RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
code veronica is too consistent in its provocations for them to be read as anything other than deliberate. one can imagine playtesters scribing generously detailed notes on how a safe room should not be bulwarked by a hallway in which poisonous moths respawn endlessly, or how the antidote should not be guarded by said moths. how the bandersnatch shouldn't pelt you from offscreen with their bungee gum arms, and that baiting players into bringing all their gear to a bossfight only to punish them for the rest of the game might be a little much. it's next to impossible to envision a scenario where anyone could fumble into these ideas by accident, or that any of them would go without notice, but whatever protests were made, they had clearly fallen on deaf ears
in some ways it's reminiscent of a dungeon crawler. in others, more faithful to the mischievous spirit of alone in the dark and its antecedents than even the first resident evil ever was; its dissonance whimsical and aloof, characterized by a great love of tricks and traps. this brand of traditionalism might account for how reductive it is elsewhere; more focused on reconfiguring the basics than the ideas-driven scenarios of its immediate predecessors: shoot the zombie. eat the herb. find the key. solve the puzzle. rather than refinement (RE2) or experimentation (RE3), code veronica might instead be most notable for its subversion of form
this is immediately evident upon arriving on rockfort island, which is revealed to consist of three heads jutting from one body with progression crossing back and forth between them repeatedly rather than being limited to a single discrete space. instead of solving one area at a time, you're tasked with solving all of them simultaneously in an approach that finds an unexpected analogue in ravensoft's inscrutable hexen. as the game progresses this pattern of upheaval persists: first with the blindside collision of the two routes; then immediately after in rockfort's defamiliarization by bent and broken geometries; once again in antarctica; and finally culminating in the warped composite that houses the game's surreal climax
there's also been a massive visual shift owing to the transition to full-3D. at the time this unprecedented realism made gamers faint from pure terror, but twenty-five years later it mostly looks cold and drab. it certainly has its share of moments regardless, but not enough that ideas like "eugenicist prison camp" and "antarctic lab for insect bioweapons" ever live up to their promise. we also lose delimbing and gore, which is curious given that chris is still more than capable of liquefying heads with his boot. much of the game does look considerably nicer if you pull the lighter out, but there's next to no reason to do that unless bats are on screen or you're playing the oops-all-dark-as-shit remaster of CVX
which is unfortunate as the locations are otherwise quite good. the connective tissue holding rockfort together could stand to be less linear, and it's debatable whether it was prudent to fit both claire & chris' routes into the same massive campaign, but beyond that they host some of the most engrossing exploration to date. claire's half trends looser and more obscure, while chris' finds a more familiar steady pace, but the combined effort's a strong return to form that continually reinvents itself. the puzzles have never been better; the music has never been better; and there's never been as much optional material to uncover or a greater density of varied interaction. resource management is deprioritized (again), and one gets the impression that mikami was the one(1) person interested in fully committing to the survival elements, but i can forgive all of that when presented with a puzzlebox this ambitious and playful
this is also the point where resident evil would irreversibly veer into character-driven melodrama, permanently turning it into a ludicrous cartoon. for me, it mostly works. chalk it up to having watched and enjoyed 14+ seasons of degrassi, but i've surpassed the distinction between good and bad acting and immunized myself to every kind of bullshit under the sun. the lore here's the strong suit, especially the incestuous old money nazis & T-Veronica angles, but the broad strokes of the story, varied manifestations of familial extremity, and antagonists are rock solid as far as resident evil is concerned. the main problem here's that the execution is driven by nu millenium sensibilities and is, as such, absolutely psychotic, but with a few keen alterations this could've easily been a fan favourite
there are so many moments here i love unreservedly: the final stretch feeling like it's being swallowed by a dream, the ashford dragonfly footage, nosferatu's staircase reveal, poison hunters, the spider beneath the ice, first-person sniping, the metal detector, the heartbeat doors, the headshot sound, alexia hitting wesker so hard he does a backflip, even all the downtime and backtracking. when the vibes hit proper they're off the fucking charts. can you imagine how cool some of this stuff would be if the game had a visual identity that wasn't prehistoric tech masturbation
by no means would i call this a perfect game, but it's an object of perfect potential. i understand and respect the many, many reasons why some folks can't get on board with it, but..
(totally incoherent, mouth full of rockfort island:) more for me haha!!!