a Resident Evil 5 setting, zombie dogs and crows would also come for the wounded player. As such, getting hit at all in Umbrella Corps is cause for concern.

This increased danger from taking any damage can promote taking extreme care during a match. Players are encouraged to crouch down, take cover, or crawl along the maps, staying out of sight in order to avoid their jammer getting hit. Even so, aggressive play is equally possible against the slow undead, rushing the enemy and taking them down before the zombies can converge.

Matches could handle up to six players, allowing any combination of 3v3, 3v2, 2v2, or whatever the players wished to play. Playing on maps from Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, and other locations from the series, players could then engage in up to eight match types. These would involve collecting collars from downed players, killing zombies, or just wiping out the other team when all players only have one life.

Players could also choose from several different loadouts at the beginning of the match, giving them access to various machine guns, hand guns, and high-damage melee weapons (like an axe).

A map in the match will help players find out where their enemies are attacking at, showing activity as red lines that steadily shoot up as gunfire is exchanged. Downed players could also point out where opponents were as they would be able to see a whole map of the area.

The game does feature a single player mode as well as a training mode for players who want to get the hang of the game before diving in against live opponents.

Umbrella Corps is set to release on June 21 for $29.99 (US) on PC and PS4.