Review: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a first person on-rails shooter for the Nintendo Wii. It was developed by Capcom. It is the second Resident Evil on-rails shooter for the Wii, and the thirteenth Resident Evil game overall.

Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield shooting through a bunch of zombies.

The game details special agents Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser’s mission to go into Amazonian Rainforest and capture a drug lord who has gotten his hand on the T-Virus, a virus capable of turning humans into zombies and monsters. Along the way Kennedy relates the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica to Krauser.

The Darkside Chronicles is divided into three chapters, which are broken up into several levels. In each level one or two players are led through each level, shooting everything along the way. The player in unable to move their character, so the player’s only defense is to shoot the enemies enough times to kill or stun them before they reach the player. Once all the monsters are dead the player moves further through the level.

Enemies are either zombies, whose main danger in that they come in large numbers and can surprise the player, or monsters, which are stronger and have attack patterns that make them hard to hit. All enemies have a weak point, usually a small area like the head, which if hit takes the monster down faster than shooting at them randomly.

Most levels end with a boss, who is always tougher, has more powerful attacks, and more health.

The players control the character’s aim by pointing the Wii remote at the TV. The player fires with the B button and uses a knife attack with the A button. Reloading is done by shaking the remote. The player can carry four weapons, which can by cycled through with the control pad.

The player starts with a pistol with unlimited ammo, but can carry up to three other weapons, like shotguns, grenade launchers, and bow guns. Ammo for these weapons can be picked up in the levels by pointing at it with the remote and pressing A.

The player can buy upgrades for their weapons with money found throughout the levels. Attributes like bullet strength and reload speed can be enhanced; the more money spent the higher the attribute. Finding money is harder than finding ammo, instead of it being in plain sight the player has to find it by shooting whatever junk is lying around the level that can be destroyed, like vases or plants or pictures.

The other two things that can be found are health and files. Health just lies around and can be collected and used by pressing the + button. Files are found by destroying things. The files do not do anything but provide back story.

The game also gives a grade at the end of each level, based on how well the layer did. For the most part it is fair, being based on how many enemies the player kills, how quickly they finish the level and whether or not they are hit. The only unfair part is how many headshots the player makes, since they only count a headshot if the player hits a small section of the head and not any part of the head. The player gets extra cash for a high grade.
Fighting off the monsters provides a challenge is not difficult to get the hang of. The levels are short, but that is fine because if they went on longer they would get tiring.

There are a few things that get the player to replay the game. Upgrading all the weapons and collecting all the files can be an interesting distraction for those who really enjoy collecting stuff. But, it can be really annoying figuring out what can and cannot be destroyed and shooting every tiny little item, especially shooting every light bulb.

The bosses are a pain. They always soak up so much damage, and they usually have tiny weak points that can only be hit some of the time. Frequently the player will just have to stand there and take damage until the weak point is exposed.

The storyline is not good, but it is enjoyable as long as it is not taken seriously, like most horror stories. The dialogue though is bad being the point of being cheesy enjoyable bad. People who have played past Resident Evil games will understand what is going more than people who have not.

At least the soundtrack is impressive. And the graphics are very good too. All the monsters stick out and nothing looks blurry or hard to see. The full animated cut scenes look even better.

The level design could use some work. The levels are varied and memorable, but several levels have the characters go through the same rooms over and over again.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a fun, if flawed, shooter for the Wii. But it might not be worth it for people who are not already Resident Evil fans, unless they can buy it really cheap.