8Bit/Digi

You Attacked the Island… and My Sister!

It’s okay to respect a game you’re ashamed of. Without a number by the title, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica is often seen as the unwanted stepchild who is still doing okay for themselves. Some fans think the game needs more respect put on its name, others see it as inconsistent and overhyped, but the series entry becomes more divisive as the years pass. Not having that sacred numeral at the end has often kept it out of the conversation, but as Code: Veronica celebrates its 25^th anniversary, it might be time to admit what keeps most fans away.

There’s an interesting development history behind Code: Veronica, but a somewhat complicated and muddled one due to many RE projects being in various stages around the same time as well as some misinformation. No matter its past, this feels like it should have been a mainline entry, starring both Claire and Chris Redfield from the previous games, featuring the return of mainstay villain Albert Wesker, and helping to establish a new tone for the franchise in multiple ways. The game looks more like an action movie from the first cutscene, it gives some of the characters abilities that are closer to superheroes than science fiction, and it elevates the drama and stylistic movements in ways that whisper anime influence while holding on to the series campy nature and horror.

The adventure sees Claire searching for her brother in Paris, only to be captured and sent to a prison on Rockfort Island, believed to be somewhere in the South Pacific. It’s soon rocked by a mysterious attack, leading to our first protagonist being released from her cell, and beginning a chain of wild events. There are multiple installations on the island, most fitting the naval port motif with a Napoleonic flair, but the overall architecture has a strong European gothic aura, bolstered by the art adorning the various chambers and hallways, accented further by the presentation of the environments. The amazing soundtrack helps the atmosphere, as the tunes feel operatic and profound, with a few sets of notes that evoke Castlevania at times, and a truly superb save room theme.

Look at the Power I’ve Gained!

Code: Veronica looked like an upgrade from the start, as the series shifted from the classic pre-rendered backgrounds to detailed real-time 3D environments with soft lighting that makes use of its absence, and darker but bold colors that help enhance many of the rooms. It’s all muted in the way eerie locations should be. Some say the visuals have aged poorly, especially with the layer of fog on the Dreamcast version, but a longer look at multiple locations in the game reveals that there were artistic choices made to enhance the experience. A few areas look almost too dim and blurry, making it tougher to spot valuable resources, and while the HD version clears some of this up, it also messes with the color saturation and makes things even harder to see. This lighter is getting quite the workout. We also have a new dynamic camera, leaving fans of the originals with their fixed angles while helping to emphasize structures and make certain movements look more cinematic. It’s wonderful, but will still screw players over with a few off-screen enemies or obscured items.

Some of the buttons are switched up, but this control scheme feels pretty standard, and longtime players shouldn’t have much trouble feeling right at home with these tank movements. It’s still clunky, of course, and dodging seems tougher, especially in the multitude of cramped hallways and cluttered rooms. I’m all for running past threats to save ammunition, but many sections made me feel like I needed to take them out. Imagine my surprise when I realized that some of them also respawn.

There’s something sweet about having the classic zombies on this island, and they feel more dangerous now, quicker, constantly grabbing players from the prone position, and full of new tricks – like spitting and explosives – to make our lives hell. You can still one-shot them with a shotgun to the head, but for some reason their domes don’t explode this time, either to save on processing power or preemptively avoid problems with the censors. The dogs, a few creepy crawlers, and hunters (now with a poisonous variant) return as well, along with the addition of the stretchy arm Bandersnatch. It makes sense to try and just avoid these new monstrosities, but that first encounter with one is awesome and intimidating. New all-white salamander enemies have been mutated with electrical abilities, called Albinoids. As a fellow albino, they suck. There are bats, but having the lighter keeps them at bay, while the most memorable enemy might be these moths. Annoying little pests that poison the player by laying a larva in their backs, causing damage over time as it hatches, they’re only in one area, but it’s a place that is often revisited in a particular section, and these things might die in one shot, but they also respawn. Furthermore, the creators decided to add drones that can spot our heroes and send in hunters, just in case things weren’t interesting enough. There are also some freakish bosses, as we’ve come to expect, with Nosferatu probably being the best overall encounter. Players are haunted by a giant worm that needs to be taken out if they want that lighter back, and our friend the Tyrant is back, looking pretty good. Many of these fights are gut checks and can stop an otherwise pleasant run cold.  

You Aren’t Worthy of its Power

Code: Veronica might be the most difficult installment in the franchise. It’s somewhat notorious, as many people have a story similar to mine, struggling to get through the game and reaching the infamous fight against the Tyrant on the plane, only to realize we lacked the ammo to do the fight without mastering the knife, and that’s assuming it’s even in Claire’s inventory. It’s possible to soft lock the game, being stuck at certain points without enough health or ammo – which seem harder to spot – and having to hope that there’s a previous save to go back to and try again. The player must also manage their item boxes more carefully – which it feels like there are not enough of – to juggle weapons and items between two characters, and if it’s someone’s first time, that’s incredibly easy to mess up. There’s a decent arsenal of firearms featured here, but they feel weaker. I want to like the bow gun, even if it often seems like we’re just pissing ammo away with little result. The game does offer the ability to retry directly from the death screen or at the beginning of certain events, but that doesn’t provide much comfort if the clips are all empty and there are no more plants to chew on. At least on Dreamcast, we can see our health on the VMU as we die without having to go to another screen.

This game has many excellent ideas but still suffers from poor design decisions that can make the experience more annoying and scare away new players. Most of the puzzles are good, with a few standouts in the series, like the skeleton painting and knowing what the code is (hiding in plain sight), but there are some frustrating ones as well, and instant kills are never enjoyable.

Some issues are with the layout, using the island to try and expand the setting to something outside of the traditional mansions, police stations, and city blocks we were used to. Although there were some creative choices made here, this is an infuriating amount of backtracking, even for an RE title. A lot of areas open up quickly to the player and there are several ways to accomplish these goals, in different orders, but it seems impossible to avoid traipsing around everywhere, dealing with respawning enemies, and potentially getting lost. I didn’t feel bad about consulting a guide a couple of times, just to make sure I wasn’t doing some of this for nothing. It’s also a small thing, but these journeys can take longer because traversing a set of steps, even a small one, requires an extra button press, which for some reason, I thought we had moved past by this point in the series. There are also fewer loading doors and stairwells, but many of those present seem to take extra long to load for some reason.

This greatly affects the game’s pacing. At first, it feels good in the sense that the plot and danger escalate quickly, but that rush gets skewered quickly by the backtracking and lack of easy access to items. By the time it comes around again, a bit erratically, there’s this sense of irritation, concerns that we’ve messed up somewhere. The first half of the game is better, but then Claire is whisked away to a less-inspiring frozen tundra and we are forced to redo many of the same areas as Chris, they’re just slightly charred—I mean changed. His portion is interesting but feels more bogged down. Whereas many of the previous games felt like they were building to something, usually a cool underground lab, this one almost blows its load too early with a submarine, plane, and self-destruct sequences. There are always alarms going off. It’s fast-paced and chaotic, but not structured well.

Promise That You Won’t Leave Me

A lot is going on in Code: Veronica, a more convoluted plot with a few good surprises, and it does reunite some characters people love. Claire is a badass here, she’s toughened up and hard not to root for with Alyson Court doing a bang-up job on the voice. I’m not the biggest fan of Chris, but this looks like a good outing for him, and seeing them reuniting after playing through RE2 so much is enjoyable, especially when he’s hamming it up with Wesker. Our main new character is Steve Burnside, a tragically Canadian youth who loves a good set of Lugers and the ladies. He’s a memorable character, but mostly because he can be quite annoying. He’s also a little creepy at times, trying to steal a kiss from Claire as she slept, and who amongst us hasn’t caused a harmful accident, filling an area with noxious gas, because we were staring at a great ass? Honestly, I can ignore them not having the proper attire for Antarctica, but please explain Steve knowing how to fly a plane.  

Most of these characters are eccentric, in some incredibly enjoyable but cheesy cutscenes – where it sounds like a few lines were lost in translation – but Alfred Ashford might take the cake. This man is more of a theatrical pest, vibrant, boisterous, and full of himself while taking pop shots at the heroes. He’s an RE villain, so it’s no surprise that Alfred has his issues, similar to the twist in Hitchcock’s Psycho, but this man’s feelings for his sister, Alexia, are what’s truly unsettling. The pair make for an interesting duo of antagonists, especially pitting one brother and sister team against another.

Code: Veronica didn’t sell well, partially due to releasing on the declining Dreamcast system, even though it’s often called one of the best games on the console and was adored by critics at the time. It would appear again on the PlayStation 2, as Code: Veronica X, with added and altered cutscenes as well as small fixes for wording and inventory icons, later coming out for GameCube as well as an HD version on modern hardware. Some fans blamed the entry not having a number as a reason why it wasn’t better received, others said it was simply too much. Creator Shinji Mikami believed that at least half of the finished product was perfect, what he truly wanted from Resident Evil, and that it didn’t become a numbered title for political reasons between Capcom and the manufacturing company. I just can’t seem to connect with it. I’ll probably try again down the line, but replaying it now just makes me think even more that it should be blessed with the remake treatment. I respect Code: Veronica, but I’m a little ashamed to say, even as a huge RE fan, that this one isn’t for me—at least not yet.

Did you play Resident Evil – Code: Veronica? If so, which versions and which one was your favorite? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

8Bit/Digi is an independent news outlet that provides insight into the video game and fandom community of the San Francisco Bay Area.