Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles

Company: Nintendo

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Genre: On Rails Shooter

Platform: Wii

ERSB Rating: M for Mature

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Premise:

The premise of the game is to take control of one of the many characters as they try to survive and combat the zombie virus outbreak. Characters: There are many different characters the player can take control of within the game: Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jack Krauser and Steve Burnside. All the characters play the same, however, their view points of each level are completely different from their partners.

Play:

The games pacing is balanced between hardcore on-rails shooting with random quick time events. Each level has common enemies with a few unique ones tied in. The quick times events are level specific but they are all solved the same way, shaking the nun-chuck or by doing contextual button presses. The controls are unique since its on the wii: aiming with the wii mote, b button to shot, z button to bring out the knife, shake the nun-chuck to use the knife, and + button to use the green herbs to heal.

Engagement:

If you don't know your Wesker from your Wiskers the story aspect of engagement is going to be lost for most new players. However, that does not mean the game is a failure, its just hard to follow. The FPS person views allows the game to mess with the player and build up dramatic tension as enemies are jumping from all parts of the screen. Also the light gun action forces the player to have fast reflexes to kill the zombies as quick as possible, because they cannot move the player, only the game can.
Story:

The Resident Evil story never lets down for fans, but it can be hard to follow for new comers. The story takes place in South America with classic characters from the franchise, Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser. They were dispatched by the U.S government to search for a man named Javier and destroy the t-virus he mysteriously obtained. The t-virus has the ability to turn people into zombies and plants and animals into B.O.W's (Bio Organic Weapons). Leon and Jack reach the South American village and realize that the t-virus was released and the village, which is now littered with zombies. Jack and Leon go through the village looking for the guide that was supposed to take them to Javiers mansion. They find him dead and move on. Eventually Leon and Jack fight through hordes of zombies and reach a mysterious church. Within the church they find a teenage girl named Manuela, she passes out from loss of blood before Leon and Jack are able to talk to her. Then a giant amphibious looking monster jumps out, which force Jack and Leon to kill it. Once they kill it, Jack demands that Leon tells him all their is to know about the t-virus. Leon does and the game takes a flash back to Resident Evil 2. In Resident Evil 2 Leon is a rookie cop on his first day of work. On his first day, there is a t-virus outbreak. While Leon tries to escape from the city, he meets a woman named Claire Redfield. Claire was searching for her brother before the t-virus was released into the city. Leon and Claire escape and the flash back end. When Leon finishes his flashback the search for Javier continues. Resources: There are only two different resources in this game: ammo and health. Ammo can be restored by shooting environmental objects i.e: crates, barrels, dressers, lights, cars, etc. Another way it can be managed is by finding it scattered throughout the environment. The same thing applies to finding health packs.

Challenge:

This game actually follows the traditional easy, medium, hard, and extreme levels perfectly. Easy there are less enemies and they do less damage. Medium they do normal damage and there are moderately more enemies. Hard there are lots of enemies and they do 3X the damage then they do on medium. So a player can cater the challenge to his liking. In addition the boss battle requires intense pattern memorization, in order to defeat them. Once the player completes the game, un-lockables become available: tofu showdown and alternate costumes. The tofu showdown replaces all the zombies with giant pieces of tofu which do extreme damage. Another challenge of this game is thanks to the online leader boards. Players can compete too earn the highest score possible on certain levels.