The level that we played featured Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen in the starring roles as gunwoman number one and gunman number two. Before the action began, we saw a screen where we should potentially have been able to change their equipment, but no options were available besides their starting load outs. Rebecca, in our case, was equipped with a submachine gun, while Billy would go toe-to-toe with warmed-over death armed with a trusty shotgun.
They Don't Make Bullets Like They Used To
Our horrifying journey took us through the many corpse and leech-filled cars of a speeding train. So yes, we were playing an on-rails shooter -- on rails. Swarms of leeches were everywhere, on the floors, the walls, the ceiling and especially our faces. Shooting them was tricky, as they looked deceptively easy to hit but still ended up surviving our hail of gunfire. There were zombie passengers, zombie train attendants and all manner of other undead foes to shoot up. Taking them all on was fairly challenging, especially since both players share a single life bar, so teamwork is often necessary to avoid taking hits from the game's durable enemies.
For a light-gun shooting game, we noticed that you're given a very strong incentive to not waste any bullets while shooting up the living dead. Specifically, ammo was extremely scarce. Considering that any given zombie seemed to be able to absorb about a dozen headshots from a pistol, a handful of shotgun rounds won't take you very far. You do get a few extra ammo pickups along the way, of course, and a fresh set of guns to take on the end of stage boss. The boss at the end of the train turned out to be a giant, mutated scorpion. The trick to this fight was striking its weak point for massive damage; in this case, its ugly face. The pacing for this fight was interesting, as our shots were wasted when firing at it when its claws were in a defensive position, so this was an ideal time to swap weapons or, hopefully, to reload.
It's Not a Gun, Mom. It's a Zapper!
Wii owners interested in what the first batch of Zapper games are like will have to wait to get the final verdict on how well Umbrella Chronicles will control. Our experience was mixed, as the control wasn't quite as accurate as we would have liked, and we had great trouble hitting the correct buttons and motions to avoid the hazardous interaction sequences. We were constantly looking at the guns, trying to figure out where certain buttons were. We were assured that we can reassign the button configurations, but we chalk up our confusion to not being familiar with the Wii Remote and nunchuk button layouts when they're encased in the Zapper casing.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is an interesting release from Capcom. The Wii presents a new opportunity for developers to present gun games, a genre that had its heyday in the arcades, and that thanks to the Wii's remote sensor technology may be resurging. We'll be keeping an eye on this one, and will bring you the latest when we once again get our hands on the Zapper for a night of zombie hunting.
