Resident Evil Code: Veronica

Resident Evil Code: Veronica(|バイオハザード コード：ベロニカ Biohazard CODE: Veronica, commonly abbreviated RECV) is the fourth game in Capcom's Resident Evil survival horror series originally released for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Although with the release of Resident Evil: Zero, it is the fifth in terms of the game storyline. It is notable for being the first Resident Evil title to debut on a non-Sony platform, as opposed to the first three installments, which were originally PlayStation games before being ported to other platforms.

An updated version of the game titled Code: Veronica X完全版KazenbanComplete Edition was released for the Dreamcast (Japan only) and PlayStation 2 in 2001 and the GameCube in 2003. This new version includes new cut scenes spliced into the main game and mild graphical changes.

It was the first game in the series made for a [sixth generation console, and also the first core title in the series to use full polygonal environments instead of the static pre-rendered backgrounds that characterized the previous titles in the series.

Gameplay
Code: Veronica is the first Resident Evil game in the main series to use 3D backgrounds instead of the traditional pre-rendered ones. Despite this, the camera does not follow the player around, but swings between semi-fixed angles (similar to the original Dino Crisis). However, two weapons in the game (a sniper rifle and a linear launcher) can be fired from the character's point of view and a first person view mode is available in the game's unlockable "Battle Mode" minigame.

Gameplay remained largely unchanged from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (which was developed in tandem with Code: Veronica), features such as explosive oil drums and a 180-degree turn carried over to this game. Items from Resident Evil 2, such as upgradeable handgun parts and "side packs" for larger item capacity are featured, as well as new weapons such as crossbow arrows mixed with gun powder and Anti-B.O.W. rounds for the grenade launcher. A unique feature of Code: Veronica is the inclusion of various dual wielding pistols, allowing the player to target two enemies at the same time. Some of the more subtle improvements in Code: Veronica includes the addition of continues, allowing the player to retry a scene after a game over, and the ability to pick and use a healing herb when the character's inventory is full.

As with previous installments, Code: Veronica features two protagonists. This time they are Claire Redfield and her brother Chris. Unlike Resident Evil 2, in which the player could choose to start the game with either character, Code: Veronica forces players to take control of Claire for the first half of the game and then start the second half with Chris. All of Claire's weapons and items left in the item box are available for Chris to pick up in his half of the game. In addition, a third character, Steve Burnside, is briefly playable during Claire's half of the game and Claire herself is playable during a short portion of Chris' half of the game.

Like previous Resident Evil titles, there are hidden features that are unlocked after meeting certain requirements. After completing the main game, a "Battle Game" is unlocked in which the player can choose from one of five characters (Chris, Claire, two unlockable characters, Albert Wesker and Steve Burnside, and an alternate version of Claire) and travel through a series of rooms and clear each area of monsters and eventually defeat a character-specific boss in the quickest time possible. Both the main game and the "Battle Game" feature their respective unlockable weapons.

Setting
The game is set three months following the events depicted in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The plot moves away from Raccoon City and onto Rockfort Island, a solitary private isle owned by the Umbrella Corporation, although much of the later portions of the game takes place in an Umbrella-owned transport terminal in Antarctica. Rockfort Island houses several facilities including a prison, a military training base, the Ashford family's palace, a private residence and an airport. The Antarctic transport terminal at the end of the game includes several facilities and a residence, including a replica of the mansion's lobby from the original Resident Evil.

Characters
Code: Veronica sees the return of heroine Claire Redfield, who continues her search for her missing brother following the events in Raccoon City. During the course of the game, she teams up with Steve Burnside, a prisoner in Rockfort Island. Claire's brother, Chris Redfield also returns, and goes to Rockfort Island to save his sister.

The main antagonists of the game are the Ashford twins, Alfred and Alexia, both of whom are offspring of the titular Code: Veronica project. Albert Wesker returns after being presumed dead after the events of the first Resident Evil, now endowed with superhuman strength and employed as an agent for a rival corporation against Umbrella.

Story
The game begins with heroine Claire Redfield raiding one of the Umbrella Corporation's facilities in Paris. She is captured and imprisoned on Rockfort Island. The island is contaminated by the monster-creating T-Virus. Claire escapes and teams up with inmate Steve Burnside. They eventually escape via plane, but it crashes into the Antarctica facility. There they encounter old and new enemies as they try to survive.

Claire's brother, Chris arrives on Rockfort in search of her. He learns Claire is long gone and that old enemies are alive and well. Chris eventually finds his way to Antarctica where he is reunited with Claire. Steve is killed in battle and Chris and Claire barely escape a gigantic explosion in a stolen jet.

This is the story as depicted in the original Dreamcast version. The later X edition extends the ending by featuring a new fight scene between Chris and Wesker.

Development
Code: Veronica was one of the first third-party games announced for the Sega Dreamcast by the end of 1998. The game was originally scheduled for a late 1999 release following the Dreamcast launch, but was delayed and eventually released at the beginning of 2000.

Code: Veronica is notable for being the only Resident Evil sequel not to bear a numbered title, despite being promoted as the true sequel to Resident Evil 2. Instead Nemesis, a PlayStation title that originally began development as a side-story rather than a true sequel was given the Resident Evil 3 title (although Devil May Cry, a game originally designed to be a PlayStation 2 sequel to the series briefly held that title).

While Production Studio 4 was in charge of the game's artistic direction, the actual development of the game was handled by Nextech Corporation (a subsidiary of Sega at the time), the same company that ported the original Resident Evil to the Sega Saturn. Although, the game was originally marketed as a Dreamcast exclusive during its initial release, the game was ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 a year later (and afterwards, the Nintendo GameCube) in the form of an updated version (see Code: Veronica X).

Localization
The Japanese version of the game contained two difficulty settings ("Easy" and "Very Easy") in addition to the default "Normal" setting found in the American and PAL versions of the game. "Very Easy" starts the player off with the Rocket Launcher and an unlimited supply of ink ribbons.

There were two versions of the original Dreamcast release in Japan: a standard edition and a limited edition. The limited edition came packaged with a red slipcase and features a different title screen, with Wesker's face visible on the background. The same version of this title screen would be used for Code: Veronica X.

Code: Veronica X
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (or the Complete Edition, as it was titled in Japan) is an updated version of the original Resident Evil Code: Veronica released for the Sony PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast in 2001. The Dreamcast version only saw release in Japan due to the decline of the hardware during that same year. A third version of the game was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003.

Code: Veronica X is identical to the original in terms of gameplay, but features nine minutes of additional cut scenes spliced into the main game, as well as mild graphical changes. These new cut-scenes consists of: a brief confrontation between Claire and Wesker early in the game in which Wesker overpowers Claire, but refrains from killing her in order to use her as a lure for Chris, a redone fight scene between Alexia and Wesker, in which Wesker comes out favorably (as opposed to being overpowered by Alexia as in the original), and an extended ending. In the new ending, Chris and Claire are confronted by Wesker as they make their escape. Chris and Wesker fight, but Wesker, with superhuman strength easily defeats his rival. Chris only manages to weaken Wesker by dropping a series of metal bars on top of him. The two are separated by an explosion. Chris vows to finish it the next time they meet before the game returns to the original ending.

Wesker's Report
To promote the release of Code: Veronica X, as well as to commemorate the series' fifth anniversary, Capcom produced a fictional documentary titled Wesker's Report. The documentary was available as a DVD-Video that came bundled with the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast versions of the game in Japan, given as a pre-order bonus in North America and bundled with the game in PAL regions. The DVD was also sold in North America via Capcom's online store at one time.

As the title indicates, the documentary serves as a retelling of the events of the first three games, as narrated by Albert Wesker. The documentary serves to explain Wesker's return in Code: Veronica and how he came to be hired by the new organization. In addition, it also reveals that the character was a former lab partner of William Birkin and that he was in league with Ada Wong (an agent of the same organization) during the events of Resident Evil 2.

A non-spoken written sequel to this documentary, titled Wesker Report II, was released via Capcom's official site (in Japanese and English) to promote the GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil.

Gun Survivor 2
The characters and settings of Code: Veronica was adapted into Gun Survivor 2 : Biohazard Code: Veronica, a light gun game released in 2001 as co-production between Namco and Capcom. The arcade version runs on the Dreamcast-based NAOMI 2 arcade hardware. Gun Survivor 2 has no real bearing on the plot of Code: Veronica and the events of the game are actually depicted as a dream in Claire's mind at the end of the game. A PlayStation 2 version of Gun Survivor 2 was released in Japan and the PAL region (where it was released under the title Resident Evil Survivor 2).

Reception
The Dreamcast version of the game garnered many extremely positive reviews, IGN giving it a 9.2/10, GameSpot giving it a 9.5/10, and GamePro giving it a 4.5/5. The other versions did not fare as well overall, the PlayStation 2 version garnering a 6.5/10 from IGN, a 9.0/10 from GameSpot, and a 4.5/5 from GamePro. The GameCube version garnered the most negative reviews, a 5.0/10 from IGN, a 2/5 from GameSpy, and 6.9/10 from GameSpot.

In other media
As with previous Resident Evil games, a Code: Veronica novelization was written by author S.D. Perry. Although, the novel was first published on December 1, 2001, it is based on the original game and does not take into account the added events introduced in the later version of the game. As with the previous novelizations by Perry, the original character Trent appears as a mysterious stringpuller behind the plot.

Code: Veronica was also adapted into a manwa by Lee Chung Hing (who also did a similar adaptation of Resident Evil: Nemesis), published in Hong Kong during the original game's release. An English version of the comic was published as four collected graphic novels by Wildstorm in North America.