The graphical achievement of the game at the time was astounding, and it remains one of the Dreamcast’s best-looking titles, but the Dreamcast impetuously plonked itself betwixt two console generations, ensuring that Code: Veronica doesn’t truly hold up like Resident Evil 4does in the visuals department. Perhaps the best reason to include Code: Veronica in the remake conversation is that it sits on a precipice between ‘true’ classic Resi and the modern style we’re still seeing today. “ Resident Evil Code: Veronica may feel a little bloated and a tad formulaic, but that speaks to its ambition, especially when compared to the previous entries in the series.”
Resident evil code veronica remake series#
Nothing about Chris’ time on the island feels like a lazy retread or cynical padding, instead revealing just how polished Capcom’s level design for the series had become by this point. The numerous areas offer a massive amount of variety in location – clearly paving the way for the sprawling adventure of Resi 4 – but it’s the intricate way that new secrets and routes are opened up for Chris’ belated arrival that arguably shines brightest. While it would be interesting enough to see how a remake would handle the game’s notorious difficulty, even more fascinating would be the chance to see how Capcom would re-purpose the game’s huge map. Time to die! Say hello to my little frien… aw. Seeing that dragged mincing and screeching into the 2020s, if done right, would be an absolute riot of Devil May Cry 5 proportions. It’s filled to the brim with balls-out action set pieces and scene-chewing nutters. The result feels like it evokes the dark horror tone that was originally intended – that was arguably felt back in the ‘90s – whereas Code: Veronica doesn’t have that tone at all. The remake of Resident Evil 2, and shortly Resident Evil 3, have been able to fully modernize and tone down the nonsense from their original titles by replacing bad voice acting, dialogue, and animations with the standards we’ve come to expect in the current generation. Alfred/Alexia Ashford really marked a sea change in Resident Evil antagonists, paving away for the carnival of campy freaks that would torment Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, as well as ushering the true beginnings of super mutant Wesker. That’s not to say that Code: Veronica doesn’t play out like a B-movie with crappy voice acting (we’re still talking about 20 years ago, remember), but in the leap from PlayStation to Dreamcast, Resident Evil went from giant, stalking behemoths and corrupt scientists to a shrieking transvestite who thinks he’s his own sister (spoiler?). Code: Veronica feels very starkly like it’s where things started to get intentionally crazy. The general consensus of the older Resi (which is an abbreviation I’ve recently been led to believe is quite alien to American fans – is this true?!) titles is that they’re these schlocky, campy romps, but aside from being decidedly B-movie in execution with some utterly dreadful voice acting, the intent always felt like it was played pretty straight. With hindsight fully in tow, Code: Veronica feels like it was so close to being a pivotal entry in the Resident Evil series. Well, on its 20 th birthday I’m here to ring the shame bell on any and all who gloss over just how fantastic it would be for Capcom to remake Code: Veronica, the series’ most underrated game. In amongst the praise for last year’s Resident Evil 2 remake and the impending release of the same treatment for Resident Evil 3, I’ve heard a lot of gaming pundits go on to ask the question of whether it’s worth Capcom’s time to remake Resident Evil 4.