Resident Evil – Code: Veronica

Gameplay

Code: Veronica is a survival horror game, and the first Resident Evil game in the main series to use 3D backgrounds instead of the traditional pre-rendered ones. Half of the game places the player in control of Claire Redfield while the other half is spent with her brother, Chris. Basic character actions include attacking enemies, as well as pushing and climbing objects. In battle, the character may receive damage. Damage can be healed in the status menu with restore items. Too much damage will result in a game over. At this point, the game must be continued from the last save point. A partner's death will also result in a game over. Some weapons are better suited for battling certain enemies, and some have weaknesses to elements like fire or acid.

Items can be viewed on the status screen. From here, items can be examined to find clues or solve puzzles, and they can also be equipped. Herbs, which restore character health, can be combined with other types of herbs to become more effective. Also available in the status screen is a map and file menu. All messages and notes found in the game are saved in game's files and may be essential to read to solve puzzles. The player character can only hold a limited number of items at a given time, and so other items can be stored in item boxes located throughout the game.

Plot

Taking place 3 months after the events of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, the game begins with Claire Redfield raiding an Umbrella Corporation facility in Paris in search of her brother, Chris. During the infiltration she is captured and imprisoned on Rockfort Island in the Southern Hemisphere. Soon after arriving she is knocked unconscious. After coming to, she is freed by Umbrella security guard Rodrigo Juan Raval who releases her from her cell in the aftermath of a T-virus outbreak on the island. Trying to escape from the contaminated island, Claire teams up with inmate Steve Burnside, at the same time being confronted with the island's commander Alfred Ashford. Alfred Ashford is shown to be a highly unstable character who has developed two personalities; himself and his twin sister Alexia. Meanwhile, Albert Wesker is on a mission of his own to retrieve a sample of the T-Veronica virus developed by Alexia. His unit is also responsible for the outbreak of the T-virus on Rockfort Island.

At one point during their escape, Steve and Claire are attacked by a zombie that is revealed to be Steve's father, a minor researcher who tried to sell information. He was found out and both Steve and his father were imprisoned, while Steve's mother was killed. Claire and Steve eventually escape via plane, but Alfred, still under the delusion he is Alexia, sets it to autopilot and flies both of them to another Umbrella facility in the Antarctic. There, Alfred hopes to free his sister from her 15-years-long cryogenic sleep she took after the injection of the T-Veronica virus, to counter the flaws of the virus. After another fight with Claire and Steve, Alfred is severely wounded and apparently falls to his death into a crevasse, stirring up a creature code-named 'Nosferatu', a creation of the T-Veronica virus. After fighting the creature, the protagonists attempt to escape the facility via a digger. Meanwhile, Alfred, who survived the fall, limps to Alexia. He witnesses her awakening moments before dying. Alexia, cradling her brother's corpse, summons giant tentacles and crashes Claire's and Steve's digger, recapturing them.

Chris Redfield arrives on Rockfort after having been contacted by Leon S. Kennedy. He learns from Raval that Claire already escaped the island. Raval is soon killed afterwards by a giant worm. Searching Rockfort, Chris has an encounter with Wesker, shocked to learn that Wesker had become faster and stronger than any normal person. Just as Wesker is about to finish Chris off, Alexia appears on a screen, laughing. Stunned by Alexia being alive, Wesker changes his mind and heads out to the Antarctic. Chris eventually finds his way there and is reunited with Claire, who sets out to find Steve. As she locates him, she discovers Alexia conducted an experiment on him, injecting Steve with the T-Veronica virus. Steve mutates into a reptilian monster and tries to kill Claire who escapes to a prison cell, where she is attacked by another of Alexia's tentacles. Still in his mutated form, Steve breaks through the cell and kills the tentacle. In retaliation, the tentacle drives into his chest and retreats. Steve mutates back to his human form, confesses his love for Claire, and then dies. Claire, now shocked and saddened by Steve's death breaks down in tears, and is left trapped in a cell.

At the same time, Chris and Wesker confront Alexia, who has the ability to create fire. Overwhelmed by her strength, Wesker escapes and leaves Chris to fight her. Chris temporarily defeats Alexia and activates the facility's self-destruct system to release all locks, freeing Claire from the prison cell. Later on, as he tries to escape, Alexia confronts him a second time, mutating even further into an insectile form. This time, Chris manages to destroy her with a plasma-based weapon. With Alexia dead, Chris runs to the emergency elevator and catches a glimpse of Wesker, whose men also retrieved Steve's body to use for further experiments, as he is now the only intact subject injected with a sample of the T-Veronica virus. Chris convinces Wesker to release Claire, who then runs to the plane to wait for her brother. Chris is again overwhelmed by Wesker in a fight, but before Wesker can kill Chris, both are separated by an explosion. Wesker vows he will satisfy his desire for revenge the next time they meet. Chris reunites with Claire and both set off just as the whole facility blows up. As they fly off, Chris swears they will take down Umbrella.

Development

Code: Veronica was developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 in collaboration with Nextech and Sega. Project supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto officially announced the game for Sega's Dreamcast console on October 6, 1998. Although Code: Veronica was described by its developers as the genuine sequel to Resident Evil 2, it is not a numbered entry in the Resident Evil series. Okamoto explained this decision with the team's intention to use numbers for games on the PlayStation, and names on other video game systems. Code: Veronica was originally planned to be published in April 1999, but was postponed to the end of the year. It was eventually released in Japan on February 3, 2000. The Japanese version of Code: Veronica contained two difficulty settings ("Easy" and "Very Easy") in addition to the default "Normal" setting found in the American and PAL versions of the game. "Very Easy" starts the player off with an unlimited supply of ink ribbons in the inventory and a variety of weaponries plus ammunition in the chests. There were two versions of the original Dreamcast release in Japan: a standard edition and a limited edition. The limited edition came packaged with a red slipcase and features a different title screen, with Wesker's face visible on the background.

Re-releases

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X is an updated version of the original Dreamcast game, released for the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast (only in Japan) in 2001 and GameCube in 2003. It is almost identical to the original in terms of gameplay. It also features nine minutes of additional cut scenes spliced into the main game, as well as mild graphical changes.

On March 23, 2011, high-definition remastered versions of both Code: Veronica X and Resident Evil 4 were announced to be in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as part of the Biohazard Revival Selection. This compilation was released as a retail product in Japan on September 8, 2011. In North America and Europe, Code: Veronica was published digitally for the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network service on September 27, 2011. The main differences include updated graphics, a new leader board system which was also used for the Dreamcast port of Resident Evil 3, trophies/achievements, hard drive use for saving, updated menus and new item placements. Some music seems to be remastered as well.

Wesker's Report

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of Resident Evil, and to summarize the events of the previous installments in the game series, Capcom released the fictional documentary Wesker's Report. It was written by Hiroki Kato, the director of Code: Veronica. Shinsaku Ohara translated Kato's completed script in three days, before the voice-over team recorded the narration in Canada. The actual direction of the video and the montage of game footage was handled by Takao Ogasawara, who completed the task on a tight deadline. Narrated by Richard Waugh in his role as Albert Wesker, Wesker's Report offers details on how the character returned after his death in the first Resident Evil, and how he came to be working alongside Ada Wong in a new organization.

A video version was available on a limited pre-order bonus DVD that came with the re-release of Code: Veronica in Japan. The disc included a director's interview titled Director's Hazard and was also packaged with the game compilation Nightmare Returns. Japanese text versions of Wesker's Report were later released on the official website and included in the Biohazard Collector's Box, while a standalone video version on DVD without the directors interview was made available in North America as a pre-order bonus and via the company's online store. A slightly revised video version was released as part of the Anniversary Special DVD that covered both the tenth anniversary of Resident Evil and the fifth anniversary of Devil May Cry. A further revision of Wesker's Report was included exclusively with the Japanese release of the Resident Evil HD remaster in 2014. This version was narrated in Japanese, as opposed to the English audio of the original.

Reception

The Dreamcast version of the game garnered critical acclaim: IGN giving it a 9.2/10, GameSpot giving it a 9.5/10, and GamePro giving it a 4.5/5. Edge praised the game's "frenetic" pace and dynamic camera movement, noting that it creates "distinct gameplay consequences." The updated release, Code: Veronica X fared well, garnering a 9.0/10 from GameSpot, and a 4.5/5 from GamePro. The GameCube version garnered average reviews, due to its unaltered, ported status, 5.0/10 and 6.9/10 on IGN and GameSpot, respectively. In Game Informer's "Top 100 Games of All Time", it was ranked as the sixty-ninth best video game. GamesRadar named Code: Veronica the 11th best Dreamcast game of all time, out of a list of 25. ScrewAttack placed Code: Veronica 4th on their list of the Top 10 Dreamcast Games. Video game review show, Classic Game Room, have stated on several occasions, including the original review, that this is their favourite Resident Evil game, and therefore the best.

Game Informer's Tim Turi gave the HD re-release an 8.5/10 and a Silver Award, writing "I love the sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a challenging classic survival horror game. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD rewards players armed with patience, resourcefulness, and plenty of ink ribbons with a harrowing but memorable trek through the series' heyday." He also praised the HD's "vividly gory" detail. In contrast, IGN's Richard George—while acknowledging that the game was "a step up for the RE franchise"—gave it a 5/10, criticizing "stilted, tank-like controls," "laughable" graphics, and "clearly archaic design".

Resident Evil Code: Veronica has sold 3.7 million copies worldwide with the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and the HD collection combined since 2013.

Print media

As with previous Resident Evil games, novelization of Code: Veronica was written by author S. D. Perry. Although the novel was first published on December 1, 2001, it is based on the original game and does not take into account the added events introduced in the later version of the game. As with the previous novelizations by Perry, the original character Mr. Trent appears as a mysterious stringpuller behind the plot.

Code: Veronica was also adapted into a manhua by Lee Chung Hing (who also did a similar adaptation of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis), published in Hong Kong during the original game's release. An English version of the comic was published as four collected graphic novels by Wildstorm in North America.

Survivor 2

Code: Veronica was adapted into Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (Bio Hazard Gun Survivor 2 Code: Veronica in Japan), a first-person shooter released in 2001 as a co-production between Namco and Capcom. It is the sequel to the previous game, Resident Evil Survivor. The arcade version runs on the Dreamcast-based NAOMI arcade hardware. Gun Survivor 2 has no bearing on the plot of Code: Veronica and the events of the game are actually depicted as a dream in Claire's mind at the end of the game. A PlayStation 2 version of Gun Survivor 2 was released in Japan and the PAL region, where it utilised the G-Con 2 peripheral. Although often mistaken for a light gun game, the arcade version of the game uses a fixed machine gun that serves as a joystick that can be pushed in four directions and rotated left and right to move the player and rotate the view, as well as to fire the player's weapons. The game runs on a timer that counts down when an area is entered, and if time runs out, the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis will start pursuing the players and attacking them. Only certain arcade machines had 2 player support. The PlayStation 2 version of the game contained a "Dungeon Mode", which is a series of long levels that have to be completed within a 30-minute time limit. Claire Redfield, Steve Burnside, Chris Redfield and Rodrigo Juan Raval are playable in Dungeon Mode.

The Darkside Chronicles

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a rail shooter gun game for the Wii based largely on the events of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica, but with many plot details changed.