Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Preview

It's a light gun shooter, but a very pretty one.

Resident Evil 2, for many, is the best game in the famed zombie series. It was pure ‘sit on the edge of your seat and prepare to crap yourself silly’ stuff. Its huge popularity (Resident Evil 2 is the second highest-selling Capcom game of all time, behind Street Fighter II) guaranteed rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy, college student Claire Redfield, Raccoon City and that police station a place in the hearts and minds of a generation of PlayStation owners. It was an epic game in the truest sense, and Capcom’s decision to use it as the setting for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, the Wii-exclusive on-rails shooter sequel to last year’s fun Umbrella Chronicles, comes as no surprise.

“RE2 + on rail shooter = best game in the world.” That, in a nutshell, sums up The Darkside Chronicles. It’s from the comments on our own preview from Capcom’s annual event Captivate, earlier this year. And I’d have to say it’s hard to disagree with it. Looking back at our 7/10 review for Umbrella Chronicles, however, one sentence stands out: “…while UC is decent fun and one of the better-looking titles on the Wii it feels as if it could have been a whole lot better.” Having had the opportunity to go hands-on with the game at Capcom’s UK offices in Hammersmith recently, it’s clear that Capcom, and developer cavia, agrees.

My hands-on begins as Resident Evil 2 did, with Leon and Claire thrust into the nightmarish, zombie-filled Raccoon City streets, surrounded by burning cars, broken glass and overturned rubbish bins. It's September 29, 1998, and the devastating T-Virus is in full effect. Immediately the camera fixes itself into the first-person mode typical of all on-rails shooters. I’m pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, moving the target cursor about the scene, keeping an eye out for encroaching undead. Leon and Claire banter – this is the rekindling of a hazy memory – so much is the same, but from a new perspective.

For some Wii owners, the very fact that so much of the game will be familiar is exactly the reason The Darkside Chronicle’s is on their wish list, apart from, you know, the game being an absolute blast. Oh yeah! I remember that! I remember those crows, those dogs, that bit outside the Raccoon City Police Department, that room inside Raccoon City Police Department, the gun store, the gun store owner, the zombie chewing up the gun store owner. “You must be the new guy… sorry, but it looks like your party’s been… cancelled…”

For others though, for the Resident Evil obsessed, the big draw will be what’s new. Capcom’s promised that while the game walks the path laid out in Resident Evil 2, it’s not a slave to it. We’re going to get to see events from the superb Dreamcast (and later PlayStation 2 and GameCube) game Resident Evil: Code Veronica, and new, unannounced areas. And where the game does tow the Resident Evil 2 party line, it’ll show events from a different perspective, in new, closer detail. We’ll get more on character histories – a darker, more horror-filled tone. Fans will be delighted to know that Ada Wong will make an appearance - in RE2 Ada only turned up in Leon’s episodes, but here she’ll appear alongside Claire. Sexy.