Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

To play a light gun game is a bit like having a burger at McDonald's. It's pretty much impossible to be disappointed or surprised. You know exactly what you're getting. These days the genre is almost non existent except for on Nintendo Wii, so perhaps we should start calling it Wiimote shooters instead of light gun games. Everything is exactly as usual as we mow down hordes of enemies with our trigger finger.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is aimed at two groups of players. Those who are interested in easily digested action that last a couple of nights. You the ones who like to sit in a couch, scream and yell, and shoot vile undeads with a friend, without ever stopping to solve a boring puzzle or so.

The other group are Resident Evil veterans who have taken an interest in the Resident Evil universe and more specifically the motives behind the actions of the Umbrella corporation. These people are not just in it for the zombie kills. They will also learn more about what went on in some of the early Resident Evil games as The Darkside Chronicles is played out in parallel with Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

With respect for those who belong to the second group I won't go into the story that is told and that according to Capcom fills in some important voids. I must confess that people who take a serious interest in the story of the Resident Evil series scare me, the plot is thinner than a steam rolled wafer and has more holes than a Swiss cheese. I can only imagine what they might do me if I happen to spoil something.

The Darkside Chronicles plays exactly as expected. The living dead fall down at my feet. They drag themselves towards like a zombie ought to do, and my bullets stop them. Aim and shoot. It's even more fun with a friend by your side. The game is obviously made to be played by two players even if it works adequately with the AI controlled friend. Upgrades for the weapons and different routes provide some replay value. And if you are in it to hunt for high scores there is more to aim for.

The weakest part of The Darkside Chronicles is the manner in which the developers attempt to create panic in the player. As the action is played out from the view of the main characters the camera is never still. Imagine a shaky handheld camera. The more zombie on screens, the more stressed out our zombie hunters get. It's hard to get those headshots in when the camera is shaking as if mounted on a bobble head.

Despite the fact that I'm playing a spinoff of one of the most famous, if not the most famous, survival horror games I experience very little in terms of horror. The pace is high throughout the game for obvious reasons, and there is no time to build atmosphere and suspense.

With this lack of atmosphere the enemy design tends to bring laughters rather than fear. Things mutate all the time, just to mutate even more later on. It gives us a cast of everything from your average zombie, to twisted wrecks of humans mutated beyond recognition and giant frogs. The graphics are a mixed bag. Sometimes very easy to look at, but sometimes the shortcomings are plain to see.

Despite the hectic pace while shooting thousands of zombies I had a fairly relaxed experience. A lazy shake of the Wiimote is the most stressful move I have to pull off. But for the most time I lean back on my sofa with the Wiimote resting on my knee. There are some annoying bugs, but The Darkside Chronicles is still a solid action romp. The ambitions haven't been very high, but they have achieved just what they aimed for and what I expected. Much like a meal at McDonald's.