State of Play: Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

Having picked up the sequel at a reasonable price a couple of weeks ago I thought I’d give the original another go.


Much like with my return to Super Mario Galaxy I wiped the data file in order to start the game afresh. Unlike that game, however, I wasn’t entirely sure as to how much progress I was destroying. Not much as it happens.


I completed the chapters rooted in RE: Zero a few nights ago, and polished off those based on the original RE game (referred to as ‘The Mansion Incident’ within the context of this particular game). Thus I’ve now started the opening chapter outlining the events which occurred in RE 3 (the only main RE game I’ve not played). It was all brand new in more ways than one.


As well as discovering how little progress I had made the first time I had approached the game, I also found the game to be unusually difficult. Now I readily admit to being cack-handed when it comes to shooting, but I sometimes ended up at the ‘You are dead’ screen within minutes of the chapter opening. It’s not as if it’s a fast-paced shooter either.


Adding to the toughness is that the game isn’t too generous with its checkpoints. There is just one per chapter, and it is clearly marked with a tallying of your score so far. No matter how much progress you think you have made in a chapter if you haven’t seen that particular screen you know that you will restart from the beginning if you die. Thankfully, the game will allow you to continue immediately after losing out in a boss battle.


Overall, the game is pretty much manageable portions of fun for RE fans - a diversion from the main series of games.