Retro Wildlands #56 - Resident Evil: Code Veronica

[00:00:19] Greetings fellow Travelers, Vagrin's Explorers, Wildlanders, and welcome to episode 56 of The Retro Wildlands. My name is Nomad, and this is my gaming podcast where I like to share my thoughts and experiences with a video game that I have discovered or rediscovered while roaming the gaming wildlands.

[00:00:41] Thank you very much for tuning into the show today. If you are a returning listener, I am very excited to have you back with us as we venture into the gaming wildlands. If this is your first time venturing out with us, welcome!

[00:00:54] There's a million and 13 gaming podcasts and YouTube channels out there. I know I counted them all, but I'm very happy that you decided to hang out with us today. DDRK9 Expedition Leader is extremely happy to see you. You see, he's found himself in a bit of trouble.

[00:01:13] Dexter, his brother from another dog mother, has recently gone missing. Recently, DDRK9 DECSTER have found themselves on the wrong side of Umbrella, the large pharmaceutical corporation based in Raccoon City. It was revealed that Umbrella was responsible for all sorts of atrocities including the manufacturer of biorganic weapons.

[00:01:37] DDRK9 has been searching high in low for Dexter and even got the help of Leon S. Kennedy to search with him. However, Leon found Dexter's diary which contains a vital clue to Dexter's whereabouts. It looks like we're not going to find your brother here after all.

[00:01:57] Taking the diary, DDRK9 manages to flip through the pages using his snout because he doesn't have any thumbs. With the help of Jill and Mary, I finally obtained information vital to this case. Umbrella has begun research on the new G-Virus, a variation of the original T-Virus.

[00:02:21] Haven't they done enough damage already? We talked it over and have decided to fly to the main Umbrella HQ in Europe. I won't tell my brother about this trip because doing so could put him in danger. Please forgive me, DD.

[00:02:39] So now that you're here, dear listener, it is time for us to get moving. DD is packed and ready to go and very eager to find his brother.

[00:02:49] It's not clear what we're going to find in Europe when we eventually make it to Umbrella HQ, but I do know one thing. We're going to have an adventure that we will never forget.

[00:03:02] On today's episode, we're checking out a game whose story takes place three months after the events of a survival horror classic. This game, while not a mainline entry into the series because it lacks a number in the title,

[00:03:17] brings a lot of narrative elements to the table along with taking the series into new levels of presentation. And while its development in an initial release plan was one reason I think this game never really got the attention it deserved,

[00:03:33] one can't deny that this game is very unique compared to the rest of the series. Plus, it brings a lot of narrative elements that are vital to the overall franchise lore. After Capcom remade, the second, third and fourth installments of the series over the last few years,

[00:03:52] people are speculating as to what the next remake is going to be. And because of all that speculation, I thought it would be a great time to go back and check out a game I consider to be a survival horror classic

[00:04:06] and one that I think is ripe for the next remake. Today on the Retro Wildlands, we're going to be diving into Resident Evil Code Veronica. Developed exclusively for the Sega Dreamcast at first, RECV was a continuation of the mainline Resident Evil story which follows series protagonist Clare Redfield

[00:04:32] as she travels to Europe in hopes of finding her lost brother Chris. It's the reason Clare went to Raccoon City in the second game and while she was there, eventually found Chris's diary detailing his desire to head to umbrella HQ in Europe.

[00:04:48] However, soon after infiltrating the umbrella facility, Clare was discovered by umbrella security and apprehended. Later she was shipped off to an isolated island prison facility. The game picks up as the island comes under attack by an unknown force which allows Clare an opportunity to escape.

[00:05:08] Code Veronica is an interesting game to me and as a Resident Evil fan, it's a game that always felt like the odd man out, even despite its graphical upgrades and deeper narrative focus.

[00:05:21] The game can be a little more difficult than other original games in the series and about twice as long gameplay wise. But after replaying recently and reliving my experience with it from when I was a kid,

[00:05:33] I think I finally see what it was I was missing all those years ago. And after learning a bit about its development, it's clear to me that Code Veronica never had the same chance to get into the hands of series fans like the mainline entries.

[00:05:49] Which one could argue makes it a prime candidate to be Capcom's next remake? But the real question for me is, is Resident Evil Code Veronica a fun and engaging game to play today?

[00:06:04] Or does it truly deserve to be set aside so that other titles in the series can take the spotlight?

[00:06:10] On today's episode of The Retro Wild Lands, I'm going to share with you all where I land as we jump into the game and see what Code Veronica brings to the survival horror table.

[00:06:23] Now, if you're new to the show, I like to kick things off by chatting it up with you all a little bit first before we get into the episode itself,

[00:06:31] which will allow me to give you a peek behind the scenes here in The Retro Wild Lands before we get into the meet-a-things.

[00:06:38] Depending on what's on my mind, I like to share what's going on with the show itself, what games I might be playing, what projects I might be planning, what's going on in my personal life, or whatever else I feel like spewing into this ear microphone.

[00:06:52] I also want to take some time to read and respond to any comments I received about Resident Evil Code Veronica from our Retro Wild Lands social media pages in an effort to give the community a chance to sound off their thoughts.

[00:07:06] Now, if none of that interests you and you're just here for my thoughts on Code Veronica, no worries, you can skip ahead. Well, let's say about 15 to 20 minutes I'm going to guess the next section is and you should be able to get into the game talk.

[00:07:20] However, if I did over or underestimate have no fear, I put timestamps into the show notes so you can see exactly where it is you need to go if you don't want to stick around.

[00:07:30] But as always, I encourage you to settle in for the long haul my friends. We're going to talk a bit of video games and your fellow wildlanders will get a chance to sound off their thoughts to the rest of us.

[00:07:42] And I can't think of a better way to set the stage for the journey to come. So, without further ado, let's get into our opening segment that I like to call Campfire Catch-Up.

[00:07:54] So since our last mainline episode where I covered Gunstar Heroes on the Sega Genesis, I've been playing games a lot lately. I won't spoil too much time on what I've been playing this time around, but I am actively working by way through Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 reunion.

[00:08:27] And I finally dove into the amazing indie RPG that is Sea of Stars. I started the Crisis Core remaster around the time it launched, but left it for some other games.

[00:08:41] I attempted to get into Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth when it launched, but the sheer size of that game made me take a step back and it almost didn't help that my wife got me into Hogwarts legacy around that time as well.

[00:08:56] But when I finished Hogwarts and I turned my attention back to Rebirth, I just wasn't feeling it.

[00:09:03] Plus, I looked at Crisis Core on my backlog and felt more compelled to go back and actually finished that one since I've been sitting on it for a while longer and I already knew what it was that I was going to get into.

[00:09:17] Crisis Core is probably my favorite PlayStation portable game, and honestly, I never tired of playing it. So, I'm on a quest right now to get the Platinum trophy on my PlayStation 5.

[00:09:29] I also decided to give the new Ubisoft Arena Shooter Ex-Defiant a try after my buddy Bob from work said it was worth giving a shot.

[00:09:38] Back in the Xbox 360 days, I used to play Call of Duty like a Fiend, especially with some close friends, but I've eventually walked away for multiplayer shooters.

[00:09:49] But Ex-Defiant isn't too bad. It's not great, but it isn't bad. It's kinda somewhere in the middle. It's kinda mad. It's like a cheeseburger. It's good. It's not super filling. It's not gourmet. It's fine.

[00:10:07] There was a point, though, that I looked and saw what the trophy list was for Ex-Defiant, and I have it in my head that it's not too difficult to complete. So, I decided to keep playing just so I could add those trophies to my list.

[00:10:21] I don't think I'm going to be spending any money on this game or anything, but it's been a fun distraction. And it feeds my insatiable lust for trophies and achievements, so there is that as well. I also discovered and completed a little indie gem called Cat Quest.

[00:10:40] I saw a physical copy of this game at my local game stop, and having no idea what this game was, I picked it up sight unseen. I mean, the cover had a cat with a sword in a full set of armor. What more was there to think about?

[00:10:56] Seriously though, it turned out to be a pretty decent action RPG involving decent combat, grinding for levels and equipment, and of course, it had cats. Now, you all know I am 110% a dog person, but Cat Quest turned out to be a pretty good title.

[00:11:15] I ended up completing a twice actually, once on the switch and another time on my PlayStation 4 where I got to platinum trophy that.

[00:11:23] Developed by the gentle bros who are based out of Singapore, Cat Quest is a great game if you're looking to just shut your brain off and grind through some enemies and collect some loot.

[00:11:34] The story is pretty basic though it did have a twist at the end that I was not expecting. The game itself took me maybe 10 or so hours to 100% complete, so it wasn't a huge time sink.

[00:11:48] And when you complete the game there's some extra game modes too if you so choose but at that point I was pretty well satisfied. Definitely check out Cat Quest if action RPGs and nonstop cat puns are your thing.

[00:12:01] I had a really good time with it, and it actually made me want to create a YouTube video review on it. Sure, Cat Quest is not really a retro game but I've been itching to create another video review and put something new on the YouTube channel for fun.

[00:12:19] So speaking of, I've already written the script I just need to make the video at this point. If you are at all interested in seeing that feel free to find us over on YouTube and subscribe. I have a couple other game reviews that I've done up there already.

[00:12:36] One for a gem of a game called Battle X, one for a top-down shooter from Megacat Studios called Arcades Revolution and another indie retro inspired hack and slash game called Die Sword.

[00:12:50] If you do check them out, certainly let me know your thoughts by either leaving a comment on the video or shooting the message on social.

[00:12:59] I have been thinking about YouTube a lot lately and I have some ideas that I've been kicking around so stay tuned to see if any of my ideas come to fruition. I'm certainly not going to stop podcasting or anything, I'm just thinking about some new things to try.

[00:13:15] And as always, I would love to have you around for whatever I decide to turn out next. So speaking of a quick plug for our social media pages, you can find the retro wild lands on pretty much all the major social platforms.

[00:13:30] Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, slash X, Threads and even BluSky, although I'm mostly active on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. I sometimes forget that I have threads in BluSky. Search us out on those platforms or check out our link tree at linktr.e slash retro wild lands.

[00:13:49] I don't post a ton, but when I do, it's to update you all in the podcast, show off a game in my collection, talk gaming in general, or occasionally I will share a photo or two of DDR Fuealis leader.

[00:14:02] So if any of that sounds interesting to you and you want to spice up your timelines and feeds with a little retro spice, feel free to give us a follow.

[00:14:10] Plus, if you want to interact with the podcast by leaving a comment about the game or topic that I'm going to be covering next on the show,

[00:14:17] social media is where I put out the call. So join up with our expedition there if you feel compelled to do so.

[00:14:24] Beyond all of that, I'm just trying to plug away whenever I can at the podcast while I make sure to partake in some gaming whenever I have the time. Things at my job are ramping up again, so time has been at a premium.

[00:14:40] And when I usually have time, I sometimes just don't have the energy. But the wonderful comments that I get from some of you listening really motivate me to keep pushing forward with this hobby and I cannot be more grateful.

[00:14:55] If I haven't said it lately, I am really glad you decided to check out the show. It could be hard to sit down to create something, especially when your energy levels vary and commitments change on a dime.

[00:15:07] But I'm incredibly proud to be able to look back on all that I've created so far and see that there are some people out there that get even a little bit of enjoyment out of it all.

[00:15:17] For better or worse, I have a decent real life job and I'm lucky enough to not want too much of anything.

[00:15:25] But at the same time, I reached a point in my life a few years ago where I don't want my legacy to be that of someone who just put in countless hours into working for somebody else or spending my free time finding ways to climb the quote unquote corporate ladder.

[00:15:40] With the limited amount of time that we have on this earth, I wanted to make sure I did something I was truly passionate about and lean into something that really makes me who I am. And God damn it, that's video games.

[00:15:55] So apologies for going all mushy on you there, but I really mean when I say thank you for being here. Alright, speaking of video games, it is time we get to the reason that you're all here today. It's time to talk about Resident Evil Code Veronica.

[00:16:17] We had a few comments from the community that I wanted to read and respond to before we get things rolling. First up, we had a comment sent over from the gaming off the beaten path podcast to chimed in over on our Facebook page. They said,

[00:16:34] I know it's polarizing, but Coperonica is my personal favorite Resident Evil. To me, it's kind of the peak of the series original gameplay before it started to move in a different direction with RE4. A top 5 game of all time for me personally, even with this lousy voice acting.

[00:16:56] I can absolutely respect how this game made it to the top of your gaming list. I agree wholeheartedly that Code Veronica was peak old school Resident Evil. It did have some shortfalls though.

[00:17:11] I do feel that the character and enemy animations can be a bit clunky and stiff sometimes, and there are some gameplay elements that were in older RE titles that weren't in Code Veronica, such as the ability to walk up and down stairs without having to press a button.

[00:17:28] Part of me, which is the Dodge mechanic from Resident Evil 3 would have been present here, but maybe it's a good thing it isn't. What really makes this game top tier in my mind is the story and all its parts and pieces.

[00:17:42] And yeah, the voice acting is pretty awful, but bad voice acting is pretty much a series staple. And if it was too good, I think that would actually take away from the experience don't you agree?

[00:17:57] Heh heh, if Capcom ever does remake this game, I hope they do your favorite RE games some justice. Thank you by the way very much for sending a comment in, it's always appreciated.

[00:18:11] Our last comment comes from Poppy the Keaton, who dropped a comment over on our blue sky page. Poppy said, I owned this and played it a couple of times. Didn't get very far. The rail shooter version of this on the Wii was great though.

[00:18:31] And as much as I love the Resident Evil series, I am ashamed to say that I have not played through either of the rail shooters on the Wii. There was the Umbrella Chronicles but I'm pretty sure the one you're talking about Keaton was called the Dark Side Chronicles.

[00:18:48] In that one there was a chapter where you play through an abridged version of Code Veronica. I have both of these rail shooters downloaded on my PlayStation 3 but I never actually sat down to actually play them.

[00:19:04] From what I've heard, the Code Veronica parts of the Dark Side Chronicles is actually really good and sees Claire and Steve sticking together throughout most of the game, which sounds interesting to me.

[00:19:18] And while it's not a rail shooter, there was Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code Veronica, which was released exclusively in Japan and parts of Europe, which I believe was a light gun game.

[00:19:32] All these games sound awesome and I would love to try them even though I have not heard great things about Survivor 2. Even if you didn't finish the original Code Veronica Keaton, I am told the experience in Dark Side Chronicles is a fantastic substitute.

[00:19:49] And if I do the game itself any justice on the show today, maybe you won't have to play the original. Thank you very much for the comment my friend. It is always good to hear from you.

[00:20:04] Originally released in the year 2000 on February 3rd for the Sega Dreamcast, and eventually released with Edit content on the PlayStation 2 Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Resident Evil Code Veronica takes place three months after the events of Resident Evil 2 come to a close.

[00:20:24] After escaping Raccoon City, Claire Redfield continues the search for her lost brother and protagonist of the first Resident Evil game Chris Redfield. While searching the umbrella corporations Paris facility, Claire finds herself captured and sent to a remote island prison.

[00:20:42] But no sooner does Claire arrive on the island as it fall under attack, and the tea virus ravages the island, turning its inhabitants into mindless zombies.

[00:20:53] Desperate to escape, Claire attempts to make her way off the island. However, the evil she'll eventually uncover on the island is far more menacing than any zombie. Will Claire survive and be reunited with her brother? Or will she just be another of unbrellas unfortunate victims?

[00:21:13] Well my friends, that is going to be completely up to us. So let's gear up wildlanders, grab your M93 R handguns, toss a few green herbs in your back pocket, and don't forget your lighter.

[00:21:28] The events of Raccoon City were an absolute nightmare, and Claire was very lucky to escape with her life. But her ordeal was only a prelude of things to come.

[00:22:17] At some point in either early 2001 or late 2000, right as its life cycle was coming to a close, my stepdad decided to buy a Sega Dreamcast. We had an original PlayStation in the home for a few years up to that point, and we had some awesome memories with it.

[00:22:35] But I remember my stepdad bringing home the Dreamcast because it's something that caught his eye, and he actually found it on sale.

[00:22:44] The Dreamcast wasn't doing very well sales-wise, and with the PlayStation 2 just around the corner, it seemed like Sega couldn't find a way to get the Dreamcast in homes. One method of course was to drop the price, and that's what finally made my stepdad grab one.

[00:23:00] I can't remember the timing of when we got certain games, but we had a decent collection at one point. Games like Crazy Taxi, the house of the dead to Shenmue and Zami Revenge.

[00:23:14] But for Christmas the following year, I got two Dreamcast games that made a huge impact on me, one that I still feel today. One of those games was Skies of Arcadia. It was an incredible role-playing game that I would go on to play through multiple times.

[00:23:36] Everything about that game was amazing to me. It had some amazing graphics for the time, the soundtrack was awesome, the battle system was cool and the story and exploration were top notch.

[00:23:48] There was a point where I was teaching myself how to make websites, and I ended up creating a Skies of Arcadia page, where I wrote an entire walk through the game and created pages for things like all the weapons and all the different enemies you could come across.

[00:24:05] I was obsessed with this game to put it mildly. Guaranteed will be talking about that game on the show at some point. The other game that I got for Christmas was just as impactful on me growing up.

[00:24:20] It was an entry into my favorite game series I thought I would never get to play because, well, at the time, it was only available on the Sega Dreamcast. And that game, obviously, was Resident Evil Code Veronica.

[00:24:37] Up to that point, I had played the original three Resident Evil titles on our PlayStation to the point I had practically everything memorized. Knowing I was about to embark on a brand new journey, especially with my favorite Resident Evil leading lady, made me extremely happy.

[00:24:56] Oddly enough, however, while I knew Code Veronica existed, I really didn't know much about the game itself. I knew the story was a continuation of the second game in the series, but I was always confused as to why this never seemed like a mainline entry into the series.

[00:25:15] I did some digging into the development history of Code Veronica before writing the script out, and I was surprised by a lot of what I learned.

[00:25:24] One source of info I did want to plug really quick is the book titled, Itchy Tasty, the unofficial history of Resident Evil written by Alex On Yel.

[00:25:35] Alex did some incredible research and interviewed a lot of Capcom's development staff, both past and present, and goes through some of the development history of a lot of the original games, starting from the original Resident Evil up until the release of Resident Evil 5.

[00:25:53] He has a section on Code Veronica that I found absolutely fascinating. Alex isn't sponsoring the show today or anything, but I do encourage you to look into his book if you're remotely interested in learning about how Resident Evil came to be.

[00:26:09] As of this recording, the book is available on Amazon, which is where I got my copy. I'll do my best to remember to put a link to that in the show notes for anyone who's interested.

[00:26:21] Alex, I highly doubt you'll ever listen to this, but if you do, fan, tastic job on the bookman. As a Resident Evil fan since I was a kid, I found myself just fascinated with everything.

[00:26:35] One common misconception that I've heard about Code Veronica is that it was originally supposed to be Resident Evil 3 and continue the mainline story.

[00:26:45] That's not accurate, however, as Code Veronica was originally being developed to tandem with a few other Resi games and was always meant to be put on the Dreamcast as a side story.

[00:26:57] Originally, Jill Valentine, one of the two playable protagonists from the very first game, was set to be the star of Code Veronica. However, Hadecki Kamiya, the director of Resident Evil 2, altered the very end of the game and had Claire say this line. Chris, I have to find you.

[00:27:20] This was done without permission by Noburo Suji Mora, the writer of the game, and it did not go over well at all. The reason being, it was felt that fans would be expecting a follow-up to those words.

[00:27:36] You couldn't just end Resident Evil 2 on a cliffhanger like that and move away from Claire. So Jill was recast as Claire and Code Veronica to fill that plot hole.

[00:27:48] It all worked out in the end, though, especially since it allowed Jill to be the star of Resident Evil 3 Nemesis as we know it today. There's more to the game's development, but I'll leave you all with just that little tasty morsel.

[00:28:04] Eventually, Code Veronica came to the PlayStation 2 and with some added extras as the Dreamcast didn't have nearly the player base as the PlayStation 2 would inevitably have. The game itself was retitled as Resident Evil Code Veronica X.

[00:28:22] Since then, the game has been made widely available and when replaying the game for this podcast, I ended up downloading it off the PlayStation Store using my PlayStation 5. It really is a unique experience and Capcom really did go all out on this title.

[00:28:40] Graphically speaking, it looks great, especially since it took the jump to fully 3D rendered backgrounds instead of using the series staple pre-rendered ones like the original 3 entries into the series did. Cutscenes used a mixture of CGI as well as in-game assets.

[00:28:59] The overall feel of the game from a story perspective was more cinematic as well. On the surface, Resident Evil Code Veronica, whether it was a mainline entry into the series or not, looked and sounded impressive. But is it a game that players need to experience?

[00:29:21] Or is this game really just a side project with little heart that can be avoided? Well as a fan of the series, I am pretty biased, but let's give Code Veronica a fair shake.

[00:29:34] And in order for us to do that, I say we dive into this game headfirst and see exactly what it is that we're working with. Now a quick word about story spoilers since I don't think I've mentioned spoilers up to this point yet.

[00:29:50] I'm going to be talking about the first hour or so of the game which will include the story setup and a few action set pieces. But I won't go much further than that.

[00:30:02] There are a few things regarding the game experience and story that I do want to talk about that may ruin things for those who haven't played this game before.

[00:30:10] I plan to leave that stuff until the very end and give you all ample warning before I start talking about late game spoilers. So if you don't want those things spoiled for you, I'll give you a chance to either dip out or fast forward ahead.

[00:30:26] I'll also make it a point to put timestamps in the show note. So if you do want to avoid plot and gameplay spoilers for the late game, you can. Is all that sound good? Good. Alright, let's get into this thing. So what is this game?

[00:30:44] Resident Evil Code Veronica is a third person survival horror title developed and published by Capcom. Players take control of Claire Redfield three months after the events of Resident Evil 2.

[00:30:59] During Resident Evil 2, Claire finds evidence that her brother Chris is a neurof where he plans to investigate the umbrella corporations sinister dealings. This prompts Claire to venture to Europe herself and as the game begins, she finds herself in a Brullis Paris lab facility.

[00:31:19] And right out of the gate, the dial gets turned up to 11. Now while Code Veronica is pretty available on PlayStation, I vote we go old school and plug in our Sega Dreamcast for this one. Let's pop in Code Veronica and hit the power button.

[00:31:40] Wow, it's been what? 23, 24 years since I've heard that sound. While I was fortunate enough to have a Dreamcast for a little bit, I really wish I could have experienced more of that system.

[00:32:03] You left us well before your time, but the few memories I did have were magical, my friend. So here's to you, the Sega Dreamcast. May you one day return as the Sega Dreamcast mini and allow a new generation of gamers to experience all that you had to offer.

[00:32:29] After the Dreamcast boot screen were met with an image of what looks like the entrance to a mansion or some sort of high end estate. On screen are words that often bring warmth and joy to the hearts of resident evil fans everywhere.

[00:32:47] This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore. I know for a fact that when I popped this game in for the very first time, I smiled at this screen.

[00:32:59] This disclaimer always marked the beginning of a great time and I felt in my bones that Code Veronica would be no different. Almost as if the game was reading my mind, an intro movie plays on screen and in the 20 or so seconds that it is on screen,

[00:33:17] it sets up what could only be described as a roller coaster of action and horror set pieces. We see Claire, our beautiful leading lady running down a long hallway, bullets flying all around her.

[00:33:32] Her face is full of focus and determination as we see a shot of a helicopter outside the building Claire is in. The helicopter is what's firing on Claire and it's a miracle that she's alive at this point.

[00:33:46] Next we see a scene of Claire up against a wall and a long tentacle of sorts burst through the wall. What in the hell? Next over Claire's left shoulder we see a beautiful blonde woman holding Claire at gunpoint with a rifle. She announces her name is Alexia Ashford.

[00:34:06] What is going on? Then, a Leonardo DiCaprio looking fellow is shooting the camera with two golden handguns. We then see a shot of the same guy performing a diving maneuver and bringing up twin sub-machine guns pointed towards a blonde man in a red military code.

[00:34:25] Who are these people? Next, we get to see an up close look at the face of a humanoid monster. His eyes are blindfolded, his skin is putrid and he lets out a horrific cry.

[00:34:42] As the monster cries out, we see a shot of Claire turning her head away just as a huge axe is about to be brought down upon her. This isn't good at all, is Claire in danger?

[00:34:54] Flash to the backside of a naked woman in a life-sized test tube whose eyes slowly open, who seems to embody nothing but peer evil. Then we see a man in green being held up by the throat by a man in black with blonde hair.

[00:35:12] My kid self recognized the man in green immediately. That man has none other than Chris Redfield, Claire's brother. Holy shit, Chris is in this game? But who was the man who was trying to kill Chris though?

[00:35:27] Chris punches the mystery man in the face and we see a pair of sunglasses go flying. Hold up, wait a second, sunglasses? No way, this has to be Wesker! Wesker, the villain from the very first game, who was presumed dead is back?

[00:35:46] Just as Wesker turns to the camera, the game's title screen appears. Resident Evil Code Verodica. As a kid, I remember staring at the title screen after words with my jaw half open. In just a few quick seconds, I had multiple feelings just running through my brain.

[00:36:28] This game looked to be chock full of action and scares, and to be able to see my favorite characters on screen again, I was just elated, especially seeing Wesker again. I couldn't wait to get into this game and see what was in store.

[00:36:45] Fun fact though before we move on, I'm not entirely sure why, but the intro I just described and played the audio for was from the Dreamcast version and as far as I can tell, was exclusive to the Dreamcast version. When I replayed the game on the PS5 recently,

[00:37:05] the opening movie was more or less the same but there were subtle differences. Most notably, it has none of the sound effects you heard earlier like the voiceovers and gunshots. I assume the differences were relegated to Code Veronica X,

[00:37:21] but regardless, the opening movie was the perfect teaser for the experience to come. Once we get to the title screen, we can see the logo of Resident Evil Code Veronica up top. In the background, we could see a creepy looking mansion on a cloud-covered hilltop.

[00:37:40] In the foreground, we can see the head of the lovely Claire Redfield on the left and Chris's over on the right. The words, press start button are on screen. Once we do, press the start button, we're shown a few menu choices.

[00:37:58] We can load a previous game, start a new one, or check out the options menu. Thinking back, I don't think I ever looked at the options menu in this game, let alone tweak anything.

[00:38:11] I'm sure there's some cool things in there, but for right now, we're going to dive right in. There's no difficulty or anything, and you can't change your control settings off the classic tank style controls. So that being said, let's begin our journey into... Resident Evil.

[00:38:32] A quick note, I have not been a fan of that particular title calling. Just doesn't sound as menacing as Resident Evil 2, but I digress. Before we get underway, we're given a short introduction that sets the stage for the story to come.

[00:38:53] The American Midwestern town, Raccoon City has been completely decimated due to the tea virus outbreak that was instigated by the international corporation Umbrella.

[00:39:10] Claire Redfield, who arrived in Raccoon City to search for her lost brother Chris and a rookie police officer Leonis Kennedy, managed to escape from the city. But their idea was only a prey man of things to come. Three months later.

[00:39:32] From here, we see a symbol that most Resident Evil fans will recognize immediately.

[00:39:39] We see the symbol for the Umbrella corporation which is a fixed to the side of a helicopter, and that helicopter along with one other is seen flying through the clouds to an island in the distance.

[00:39:52] We quickly figure out that Claire is being transported to this island and after a brief welcome from one of Umbrella security guards, he knocks out Claire with the butt of his rifle. Your identification number is WKD4496. Welcome to your new home.

[00:40:12] As we see Claire lose consciousness, the screen transitions to Claire running through a long hallway bullets was in by her. Bullets make impact all around her and we can see Claire being pursued by several armed guards.

[00:40:28] She's obviously an umbrella's Paris lab facility where she's been discovered by the security staff there. At the end of the hallway, Claire comes to a large window and is immediately blinded by a bright white light. Through shielded eyes, Claire barely makes out what's in front of her.

[00:40:48] In a tag helicopter, that's in the process of spinning up a side-mounted gatling gun. In slow motion, we see realization on Claire's face and she immediately doubles back, passing between the two guards pursuing her.

[00:41:03] She dives into another hallway as the chopper opens fire, destroying the hallway that Claire was just in and filling the security guards full of holes.

[00:41:14] While this scene is pretty bad as all things considered, what always stuck with me was how umbrella gave zero shits when it came to property and personnel.

[00:41:25] If there was even a remote possibility of their evil deeds being exposed, they would stop at nothing to keep things under wraps. They were truly evil incarnate, and that's demonstrated again as Claire gets to her feet and runs as fast as she can.

[00:41:43] The chopper begins to strafe down the side of the building and using an interesting piece of technology has a bead on Claire's position even through the solid wall.

[00:41:53] The chopper opens fire again and cuts a line through the exterior of the building, doing its absolute best to cut down our heroin. But as luck would have it, there's an open door leading down at the end of the hallway.

[00:42:08] Claire musters her strength and leaps through the open doorway, flying past the stairs and landing on the ground below by executing a forward roll. Without even thinking, she regains her footing and begins to run again but she immediately stops with a gasp.

[00:42:25] Claire sees herself being held up at gunpoint by over a dozen armed guards. Knowing she can't take them all, Claire surrenders and raises her hands above her head.

[00:42:37] Her right hand loosely holding the grip of her handgun, which, by the way, is the same handgun she was given by Leon and Resident Evil 2, a browning high power single action 9mm. A little bit of trivia for all of you, resident evil nerds out there.

[00:42:57] Anyway, all seems lost until Claire notices several barrels in the back of the room marked flammable. We see Claire's eyebrows rise a little in recognition and then another slow-mo sequence begins.

[00:43:12] Claire opens her right hand slowly and allows her handgun to fall down along her right side, as the gun falls, the guards slowly move in. But right as the handgun gets to about chest level, Claire starts to fall to the side.

[00:43:29] In one fluid motion, Claire grabs the gun, lands on the ground, shoots the barrels and we get to watch as the guards go flying in the ensuing explosion. Shielding herself from the blast we watch is all manner of debris falls onto Claire's backside.

[00:43:52] After the chaos of sides, Claire takes the carnage in for a moment. Behind her though, we can hear heavy footfalls thumping as they come down the stairs. In a flash, Claire whips her handgun around and finds herself at gunpoint again. Don't move.

[00:44:14] Locking eyes with the man, Claire realizes what we realize is the player. Her handgun slide is locked back, meaning she's out of ammo. The camera zooms in on Claire's eyes as we get a glimpse of her capture.

[00:44:31] This is the end of the road for Claire and her mission to find her brother has officially ended in failure. We soon find Claire on a cement floor unconscious. The sounds of gunfire and explosions can be heard, and this is what Jar's Claire wig.

[00:44:51] She slowly gets to her feet and realizes she's been locked inside a prison cell. The walls of the cell begin to shake, and soon the only light in the room goes out.

[00:45:02] The camera brings us close to Claire's face, and we can see her blue eyes dart around the room she's in. While there are some pretty detailed and graphically impressive for the time, CGI cutscenes in this game,

[00:45:16] This one right here will always stand out to me as one of the most technically impressive. While Claire's blue eyes are incredibly detailed here, we gain a lot of insight into Claire's mindset just by how her eyes dart around the room.

[00:45:33] They're full of concern and a bit of worry, but we can also see how level-headed Claire is in the moment. She's scanning her surroundings, looking for a way out. Soon Claire spots a man enter the room, but we can't quite make out his face in the darkness.

[00:45:52] Claire considers speaking and the camera zooms in on her lips. Even the detail of her lips in the scene is fantastic, and not just the look of them, how they slowly part and you can see the skin separates in the corners of her mouth.

[00:46:11] I don't know how else to describe it, but if you can't visualize that, go look up this intro on YouTube and play close attention to this scene. It's a needless detail, but something that I always notice.

[00:46:26] Watching this scene play out as a kid, I knew Resident Evil was evolving, and it all hooked me right from the get-go. The man who entered the room looks to be injured as he slowly makes his way to the front of Claire's prison cell.

[00:46:42] From here, the CGI cutscene ends and we see some on-screen text. If I were equipped with a lighter, I could see outside. From here, the game automatically opens our inventory menu.

[00:46:59] The inventory screen is pre-standard Resident Evil Fair, and items in our inventory will show up on the right side of the screen. Even though we were taken prisoner and presumably stripped of our weapons, umbrella did leave a few things in our pockets.

[00:47:15] First, we have a book called The Playing Manual. I suggest giving it a read if this is your first time playing. There isn't anything new in this book that series veterans don't already know about, but the info is there to reference.

[00:47:31] Once you read it, it disappears from your inventory and goes to file, clearing up a valuable inventory space.

[00:47:39] One thing about the playing manual that I didn't know until recently is that you can refer back to it as the game progresses, and it will have updated itself with hints.

[00:47:50] The hints don't out rightly give you the answer to any riddles or puzzles you might be facing, but they do try to nudge you in the right direction, which I think is a nice touch that I'm sure no one knows about, because I sure has held it.

[00:48:05] In any case, the item in our inventory that we really care about is the lighter. No idea why Claire would be allowed to keep this, but let's try not to think about it too much.

[00:48:16] You'll notice the lighter is in the upper right hand side of the screen, sort of off to the side compared to the rest of the inventory.

[00:48:24] The lighter or any item in this particular slot is a sort of extra item that will always stay in Claire's possession, say for a handful of times that there isn't anything in there. Selecting it will bring up a small submenu.

[00:48:39] We can either equip the lighter, check it, combine it with another item, or use it. Checking this or any other item allows you to see a 3D rendering of the item itself, and you can even move it around.

[00:48:54] While it is cool to see the items in your possession, you will be checking items often, there's actually a purpose to this at times. Sometimes an item you find may contain another, or has something written on it that you need to reference, so just keep that in mind.

[00:49:10] Combining isn't applicable to all items, but you can combine medical herbs you find to make them stronger, ammo with their correct firearm to reload them, and you can combine certain key items you find in order to make an item useful and a puzzle for say.

[00:49:27] Using an item is more of a one-time use sort of option if you're about to use it on a puzzle or something similar.

[00:49:35] But for our purposes right now, we want to equip the lighter, which series veterans know is something we've never been able to do have to this point. So let's do that now, and then close our menu to see what we have in store for us.

[00:49:57] We see the face of a man staring back at us through the bars. Clare steps back is the mystery man unlocks our cell door. This is Rodrigo, and he was the guy who ended up apprehending Claire at the end of her journey into the Paris lab facility.

[00:50:15] After he opens the cell door, he motions for Claire to step on out. Clare's eyes widen in a mixture of shock and confusion, but before she can acknowledge Rodrigo, the man limps to a nearby desk chair and sits down, clearly exhausted.

[00:50:33] He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a white bottle. We can't tell what it is, but Rodrigo decides to throw it across the room. As it hits the ground, it's clear that the bottle is empty. Perfect.

[00:50:48] He looks up at Clare who's just watching him from her cell. Go on, get out of here. This place is finished. I don't know it might have been a special forces team, but in any case this prison has been taken over, the troops have been wiped out.

[00:51:08] What are you saying? You're free to leave the complex, but you may as well know you have no chance of getting off this island. And what about you? What are you going to do? Don't worry about me.

[00:51:25] At this point we're given control of Clare and the game has now officially begun. Now first things first. If it wasn't apparent in the cutscene we just watched, look at how beautiful this game looks, especially as Clare is standing there holding her lighter.

[00:51:44] Lighting effects were pretty decent in video games up to this point, especially during the PlayStation 1 era where games like Silent Hill were pioneering ways to light up dark spaces. In Code Veronica however, the lighting effects move to the next level.

[00:52:02] We are to the point where objects are casting unique shadows based on where you're standing or anything, but the light that bounces off the 3D rendered walls moves when you move and it is incredible to see. Speaking of moving, it is about time we do just that.

[00:52:20] Moving around in this game is the same as any other of the main line games up to this point which have a famous control scheme called Tank Controls.

[00:52:31] For those that don't know this scheme or missed the dozen or so times that I talked about it on the show up to this point, moving your character on screen is clunky to say the least.

[00:52:44] It's a control scheme where your character's movement is dependent on the direction that they're facing instead of the camera view. Pressing up on the directional pad will move your character forward relative to the direction that they're facing.

[00:52:59] Pressing left or right will only pivot the character in those directions and pressing down will make your character move backwards relative to the direction they're facing. Pretty much like controlling a military tank I would assume.

[00:53:13] Clunky as these controls are, I still love them and no one can convince me that they are not awesome, especially for games like these. Where we're standing, we can see a few items right near us.

[00:53:28] On a nearby chair, we can see a red box that sort of shimmers. If we move over to it and hit the action button which is the X button on the PlayStation, we'll be able to see what this item is and pick it up if we so choose.

[00:53:43] Take the handgun bullets the game asks us? Uh, yeah, I think we will. We don't have a handgun to use the ammo on, but ammo is ammo and I'm sure we will have a need for ammo soon enough.

[00:53:58] Let's take these with us and then back out of our inventory screen. Next, we can see the white pill bottle that Rodriguez chocked on the ground. Examining it reveals that it was a bottle of hemostatic medicine.

[00:54:15] While the game doesn't really say this, hemostatic medicine is largely used to help reduce hemorrhaging or bleeding. If you walk over to Rodrigo himself and examine him, the game will tell us that he's bleeding and he will need hemostatic medicine.

[00:54:32] I won't spoil anything but I will say we should do our best to keep an eye out for another bottle of this medicine. The man did let us go free, we should probably return the favor if we get the opportunity.

[00:54:46] Now before we leave the room and make our escape, there's one more item we should take with us. On the other side of the desk that Rodriguez is sitting at, we can find a useful survivors tool. Take the combat knife the game asks us?

[00:55:04] Uh, yeah, I think we will. The combat knife in Code Veronica is one of the most useful early iterations of the knife, in my opinion. The knife itself is a lot longer than I think it needs to be, but no real complaints here.

[00:55:21] If you're skilled enough, you can dispatch a lot of enemies without putting yourself in much danger. I actually found myself using the knife a decent amount for the game's first half after I learned a little trick with it, which I'll get into a little later.

[00:55:36] Until then let's pocket that knife. Alright, let's head to the door and press on. When we move into the next room, we're met with a series staple, the door animation.

[00:55:51] Used as a mask for loading times, we move to the door in first person, open it up and proceed through. On the other side of the door, we find ourselves in a hallway. Immediately to the left, we can see another series staple, a typewriter.

[00:56:14] And next to the typewriter is an ink ribbon. Using an ink ribbon with a typewriter allows us to save our game. Ink ribbons are a finite resource, so you need to keep that in mind as you go.

[00:56:27] There's plenty in the game if you're not saving every three minutes or so, so no real need to worry about any of that or worrying about never finding an ink ribbon to save your game. For now, though, I actually recommend just leaving the ink ribbon behind for now.

[00:56:45] It's going to be a while before we come across an item box and we'll need every one of our item slots for some of the things to come. That said, let's go ahead and start moving forward. Whoa, hold up just a second there. Did you see that?

[00:57:06] The camera, which was positioned down on Claire, is actually moving along the ceiling with us as we move. A first in the series, Code Veronica doesn't always have static camera angles now. Sometimes the camera will follow you around while you explore a space.

[00:57:26] There's still an element of tension as you don't really have control of the camera, but now exploration has more of a cinematic feel to it. Certain camera angles are done in such a way that they really ratchet up the tension too. Visually, this game just continues to impress.

[00:57:47] Not too far ahead is another box of handgun bullets on the ground, so be sure to grab those as well. As we continue to move down the hallway, we eventually turn to the right and come across a staircase upwards.

[00:58:03] We can access stairs like going through a doorway, so when you're ready, let's ascend. Moving up and down stairs into another room plays out with a loading animation, much like going through a door, but this time the developers added something a little different.

[00:58:22] In times of tension or suspense, when they know that you're entering a room under Dress or you know there might be danger in the next area, the game likes to slow things down and play a tell tale heartbeat.

[00:58:38] It's probably one of my favorite little touches, which makes you wonder what could possibly be in store in the next room. We find ourselves outside on the surface. There seems to be no danger around, so we press forward.

[00:59:07] We can hear the crackling of electricity, and as we round the corner, we can see the front of a military truck on its side. Upon examination, we can see that oil is leaking from the crashed wreck.

[00:59:21] Looking past the windshield, there's a dead body as well as a briefcase. I wonder what that could be alluding to. Anyway, nothing else to be done here, so let's move along. As we proceed onwards, we start to notice several tombstones on the ground.

[00:59:41] Ah, perfect. I wonder what this could be alluding to. No sooner do we start to ponder this question does the answer come? In the form of an explosion. Sparks, oil, ominous silence. I saw this coming even as a kid to be honest.

[01:00:04] But what do we have here? The briefcase we saw through the windshield makes a dramatic fall to the ground. No doubt we'll need to get that at some point. However, we now have more important things to worry about.

[01:00:20] The dead body we saw makes its way through the shattered windshield and falls to the ground. Claire looks on with a look of disbelief as the body slowly gets to its feet. We're showing a close-up of the man's decaying, melting face as his mouth hangs open.

[01:00:40] It lets out a moan of both anguish and one of hunger. Claire starts to walk backwards and through the game's updated graphical engine, we can tell exactly what she's thinking by the look of her face. Not again, this cannot be happening again.

[01:01:01] A few more steps back and Claire loses her footing and falls backwards onto the ground. The zombies life-less eyes are locked on as Claire wonders how raccoon city seem to have followed her halfway around the world. All at once an in-game CGI cutscene starts.

[01:01:20] A hand shoots out a grab's Claire's arm. Looking down Claire sees another zombie, one that seems to have made its way out of the very ground that she's sitting on. She throws the zombie off of her and scramble on her hands and knees to get away,

[01:01:38] but all around her more zombies are making their way out of the ground. Turning around, Claire spots a zombie on its feet and at the last second, she moves out of the way as the zombie falls towards the spot that she was just at.

[01:01:55] Slowly getting to her feet, Claire realizes that she's surrounded by the undead who have all risen to their feet. At this moment, the cutscene ends and without hardly any transition, the game returns control to the player. Oh shit, oh shit.

[01:02:14] Claire is positioned further down the path with two zombies in front of her and two zombies behind her. We could equip the knife and try to take some of these monsters down, but this would not be the safest way to learn how to use the knife right now.

[01:02:29] We just need to get out of here. The zombie in front of us is positioned on the left side of the path that we're on, so if we just stick to the other side, we may slip past it. Are you ready? Okay, go! Nice, slipped right by.

[01:02:48] As soon as we do, the camera changes and it shows us what's at the end of the path. Past a steel gate is a door. That is where we're heading.

[01:02:58] Ah crap, one of the zombies is further up the path and if we don't move to the right, it's gonna grab us. Quickly use the directional button to turn Claire but make sure to keep moving forward and... Yeah, damn it!

[01:03:13] Damn you tank controls! I love you, but sometimes you make life hard. When a zombie latches on, all you can do is smash the buttons on your controller until Claire throws it off.

[01:03:28] Well, what are you waiting for? You looking to become a happy meal today? Get to press in those buttons! There we go, good work! Now that you're free and clear, head to the door and let's get out of here.

[01:03:45] On the other side of the door, the tension immediately fades. We'll notice Claire's head turning to the ground off to her left. There's a dead body lying there with something near its hands. Is that what I think it is?

[01:04:03] We move towards it but only after a few steps, someone aims a spotlight at us. As soon as the spotlight hits Claire, the sound of machine gun fire can be heard. Well, let's pepper the ground and Claire falls backwards onto the ground.

[01:04:19] She instinctively crawls out of the way by putting her back to the wreck truck near her. On the ground, she spots what was near the dead body from earlier. Almost as if it was placed there for her to find is a handgun.

[01:04:35] Claire picks it up and checks to make sure it's loaded. Her cool head now returning to her. She waits for a lawling the gunfire and as soon as it stops, she leaps out from behind cover and takes out the spotlight that was fixed to a guard tower.

[01:04:50] Seeing a figure behind the machine gun placement, Claire takes two more shots before the figure cries out. Whaaat! Wait wait, don't you? Who are you? Huh, you're not a zombie? Well great, we're right there, I'm coming over.

[01:05:09] Sorry about that little misunderstanding, but I thought you were another one of those munch shut up. Make one wrong move and I'll shoot! Here is where Claire meets another human. A human, many Resident Evil fans probably know and probably don't care a great deal about.

[01:05:26] Especially since he wasn't voice acted all that great. Relax, beautiful. I said I was sorry, my name's Steve. I was a prisoner on this island and I'm guessing you're not from umbrella either. No, I'm Claire, Claire Redfield. Claire, nice. I'll remember that.

[01:05:47] Hey, here there's an airport around here. Once I find it, I can finally escape from this crazy island. While see ya. Hey, wait up! I don't want you following me, lady. You'll only slow me down. And that was Steve Burnside.

[01:06:03] I remember seeing this scene when I was a kid and even though the game started off on an exceptionally high note, even my hunger self was put off by Steve. I will say though, Steve as a character isn't all bad.

[01:06:18] Well, I appreciated his backstory and the circumstances that led to him being where he was. I did not, however, appreciate some of the choices he made or how he behaves in some situations. But I'll explain myself a little bit more in the spoiler section.

[01:06:35] Anyhow, after the cutscene ends, the handgun that Claire picked up is added to our inventory. Now we're in business. We need to find our way off the island and if what Steve said was true, we need to figure out where this airport is.

[01:06:54] Aside from Steve's stellar voice, which always finds a way to give me a headache, Resident Evil Code Veronica starts off strong. At its heart, this game is a lot like the original three games in the series and really doesn't add too much new to the table.

[01:07:11] Some features of previous games do make a return here, such as the ability to do 180 degree quick turn, auto-waming when pointing your weapon and fixed camera angles. Though there are a lot more camera movements this time around.

[01:07:26] The new 3D rendered environments allow for much more detail when it comes to the areas that you're going to be trudging through, but there is a lack of consistency that I noticed.

[01:07:38] Some areas are full of detail and things to look at, like inside the island's palace area, for instance. Other areas are void of detail and almost feel unfinished. One area underground near the airport that has a huge fish tank taking up one wall comes to mind.

[01:07:57] The walls in this area are barren, there's hardly any objects around and it all just looks very dull and lifeless. Thankfully, dull areas aren't as common as the fully furnished ones, but they are noticeable when you see them.

[01:08:14] And while the visual presentation was certainly an upgrade thanks to the Dreamcast hardware, some aspects of it haven't aged all that well in my opinion. While cutscenes and story moments have the characters looking their best, character movements during actual gameplay look a little...

[01:08:33] I don't know, stiff, disjointed, and kind of jerky sometimes. One thing that always sticks out is how clear looks when she's turning in place.

[01:08:45] Pressing left or right on the directional pad has you swivel your character kind of like they're on a turntable, and I find it funny how their legs don't move at all, or if they do, it's barely noticeable, so it's like they're literally just standing on a turntable.

[01:09:01] It's animations like this, or black they're of, that can take you out of the experience a little bit. And sure, it's a sign of the times I suppose, but with as much effort that went into other things and other places, I'm surprised by some of the graphical choices.

[01:09:20] Even the zombies which look great and even feature moving mouths tend to look stiff as a board as they wander towards you. Another thing you may notice is that characters have two models, one used for in-game cutscenes and another one for actual gameplay.

[01:09:39] The one used for actual gameplay is a lot less detailed and it's pretty noticeable if you're looking at it. Another PlayStation 2 game that does this that comes to mind is Final Fantasy X.

[01:09:52] I will say this doesn't bother me much because this is something that's clearly a sign of the times, but again it's noticeable, not the worst thing and it's almost endearing given the hardware limitations at the time. Code Veronica also brings some other new things to the table.

[01:10:10] Some subtle others less so. For one you now have the ability to use a health item on the spot if you find one and don't have enough inventory space to actually pick it up,

[01:10:21] which is kind of nice. Another thing you can do is in the event that you die, you can retry instead of having to go all the way back to the title screen and load your last save manually.

[01:10:33] This is a nice feature and you can certainly cut down on the time spent reloading the game from scratch, especially if you find yourself getting manhandled at a specific point over and over again.

[01:10:45] To add to this there are some points in the story that act as checkpoints, so that if you die, retrying will put you just a few rooms before the major story beat.

[01:10:57] This mainly happens for larger boss encounters and a lot of the late game content, so it's nice to not have to waste all that time getting back to the encounter from a previous save.

[01:11:09] Just know that the game's final ranking system frowns upon retries, so if you're looking for the best ranking, you'll have to go old school. Plus there is one fatal flaw with this checkpoint system.

[01:11:24] Depending on where you're at in the game and if you had the right weapons on you or you don't have enough ammo on hand,

[01:11:31] you may not be able to really progress and you may be forced to reload an older save, which brings me to one last negative that I want to point out.

[01:11:43] Some of the boss encounters in Code Veronica can be so tough that if you don't have specific resources on hand, you may not be able to progress at all.

[01:11:55] This usually isn't a problem for me personally given my experience with survival horror games in general, but the amount of enemies that you'll face in this game are much more plentiful and they tend to soak up a lot of ammo and resources.

[01:12:10] For those of you that know, if you get to the point where you're fighting that one boss in the back of the plane and you don't have enough healing items or ammo, you're pretty well screwed. Some players have had to restart the game from scratch at this point.

[01:12:26] There is a way to beat this particular boss without using any ammo and relying on the one environmental weapon that you have, but you need to be patient, you have to be nimble on your feet and you kind of gotta get a little lucky.

[01:12:41] That specific boss deals massive damage if it hits you so if you can beat it without firing off a shot, good on you.

[01:12:51] There's one more gameplay addition that I find interesting in this game and in order to check that out, we're gonna have to continue our gameplay just a little bit. Let's jump back to Claire after she and Steve parted ways.

[01:13:06] Let's move to the next area and see what it has in store for our heroine. The rain isn't letting up, but we still need to push forward. Through the doorway we come to a somewhat open area.

[01:13:26] On our right, a building has had its side blown open and fire could be seen within. On our left is another building seemingly untouched. As we walk towards it, there's a set of stairs that we can use to get up onto a wooden walkway.

[01:13:44] You'll notice that as you move to the base of the staircase, Claire doesn't automatically walk up. You'll have to press your action button and have Claire ascend them automatically.

[01:13:55] Seeing as how Resident Evil 3 and Code Veronica were developed at about the same time, I do find it kind of odd that the ability to just automatically walk up and downstairs was present in Resident Evil 3 but absent in Code Veronica.

[01:14:11] Not a huge deal or anything just a little bit odd. Anyway, moving forward we see a door. I think it's time we get out of the rain and get inside for a little bit. What do you say?

[01:14:25] As soon as we enter the room, we'll notice a zombie immediately declares right. The handgun we picked up earlier was automatically equipped. So if we push and hold the right trigger on our Dreamcast controller or the R1 button on our PlayStation, Claire will draw her handgun.

[01:14:47] Auto-Aiming is a feature in this game so Claire will automatically pivot her body to face the nearest enemy. Hurry up and fire because this zombie is way too close for comfort. Nice. When a zombie falls to the ground, pay attention to the ground around the body.

[01:15:10] Just like in previous Resident Evil games, you'll know a zombie is dead dead when you see a pool of blood spreading out from around it. In this case we're not seeing a pool of blood so let's aim down and finish this one off before it gets back up.

[01:15:27] There we go. One less zombie to worry about. The moans of a few more zombies can be hurt throughout the room though, and one even walked in front of the camera second ago as well. I'm sure you caught that.

[01:15:44] If you're nimble enough, you can run around the room and try to avoid them while you explore, but I suggest taking out the approaching two zombies so we can explore this area in relative peace. That's one down, but the other one isn't going down quite as easy.

[01:16:04] Damn it, it's right on top of us. Quick, smash your buttons. Oh, nice, quick reflexes with that one. Now here's something I want to call out.

[01:16:21] Sometimes a zombie will physically lunge at you and grab you, and if it does grab hold of you from a lunge, it rears its head back before attempting to check a chunk out of your neck.

[01:16:33] If you can hit your buttons and break free fast enough, you can break free and push the zombie to the ground without its sinking its teeth into you and you will take no damage. This is where using the combat knife becomes incredibly effective.

[01:16:51] You can make a zombie lunge if you run past it, quick turn right in front of it or by running towards it. This doesn't work 100% of the time, but more often than not it should.

[01:17:04] If you can get good enough and force zombies to lunge at you and grab onto you and then smash your buttons, quick enough and throw them to the ground without taking damage, it makes life so much easier,

[01:17:17] especially when you can then knife these enemies before they can even get up and save a ton of ammo.

[01:17:25] I would find myself practicing this method and once I got pretty decent at it, I would kill most zombies this way for the first half of the game if I could and hoard ammo like a fiend.

[01:17:37] If you find yourself in a tight space though like a narrow hallway, I suggest sticking with a firearm.

[01:17:45] If you swing your knife and hit a wall or an object like a table, the blade will bounce off of it and Claire will take a moment to ready herself for the next swing, leaving you open to attack.

[01:17:57] In our case here, just finish this one off with a 9mm of the back of the head and let's move on. Nice, it was dirty work, but this area is now clean. I always like this room that we're in because it shows more of the game's graphical prowess.

[01:18:19] There's a light on the ceiling that's moving around so the light in the room moves around a little bit, showing off the lighting effects again. There's cockroaches scurrying up and down some of the walls, further enhancing the state of decay that's all around us.

[01:18:35] It's all done up really well. There's a few things to find in this room that I'll leave you to discover but the prize that we want is in the back of this building. Let's head through the door near the back of the building and keep moving.

[01:18:55] In the next room, we see several bunk beds and this area looks to be a sort of barracks of some kind. There's blood everywhere and as we move inside the room a little bit, we can see several dead bodies littering both the ground and some on the beds.

[01:19:12] There's also a strange knocking sound coming from somewhere up ahead. I'm sure that can't be good but if survival horror games have taught us anything, it's that we need to search for resources and clues thoroughly.

[01:19:28] So let's put that knocking sound out of our minds for now and focus on our mission. On one of the beds, there's a blue book that we can pick up.

[01:19:38] Inside is a prisoner's diary and when we read it, we get a little glimpse inside the mind of one of the island's many prisoners. In typical Resident Evil fashion, there's a little bit more going on here than meets the eye.

[01:19:55] The prisoner talks of how prisoners in this area go missing at times and how they're taken to a building behind a guillotine stand. He mentions the name Alfred, who seems to be running the island.

[01:20:09] Near the end of the file, the prisoner turns terrified when he realizes he'll be the next one taken away. What does it all mean? We'll find out soon enough, don't you worry. The knocking sound seems to get louder as we move forward.

[01:20:30] At the end of the room, we can move towards the back of the barracks towards the showers. There, we find a dead body but if we examine it, we can find more bullets for our handgun. Sweet. Doubling back, the camera switches views when we walk towards the screen.

[01:20:52] From here, we can see what was causing the noise. A zombie is hitting a window with his hand from the outside trying to break in. To the right, there's a shelf with another box of handgun bullets on it.

[01:21:08] Even as a young kid, I knew what was going to happen as soon as I picked up those bullets. The real prize, however, is coming up and we need those bullets to get there. So, let's greet our teeth and pick up the bullets. Perfect. And right on cue.

[01:21:33] The zombie pounding on the glass comes through the window and falls to our feet. But, as it gets to its feet, we'll notice it has two unique looking handguns strap to either side of itself that fall right to the ground. Those are what we can't even for.

[01:21:54] Once we regain control, we need to... Exactly. We need to put that zombie down and grab those guns. You're pretty quick on your feet, I must say. Hurry up and grab those weapons. Ooh, what do we have here? The M100P, huh?

[01:22:20] Two pistols that take up two inventory spaces. Interesting. We'll have a moment to check these out later, but for now, let's pocket our prizes and get the hell outta here. We aren't near a save room or anything, but given everything that we just experienced up to this point,

[01:22:43] let's take a moment to admire our new weapon as we wrap up some of my final surface level thoughts before heading into spoiler territory.

[01:22:53] So, the last gameplay feature I wanted to mention is the fact that there are some weapons in Code Veronica that you can do a wield. The M100P, which was modeled after the Calico M100 in real life, are two handguns that Claire can equip in both hands.

[01:23:11] Not only does this double her firepower, the game's auto-aim feature will allow you to target two enemies at once. It is a really neat idea, but in a honesty, there's something immersion-breaking about dual wielding in the original games like this.

[01:23:29] Sure, Leon has the ability to dual wield in Resident Evil 6, but that game was made to be all out action. Still, just like the real Calico M100P, the ones in Code Veronica have 100 shots per magazine, so it is no slouch.

[01:23:49] The only catch is, you cannot and will not find any more bullets for these guns, so what ammo you have is all you have. The variety of weapons in Code Veronica are pretty robust, now I think about it.

[01:24:05] A lot of weapons used in Resident Evil 2 make a reappearance here from the handgun to a shotgun, bowgun, a magna and even a grenade launcher.

[01:24:16] But there's also dual fully automatic submachine guns, an automatic assault rifle and even a sniper rifle that allows you to go into first person view to aim and fire it, though you only have access to that particular weapon for a single boss encounter.

[01:24:34] Resident Evil Code Veronica is a game that I thoroughly enjoy, but if I'm being honest, it's certainly not my favorite of the Resident Evil titles.

[01:24:44] While the game starts off really well, and sets a tone of mystery for boating and even a little bit of horror, the game starts to fall apart for me when we reach the halfway mark.

[01:24:56] There are some pacing issues that pop up, and some areas of the game that become extremely tedious. Backtracking to a previous area in survival horror games isn't under herd of or anything, and there's a decent amount of that in this game.

[01:25:12] But the second half of Code Veronica has you revisiting a lot of the same areas, and it just feels really old after a while.

[01:25:23] This game can have a pretty lengthy playtime and replaying this game after however many years it's been took me about 10 hours to see the end credits.

[01:25:34] I'd venture to say, just under half that time was just spent going back and forth in areas that had already been in, and there got to be a point where some of the backtracking felt like the developers were just padding the runtime.

[01:25:49] I may get into more of that in the spoiler section, but I just wanted to call that out. While the story itself is pretty interesting all things considered, even with Code Veronica's cookie cast and D-Voise acting, I think the game could have been a few hours shorter.

[01:26:07] Plus, there's really no replay value to be had here. Once you complete the game, you've seen everything there is to see from a story perspective. There's no branching paths, no multiple endings, or different ways to solve puzzles. Once you're done, you're done.

[01:26:27] Now, there is a battle game that unlocks that allows you a little bit more playtime. In this battle game, you can select Clare, Chris and a few others, and make your way through a gauntlet of enemies with preset loadouts that have unlimited ammo.

[01:26:44] The goal here is to complete the gauntlet as fast as you can, and while it can be fun trying to get the best time, even that has so much replay value.

[01:26:54] The gauntlet is always the same with the same enemies, regardless of the character that you play as, but the end boss that you tackle is different depending on the character, so there is that.

[01:27:06] It is worth mentioning though that you can play the battle game in first person view of you so choose. That alone is worth a run through or two, just to have that experience.

[01:27:20] Now, I know I've been talking pretty highly of Resident Evil Code Veronica for the most part in this episode, and I only just now dropped some negatives about the game, but I wanted to at least throw some of that out there for those of you who are gonna skip the spoiler section.

[01:27:38] Overall, I do like this game, but many of my reservations stem from story and character moments, as well as some gameplay choices, I can only talk about by spoiling the game's plot. So, if you're in for the long haul, I'll get into a little bit more detail.

[01:27:55] But with all that said, I think that's all I have for the first part of our journey. Code Veronica is a great survival horror experience that fans of the genre and of the Resident Evil series as a whole should enjoy.

[01:28:11] The gameplay is solid, the story as a whole is pretty dense, and the visual presentation is great, even if some finer details don't hold up as well today. If you get a chance to play this game, I highly encourage it.

[01:28:25] There are far worse games to spend 10 hours with, and even if you only play it once, I think you'll be glad that you did.

[01:28:34] I really do think Capcom would do well with this game if they decided to remake this one in the same engine and style as the Resident Evil 2 remake. Imagine a dark, gritty version of this game with photo realistic graphics just makes me smile.

[01:28:52] So, here's hoping that comes to pass one day. Alright, and with that I want to talk about some of the story moments in this game and use those to tie up some of my final thoughts.

[01:29:07] I'm thinking briefly jumping through the story and stopping on some of the specific moments I want to talk about or the ones that will help me explain a point I want to make. We'll also focus on some of the characters a bit.

[01:29:22] It sort of goes without saying, but I will be spoiling major plot points and the end of the game coming up.

[01:29:28] So if you don't want to have that spoil for you, you can check the show notes for the timestamp that you can skip to in order to avoid all of that.

[01:29:36] So, if you're dipping out, I'll give you some time to do that by playing a little bit of music. But once the music is over, all bets are off.

[01:29:47] So let me refill my drink and I'll be back at a moment as we dive into some of the story moments of Resident Evil Code Veronica. The story in Resident Evil Code Veronica, to me, is one of the more interesting ones in the series.

[01:30:48] Some of what's going on in this game is genuinely interesting and ties into the rest of the Resident Evil lore rather well. While the characters aren't voiced incredibly well in this game, they do have some interesting back stories which drive motivations.

[01:31:03] Oh and shout out to Allison Court, the voice of Claire. While I think others do a great job with Claire's character, especially Stephanie Panicello and Resident Evil 2 remake, Allison Court will always be the OG Claire for me.

[01:31:20] Anyway, in this game, Claire and her brother Chris are just who they are and there's no real character development to be had with either of them.

[01:31:29] With the exception of Chris at the very end when he realizes he's no match for his arch nemesis, and uses that realization to drive character growth in other games.

[01:31:40] The villains in this game are pretty one note and Steve is super annoying, but I actually found their back stories pretty compelling and I wish the game did a bit more with them.

[01:31:53] I often wonder if a better voice acted cast would have made the difference or if the writing just needed to be improved as a whole. Either way, if it sounds like I'm being a little wishy-washy here, it's because I am.

[01:32:08] I like this game's story, but it's also pretty mad as well. Hopefully that makes sense as we go. So I think I said it before, but the beginning of the game is probably my favorite. The game sets a great tone, one of isolation and uncertainty.

[01:32:28] We meet Steve pretty early on, and he tells us he's a prisoner on the island as well. When you first meet him, I can tell the game is trying to get you to wonder about this guy. Who could he be? Why is he a prisoner here?

[01:32:44] As we interact with Steve over time, we get little glimpses into who he is and what he's doing on the island. The next time we see Steve is in a security office.

[01:32:57] Somehow, he's accessing a computer that tells him all about Claire's brother Chris and discovers that umbrella is monitoring him. Once Claire figures out the location of the island there on, thanks to a conveniently placed file next to the computer,

[01:33:13] she decides to message Leon and tell him to tell her brother where she is. This strikes a nerve with Steve, and the game tries again to give us a little insight into his character.

[01:33:26] Well that file shows latitude and longitude of this place. What do you say your brother, the coordinates, and ask him to come help? Thanks! I'll do that! Hey! Are we just kidding? There's no way he could get here even if he is your brother.

[01:33:41] Yes he can, I'm sure of it. No way, he won't come. You'll descend up disappointed if you rely on others. Believe me, I know! What was that all about? Yeah, I'm with you Claire. All that seemed did was just make me hate Steve more.

[01:33:58] Even though I know the writers were trying to get me to wonder what could have happened to this guy. The writing wanted me to be curious and interested but all I wanted to do was feed Steve to the next zombie that I saw.

[01:34:12] To drive that thought home even further, while exploring the palace area of the island, you come across a door that has two indentations of two handguns. Knowing you're going to need those to unlock the door, you keep your eyes out for them.

[01:34:29] Eventually, you find them but they're secured by a locking mechanism where if you take the golden loogurs, the room seals you in and the temperature is turned up to maximum. Only when you put the guns back, can you escape.

[01:34:45] In order to circumvent this particular trap, you need two people. Once you figure this out, you opt to leave the guns for now and leave. Once you attempt to leave the palace, you're stopped by one of Steve's most iconic and cringiest voice lines ever. Yeah, help me!

[01:35:07] The only reason we help him is we need the rest of the game to happen, so we rush back to find Steve trapped in the same room with the golden loogurs.

[01:35:18] Common sense should tell him to put the guns back, link up with Claire and figure out how to circumvent this trap but no! He just wails on the false wall hoping someone will come to his rescue. What a fucking idiot!

[01:35:34] Now, I do realize the fact that by grabbing the loogurs off the wall, it opens up a panel in the next room to allow Claire to disarm the trap so him being a tool is necessary but come on!

[01:35:48] He's even a dick when he comes out of the room telling Claire he won't hand over the loogurs until we give him something fully automatic. Whatever, get out of here you dick!

[01:36:00] I don't want to hit up every single one of Steve's story beads and I know I'm really beating Steve up here. He just makes terrible decisions, he unloads a fully automatic sub-machine gun at a wall at one point because he's an angsty teen.

[01:36:15] He even tries to kiss Claire while she's asleep like some creep. And he almost kills Claire by not watching what he's doing while operating heavy machinery because he's too busy looking at Claire's ass. But, allow me to say this in regards to Steve.

[01:36:34] I really liked what they were trying to do with his character, well mostly. Eventually we find out the reason Steve was imprisoned on the island and that backstory can be pretty deep.

[01:36:50] Steve's father was an employee of umbrella and he decided he was going to sell off some of umbrella secrets for money. He was caught and this prompted umbrella to take Steve and his father prisoner after killing Steve's mother, presumably in front of them.

[01:37:07] Steve and his father were separated on the island and it isn't until a little later that we discovered what happened to him. At one point Claire and Steve fall through a rotted out wooden floor to a level below. Claire, while trapped under some rubble, spots a lone zombie.

[01:37:25] Steve prepares to take the zombie out but immediately recognizes the zombie to be his father. He can't pull the trigger and opt to just close his eyes instead. Steve's father notices Claire trapped under the rubble and turns his attention to her.

[01:37:43] But just as Claire is about to be torn to pieces, Steve comes to his senses and kills his father in a pretty heart-wrenching scene. Well it's about as heart-wrenching as you can get with terrible voice acting. Still though think about it.

[01:37:59] Steve who's only 17 witnesses the death of his mother is taken prisoner and deposited on an island for something that his father did. No telling what unspeakable things Steve witnessed up to this point either.

[01:38:14] While Code Veronica's story doesn't really explore it, there's a lot of story potential here and honestly it's something I hope they flesh out in the potential remake. I mean if they can make Ashley Graham and Resident Evil 4 likeable anything is possible.

[01:38:32] I do hope they change up how the game ends Steve's story though.

[01:38:36] I appreciate how they tried to make Steve fall in love with Claire but in reality both Steve and Claire really didn't interact that much together so how a connection like that can be formed is beyond me.

[01:38:52] When Steve was transformed into a monster at the end of the game and ultimately kept enough of his humanity to save Claire's life it was touching for a moment but really I felt nothing for his character when he eventually died.

[01:39:08] But really I have hope that Steve's character can be redeemed in a potential remake of Code Veronica. I want to like you Steve truly but alas until we get a new story you will always be a missed opportunity.

[01:39:24] As we explore the island as Claire we eventually come across Alfred Ashford the commander of the island base. While Alfred is 100% of these stereotypical Saturday morning cartoon villain I find him to be pretty compelling.

[01:39:43] While his voice acting isn't all that great either I feel like Peter Oldering who voiced Alfred tried his best to give it his all. When we first meet Alfred it's on the business end of an old school sniper rifle. Red Feet! How dare you interfere with my operation?

[01:40:04] What are you talking about? You let your selfie captured so you could lead your people to this base. I have no idea what you're babbling about. You don't fool me! I am Alfred Ashford, commander of this base.

[01:40:24] Oh you must be one of umbrellas lower level officers if you're in command of a backwater base like this one. How dare you? The Ashford family is among the world's first and finest. My grand father is one of the original founders of umbrella ink.

[01:40:47] See what I mean? Classic villain. As cringe as Alfred can be I found myself oddly fascinated by him and he had the creepiest laugh too. Have it your way then. You're just a rat in a cage anyway.

[01:41:08] I'll be sure to keep you entertained before I dispose of you. Just a creep. This whole island is filled with creeps. From a story perspective this interaction did make me wonder what happened to the island and how it became

[01:41:33] destroyed and infested with monsters. Was there a third party involved in all this? We just have to wait and see. Alfred himself would pop up here and there during the first half of the game.

[01:41:47] There's even a trap he springs where he traps Claire with a monster called the Bander Snatch. The whole setup here is creepy as hell as Alfred traps Claire in an area and taunts her over a speaker.

[01:42:03] Welcome Claire. Consider the area you are in a special playground. I have prepared just for you. Please try and keep me amused and do not disappoint me by dying too soon. I so want to enjoy this.

[01:42:30] The Bander Snatch enemy that Claire has to fight in the next area are by far my most hated Resident Evil enemy. This thing has this long, extendable arm that it can use to hit you or grab you.

[01:42:47] The best part is you could be hit by this thing from a great distance, so much so that the Bander Snatch can hide off screen while it hits you. It's just awful.

[01:42:59] Alfred is downright evil but there is much, much more to this man as we learn about him and his twin sister Alexia. Alfred and Alexia were born in 1971 and they were a product of a genetic experiment to create a child with exceptional intelligence.

[01:43:20] Alexia demonstrated much higher intelligence than anyone was expecting and while Alfred was no slouch in this area he was the inferior one. As they grew up together Alfred began to idolize Alexia.

[01:43:36] Alexia was favored heavily and not only given the best education she was made to be a researcher at the Umbrella facility in Antarctica, where she experimented with the Te Veronica virus, which was named after the founder of the Ashford family.

[01:43:53] At some point Alfred and Alexia discovered the truth of their origins and that they were just products of an experiment to clone Veronica. This was all orchestrated by Alexander Ashford, son of Edward Ashford, who was one of the original founders of Umbrella.

[01:44:13] Alfred and Alexia decided to experiment on Alexander using the Te Veronica virus, but the experiment was a failure. And Alexander was transformed into a monster known as Noes Farrot II.

[01:44:28] Alexander was sealed away and forgotten about, but as time went by, Alexia eventually unlocked the secret of controlling the Te Veronica virus. However, the process would involve the subject being cryogenically frozen for 15 years while the body adapted to the virus.

[01:44:49] Alexia made the decision to perform the experiment on herself and forced Alfred to lock her away in stasis. The two of them, by the way, were only 12 years old at this time.

[01:45:03] Coming so close to his sister and being the one to lock her away for 15 years, Alfred's mental state started to deteriorate. He was committed to protecting his sister like a night protects a queen, but eventually madnessed in.

[01:45:20] Alfred worked for Umbrella on a lot of projects, but ultimately put his energy into rockford island and became the defacto ruler and dictator there. As his mental state declined, Alfred's personality actually split into two. He retained his diabolical self but also developed a personality mirroring his sister.

[01:45:45] There would be times that he would converse with himself, speaking his Alfred and then speaking as Alexia. This all got to a point where Alfred started dressing the part as well.

[01:45:58] While the player isn't aware of Alfred's condition at first, there's a pretty cool scene where Claire spies Alexia talking with her brother, or rather who she thinks is Alexia. While I've not personally seen it, this reminds me of what I know about Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Psycho.

[01:46:20] Keep focus, brother. Our enemy is only a little girl. Why is this taking so long? My apologies, Alexia. But I have been doing my best. The revival of the Ashford family depends on your success, brother.

[01:46:35] I am aware of that, Alexia. I will revive the family name myself and make you the master of the glorious Ashford family. While I don't empathize with Alfred or anything, the whole concept is compelling to me.

[01:46:53] A clone learns his origins and his only true family is sealed away for 15 years. Alfred has to become the Earl of the Ashford family at an early age while battling all of these demons.

[01:47:09] It would drive anyone mad and it further showcases how evil and Brahma and anyone involved with them truly is. Alexia herself ultimately awakens near the end of the game and becomes the big bad that we have to defeat.

[01:47:26] While I don't find her nearly as compelling as her brother, she does exude and evil about her that is both creepy and just the right amount of cheesy. They are red-feeled, hold it right there. We meet each other at last. A pity I must say goodbye so soon.

[01:47:44] I am Alexia Ashford for the pride of the Ashford family. I will kill you! Before we move on, speaking of Alexander and the creature known as Nostvaratu. Who remembers moving the bookcase in the Antarctic basis, Save Room and seeing the creature chained to a wall?

[01:48:09] The whole scene was disturbing as the monster moaned through something holding its mouth shut. The worst part of the whole thing was, now the lovely Save Room music would be gone from that room anytime you entered it and occasionally you would hear the creature's anguished moans.

[01:48:41] It was enough to scare the shit out of little gnome hat and even today, it still makes me feel just a little uneasy. Chris Redfield returns and code Veronica, and when you least expect it, you end up playing as Chris for the second half of the game.

[01:49:09] Leon ultimately receives Claire's message and lets Chris know where to go. Chris is introduced in one of the most badass ways possible by scaling up the side of the island itself.

[01:49:26] Clad in his trademark green combat attire and completely adorned with the raccoon city police department stars logo, Chris makes his way to rockford island in search of his sister.

[01:49:39] He loses his footing a moment and loses a duffel bag full of gear, but that does not stop our hero from reaching the top of the cliff and entering the island through a side passage. Standing tall and determined, Chris is ready to play the hero.

[01:49:56] Don't worry Claire, I'm coming to save you. From a plot standpoint, Chris doesn't add much to the plot itself.

[01:50:07] It's not until we learn that Albert Wesker, the villain from the very first resident evil, is somehow alive and on the island, do things really get interesting from a story perspective. Gameplay wise, playing as Chris is largely forgettable, especially in the early sections that you control him.

[01:50:28] When you take control of Chris, you have to navigate a now destroyed island facility. You'll find you're doing a lot of the same things that you did as Claire. You're looking for a lot of the same items and you're solving similar puzzles.

[01:50:44] The island facility itself is very forgettable at this point in the game, and it's very easy to get lost in because the landscape has changed a little as the island took damage. But what I find most interesting was when I opened up my first item box as Chris.

[01:51:02] I was pleasantly surprised to find everything that I had put in there as Claire was available as Chris. I also learned that any items I didn't collect as Claire on the island had the potential to be found and attainable by Chris.

[01:51:18] It's a lot like the zapping system in Resident Evil 2, where something you did in one character's playthrough, influence the next character story, though, in Code Veronica, it was more linear than that.

[01:51:32] While the idea is pretty awesome, it does have the potential to be game-breaking in a bad way if you want a careful.

[01:51:39] You'll swap between Chris and Claire a couple times in the game, and if you give one character access to your most powerful weapons and leave the other character with next and nothing, you can potentially lock yourself out of progression, or at the very least make progression incredibly difficult.

[01:51:57] And unless you've played the game through the completion, it's not inherently clear when these characters which are gonna happen.

[01:52:05] I've heard some people say that they needed to start the game over because of this, and I am so glad that I wasn't one of them, but I'm sure I got lucky.

[01:52:14] Anyhow, revisiting Rockford Island as Chris, in my opinion, is a complete waste of time, and I think it could have been cut from the game completely. While you're exploring the island as Chris, there are only two story moments that actually matter. First, you run into Wesker.

[01:52:32] Second, you find a plane, and it gets you to the Antarctic base. That's it. All the backtracking is pointless and boring, and by far my least favorite part of the entire game. Now, Wesker, on the other hand,

[01:52:49] he dominates every scene that he's in, and I found myself glued to my screen anytime he was present. While very much a stereotypical villain at this point, I loved Wesker's voice actor and how driven for revenge Wesker himself was.

[01:53:07] Those that have played the first Resident Evil were probably wondering how the hell Wesker is even alive, and thankfully we are not really told. For the time being, it's left to our imagination. One thing that's clear though is that Wesker has changed.

[01:53:26] When he runs into Chris on the island, he shows off his newly acquired super strength and speed. Chris is obviously stunned, and the whole exchange is excellent.

[01:53:39] You have no idea how much I hate you. You destroyed my plans, so now I've sold my soul to a new organization. Now die! While being held up against a wall, Chris tries to take a swing at Wesker knocking off his trademark sunglasses.

[01:53:59] When Wesker turns back to the camera, we can see his eyes have changed. They glow red, and they're almost cat-like. Wesker is clearly a monster now, and a powerful one at that.

[01:54:16] Here's a little secret, Chris. I figured out that your sister is now in the Antarctic with Alexia. It's too bad you won't be seeing her again. So now we know why Wesker is here and how the island was attacked in the first place.

[01:54:41] Eventually, we find a way to Antarctica, and while a lot of time is spent finding clues to what's really going on, the highlight of Chris's journey is finding and rescuing Claire.

[01:54:55] As a huge fan of Resident Evil 2, finally seeing the payoff of the Redfields finally finding each other was enough to make me smile. I remember hoping that they would escape together and not be separated again, and thankfully that's exactly how the game ends.

[01:55:13] I'll spare the details, but eventually Chris had Claire defeat Alexia once and for all, in one of the most lackluster final boss encounters in the entire series, at least to me.

[01:55:24] There was no strategy behind it, and really just required you to unload your biggest guns while keeping a stock of healing items at the ready. Though the section where you get to shoot an Alexia with a rocket launcher in first person was pretty cool.

[01:55:41] In the original Dreamcast version of the game, once you put the screws to Alexia and watch her explode into a fine powder, that's it! The credits roll and all is right with the world as Chris and Claire declare war on umbrella. But what happened to Wesker?

[01:56:00] The PS2 version, Code Veronica X, added additional Wesker centric scenes, and at the end of this version of the game, we're treated with an extended ending where Wesker and Chris face off in an underground submarine hanger.

[01:56:16] What I like about this scene is it isn't just a flashy way to end the game. From a story perspective, it leaves some threads open for some possible future content.

[01:56:28] After taking Claire hostage, Chris tells Wesker that Alexia is no more and his mission to apprehend her has failed. But Wesker did find another way to get a hold of the Teeveronic of Iris.

[01:56:43] Well done, Chris. It turns out that Alexia's work wasn't much of anything, so now the only thing left is revenge. Let her go, Wesker! You don't want her. Fine. Today is a good day. I came for Alexia, but killing you is even better.

[01:57:03] Sorry to disappoint you, but Alexia is gone. That's no longer a concern to me. I have Steve to work with. What?

[01:57:13] Steve, in his body, there's still a living tea Alexia virus. Steve should be a good specimen. Maybe he'll come back alive just as I did and be able to see your sister again. Don't you touch him! I'm sorry, dear haunt, but my men have already taken him.

[01:57:30] At this point, Wesker and Chris do battle with each other, but it is very one-sided. Chris is clearly no match for Wesker's superior strength, and only when he finds a way to drop something heavy atop Wesker does Chris gain the upper hand. But the moment passes almost immediately.

[01:57:51] Thankfully, for Chris, an explosion damages Wesker and prevents him from further pursuing Chris as parts of the sub-hanger start to collapse. In perfect supervillage fashion, Wesker allows Chris to flee, promising to end him the next time that they meet.

[01:58:10] Today's your lucky day. Next time we meet, don't count on another. Next up. Until we meet again! There's a lot to talk about when it comes to Resident Evil Code Veronica, and while I'm sure this episode is going to turn out a lot longer than I originally wanted.

[01:58:50] I know there's plenty I didn't get to. But when I replayed this game recently, there was one interesting theme that I didn't really pick up on until after I saw the credits roll. There was a lot of emphasis on the idea of family this time around.

[01:59:08] There's the Ashfords, specifically Alfred and Alexia. The Red Fields, Chris and Claire, and Steve and his family. Chris and Claire have the happy ending while the Ashford story ends in a mixture of loneliness and tragedy.

[01:59:25] Steve's story ends most tragically, where he faces the death of his mother as forced to kill his own zombified father and ultimately dies himself having been transformed by the virus.

[01:59:38] It all reaffirms my feelings that this game could make one hell of a successful remake of Capcom goes that route.

[01:59:47] Resident Evil as a series isn't really known for its stellar plot or deep character arcs, but as a fan of the series, I've always had an appreciation for what Code Veronica tried to do in the story department this time around.

[02:00:01] Plus from a gameplay standpoint, while I think there's sections of the game that are overly bloated in the land, Code Veronica is a great classic RD experience that series fans will get solid enjoyment from. It's challenging, it's engaging and it's visually appealing.

[02:00:21] I wish there were more reasons to replay the game, but overall I'm happy with the one and done experience that you do get.

[02:00:30] If you've never played this game before and are a moderate fan of either the Resident Evil series or survival horror titles in general, I think you will like Code Veronica.

[02:00:41] If you've played the game before and it's been a while, you owe it to yourself to play it again. Plus, you'll definitely want to make sure that you're ready for the remake. It's coming! I can feel it in my bones.

[02:01:20] And with that we have come to the end of the show, my friends. This has been episode 56 of The Retro Wildlands Resident Evil Code Veronica. Thank you very much for tuning into the show today.

[02:01:37] When writing a show for a game like this, a game that I'm passionate about from a franchise that I absolutely love, I worry that I'll never be able to do it just as on the show because I feel like I'm just going to drone on and on about things.

[02:01:51] And then forget important things that I should probably be talking about. So although I didn't really touch on everything that I wanted to, and the show probably went a lot longer than I originally anticipated,

[02:02:03] it was enough here to give you an idea of my feelings on this game while taking you through it yourselves a little. I don't want to call myself a Resident Evil fanboy, per se, but I could talk about this game and this series for hours.

[02:02:19] I really do hope they remake this game, but even if they don't, the original is just fine by me. Thank you once again for joining me today as I nerd out about a survival horror gem.

[02:02:33] If you like the show and you want to show it and myself some support, please consider subscribing to the Retro Wildlands on your preferred podcasting platform.

[02:02:44] While I started this show with hopes of releasing episodes on a schedule, I had to be honest with myself, and okay with the idea that it just wasn't possible, given how I want these shows to flow and sound.

[02:02:56] Because of that, I really show as whenever my busy life allows. So subscribing to the show will make sure that you're the first to know when I drop more episodes.

[02:03:07] Now if you really like the show and think that I have a pretty cool thing going here, I would appreciate it if you could take some time out of your day and give the show a good review.

[02:03:18] You can leave me a star rating on Spotify, or you can leave a written review over on iTunes, Pod Chaser, Good Pods and Pod Bean, which is the platform that I host the show out of.

[02:03:31] Good reviews will help circulate the podcast to more search feeds, but more than anything, good reviews are the affirmation that I need to know that all this work is appreciated and that I've done your earholes proud.

[02:03:45] But as always, I know time is at a premium these days, so you're under no obligation to do any of this. Just knowing that you've listened to the show this far is much more than I could have asked for, so above all else, thank you for being here.

[02:04:02] So what's coming up next? I have a few games I want to do podcast on, but they're pretty chunky and thus will be time consuming to replay and write up a whole script on.

[02:04:15] So next time on the show, I'm looking to do an episode on a smaller retro title that I've discovered last year that I've been dying to play.

[02:04:25] It's a simple game with a simple concept. You play as a green beret sent behind enemy lines to rescue multiple prisoners of war before they are executed by their captors.

[02:04:37] In this hack and slash run and gun style game, you'll need quick reflexes and nerves of steel to be successful. And the banger of a soundtrack doesn't hurt either. Next time on the retro wildlands, I'll be checking out Russian attack for the original Nintendo.

[02:04:56] It should be a good time and I'm eager to have you back when we take our expedition into the gaming wildlands and discover yet another new to me retro title.

[02:05:07] Our expeditions are fun and all, but they're infinitely better when you're here, so I'm hoping I get to see you again soon down the road. Until then my friends, my name is Nomad and you can find me roaming the retro wildlands.