Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles

[Ginger_Chris]

This game is seriously looking good, hopefully it'll be better than even house of the dead series. (Just found an old copy of "the typing of the dead" and its amazing).

 

@pedro, think some of the admins/mods got bored. Thats about sums it up.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

@pedro, think some of the admins/mods got bored. Thats about sums it up.

 

Or is it attack?

[Fierce_LiNk]

totally offtopic but... what's going on with the nicks in this forum? (just noticed Dante's nick), cube is square now, Mr. BumSex, I'm from Aussie-Nintendo (etc), Spanky and others, what's going on here?

 

Head to general chit chat to find out.

[darksnowman]

Head to general chit chat to find out.

(Stretch!)

 

I'm not sure how interested I am in this game, its probably not a fair comparison but if I fancy a first person hacker and slasher, I'm gonna get Dragon Quest Swords.

 

(And unstretch!)

Edited May 31, 2010 by Ashley

[Hero-of-Time]

Has that Capcom event started yet?

[pedrocasilva]

Has that Capcom event started yet?

Yes, and already ended a few hours ago, the embargo lifts at 5 PM Pacific Time, that's 1 AM here in GMT. (8th hour diference)

[Hero-of-Time]

Yes, and already ended a few hours ago, the embargo lifts at 5 PM Pacific Time, that's 1 AM here in GMT. (8th hour diference)

 

So news should start filtering out at 1am then?

[pedrocasilva]

So news should start filtering out at 1am then?

Yes, invited websites like IGN and Gamespot should be already writing their impressions/previews and (possibly) new media to post asap. :wink:

[Hero-of-Time]

Yes, invited websites like IGN and Gamespot should be already writing their impressions/previews and (possibly) new media to post asap. :wink:

 

Thanks for that Pedro. Methinks I will have a shower and play on my 360 til 1am then check back here. Im looking forward to seeing what they have to offer as Capcom are my fav 3rd party.

[Caris]

What sort of game is this? Survival Horror? Or a House of the Dead Style game?

 

I'm confused.

[pedrocasilva]

Seems like no new media for us today:

 

Actual assets (screenshots, movies and such) won't go up until Monday night here to give the media a little day in the sun. Obviously the media will have hands on impressions of almost everything we showed/announced. There are a few early projects that we announced but didn't show gameplay or have playable code available so you'll only have announcements to go by.

Source: http://www.capcom.com/BBS/showthread.php?t=12755&page=9

What sort of game is this? Survival Horror? Or a House of the Dead Style game?

 

I'm confused.

Hmmm... It's a survival horror story-driven game, but it's on-rails like house of the dead, but it'll probably feel a load less "arcade" than it.

[Caris]

Yeah i get you mate, along with the Resi 4 remake this is a good start for Capcom on the Wii

[thomaschung]

I think this looks good. I like the fact that they are re-using the old characters and environments. The mansion is still me favourite location for Resi.

 

Chris, Rebecca, and Jill are all my fave characters. Nice to see it going back to zombies and Umbrella too.

 

I completed both Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero on the Cube. Still yet to complete Resident Evil 4 and finding it hard to get back to it.

[Hero-of-Time]

HANDS ON IMPRESSIONS....

 

When we originally saw Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, it wasn't hard to figure out that it was an on-rails shooter, even without having to touch it. Now that we've finally gotten the Wii remote and the nunchuk in our hands, we can confirm, once again, that it is an on-rails shooter. A particularly boring one at that.

 

Umbrella Chronicles earned it's new moniker, House of the Resident Evil, by feeling like just that. Our demo of the title had us going through the mansion from the original Resident Evil, only at turbo speed. The Wii remote was used to aim a cursor on the screen, while the nunchuk was largely useless, used only to look around. Inexplicably, reloading is done by waggling the remote, thus becoming a nuisance during hectic scenes. You know, because it's not like the nunchuk doesn't have motion sensors or anything.

 

It's safe to say that Umbrella Chronicles is a step above the short-lived Gun Survivor series, but that can't really be considered praise either. It largely consists of zombies and other Resident Evil favorites scrambling into view while you shoot, reload and shoot some more. Items are picked up in the light-gun tradition of shooting at them, at which point you then keep shooting. Not contained to just the mansion, Umbrella Chronicles will take players to locations last seen in in RE0, RE2 and RE3, which makes it a fanboy rodeo but no more interesting.

 

The reason why you don't see many people talking about how "awesome" the latest Time Crisis is (did you realize they're up to four? Probably not.) is because the genre has failed to evolved into anything worth mentioning and unfortunately, replacing a plastic toy gun with a remote doesn't change anything in the slightest. Umbrella Chronicles comes off like an excuse to sell ridiculous plastic shells which, hilariously enough, wouldn't function properly with their control setup.

 

There is currently no release date in sight for Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.

[Dante]

IGN Hands On

 

Capcom producer Masachika Kawata wants to make something clear as he takes the stage at the company's Gamers Day 2007 press conference in San Francisco. He's speaking about the studio's new Wii project, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. "It's a brand new all original title that has been developed from the ground-up," he says. "It's a title that isn't a port of any way, shape or kind." That much is true. The project features a storyline that finally exposes what happened to the devious Umbrella Corporation. But Chronicles won't be entirely new to those who've played through the survival horror franchise's many offerings because it takes you back into the mansion, on board the train, and into the police station before you finally get to Umbrella's stronghold. And did we mention that this is an on-rails shooter?

 

"[The game] has been developed focusing on the point, shoot and aim feature of the Resident Evil franchise and we're trying to deepen that part of the experience," explains Kawata. He's not kidding. To play Umbrella Chronicles, all you really need is the Wii remote because the action is pre-set and auto-choreographed for you. At the most basic level, you point the Wii remote at the television screen and blast zombies as the first-person view camera takes you through the eerie locales. So if you thought you were getting a true sequel to Resident Evil 4 when you signed up for this effort, think again.

 

The genre is hardly unexplored. SEGA has House of the Dead and Capcom itself has Resident Evil: Dead Aim, but these are light gun games and Umbrella Chronicles is not. It survives by the Wii remote and you will survive only if you learn how to wield it to point and kill with speed and accuracy. The gameplay mechanics may be reduced or simplified compared to the Resident Evil norm -- we won't argue that they're not -- and yet having played the title's first mission, there's no denying that the end experience is still a fun one. It looks good, too.

 

Kawata is promising that the title will run between 15 and 20 hours long and while many of the environments will look familiar -- you'll play through portions of Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 and 3 -- this will be the first time most of them have been realized in true 3D. Remember, for as pretty as the remake of the first survival horror entry was on GameCube, those backgrounds were pre-rendered, not true polygonal 3D. Unfortunately, we only got to see one of the locales and it was the famous mansion from the first game.

 

The camera takes you through the mansion in cinematic fashion, slowly peeking around corners to reveal shambling zombies, making dramatic 180-degree turns to showcase speedy Crimsons and wobbling up and down to illustrate that your character is actually running. While the first-person view is dominant, you will not traverse the entire game without having ever seen the heroes and heroines you're playing as -- a roster that includes everybody from Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine to Billy Coen, Rebecca Chambers and Carlos Oliveira. The characters will not really have different abilities, although some will use unique weapons. You'll see them in brief cut-scenes as they interact with each other -- you might be controlling Chris, but Jill could be fighting alongside you during a sequence. You'll also see them during contextual maneuvers -- when hordes of zombies approach, you can tap the A button to counter their attacks, at which point the camera will pan back to show your character send a powerful kick their way, knocking the enemies down.

 

Umbrella Chronicles isn't merely mindless shooting -- there is that, yes, but there is also much more to consider. The Wii remote affords you pixel-perfect shooting accuracy. You can cap zombie heads without a second's hesitation or you can alternatively shoot them in the arms and legs, at which point they'll drop to the ground. Your reticule decreases in size the longer your hold it over a zombie's face and the smaller it is, the greater chance you have of pulling off a single-shot head explosion, from what we could gather. A button picks up items and chooses paths (occasionally, you can select to go in one direction or another), and B button is your trigger. Press it and you'll shoot -- that simple. But you can use nunchuk's analog stick to look around the game world -- left, right, up and down -- as you glide on-rails through the areas. You'll want to do this because it's how you find the hidden items such as guns, ammo and health that are strewn about the levels.

 

The 10-minute demo of Umbrella Chronicles featured only three weapons: the handgun, shotgun and machine gun. The latter two guns require you to manage your bullets because if you don't you may eventually run out of ammo. However, you have an infinite supply of bullets for your handgun. Your shooting reticule is represented on-screen by an orange circle. The orange color depletes from the circle as you burn through a round and when it's gone altogether you'll need to quickly reload. Fittingly, you'll keep tapping the B trigger to shoot off round after round from your handgun and shotgun, but you can simply hold it down to stream bullets from your machine gun. Additional weapons planned for the final version include everything from rocket launchers to knives and grenades, according to Capcom. You switch between your weapons at any point by pressing down on the Wii remote's D-Pad.

 

Items are hidden within the stages, which feature highly interactive objects. You can shoot apart doors and windows, knock out lights (the rooms will darken -- we haven't figured out the benefit of doing this), gun down paintings (they'll eventually fall off the walls) and even blow apart chandeliers, which may fall from the ceiling and land on enemies if timed correctly. The animations and particles -- doors splinter, windows break apart, bullets line walls -- add a lot to the atmosphere.

 

The mansion demo we played was simple to pick up but also very challenging -- it proved to be more difficult than we anticipated. For the record, we made it through the mansion without being killed, but just everybody else present died several times. Yes, we're patting ourselves on the back as we write this. Men from boys, right? Anyway, it's clear that Capcom isn't going to make the shooter easy, which is a big plus because the added difficulty has a way of keeping you on your toes. When your health is low and a zombie charges forward, biting into your neck (blood sprays the screen), you really feel the terror and want nothing more than to gun the creature down. The demo ended with a boss fight against the giant, slithering snake from remake, which died after we continued to blast its mouth.

 

Asked about the completely new locations in the game, Kawata said, "I think that will have to remain a secret for now."

 

There is a chance that Umbrella Chronicles can be played by more than a single person. Asked about a multiplayer mode, the producer responded: "We're still looking into it so I really can't say anything definite right now," said Kawata-san.

 

 

Umbrella Chronicles looks pretty impressive on Wii. The game is running in 480p and 16:9 widescreen at a fluidity of 30 frames per second. Some of the world and character textures blur up close, which is disappointing, but nevertheless Capcom has really used light and darkness to great effect. Shadowy environments become illuminated in quick flashes of lightning and the silhouettes of characters and objects project and distort onto walls and walkways. Animations are smooth and particle effects over-the-top -- blood splatters in every direction as you decapitate zombies with well-placed bullets. We'd wager this is one of the prettier Wii titles and we'd expect nothing less from Capcom.

 

The title has been in development for nearly a year with a team 40 people strong, according to Kawata-san, and is scheduled for a summer release on Wii. We'll have much more on the game just as soon as we get the opportunity to play deeper into it, but even from this early junction it seems clear that the developer has another winner on its hands, even if it doesn't follow the more traditional Resident Evil formula.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

The biggest surprise of Capcom's recent media event was that Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles was actually playable. Another pleasant surprise was that it was fun. I practically had a perma-grin frozen on my face.

 

Next to no information has been available on this Wii-exclusive spinoff game since Capcom announced it at E3 last year -- all we knew was that it would recap the plots of the first games in the celebrated zombie-shooting adventure game series, but in the style of a light gun game. You could be forgiven for thinking that it's a House of the Dead game, but hey -- if Sega's not going to step up to the plate and deliver, Capcom might as well.

 

First and foremost I should say that this is a beautiful-looking game. Capcom is probably very happy right now that they spent so much time and effort making GameCube exclusives. Sure, it didn't exactly work out at the time, but the Wii is currently the hottest thing on the market and, outside of Nintendo, Capcom probably has the most skill and experience with the hardware. And it shows. It's running at 480p widescreen, by the way.

 

The game plays much like you'd expect -- your character is automatically moved through a linear path through the mansion, which at least for now borrows much of its look from the remake of Resident Evil released on GameCube. By using the analog stick, you can look around, which you pretty much have to do in order to hit every zombie and evil dog and other horrible monsters. Staying alive is your first goal, but as you get better you'll want to play levels over and over to increase your body count. Even in the initial stage that we played, there were plenty of zombies that weren't on screen long enough for me to kill them with my limited skills.

 

Aiming with the Wiimote feels great. The cursor is very accurate, which means the little shakes and jitters of your hand do make it jump and shake. But that's the whole point -- this is a game about precision aiming, and you've just got to get better at it. Contrast this with Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, which was also playable at the event, and featured a much more steady, easy-to-use cursor, because forcing you to steady your hand isn't really what RE4 is all about.

 

Since you're going to spend a lot of your time staring at the cursor, there's a lot of information built into it. When you leave it hovering over an enemy's head, if your aim is perfect and steady the reticule will get smaller. That's your cue to press B and blow the enemy's head clean off in one shot. Getting headshots is imperative for staying alive, but it's also really hard. I look forward to getting my technique just right.

 

You can see your remaining ammo in an orange circle around your red targeting reticule. When the circle runs out -- or preferably, before it does -- you'll want to shake the Wiimote to reload. It's a great mechanic that feels really good, much like aiming off the screen to reload in traditional light gun games -- because just like in real life, reloading forces you to take your gun away from the target and lose your aim.

 

You start with a pistol that has unlimited ammo. By shooting objects in the environment, you can find healing herbs (used automatically) and new weapons like a shotgun and machine gun. (Capcom also promises rocket launchers, the knife, and grenades.) You pick these up by pressing A. These have limited ammo, and you can only carry one at a time. Switching weapons is done by pressing Down on the Wiimote's D-pad.

 

Quick-time events are scattered throughout to break up the action. For example: if you manage to let a zombie get too close to you, you can press A at the right time (it's indicated on-screen) to counterattack and kick him away. During these little scenes, you can actually see your character. Chris Redfield is your first playable character as you go through the Resident Evil 1 mansion. Capcom promises that Billy Coen, Rebecca Chambers, Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira will also make appearances in locations drawn from Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, and 3 (and possibly more, including the never-before-seen Umbrella stronghold).

 

I'm surprised at just how deep Umbrella Chronicles' gameplay is. I can think of a dozen different ways that I could go back and play that Gamer's Day version again and improve my game, from finding more hidden items to getting more headshots to not failing the quick-time events. As a House of the Dead fan from back in the day I'll be first in line to grab this one when it ships this fall.

 

Chris Kohler @ Game | Life

[canocha]

Some new pics too.

 

 

IGN hand-on does not sound that bad!

[Dante]

Gameplay Video

[Teppo Holmqvist]

HANDS ON IMPRESSIONS....

 

Those are from Joystiq, and can be pretty much ignored. Goes into same category as their few others articles, a.ka. "let's write negative shit that is complete opposite from other sites to generate more hits / add revenue for our site". Not to mention that Joystiq's owner is actually employed by Microsoft.

[Hero-of-Time]

Those are from Joystiq, and can be pretty much ignored. Goes into same category as their few others articles, a.ka. "let's write negative shit that is complete opposite from other sites to generate more hits / add revenue for our site". Not to mention that Joystiq's owner is actually employed by Microsoft.

 

Granted but they do make some good points. After watching the video that Dante posted I have to agree that although graphically I think it looks good gameplay wise all it looks like is a lightgun game. I will still buy it though because its Resident Evil : peace:

[Nintendo Fan]

The game footage looks great, this game will be fun. The graphics are some of the best i've seen on wii.

[Caris]

Those are some jaggy graphics...

 

Edit: But that video is awsome!

[Dante]

The game only has 25% done so far

[Caris]

It said in one of those write up thats the game is coming out in Summer though :/

[Gaijin von Snikbah]

Im confused and scared. This could be a new game for the casual gamers.