REVIEW - Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (2001)

GENRE(S): Action / Survival horror
RELEASED: March 2001
AVAILABLE ON: DC, GCN, PS2
DEVELOPER(S): Capcom, Nex Entertainment (GCN)
PUBLISHER(S): Capcom
PLAYERS: 1

The Sega Dreamcast was launched in November 1998, almost exactly four years after its equally ill-fated predecessor, the Sega Saturn. What happened to the Dreamcast was simply tragic; as technically advanced as it was, some would say "ahead of its time", Sega's growing interest to focus on developing software and Sony's well-promoted launch of the PlayStation 2 dealt killing blows to Dreamcast before it even fully survived the "launch slump", the undefined period of time it takes from a recently launched console nowadays to present truly worthy games. Resident Evil Code: Veronica was a sequel to Resident Evil 2, announced to be in development exclusively for the Dreamcast about a month before the console's launch. The game was delayed to the point even Resident Evil: Nemesis got released before it - earning the title of Resident Evil 3. In early 2000, the game was finally released, and critics loved the game. However, it was too late for the Dreamcast, as its production was discontinued a year later. One of the final games released for the Dreamcast - but only in Japan - was a slightly updated version of the game, dubbed Resident Evil Code: Veronica X. To the delight of many Resident Evil fans who skipped the Dreamcast altogether, this version of the game saw release on the PlayStation 2, and later, the Nintendo GameCube. About a month ago, the game made a return to the PlayStation Network, in high definition, as the first half of the Biohazard Revival Selection. Despite the game being offered to me on a plate complete with HD graphics and 12 Trophies, I think I'll just give the PlayStation 2 version up there on my shelf a go for the first time in five-or-so years and see if it's truly as underrated as my memory serves me.

Steve needs to die

STARRING
Alyson Court : Claire Redfield
Michael Filipowich : Chris Redfield
Bill Houston : Steve Burnside
Richard Waugh : Albert Wesker
Peter Oldring : Alfred Ashford
Leila Johnson : Alexia Ashford
Martin Roach : Rodrigo Juan Raval
Genevieve Steele : Computer
Conrad Coates : Narrator

Three months after the U.S. Government nuked Raccoon City, Claire Redfield is still searching for her brother, and bent on ending the Umbrella Corporation's activities for good at the same time. Her search for Chris leads her to Paris, where she infiltrates Umbrella's European headquarters, only to be captured by a small military unit deployed by Umbrella. She is then taken to an Umbrella-owned facility on a remote island, which soon turns into hell on Earth, as yet another viral outbreak turns all of the facility's personnel into a whole army of mindless zombies. Refusing to give in to the zombies, a bitter old nemesis looking for retribution, and the clearly insane proprietor of the facility, Claire attempts to escape the island, together with a young man separated from his family.

The most horrifying biological experiment ever
conducted by Capcom: Steve.

Here's the honest deal. My interest in the Resident Evil franchise was fully revived when Capcom first announced Resident Evil 4. That was the first time I truly regretted of never playing Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, but what I regretted even more was never playing Code: Veronica. I was 100% certain that the game was, and had always been, exclusive to the Dreamcast (I wasn't quite as informed of the current video game scene as I am today). I don't know how the hell my brother just happened to stumble on a used copy of Code: Veronica X for the PlayStation 2 so conveniently, and I didn't care. The fanboy in me was pushing himself out of every cavity in my body at the same time - it's painful, I can tell you. Initially, the game was a disappointment. The character and storyboard design left me speechless, and not in a good way. Once the second half of the game began, I found myself irreversibly hooked on it. The game packs just the right amount of difficulty by simply being reasonable most of the time - which immediately makes it a more comfortable play than the occasionally downright unfair Nemesis - it's got good level design, classic puzzles... oh, and it's a very lengthy game. You're in for a long night or even two if you're planning to beat this one with the same pair of eyes. You might say it saves a few climaxes for the new generation of Resident Evil, but I was never that much into the boss fights in the classic Resident Evil games; I was always more into exploring buildings, and there's a lot of that going on in Code: Veronica. Works for me, a lot better than roaming streets in Nemesis - that's Silent Hill's schtick, and it works for that franchise.

Considering that the game was originally exclusive to the Dreamcast, its story is very, almost too crucial to the Resident Evil timeline. It pretty much lead to the actual need to remake the first Resident Evil - I'm still bitter they never released it for any other platform than GameCube, since it is my favourite game in the franchise - and it also serves as a bridge between many elements in between the old and new generation of Resident Evil games, in both story and gameplay. It's a game that a serious fan must play, not by any means the sidestory it's made out to be by not having a number in its title. By far, it's the true Resident Evil 3 as far as I'm concerned; Nemesis was more of a sidestory in my opinion. However, although Code: Veronica pushes the story of Resident Evil forward, it does so with the strength of some plot twists and characters that felt awkward back then, and even while their existence was acceptably explained in the later games, including the remake of the first game, I must say they still feel awkward.

A classic moment of peace.

In three months, Claire has turned from an innocent motorcycle-riding tomboy into a killing machine with incredible agility and weapon skill, as seen in the game's flashy, but all-around corny opening cutscene. Her "partner in grime", Steve Burnside, is one of the most annoying characters in any video game, ever. So annoying he almost equals Vanille in Final Fantasy XIII. He's childish, arrogant, reckless, loud, frankly a disgusting person for whom I have absolutely no love for - the moment he first appeared, I wished a Hunter would just appear out of nowhere and slap the guy's head right off his shoulders. It would've made him none the dumber, but at least he would've shut the hell up. The only thing right about Steve is that most of the time, he stays out of your way. Then we have Wesker - not much of a spoiler there, Chris being in the game is even less of a spoiler since he's featured in most of the promotional art. Chris' strong presence in the game is explained later, but Wesker... I really didn't like what they did to him. It's great that they made him a greater villain than he was before in terms of being nasty, but I did not like his sudden superhuman abilities at all, initially. After the thorough explanation as to why he has those abilities (in Resident Evil 5), I find them a little easier to swallow. Upon his resurrection from his embarrassing death in the first game, Wesker is clearly built up to be the main antagonist of the franchise in Code: Veronica... but the main villains in this particular game are the Ashford twins, a criminally insane pair of siblings in charge of the facility, and descendants of the founders of Umbrella. While Alexia has got to be one of the sexiest video game villains in history, Alfred has got to be one of the most laughable. The voice actor (Peter Oldring) takes Alfred's insanity angle a bit too far, to the point of being just God damn hilarious instead of the least bit intimidating, from end to end. I just can't take Alfred seriously - and on subsequent playthroughs, his unintentional hilarity turns into pure annoyance. Alfred's basically an interesting villain, and at least different from the main villains of the past, just not a well executed character.

The zombies' final canonical stand in the
franchise, and it definitely counts. Zombies
to the left, zombies to the right!

General graphics are updated to meet early sixth-generation standards, but from afar, the game looks exactly like good old Resident Evil... until you realize that the camera is actually following you on choice occasions; also, the camera angle lives on the go, and doesn't take up a second of loading time just to simply change. It's still vintage, old school Resident Evil as we know it, updated just a little bit for our comfort. The characters' faces are a bit too polished, just like in the cutscenes in Nemesis, although they've definitely taken a turn for the better and are a bit more detailed to make the characters look a bit more human. The music is a bit more on the forefront, and it's great, especially the music playing in the second half of the game. The soundtrack's a joint effort between three composers, the most prolific of them being Hijiri Anze, most known for composing music for crappy anime shows. I must say I'm positively surprised. I can't say the same for the voice acting. The voice acting in Resident Evil games that came before the remake is legendarily bad - although it's not quite as bad as before, it's still quite horrid. Alyson Court reprises her role as Claire from Resident Evil 2, and she really was good enough to make it to a second round. Michael Filipowich as Chris and Richard Waugh as Wesker are way better than their predecessors, although the new Wesker laughs too much. Bill Houston as Steve, and Peter Oldring and Leila Johnson as the Ashford twins, all sound simply abysmal and utterly prevent this game from reaching the next whole level in terms of voice acting.

Let's get one thing straight right away: the only thing that separates Code: Veronica X from the original game is the inclusion of one single extra fetchquest, complete with a couple of cutscenes. Got that? Since the original version of the game was never released on anything other than the Dreamcast, no one should feel being too ripped off besides Dreamcast owners - and only Japanese ones at that. To me, on a personal level, it's just great Code: Veronica X doesn't truly differ from the original, this is what I wanted to experience, and having one brief, extra challenge to conquer is a slight nudge for the better.

Fancy a dip in electrified water?

Once again, you cannot choose your character, but in the vein of the brief surprise visit in Carlos' boots in Nemesis, a huge bombshell cuts in, in the middle of the game; only this time the protagonist changes altogether, for the most of the game's second half, as Claire's missing big brother finally returns from his exile, and has a decent voice actor this time to portray how cool he really is. Also, Steve is a playable character for something like five minutes - that's perfectly enough... too much, in fact. I just can't stand that guy! Why couldn't he be saved for later to be a pain in Rebecca Chambers' ass in Resident Evil Zero (not one of my favourite games in the main series, for an obvious reason), and why couldn't we have Billy Coen from that game in exchange? He would've been a much more plausible love interest for Claire, I think. Oh, well. The world is full of bad characters. One of the worst just happened to make his way into this game for one reason or another. Thank goodness it's a good game.

Since Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil Code: Veronica were developed in a tight tandem - although this game became more of a mere side project as the years in development rolled by - Code: Veronica retains some subtle elements from Nemesis, such as the 180 degree turn and the ability to shoot objects, for example fuel tanks, to conserve ammo. Go ahead and disagree, but I'm still saying the whole ammo creation schtick in Nemesis was all for nothing, and there's (almost) none of it in Code: Veronica - you can only enhance your otherwise weak arrows for the bow gun with explosive powder. In every possible way, I think Code: Veronica is much closer to classic Resident Evil than its predecessor. There's really nothing new about it, it's just vintage Resident Evil, and it's fine the way it is.

Everything wrong with the game literally ain't nothing new. The inventory limit is still a huge problem, and having to use Ink Ribbons for saving the game was an useless and obsolete idea before it was even conceived; Code: Veronica was luckily the last Resident Evil game to incorporate such a retarded system. Like I said, it's a lengthy game, it gives plenty of bang for a Resident Evil fan's buck, but admittedly the story could be better, and some characters truly drag the experience down.

I get a feeling I'm about to see something eerily
familiar...

Beating the game takes around 15-20 hours, which makes the game the longest Resident Evil title made in the classic style. Franchise fans will surely go at it again immediately after the credits have rolled, to try out a few alternate strategies to beating this puppy. It's not that hard, generally, but surviving the game with flying colours and the best possible rank is; it's full of deadly surprises and the boss fights are quite tough. As tradition goes, beating the game unlocks a survival mode. More characters and goodies for this "Battle Mode" are unlocked by accomplishing certain tasks throughout the main game. If you're a fan, this game will stick on you for quite a while.

The last traditional Resident Evil game, Resident Evil Code: Veronica (X) is still a great game, a crucial part of the vintage Resident Evil franchise not to be ignored by anyone. It has a couple of rotten eggs for central characters, complete with occasionally horrible voice acting, and all-around awkward dialogue, but the thick survival horror atmosphere and classic gameplay compensate for any artificial flaws. Resident Evil Code: Veronica stands as a fine testament of its kind.

GRAPHICS : 8.9
SOUND : 7.8
PLAYABILITY : 8.7
LIFESPAN : 8.5
CONCLUSION : 8.8

TRIVIA

a.k.a. Biohazard Code: Veronica Complete (JAP)

GameRankings: 64.32% (GCN), 82.77% (PS2)

Original copies of the game included a bonus DVD entitled Wesker's Report.

Alfred and Alexia were originally named Hilbert and Hilda.

Leon S. Kennedy was originally supposed to be in the game, and ultimately, killed off. Due to Leon's popularity, his part was rewritten for the character of Steve Burnside - hence the similar appearances of the two characters.

REVIEW - Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)

GENRE(S): Action / Survival horror
RELEASED: September 1999
AVAILABLE ON: DC, GCN, PC, PS1
DEVELOPER(S): Capcom
PUBLISHER(S): Capcom
PLAYERS: 1

A Hall of Famer in the categories of both "revolutionary action games" and "revolutionarily bad voice acting", Resident Evil popularized the term "survival horror" in 1996. Resident Evil 2, released in 1998, is still considered a masterpiece in the genre. Since then, the series has evolved - some bent on disagreeing would say degraded - from a balanced mix of puzzle solving, thick, bone chilling atmosphere and the occasional, desperate fight to survive to a much more easily explained franchise of fast paced, constant action, in which efficient combat tactics have taken over for smart item management as the most important key to survival. The first Resident Evil game of the new generation was Resident Evil 4... wait, rewind a bit! What happened to Resident Evil 3? Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was released on the PlayStation in 1999. The game was well received by critics, but its sales were nowhere near those of its predecessors, and you could say the game went almost unnoticed by casual players for years. In recent years, the game has become revered by many as perhaps the best game in the vintage Resident Evil series. I didn't buy that praise then, and I don't buy it now. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a good game, but it lacks plenty of what I fell in love with the franchise for.

Big Trouble in Little Raccoon

STARRING
Catherine Disher : Jill Valentine
Vince Corazza : Carlos Oliveira
Ben Campbell : Mikhail Victor
Roger Honeywell : Nicholai Ginovaef
Evan Sabba : Brad Vickers
Tony Rosato : Dario Rosso / Nemesis
Peter Windrem : Tyrell Patrick
Richard Clarkin : Murphy Seeker

Raccoon City has been taken over by zombies. While Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield are still both very unaware of the situation, S.T.A.R.S. operative Jill Valentine is stranded in the heart of the city, fighting for survival. As she makes her way through the zombie-infested streets to find the way out, she discovers she is the primary target of a new bio-organic weapon designed by Umbrella to assassinate every surviving member of the group that nearly destroyed their research.

Anime hater says "wut".

I consider myself a lifelong fan of Resident Evil, and though it might therefore be hard to believe, it's only been two years since I first played Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It just somehow slipped past me, just like it slipped past many a player back in the day - as a matter of fact, back when it was released, I didn't really play anything else besides role-playing games. Apparently I was so taken by the Final Fantasy storm that even a major game in one of my other favourite franchises managed to avoid my attention. When I finally realized I had missed a Resident Evil game, I was furious, but when I read about the game, I wasn't too taken by it. Something about it just didn't add up; I was in no rush to try the game. Years passed, and I forgot all about its existence again, right up until I stumbled on it on the PlayStation Network. I just happened to have some extra money, so I thought I'd finally enlighten myself with the game other Resident Evil fans were suddenly calling the classic franchise at its finest; I wonder how much the popularity of the second movie, loosely based on this game, had to do with the sudden popularity of this game. If I were more into guessing, I would say quite a lot, 'cause I consider Nemesis a quite good game with some good ideas and a fantastic main villain - but the worst game in the main series, bar none.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is split into two acts; the first one's events take place 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2, and the second one's take place two days later. The game is full of mistakes related to the timeline; for example, the police station from the previous game - yep, we go back for a brief visit - is all boarded up and the only surviving cop that Leon met in the beginning of the game is already dead. Also, in general, the city's in total chaos from the very beginning, while it seemed very peaceful in the beginning of Resident Evil 2. So, basically, the guys at Capcom wrote a good story, but executed it so that nitpickers like me could fart out blood. Resident Evil 3's meant to work as a functional prequel, sequel and an interquel, all at the same time, but it works as none.

Step a little bit to the right. No, my right. Good.
Good. Now, stand still and die. Again.

The general graphics are quite good - outdated, for certain, but that's not really the point. What really surprises me is that the game actually looks somewhat hairier than Resident Evil 2. I wasn't a big fan of the doll-ish cutscenes in the previous game, but here they took them even further by removing everything human about the characters' looks. I really don't dig the cheap-looking cartoons that the cutscenes are, even less the overtly Japanese intro - you'll know exactly what I mean. It simply does not mesh with my idea of Resident Evil. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't miss the first game's intro, the one with real actors - I just thought they would take at least half a step forward and not two steps back with the cutscenes.

The music is good, pretty much the same as Resident Evil 2's jive; some are ripped straight off from that game, such as Masami Ueda's classic, haunting piece that still plays in the main hall of the R.P.D. station. The voice acting is still nearly as bad as always, but this time, it's more of the fault of bad lines than bad actors - Jill and Brad have totally different actors they had before. The dialogue is ridiculously bad, and I think the actors survive the atrocious script with moderate honour. There was pretty much only one true "IS THAT YOU, REBECCA!!!???" or "You were almost a Jill sandwich" moment here, one which made me take a break and calm my nerves stressed by sheer amusement before continuing on with the game. That is quite an accomplishment, we're speaking of old school Resident Evil here.

The first thing that clearly separates the game from the previous installments is that you can't choose your character - the game is a surprisingly story-driven game, and that story revolves around Jill Valentine and her desperate escape from Raccoon City, which is literally falling apart to not much more than goose shit around her. Apart from the zombies and the utter destruction of the city, Jill's got one personal, eight-feet tall problem; a new Tyrant prototype is on her tail, and not only is this son of a bitch highly intelligent, he is incredibly fast, strong, and he knows how to use a rocket launcher. Ouch. Unlike others of his kind, he doesn't kill for a primitive urge, instead he's been "programmed" by Umbrella to eliminate every surviving member of S.T.A.R.S.. His name: Nemesis.

Hey, I know this place.

On paper, Nemesis is an awesome villain. The production team didn't even try to create a human antagonist this time, they focused all their energy on a true monster that possesses every nasty quality of the original Tyrant, Mr. X and the little less nerdy Dr. Birkin, all in one neat package, and a few more of those qualities. However, they made the mistake of overplaying the character. The "JESUS JUMPING CHRIST!" I yelled out each time Mr. X burst through a brick wall or whatever at the most unpredictable moment in Resident Evil 2 very quickly turned into "oh, for fuck's sake, not again" in Resident Evil 3. Sure, Nemesis can, and will, scare you on the first couple of times he shows his ugly face, but when he starts appearing around every damn corner, the fear turns into pure frustration. Most of the time, you get good power-ups by putting him down, but it ain't easy, and you really don't have any bullets to spare in this game.

Let's take it from the top, from the title screen, in fact. When it comes to difficulty level, there are two options: Easy or Hard. What happened to Normal? This is just like in Ghouls 'n Ghosts for the Sega Genesis; the developers are practically laughing at your face by forcing you to play on "Easy", just like they forced you to play on "Practice" in Ghouls 'n Ghosts - which, of course, was FAR from practice. Well, Easy in Resident Evil 3 is exactly that - easy. You get all basic weapons in the beginning of the game, and plenty of ammo for all of them. Ink Ribbons are infinite - I wonder why they still hadn't figured out they should've left them out altogether - and considering you have three First Aid Sprays to start out with, you could say you have much easier access to health power-ups. Also, Hard is definitely hard. There is nothing normal about this difficulty level at all; going at the game on Hard is the only way for a self-respecting Resident Evil player to go, but it will get very frustrating, much sooner than you would want or expect. The Nemesis, respawning zombies (ouch), a pathetic abundance of everything practical, from ammo to health items to Ink Ribbons, a LOT of painful backtracking... hell no, I would never even imagine recommending this game to one new to the franchise.

Burning buildings are a standard in this game.
Get used to 'em.

At first glance, the game looks exactly the same as the ones that came before, but then the truths about the game start slapping you across the face. First up is a new feature that a lot of fans like, but I personally think there's no point to it: you find very little ammo in this game, you are responsible for the creation of ammunition with a reloading tool which takes just as much annoying space in your equally annoying inventory as the Ink Ribbons. You can create ammunition from gunpowder of different colours, which are scattered all around just like ammo in the previous games. By combining two different types of gunpowder, you can create more powerful ammo for more powerful weapons. ...Great. I think I could've breathed just fine if they would've just given us the ammo straight up like before. I am very rarely in the mood to go back to the nearest chest to dig up the reloading tool every single one of the million times I run out of bullets within an hour. Of course the supposed greatness of this feature lies in the fact that you can create ammo that you truly need, but finding the proper type of gunpowder takes time, and again, there is absolutely no sense in hauling that reloading tool around all the time!

The second "huge" addition to the gameplay experience is the optional use of advanced combat tactics. Interaction with the environment is cool, and a good thing for the later games to exploit further. For example, you can blow up a barrel of fuel with a single shot whenever there's a horde of zombies passing by and shred them all to pieces in the process, without having to waste a lot of good firepower by pumping each one's brain full of lead. Dodging attacks does not work very well against anyone or anything else than Nemesis himself, since his attacks are so much more physical than the age-old, sudden and unpredictable grappling attacks fancied by the zombies.

I saved the best for last, and this time it truly is the best new feature in the game: Live Selection. The game's progress is very dependent of the decisions that you make. In tight spots such as an ambush by Nemesis or the ground breaking from under you, you have only a few seconds to decide between two options. Some of the worse options simply don't work, most of them do, but usually force you to move on to a plan B, which tends to be way less practical than your original one. I truly dug this system and got the chance to try both options in many different situations, all due to dying so often.

God damn it, Predator! Leave me alone already!

The inventory system is seriously worse than ever before, or even after. There's no secondary, permanent item slot, which means that even a lockpick or a lighter takes up one main slot in your inventory. You're most likely going to die so many times in one single spot, that Ink Ribbons or the reloading tool can easily be forgotten to take up valuable space in the inventory after loading the game.

Last thing I'll mention - or criticize - about the game is the setting. Resident Evil might have moved on to wide open, exterior areas as of late, but the genre and style of the games have also changed a lot - it has turned out awesome. I think that in old school Resident Evil, one of the main attractions was the constant fear of the walls of a narrow corridor crumbling down on you, with someone other than your own footsteps on the wooden floor and heavy breathing mixed with unearthly moaning creating an uneasy feeling you couldn't rightly describe. In Resident Evil 3, you mostly wander around streets - literally, since the game is full of some of the most dastardly backtracking I've ever seen - and it just doesn't feel the same. The whole theme of the vintage franchise, as it was known based on the first two games, kind of loses its point in my opinion when 90% of the action is taken to the outside. What also hurts the game is that Nemesis is the only truly frightening enemy in the whole game. There are a couple of new Hunter models, but no Lickers or anything new, persistent and out of the ordinary when it comes to being a real asshole. Just some venomous Spider-Men who think too much of themselves. Oh, and fat zombies that are just hilarious.

The big cheese, and he ain't a nice guy at all.

As I said, the game is highly difficult in comparison to its predecessors, and the constant backtracking from one side of Raccoon City to another, mostly between puzzle solutions, makes the challenge a little too tedious to bear. Running out of everything you need at the exact same time isn't impossible at all - it's hard to enjoy the game when you have no ammo, no Ink Ribbons, no health items, you've last saved two or three hours ago and indeed, you don't even have a rock to throw at the most pathetic enemy. You just need to RUN, and hope that whatever lies behind that mysterious door from the beginning of the game, which you can finally open, is the solution to your problems. For a serious fan, the hefty amount of unlockables is good news. There's a Mercenaries minigame, plenty of alternate attires for Jill and eight Epilogue Files, which detail the ultimate fates of many of the central characters. Unfortunately, to see each of the files, you need to play through the game eight times. Kind of an aggressive solution by Capcom.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was a fun experience, but simply not a fun Resident Evil experience. I get why people praise the character of Nemesis, but not their praises towards the game in general. I'll truly, now and forever, stand by Resident Evil 2 when it comes to the ultimate experience in old school survival horror of the zombie-killing type. 

GRAPHICS : 8.3
SOUND : 7.9
PLAYABILITY : 7.3
LIFESPAN : 8.0
CONCLUSION : 7.6

TRIVIA

a.k.a. Biohazard 3: Last Escape (JAP), Biohazard 1.9 (working title), Resident Evil: Nemesis

GameRankings: 81.11% (DC), 63.71% (GCN), 74.15% (PC), 88.48% (PS1)

Producer Shinji Mikami was against the game being called Resident Evil 3 (or Biohazard 3), as he thought Code: Veronica - which was under development - advanced the story enough to be a "real" sequel. He came up with the working title Biohazard 1.9..

Since the release of the game, Nemesis has become one of the most popular characters in the franchise. He has since made appearances in Capcom's obscure action game Under the Skin, in the popular Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games, and of course, the Resident Evil 3 scenario in the Wii game Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.

Nemesis was originally designed to appear in Resident Evil 2, but his appearance was deemed too "distinct", so he was replaced with Mr. X - hence their similar taste in clothing.

The second film in the Resident Evil movie franchise, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is loosely based on Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It features characters Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), Carlos Oliveira (Oded Fehr), Nicholai Ginovaef (Zack Ward), and Nemesis (Matthew G. Taylor). In the movie, the character of Matt Addison (Eric Mabius), captured by Umbrella in the end of the first film, became Nemesis.

REVIEW - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: November 2003
AVAILABLE ON: GBA, PS2, Xbox
DEVELOPER(S): Black Ops Entertainment, Taniko (GBA)
PUBLISHER(S): Atari
PLAYERS: 1-4

2003 marked a very important turn in Arnold Schwarzenegger's career. The former bodybuilder, later legendary sci-fi and action film icon became the Governor of California - also known as the "Governator" - in October. The movie featuring Mr. Schwarzenegger in his last starring role premiered in July, and it was another sequel to none other than his final breakthrough in 1984, as well as the first film in which his catchphrase "I'll be back" was first uttered - The Terminator. Back in 1984, games based on movies were very rare. In the early 90's, they became a trend. Terminator 2: Judgment Day spawned several directly licensed video games, which were all horrible, but Bethesda Softworks garnered in quite a bit of acclaim with their series of first-person shooters, released exclusively on the PC, which weren't directly based on any of the movies. Well, in 2002, Atari got their hands on the video game license of the Terminator franchise. After publishing an ill-fated action game by the name of The Terminator: Dawn of Fate for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, they moved on to the direct Terminator 3 license. First, they tried to repeat Bethesda's success in the 90's with a first-person shooter - also starring Schwarzenegger, in his first and last voice acting role. They failed miserably... but the "best" was yet to come. Just a week after the release of this version, Atari published one for the Game Boy Advance. No use asking why, I guess.

Chosen for termination

For just a brief fraction of a nanosecond, I
imagined I was playing vintage Fallout.

Now an adult, John Connor lives in hiding. Years have passed since what was supposed to become Judgment Day before his intervention. Unbeknownst to John, Judgment Day is inevitable. Although the Skynet of the future has given up searching for John, they're after his most trusted lieutenant, Katherine Brewster, and sent their most deadly invention yet - the Terminator-X - after her. An accident brings John and Katherine together, and suddenly John finds himself on the run once again, with Katherine's life to worry about besides his own. Luckily, the resistance once again counters Skynet's efforts by sending an old friend to John and Katherine's aid.

Let's start with the movie, which in my honest opinion was extremely underappreciated. OK, it was full of holes. OK, it was kinda stupid, all the way from the plot twists to the bone-dry, trendy humour, which there was a lot of. OK, it didn't hold a candle to the first two movies. OK, Arnie looked kinda old - which I guess he was. But, no matter how bad the movie was as a sequel, it was pretty good as a stand-alone sci-fi action blockbuster - I actually still prefer it over Terminator Salvation in many ways, and it was most definitely the best movie Arnold had done in nearly ten years; his career really hit a downward slope after True Lies. I know, I know, it isn't that hard to do a half decent flick after utter horseshit like Junior, Jingle All the Way and the God damn abysmal, blasphemous Batman & Robin, but still.

Lol'd at "Syknet".

Let's continue with the game. It breaks rules - even moreso than the movie. It reminds me of several other games - not good ones. It doesn't have a lot to do with the movie - and, even less with its home console version. Is it playable? Almost! Is it fun? No. I tried to compile a list of all the games I'm reminded of for one reason or another in my head, and tried to come up with one decent game on that list, but I couldn't. There are a lot of games there I've already reviewed, so it's easy to bluntly compare the game to such strapping titles as Predator 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and of course, every Terminator game I've played thus far - but I'm reminded of those because they share the same theme and policemen are just as oblivious to real threats to citizens and the environment as they were in the SNES version of T2. Predator 2 and the first Pirates game were both played from the same isometric angle, both of them were dull as hell, easy but incredibly tedious, and they simply tasted like nothing, not before, not during, not after. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is exactly the same as these two games, in every possible way. It's not the most horrible licensed game I've ever played, but words cannot describe how boring it is.

The graphics are not that bad. Lame, yeah, but technically sufficient, taking into account how awful licensed games usually look, even in this day and age. At least they toned down on the use of scruffy character stills unrelated to each other, which are prominent in most games, and opted for drawn portraits. The storyboard design is what sucks and reeks, the graphical design is quite close to home. At least the game looks the part. I've never heard Brad Fiedel's classic Terminator theme song, or the even more popular T2 remix in a video game... and I still haven't, not even a semi-faithful version of Marco Beltrami's T3 remix makes an appearance. The music's clearly influenced by the original scores, I just wish it'd be little less repetitive. Same goes for the game.

The flamethrower's a surprisingly good
weapon, considering that I always thought
getting burnt into a crisp only made the
machines more aggressive.

You're given a lot of fancy tasks to be done in this game, but they're all the same. Blow things up, kill a lot of folk, run around like a moron, not necessarily in that order. The first two things might be considered the only things the Terminator does well, but they could've made it all a little bit more interesting, like add in some puzzle-solving based on the Terminator's skills of tampering with other machines, for example. No, there's nothing like that. Just running around - or through - unnecessarily long levels that have empty spaces for obstacles (ooh, I love those, a vintage sign of a hastily done game), a gazillion seemingly immortal SWAT members for enemies and the occasional appearance by the TRULY immortal T-X to colour things up, and a lot of folks barking orders. John and Kate seem to be much more aware of what's happening and why than the Terminator, while it was just the opposite in the movie - they had no idea what was going on, and even the Terminator didn't tell them before he was specifically asked to. At one point in the game, John specifically tells the Terminator to follow him and Kate down into the crypt in which Sarah is buried, and once inside, John asks "Terminator, what are we doing here? This is where my mother is buried!" Hilarious. It's also hilarious that everyone keeps addressing the T-850 as "Terminator", like it was his name or a racial slur of some kind, and talking to him like he's human. Since when did praise for a job well done mean shit to a cold machine?

Generally, the controls are surprisingly good, the game being isometric and all, but the invisible corners you might get stuck on as easy fodder for enemy cannons will make your life miserable all the way from the beginning of the game. Disregarding the occasional magic bullet that goes straight through enemies and breakable objects as a tiny glitch this one time, aiming in this game is made exceptionally hard by the camera angle alone. Auto-aim occasionally wakes from its slumber, but it sucks balls, especially when you're trying to stop the enemy swarm instead of a single enemy, by destroying a portal device; the auto-aim goes straight to the nearest single enemy. Also, any ammunition for a primary weapon you pick up will change your current weapon to that particular weapon, except when you're carrying the minigun. Look, a little thought for the player's wellbeing! That's good.

The SWAT members act more like the
Terminator than the Terminator himself.

One thing that does remind me quite a bit of some old Terminator games is the fact that very few of the events took place in the movie in any shape or form. Atari pulled the same stunt Mindscape did with the absolutely horrible The Terminator for the NES way back when, and built the whole first half of the game around the Terminator's infiltration to Skynet HQ and his search for the time machine housed there. Even when things approximately start going as the movie dictated, there are some really, really strange occurrences, like SWAT members chasing the Terminator all around a desert upon his arrival - John's already barking some orders at him and the T-X's already pestering him - and like the Terminator driving one of those future cars on the streets of L.A., trying to stop the T-X's crane. I guess the vet truck from the movie didn't have enough street cred for this "exciting, explosive action game", so they decided to botch the fact known since the first movie that nothing non-organic passes through the time warp intact. What does brand authenticity matter when you've got street cred to worry about?

Besides driving a car, you're mandated to take control of a turret every once in a while, to destroy large constructs (or bosses) that block your way to your next linear objective, and you can also remotely control small H/K's. What sounds pretty cool isn't - the H/K, once controlled by you, is utterly destroyed by one single lucky shot by an enemy. Usually, though, enemy fire is incredibly easy to dodge just by moving, it's so slow. Hell, I got through the whole graveyard mission without firing a single bullet except when I absolutely had to, to get rid of visible obstacles, and I survived by absorbing only two - and I absorbed those two bullets because of bumping into those INvisible obstacles I mentioned.

The graveyard scene. Not only was it actually
in the movie, it's my favourite scene in it.

Upon losing a life, you respawn right where you did it. Upon losing all your lives, including those plenty of extra ones you need to survive all the sudden deaths mostly brought on by falling crap in a confusing environment, you always get to start from the beginning of the mission, and there's a generic password system. Terminator 3 is an incredibly easy game, and once you've beaten it - which will only take little over an hour if you're fast about it - it's given you its all, which really isn't a lot, not even for the most dedicated Terminator fanatic, which I consider myself to be. I was entertained by the game for a few minutes, more than several of the titles in this franchise combined, but after a few more minutes, I was just wishing for an end to this bundle of bore. When the credits finally came up on the screen, I felt like I'd just wasted seven or eight hours of my life for the taste of warm water, while in reality only about 85 minutes had passed. The game might not be the worst one around in the usual sense - it's just worthless, rewardless, boring, a waste of time. Which is worse: being an utter abomination from end to end like The Terminator for the NES, or a basically playable, but a thoroughly stale and boring game which you can just piss through like Terminator 3 for the Game Boy Advance? Personally, I don't think there's that much difference.

Not only does a game have to reach a standard nowadays, it also has to exceed it by a damn lot to really have some meaning in the world. As far as gameplay's concerned, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines comes surprisingly close to the most basic standard of an action game, but in terms of entertaining the player, it's just hopeless, a piece of useless merchandise released for the sake of God-knows-what. 

GRAPHICS : 8.2
SOUND : 7.0
PLAYABILITY : 6.5
LIFESPAN : 3.5
CONCLUSION : 5.2

TRIVIA

GameRankings: 49.06% (GBA), 39.17% (PS2), 41.09% (Xbox)

The game was supposed to be ported to the Nintendo GameCube at a later date. Even most of the promotional material for the game was done, but due to the poor reception of all three games that were already released, the plans were cancelled.

Atari developed another first-person shooter based on Terminator 3, subtitled War of the Machines, for the PC. The game was released less than a month after this one, to even worse reviews.

Atari's third game based on Terminator 3, a third-person action game called Redemption, was released in September 2004 on the GameCube, the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. It was received fairly well by critics, but it sold poorly.

News on Halloween + Dragon Age II DLC

Hail to ye!

This month's edition of the Monster Mash has been quicker than I expected, so I will slow down a little before unleashing the main dish, which was not supposed to be out before Halloween week. In my last rant, I mentioned the Dragon Age II DLC Guide, and it is one step closer to completion as I now have, and have completed, all the DLC released for the game... thus far. We all know for certain there is at least one more DLC pack coming, most likely based on the character of Fenris and his vague past as a slave, so I think what I'm gonna do is write the DLC Guide on the go, in my own peace, and the moment the last (?) DLC pack arrives, I'll present the Guide to you.

"Aw, schitt. It's schtill not ovarr."

To answer a question by "michi89", thrown to me some days ago about the sudden appearance of the Predator reviews, as to why I did them since I never did anything related to Predator in the past: that's right, I didn't, but I reviewed two versions of Alien 3 back in January, and thought I'd review a few Predator games to bring the Alien franchise to a (temporary) conclusion with Alien vs Predator, just like I did when I reviewed the bulk of the RoboCop and Terminator franchises back to back. Speaking of the Terminator franchise, I missed one game, and a review of that game is coming soon(er than it should).

Some seem to have the misconception of loose ends in the Castlevania series being the Halloween special, but that's not the case at all. These people have asked me if those two games I did reviews of last week would be the last Castlevania reviews they should expect from me. The answer: I sincerely don't know. The Castlevania franchise is like a persistent tumor - it just keeps popping up and never goes away. I sincerely thought about stopping at Legacy of Darkness, since I thought I'd have no access to further games. Then it turns out my friend has Lament of Innocence - one of the worst games in the series which I would not be ready to replay right now, but would love to write about in the future. Then I logged into the PlayStation Network to do some further research. Up there we have the two Lords of Shadow add-ons, Castlevania Chronicles and Harmony of Despair, which I can never promise not to download. To push it just a little bit more, my friend has a DS as well as a Wii, which have Dawn of Sorrow (the direct sequel to the amazing Aria of Sorrow), Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania Judgment, and as a die-hard Castlevania fan, he just might force these games on me. It's hard to wrap up a franchise this big, especially when you've got a friend who is both a Castlevania fan and a serious video game collector.

Hacking through the first game of my Halloween sub-marathon begins tonight, and let me just say that if the first half of the month was filled with moderate to poor ratings, I think - no, I know - we're going to see games that go well over the fabled mark of nine towards the end of it. No, I'm not pickier and nastier with age - I've just happened to stumble on bad shit all month, that's all. Time to play and review something with "satisfaction guaranteed" written all over it for a change.

One last note: be sure to pick up Batman: Arkham City this weekend, I hear it rocks!

DLC REVIEW - Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money (2010)

GENRE(S): Action / RPG
RELEASED: December 2010
AVAILABLE ON: PC, PS3, X360
DEVELOPER(S): Obsidian Entertainment, Bethesda Game Studios
PUBLISHER(S): Bethesda Softworks
PLAYERS: 1

Just a day before the release of the highly anticipated follow-up (and spin-off) to Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks announced that Fallout: New Vegas would be blessed with downloadable content. Four DLC packs have since been released, and the first was Dead Money, in which the player is given the chance to visit a ghost town near the Nevada border and rob a high-security casino with a dark past. Another ten bucks on the line - what will you do, and what should you do?

Blowing the bank at Sierra Madre 

STARRING
Richard Herd : Father Elijah
Dave B. Mitchell : Dog / God
Laura Bailey : Christine Royce / Vera Keyes
Barry Dennen : Dean Domino

The Courier's journey across Nevada is interrupted by a mysterious radio signal broadcasted from an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel bunker in the southeast. When the Courier investigates the origin of the signal, he is captured by an insane former Brotherhood member whose only agenda in life is to rob the fabled Sierra Madre Casino, which was supposed to open on the day the bombs fell. With a particularly fatal slave collar on his neck, the Courier is forced to assemble a team from the town of Villa and find a way to break into its high-security shell of a casino. To make things worse, the eerie inhabitants of the Villa don't take kindly to strangers.

Even though I downloaded Dead Money back on Christmas Eve, I consciously let Fallout: New Vegas rest for almost a year, hoping they'd harvest most glitches in that time and optimize the experience. Well, in that sense the game isn't much better than before. It still randomly freezes, lags and features some more amusing glitches such as severed heads bouncing on their spots and perhaps even bolting through the air like rockets. However, it was nice to return to the world of Fallout: New Vegas - did a few quests before following the signal to trigger Dead Money, just to be able to review the DLC within the Monster Mash frame, and watched in disappointment as the immersive political conflict that is Fallout: New Vegas turned into a pseudo-horror borefest that is Dead Money. The title most likely refers to the ten I spent on it; it's worth five at tops. Perhaps the worst part of it is that you MUST see it through if you want to return your character to the "real world" - it's the same as with Mothership Zeta for Fallout 3, and no, I did not like that DLC pack either.

Dean Domino, another ghoul companion that
doesn't sound like a ghoul at all.

The events of Dead Money take place in an isolated resort called the Villa, which took a good deal of ooch from the bombs back in 2077. A blood-red concentration of toxic gas called "The Cloud" covers the most of the sky above, so it all looks quite different from the main game in design. Sound is an important part of this particular experience - you'll see what I mean. There are a few new, haunting tracks by Inon Zur, loud sound effects, and four additions to the cast. The story's sufficient enough and so are the characters, but truth be told, I could've done fine without the schizophrenic Super Mutant. Having him along means that you have to listen to him babbling the same crazy lines to himself over and over again, on five-second intervals. In general, the developers could've shut the companions up for the duration of the quests. Seriously. They will disassemble your nerves piece by piece. Christine is mute for the most of the plot, which automatically makes her my favourite partner to have along. However, Dead Money is based on teamwork with all of your three companions. In other words, you can't live without any of them. Literally. And unfortunately.

We've already went through the game's basics, so there's no need to return to them. Refer to the Fallout: New Vegas review from December 2010 if you disagree. Dead Money has a few "special features", which I would more correctly describe as "shortages" or "unnecessary nuisances". First, there are very few different enemies to encounter - most of them are "Ghost People", the inhabitants of the Villa to whose existence we never get a proper explanation. They're quite cool in design; they look like outcasts of the Foot Clan in TMNT, and they're immortal... or at least they're claimed to be immortal. Officially, you can't actually kill them before gaining the proper perks, but unofficially, all you need to do is shoot 'em down, wait 'til they get up, and then shoot them again. Immortality at it's not-most-climactic. Besides them, the most common enemies are the Holograms, who you can't kill - since they don't really exist, naturally. Their lasers do, though, and they're fucking deadly regardless of your experience level and density of your armour. The only way to dispose of them is to hack a security terminal and recalibrate them, or find their transmitters from somewhere in the environment and destroy them. They're usually in some really awkward, hard to reach spots. Of course they are.

Your new Holorifle is a good weapon to have
along in Dead Money, but it doesn't have
much special purpose outside this quest.

You won't have access to bottle caps at all - still, the few vendors in the Villa only accept caps as currency. Ironic, huh? Well, they don't have anything good on sale, anyway. Most of your vending and crafting happens at vending machines that work on Sierra Madre chips, to which you almost have greater access than you ever had to bottle caps in the whole New Vegas retail - one of your new companions can even teach you to counterfeit them. Of course, the chips aren't worth shit in New Vegas, and you can't even exchange them for caps at the Sierra Madre.

Some places on the map are blocked from the unprepared by the toxic clouds that will certainly kill you if you spend too much time within them. Towards the end, you need to navigate through some; again, having a certain companion along will help you survive longer.

The most distinctive special feature in Dead Money - you're wearing it; the collar which is set to explode if you happen to stray from your linear path, OR if you spend too much time within the radius of some mysterious radio signals. The collar is damn annoying, and that only. You can prevent your skull from being blown to pieces by destroying HAM radios and unshielded speakers around town and the casino, but they are usually unnecessarily hard to find, AND the distance from which the signals start affecting the collar seems to be extremely random. The final dungeon - which, of course, is the casino itself - is one damn sudden-death trap of trial and error, in which you have to save all the time, not only because of sudden deaths, but also the game's evergrowing tendency to freeze. Everything that makes this whole quest so tedious and unenjoyable culminates within those halls.

It is told that the best way to kill Ghost People
is to dismember them. Hmm, sounds familiar.

A casual player will hack through Dead Money in about three to four hours - it's more than recommendable to be at Level 20, at the very least. It's just as hard as the second half of Mothership Zeta was, and you cannot quit it at midway. The quest leaves a really sour aftertaste. In the end, all I could really remember getting out of this little side trip was a bunch of the worst glitches I've seen in months - no, they still haven't fixed 'em - a few utter, really untimely lockdowns, a few cheap Trophies, and end rewards which are of no use to me. The environment itself will bore you out of your socks before you reach the casino - the Villa is a really, really dull place to explore. After the last key decision, I saved the game and reloaded it right after the credits to nail the last one of the five new Trophies - I never want to do this quest again.

It's got a story that's decent enough, although totally detached from the plot of the game - and if it was free, Dead Money would provide for a moderately good weapon for a Fallout fan to kill a few hours with. As it is, it's damn dull, annoying, and inescapable once you start it. Aside from permanently raising your level cap by five, it doesn't even benefit your main game one bit, if you're not ready and willing to sacrifice a whole bulk of your inventory for the few literally heavy rewards you're offered for beating this son of a bitch. If you're still eager to play it, discard any thoughts of downloading the stand-alone product and wait for a special edition of New Vegas. One's surely coming and it'll surely include this junky bundle. 

GRAPHICS : 8.0
SOUND : 7.5
PLAYABILITY : 7.0
LIFESPAN : 5.0
CONCLUSION : 6.5

TRIVIA

GameRankings: 72.14% (PC), 69.86% (PS3), 70.25% (X360)

REVIEW - Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (1999)

GENRE(S): Action / Adventure / Platform
RELEASED: November 1999
AVAILABLE ON: N64
DEVELOPER(S): Konami
PUBLISHER(S): Konami
PLAYERS: 1

Less than 11 months after the release of Castlevania on the Nintendo 64, another Castlevania game exclusive to the system came along, named Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. It was revealed to be both a prequel and a remake of the previous game. What originally sounded like milking a dead cow to me is exactly that. But, it could've been better without a girly werewolf for a lead character.

The corny legacy of Cornell

STARRING
John Nuzzo : Cornell
Scott McCulloch : Narrator

The man-beast Cornell's village is burned down by cultists, who are preparing to sacrifice his sister Ada to resurrect Dracula. Using his wolf-like instincts, Cornell follows Ada's trail to Dracula's castle.

I have often called Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness one of the worst Castlevania games there is. The truth is that Legacy of Darkness is a decent game - but it is a poor Castlevania game, not only because of the gameplay that is still suffering from some serious problems, but because it never had a place in this fine series of games. Also, because it's basically the same game as the previous one, only played from the perspective of another character and driven by an even weaker plot, I perceive the game as nothing more than DLC, before DLC even existed. It's so God damn off in every way. According to some old interviews, Konami made this game to show what their true intentions with the previous game were. Maybe they should've just taken a few years off, seriously.

Now that IS cool.

The game has four playable characters. First up is Cornell - you have no say in it. During his quest, he meets a guy called Henry. After finishing the game as Cornell, you get to play as Henry. The level design's exactly the same, but his mission is to save some kidnapped children. After finishing both new games, you are "treated" with a no longer subtle remake of the previous game, as Reinhardt and Carrie are introduced as playable characters. Aside from a few changes made in accordance to the original script, the level design in Reinhardt and Carrie's game is exactly the same as in Cornell and Henry's. OK, having a more playable version of Castlevania on the Nintendo 64 is quite OK - but why in the hell must we bear Legacy of Darkness first? Moreover, why are we forced to bear the same game so many damn times, and first with some dude who does not belong in this franchise? Couldn't we just pick which game to play from the main menu like in any good "Director's Cut" game out there?

Did Konami really think consumers would be that interested in buying the same game to begin with, and having to clash through not one, but two crappy quests in those familiar settings in order to get their hands on a true updated version of the previous game? Besides, all of the content in this game borders on identical; you'll have lost all interest after, if not even before finishing Henry's game.

As for the graphics, they haven't REALLY upgraded all that much - the game just features flashy stuff the developers didn't dare to try before, even if it would've been perfectly possible, such as the impressive boss fight against the Hydra in the beginning of the game. The music... well. There are supposedly cool remixes of classic Castlevania tunes such as "Beginning", "Bloody Tears" (don't get too excited) and "Dwelling of Doom" to, I don't know, probably to remind people that this is still a Castlevania game with that man-beast roaming about. In my mind, these remixes fall into the same category as most of Michiru Yamane's later day compositions - too experimental and too "hip". The background music's still alright, most of the remixes play in cutscenes. There's even less voice acting this time around, in just a couple of scenes. Richter Belmont from Symphony of the Night, AND Chris Redfield from the original Resident Evil, a.k.a. Scott McCulloch, returns to ruin a perfectly decent piece of script once again, as the narrator. I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

Taste my man-beast... lightning... slash... or...
whatever...

The camera works better, the controls are better, the puzzles are better, the game is more balanced than the original... but so much of it is exactly the same as ever, and I would really like to play as some other character from the beginning. Reinhardt and Carrie aren't exactly my favourite characters in Castlevania history, but I'll take them over a faceless creature like Cornell any day. What does this guy or his kin have to do with anything that's ever happened in Castlevania? I guess he was supposed to be somewhat of a replacement for Alucard as the mandatory supernatural Castlevania protagonist, but they failed miserably. The first thing they could've done was give him a decent haircut.

To me, having four characters, with the exact same quests tweaked with some minor changes, is not a sign of lifespan - it's a sign of laziness. If they had been honest about this game and released it as the intended Castlevania - Special Edition instead of disguising it as a sequel, and made an updated version of the original game the main quest, and Cornell (and Henry)'s game the bonus quest, AND given us the freedom to choose which game to play, I think my take on the game would've been a little different. Not too much better, but better nevertheless. They ripped off certain elements of Resident Evil to a noticeable point already, it wouldn't have hurt to take notes of how well Resident Evil - Director's Cut worked for those who didn't own the original game. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness is a good game to play, but storywise, it's mockery towards the franchise, and as a commercial product, it's a consumer's nightmare.

GRAPHICS : 8.0
SOUND : 7.0
PLAYABILITY : 7.0
LIFESPAN : 5.0
CONCLUSION : 6.5

TRIVIA

a.k.a. Akumajō Dracula Mokushiroku Gaiden: Legend of Cornell (JAP), Castlevania - Special Edition (working title)

GameRankings: 63.80%

Cornell, Lord of the Lycans, one of the main villains in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, was named after the protagonist of the game.

Cornell was originally supposed to be the lead character in the previous version of the game, that is why he was made the protagonist in this one.

REVIEW - Castlevania (1999)

GENRE(S): Action / Adventure / Platform
RELEASED: January 1999
AVAILABLE ON: N64
DEVELOPER(S): Konami
PUBLISHER(S): Konami
PLAYERS: 1

Work on the 16th installment in the Castlevania series began in September 1997, six months after the release of the cult classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The game, originally named Dracula 3D, was to be the first Castlevania game for the Nintendo 64, as well as the first 3D game in the series. The game was finally released in early 1999 under the simple moniker of Castlevania, and as expected, it divided opinions due to its radical departure from the earlier games. The game's events were cut from the series' official timeline a few years after its release, along with the events of several other less revered games in the franchise. I've said many ugly things about this game and its sequel in the past, but the truth is that neither one of them are quite as bad as I remembered them to be - far from being masterpieces, though. Let's start with the obscure little game fans of the series like to call Castlevania 64.

When a problem comes along, you must whip it - in 3D

STARRING
Andrew Hanikson : Reinhardt Schneider
Bianca Allen : Carrie Fernandez

The spirit of Count Dracula awakens in 1852, as the horrible result of mankind's corruption. Reinhardt Schneider, a descendant of the Belmont family of vampire hunters, and Carrie Fernandez, a young girl with mystical powers, set out on a journey to Dracula's castle in Wallachia to seek out the latest reincarnation of the evil one and vanquish him.

In the past couple of years, Castlevania has turned from a guilty, obscure pleasure of mine to one of my favourite video game franchises. There are only three Castlevania games I can profess true love for - those being the original NES game from 1986, Super Castlevania IV from 1991 and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow from 2003 - but I still consider myself a fan of the whole series. Even though there have been several really bad games with Castlevania's fine name on them, trying out a new 'Vania game for the first time has been one of the greatest, most consistent thrills for me in the past year. The idea of giving the short-lived Nintendo 64 series of Castlevania games another chance came to me early this year, when I completed and reviewed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The much disputed reboot of the series was the first 3D Castlevania game in years, and even though the game was a huge disappointment in many ways, the basic gameplay worked - of course it did, it was ripped straight off the best in the genre. I started to reflect on what the first 3D Castlevania games were really like. Could it be I hated them for the wrong reasons? Could it be that they were quite good after all? There's only one way to find out.

Carrie may sound just as annoying as any other
child character in a video game, but any kid who
can pull of a decapitation like that is fine by me.

OK, so first of all, the plot is stupid. Castlevania never really shined in storytelling before Lords of Shadow, but the plot in this one is just about as full of dumb "bombshells" as it can get. The character and enemy design makes me want to go out and shoot someone; skeletons on motorcycles? I rest my case. The developers invested in free exploration in a full 3D world and a haunting atmosphere, probably due to the huge popularity of survival horror at the time. Actually the atmosphere of the great big outdoors somewhat reminds me of the first Silent Hill game that Konami unleashed less than a week after Castlevania. Coincidentally, the atmosphere of the indoor levels - including the catacombs - reminds me quite a bit of vintage Resident Evil. It's all fair compensation for the game being so off in its presentation.

The clumsy use of the camera is, surprise, surprise, one of the game's two greatest practical flaws. The camera pulls some crazy stunts on the player all by itself, like suddenly panning behind a wall during a boss fight, rendering the screen all black, and leaving you completely unaware of your character's position and situation - it won't move, no matter what you do. The only possible way to get back on track is to run around, hoping for the best, until the cameraman returns from his impromptu lunch break. The insane camera makes routing extremely difficult in itself, and making things even worse is the game's endless supply of enemies. Artificially, the game doesn't look that bad aside from the laughable close-ups of the characters; I guess I should give the boss fights, the outdoor proportions and the diversity in level design some due. Also, blood effects in a Nintendo 64 game always make my day.

Music's always been one of my favourite things to experience and review when it comes to Castlevania games. Since Castlevania isn't (or wasn't intended to be) a full-blown action platformer, but instead an atmospheric adventure game, the music is very ambient and minimalistic. It's good as what it is, not really up to the series' standards when it comes to pure quality, but good enough to make it clear that Michiru Yamane didn't work on this game. A very different remix of "Bloodlines" - a Castlevania classic originally heard in the Genesis game in 1994 - is thrown in as the title track of the game, but otherwise there are no classic tunes or any adaptations of them to be found here. For once, I understand why and I'm not too bothered by it. The game features very random instances of voice acting - if you are a fan of the "WHAT IS A MAN?!" meme from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I think you're going to "love" the voice acting in this game as well. It's downright abysmal. I have no idea why they even bothered to squeeze in the few scenes, they could've went with text only, like they do in most parts of the game.

I may not be a real Belmont, but I know how to
crack that whip!

Just like in Resident Evil, you get to choose between two playable characters: Reinhardt Schneider, who's supposed to be yet another distant descendant of the Belmont family, and Carrie Fernandez, a 12-year old girl with supernatural powers. Gameplay between the two characters doesn't differ by much; neither game's more challenging than the other. The games just offer different perspective, with some different bosses and scenes. Both characters have two different endings each, depending on how much time has passed according to the in-game clock. Castlevania utilizes a day/night cycle for the first time since Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. It's actually the same; more monsters appear at night, and maybe even stronger ones, I've not paid attention... as if there weren't enough at daytime. A recurring store run by a demonic salesman is introduced in the early goings of the game, and some of these stores are only open at day or night.

The variety of secondary weapons takes a turn back to its most vintage form, although their use is paid with red jewels instead of hearts. With the exception of the stopwatch, each classic weapon from the original article makes a return: the throwing knives, the axe, the holy cross, and the holy water. Sadly, none of them work on enemies as good as the basic weaponry at your characters' disposal. Reinhardt uses the Vampire Killer, and Carrie uses some bullet-like projectiles. Both characters have off-hand weapons as well - Reinhardt has a king-sized, but frankly useless dagger, and Carrie has a razor-sharp ring which, on the other hand, is perfect for melee situations.

Castlevania is supposed to be a balanced mix between an action-adventure and a 3D platformer. Well, if you ask me, the action bit gets pretty tiring after a while, since enemies in the game are endless - literally. You can explore quite a bit, but never in peace. Carefully scanning through each and every branch of a maze or a dungeon, which is usually fun, might kill you when poisonous enemies begin spamming you with their presence. It doesn't matter how many of them you kill, they just keep coming. Nine out of ten of their attacks result in a poisoning, and the game doesn't give a single fucking shit whether you're in the position to visit a store to buy medicine for the poisoning or not - you're not going to find it in the field. Good luck finding your way out or into a conveniently placed store (as rare as a conveniently placed checkpoint in the game) before the poison has its way with you. My other "favourites" include chainsaw murderers (again, the year's 1852... interesting technology) who are completely immortal but are able to kill you with two quick slashes from their beloved tool, and wolves with a bite that paralyzes you for a "brief" moment, which in actuality feels like forever. The Leatherface wannabe and the bad doggies first appear by each other's side, by the way. Not a very fun level. These bastards won't die, while there's just no end to those enemies that do. Crack that whip - it doesn't feel the same it did in 2D, the fun of it dies down after you've reduced the umpteenth wave of skeletons to a pile of bones and ash while simply searching for a narrow path you might've missed for the last hour, but it must be done if you wish to add this game's completion to the list of your life's achievements.

"...Wesker? ...Jill? ...What HAPPENED to JILL
and WESKER?!"

I think it would've helped the game if the developers had concentrated more on its qualities as an adventure game it was promised to be, rather than the endless button mashing parade it actually is behind its thin veil. The dialogue is putrid - again, I'm glad they didn't squeeze in more voice acting to top it all off, and I could've done well with none at all. The "puzzles" are extremely simple. Find a switch, flick it to open a gate. Open a lone coffin - just put a sign on it that says "HEY, OVER HERE!" - to find a pathway into a secret catacomb. Find a key, use it to find another key, and use that key to find yet another key, and hope that the cycle will end soon enough. The game works as an adventure game only up until a point. Even the thrill of exploration fades, first after you realize you've beaten the shit out of the exact same bunch of enemies for a million times already for the same damn rewards, then after you realize how much you are forced to backtrack, and how incredibly small the seemingly incredibly huge levels actually are. Think we're done here? Think again. We still have the platforming bits to unleash just as much hell on as they unleash on us players.

Failing one jump in this game equals death nearly every single time. You die when you fall from a certain height. Since giving Reinhardt or Carrie the ability to swim was too much for the programmers to handle, the storyboard designers decided to make all the water in the game poisoned. If you don't have a Memory Pak, not only are you unable to save the game, you are also prevented from having checkpoints at your disposal - you need to start the whole stage over every time you die. I'll wager that two of the most usual reasons to your sudden case of death are poisoning and failing a jump, especially if you're working your way up. Bumping your head on a higher platform does not send you crashing down, oh no - it sends you flying backwards at an incredible arc which makes sure you won't survive that incident. Your character occasionally (read: randomly) takes a few steps after landing on a platform, and those few steps may take him/her over the edge, straight into a pit or a pool of water. Finally, since this is a Castlevania game, there are flying bastards, classic ones - and also enemy projectiles that may hit you in mid-air and bring your death-defying leap to a screeching halt. As tradition goes, you're lucky if you can survive the Clock Tower... but in the good old games, the Clock Tower provided fun challenge. I don't find having to start the whole level over after just one seemingly minor stroke of bad luck - caused by icky control - to be a very fun challenge.

Thank you for using Satanic Tramlines. We hope
you'll hate your trip.

After getting most of my grudges towards the game out of the way, it's high time to go over a few things I like about it. It might seem like a small thing, especially to fans that blindly love Symphony of the Night to bits, but to me, the simple and easy-to-use item menu is way better and comfortable than the awkward mess in the game's otherwise stellar "predecessor" - of course, in this game, the item menu's not as much of an essential feature, but at least you don't have to equip a Healing Kit to simply use it! The bosses are quite cool, even if their buffs - such as those skeletons on motorcycles I mentioned - suck. Death is almost just as awesome to square off against he's always been. Due to the plot which just keeps getting more rotten as you go, you don't really face THE Dracula in the game at all, even if he's built up as the main villain from the beginning. Either way, the boss fights in general leave a good aftertaste, including the final battle. Lastly, the game has initially interesting and diverse level design; there's way more than just one castle for you to run around in.

Coming complete with two playable characters, secret bosses, unlockables, and four different endings, Castlevania is a challenging and replayable game, if you're enough of an open-minded, enthusiastic fan, who's willing and able to see past all of its worst qualities just because it's one more Castlevania game for you to see and conquer.

I repeat, Castlevania is not quite as bad as I remembered it to be - it's moderate weekend entertainment for anyone who was ever the least bit into the Castlevania franchise, and it retains many subtle elements that positively connect it to the rest of the series, but it's unbalanced and boring, and the problems with the camera and controls are much too severe to be dismissed as minor flaws.

GRAPHICS : 7.4
SOUND : 7.4
PLAYABILITY : 6.4
LIFESPAN : 7.5
CONCLUSION : 6.8

TRIVIA

a.k.a. Akumajō Dracula Mokushiroku (JAP), Castlevania 64, Dracula 3D (working title), Dracula 64 (working title)

GameRankings: 72.71%

To add to the confusion, the unrelated Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Game Boy Advance, 2001) and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PlayStation 2, 2003) were both also released in Europe as Castlevania. Ironically, neither one of the games, or this one, are no longer parts of the official Castlevania timeline.