Hands-on with the Zapper
It's Resident Evil, but not as we know it. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles bears some of the trademarks of the ever popular survival horror game series, but the game has been totally revamped to take advantage to the Wii-mote's motion sensing capabilities and perhaps more excitingly, the Wii Zapper. I had the good fortune to spend some time with Capcom behind the scenes at the Games Convention in Leipzig and go hands-on with the action shooter.The Wii Zapper, which may have a name change before release, combines the accuracy of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in a single housing. Don't get too excited though, it's just a piece of plastic and doesn't add any extra functionality other than being a pleasingly aesthetic piece of kit and a place to put both your Wii-mote and Nunchuck so you can pretend you're a real life zombie hunter. The Nunchuck sits in the handle of the gun, analogue stick and buttons exposed, whereas the Wii-mote nestles snugly along the length of the gun's barrel, its microphone spurting out those incessantly irritating groaning sounds of zombies on the hunt for fresh meat. With my left hand I grasped the front grip of the zapper and rested my index finger over the trigger ready to blast away any moaning undead. Meanwhile, my right hand held the back grip with my thumb hovering over the Nunchuck stick (used for controlling the game camera) and both the Z and C buttons were within easy reach. The Zapper feels extremely comfortable to hold (well, it feels like you’re holding a plastic gun) and it does significantly enhance the experience of playing Umbrella Chronicles.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles features familiar locales from the entire series, and the game reveals the back story behind the fall of the Umbrella Corporation by exploring locations from Resident Evil 0, 1, 2 and 3 as well as new never-before-seen locations, such as Umbrella's stronghold. Like any on-rails shooter, players don’t have direct control over the path of their avatar; though they can affect the path they take and interact with the surroundings by picking up items, such as grenades, with the C button and causing damage to the surroundings with your bullets.
