Resident Evil: Code: Veronica X

The Good
First of all, here's anothe cliché that fits like glued to this game, "I haven't played such an awesome game for some time!". This definitely levels up Resident Evil™ series in both quality, extention and revelation of a story, voice acting (no, I'm not kidding, I find it great, even the giggling parts) soundtrack and duh, the graphic. I lack the knowledge of the original (but not for long) and haven't played RE3, but after finishing Resident Evil 2, I can clearly say that this is the continuation to the very sole ending of RE2. I must say that ever since I've known about the name of Resident Evil, I was the last person to walk this plaent who'd ever like any of the games from the series. But as a fan of horror-survival genre, it was only logical step that I get myself one of those games no matter what. Hence, RE2 changed my perspective on the series completely. And after finishing CODE: Veronica X, whow, I find RE series most definitely as one among the best out there.

So, what's to like, let's see... first, you play with Claire (as in WOMAN - who doesn't like that ;) Redfield who is searching for her brother. Unfortunately, she found a place in a prison cell on an isolated island under the control of none other but the Umbrella Corporation. Unaware of what is happening as she listens to various explosions on the surface above her, she sees a silhouette of a man approaching the cell. And as it is a trademark of RE characters, they all have lighter in their pocket. So that's the way the game opens. It is needless to say that after you've finished it once, you get more selection opened, including playing Battle Mode from both 3rd or 1st-person perspective mode. The story is so immersing (okay, at the start it's trying to be much more scary and less interesting, but soon afterwards you get tons of mysteries for which you cannot wait to see how they will end) that there's a very slim chance you'll postpone finishing this game entirely for some other time, and will probably play it like whole week with only 2-3 hours for sleep (you can use your gamepad as a fork while eating, though) until you won't start to resemble those who you fear in the game.

Strangely enough, music is very noticeable in this game, especially nice piano melodies or in action sequences. Much emphasis on the music have I only seen in Parasite Eve of the same genre, and the ending boss battle kinda resemble to Parasite Eve. Still, these are two very fine games to say the least. Control are... well, let's just say not as close as being dynamic as in Devil May Cry, which may not be as good as you'd probably like to jump whenever and bounce form the wall in another direction, but still, they are kept on the 'slow' level of a standard controls for horror-survival game. Graphic quality is something simply superb, from the great cinematics, to ingame cinematics which are just as great. I love MGS2, but I find graphics in Veronica to be of as much a high level quality. Well, just a little bit under. And to save the best for the last, just when you think you had your final boss battle and the game's credits will come, gues what? You're not even on one third of the game, literally. I guess I just expected something like 3-5 hours gameplay like in RE2, but no, there is at least 15 hours of gameplay and varietly of rooms, places, and characters is really astonishing. It is an A+ for sure.

The Bad
You must save on your ammo for the boss fights to come. That is not something which everybody may like, especially since that can mean you can stuck if you face some boss with pretty low stock of ammo. That can only mean one thing - reload who knows how far back. It was a neat option in RE2 as you could play Japanese version of a game in which you had unlimited ammo and already started the game with some powerful weapons. Yeahoow!

The Bottom Line
Stay away from the Resident Evil movie and get this game - and that is the final! It will give you more then you could expect from such a simple game... which turns out to be quite big and challenging.