Picked up Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles tonight. I was told last week that they weren't going to have enough copies of the "Expert Package," which is just a fancier way of saying "game plus plastic gun-like shell thing, AKA 'zapper'," but they had one copy left that the dumb-ass clerk didn't seem to notice. ANYWAY...
Much like Ghost Squad, you don't need the Wii Zapper to play this game. In fact, it's more effective to NOT use the zapper; you have to make use of the Wiimote's A and B buttons together, and it's far easier to press both or alternate between them when using the Wiimote alone than it is inside the zapper shell. Much like Ghost Squad, you also get a target reticule on screen to make aiming with the Wiimote easy. The game play is like any typical gun shooter; it's all on rails, and you're along for the ride, shooting everything along the way.
Umbrella Chronicles is pretty story-heavy for a gun shooter, and is FILLED with Resident Evil fan service. During missions, shooting objects in the backgrounds will sometimes make hidden items, such as information on Umbrella, available for viewing in the game archives. You can also find new weapons to use, all of which can be upgraded a la Resident Evil 4. You can choose from two different playable characters in each level, although I'm not sure if there's any differences between them other than starting weapons.
The gameplay allows for headshots, counters (when enemies rush you), knifing, and grenade lobbing. As this is a gun shooter, the zombies you encounter go down quicker, but also move faster to make up for this. Boss battles are interesting and allow for all attacks to be countered, either by hitting the right commands on screen or shooting the right area of the boss's body. Waggle is used only for reloading and knifing; knifing works perfectly, although there were a few times where I had to shake the controller several times to get the gun to reload. When you run out of ammo, you also automatically reload, which is a nice feature generally missing from gun shooters, although reloading time is also longer and not instantaneous like in other gun games. Another addition to the game is the "free look" camera. Although the game is on rails, you can use the nunchuck to look around the environments, which helps in finding hidden items.
The game primarily contains levels from Resident Evil 0, 1, 3, and then a brand new scenario, but there are also unlockable side-missions from various games and different characters' (including enemies) viewpoints. It's also supposed to be pretty long for a gun shooter, with around 22 stages total and 6-7 hours worth of game play on normal difficulty. Ghost Squad, in comparison, can be beaten once in around 20-25 minutes.
Visually, this is one of the better-looking Wii games out there. It's got a smoother and cleaner look compared to Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, and the character models look fantastic, just like in the Game Cube Resident Evil games. The music is nice, as are the ambient sound effects. I'd recommend this title to both gun shooter and Resident Evil fans, and if you're both, you're really going to enjoy this.
The game also allows for two player simultaneous play, although some of the of the unlockable side-missions are single-player only. That is pretty much the only complaint I have about this game so far; it plays great and I assume any of the issues from preview builds have been addressed.
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So now I got this, Ghost Squad, DDR Hottest Party, Mario Galaxy, and in two weeks, I've decided to get Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes on Wii instead of PS2. WII IS HEATING UP
