Hands-on: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Sep 30th 2009 at 5:45PM } 
The Darkside Chronicles, an instantly familiar follow-up to the Wii's Umbrella Chronicles, often hesitates to pull the trigger. It takes a leisurely stroll when least appropriate and it's slow to react when things do get exciting. You might think that your friends Survival-Horror and On-Rails Shooter would get along just fine, but leave them both in the room while you go to the toilet and it's just awkward silence.
While oddly slow-paced, Darkside Chronicles makes sure that you have plenty of nice things to gawk at when you're not pointing-and-shooting. In the TGS demo's South American level, you could almost feel the sweltering heat emanating from the screen as Leon "Stalwart" Kennedy and a playable Jack Krauser investigate an eerie, dilapidated village. It draws clear inspiration from Resident Evil 5's aesthetics, despite wrapping it around a new bit of franchise canon.
As you might expect, numerous weapons litter the environment -- which is home to more destructible objects than enemies, it seems -- and picking up a shotgun or machine gun is almost always preferable to the ineffective pistol you start out with. There wasn't much use for additional items like grenades in the TGS demo, but given the difficulty curve of Umbrella Chronicles, later stages will likely require a heavier touch.
It might not be an immediately gripping shootfest like The House of the Dead: Overkill, but Darkside Chronicles seems more than happy to coast on the combined strength of co-op play and well-presented fan service. If you're in the crowd Capcom is targeting here -- and you enjoyed Umbrella Chronicles -- then all we have left to add is the release date. Look for The Darkside Chronicles in North America on November 17.
As you might expect, numerous weapons litter the environment -- which is home to more destructible objects than enemies, it seems -- and picking up a shotgun or machine gun is almost always preferable to the ineffective pistol you start out with. There wasn't much use for additional items like grenades in the TGS demo, but given the difficulty curve of Umbrella Chronicles, later stages will likely require a heavier touch.
It might not be an immediately gripping shootfest like The House of the Dead: Overkill, but Darkside Chronicles seems more than happy to coast on the combined strength of co-op play and well-presented fan service. If you're in the crowd Capcom is targeting here -- and you enjoyed Umbrella Chronicles -- then all we have left to add is the release date. Look for The Darkside Chronicles in North America on November 17.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zexion_VI @ Sep 30th 2009 5:47PM
Looks really good. Saw some of the demo and I love all the improvements from UC. I hope the shaky camera doesn't give me motion sickness, lol.
Flo @ Sep 30th 2009 5:51PM
I want another game like RE;4 for wii. Rail Shooters are fun and all but :\
Anti-Villian @ Sep 30th 2009 10:16PM
>rail shooters are fun
I have to disagree with you there, for me rail shooters are awful, I can't wait till this phase passes.
thedepthsofdarkness @ Sep 30th 2009 6:11PM
Looks kinda cool, but what I've heard of it, shouldn't those old type Arcade On the Rails shooters stay in the past?
guttertalk @ Sep 30th 2009 6:52PM
Yeah, and the platformers and scrolling shooters, too.
Drew -- PS360: uphillbothways @ Sep 30th 2009 6:58PM
Just because it's old doesn't mean it can't be good anymore or appeal to newer gamers. Just look at Monkey Island which, according to TellTale at least, have been selling splendidly.
Jawmuncher (PSN & XBL:Jawmuncher) @ Sep 30th 2009 7:14PM
However rail shooters seem to be the one genre that get a lot of shit.
More so when their based on a game that was never on rails.
Look at all the comments in the dead space extraction articles.
Most besides being about DSG are about how they wish it wasn't on rails.
Anyways I'm looking forward to this mainly for the new story elements it'll be bringing
rahmenxnoodles69 @ Sep 30th 2009 7:24PM
I'm really looking forward to this :D
I preordered it about a month ago. I hope they give me my zombie T-shirt when I go to pick it up cause they didn't give it to me when I preordered :/
Mr. Fister @ Sep 30th 2009 7:23PM
I never played Umbrella Chronicles, but I heard it was alright. I'll be giving Darkside a whirl when it comes out since it stars Leon, but it is a bit worrisome that it's slow-paced. That just doesn't seem right for a rail-shooter. I've also had the misfortune of playing HOTD: Overkill before this, so I'm sure I'll be constantly comparing the two games without realizing it.
sam @ Oct 1st 2009 7:45PM
If it's anything like Umbrella Chronicles, best not to compare this to other rail shooters. There's a big difference and I think Capcom intentionally didn't try to make it similar to 'traditional' rail shooters - those are based on games originally in arcades, which typically lasted a very short time and had frantic action at all points. UC is much slower-paced; more like a 'normal' Resident Evil game, except that you don't get to control it...
Similarly, some rail-shooter fans try to compete against themselves for high scores and whatever; UC has that to some extent, but most people probably won't insist on getting an A (or S...) on every level. Instead it's about playing through the story; you do replay, but it's to get enough points that you can buy the weapons you need to make it through future levels.
Anyhow, I thought UC was a good (not great, just good) game, but if you have a two-second attention span or you're not interested in Resident Evil, then you should certainly skip it. And yes it remains constantly frustrating that a 'real' RE game building on the success of RE4 would have been much better. I presume these rail shooters are significantly cheaper to develop, though UC at least seemed pretty polished.
I do intend to get this, presuming they haven't broken it in some way or it's really short or whatever.
Dv8thwonder @ Sep 30th 2009 9:09PM
Don't tell me, tell my ghost. Cuz I blame him for all I don't want to know.
HDpurist @ Sep 30th 2009 9:35PM
daamn...too bad it's coming out only for Wii. I would buy this and Chronicles if it came out in high def for PS3. Wii is just too outdated.