I stopped by the Capcom booth at this years Comic-Con and I noticed that a very long line circled the booth. I inquired about it, and was told it was a line to play the upcoming Resident Evil title, The Darkside Chronicles. I decided not to wait in line because of the sign that said the wait would be well over an hour.
So I went first thing the next day, I got there about 30 minutes after they opened the exhibit hall, and it was already booked for the full day. So I went back even earlier the next day, and was finally able to get on the list to try the demo out.
The Darkside Chronicles is a direct sequel to the Umbrella Chronicles, it just follows the other games. The Umbrella Chronicles followed RE 0, Re 1, and RE 3. The Darkside Chronicles follows RE 2, and RE code veronica (which are my favorites.) Apparently they are also going to follow another secret title that has yet to be announced. The guys at the Capcom booth said they didn’t even know what the secret title is yet.
Anyway, It was indeed similar to the Umbrella Chronicles. The changes that I noticed were that it was more from the 1st players perspective. Meaning sometimes the second player can be seen on camera. (When they are opening doors, etc.) Also it is more like you are looking through the first players eyes, so you can see your own hands come up when you reload the gun. It’s really not that big of a difference.
The next thing that seemed to vary was that it seemed like it was a little grittier, like they were going for more of a horror feel. The menu system seemed to change quite a bit, but my memories a little hazy of how it was in the first one. You can use herbs in the menu, and it seems to me they added the danger bar, like the one you would see in all the traditional games.
Based on my experience in the fifteen minute demo, I would guess that they go a bit more into the details of the old games. So the story might be a bit more comprehensive than the Umbrella Chronicles.
They still use the cross hair aim system, which I don’t really care for (Not that it stopped me from enjoying the last game, and I think this one is going to be even better.) But talking to the guy at the booth he said they might have an option to turn it off when the game is complete so that it will be more like a traditional FPS.
Sadly, he didn’t sound too sure.
It wasn’t in the demo I played, but the guy at Capcom said they are also adding a feature so that you and your partner will share ammo, and you’ll both be able to use the same guns at the same time, just with the same source of ammo.
I don’t think these chronicle games are the cream of the crop but they are highly enjoyable, turn your brain off, shoot zombie in the head, relaxing video games. So I have to say, I am excited for this games release.
Oops I almost forgot to mention, they also gave a really cool Darkside Chronicles T-shirt when you played the demo, that has a zombie print on the inside, so that if you flip it, you will have a zombie head. Really cool!
The Website for the game residentevil.com/darkside Also you can follow Leon and Claire on twitter @Leon_Darkside and @Claire_Darkside