Resident Evil Code: Veronica (2000)

Must say that Code Veronica turned out quite a disappointment. And I have finished now most of Resident Evil games, some of them multiple times.
It started well, though. Decided to check how Code Veronica X plays on GameCube, and couldn't stop playing for a few hours. My first attempt at it was back in 2007, on Dreamcast, and I got stuck somewhere in the middle, before Chris appears. Looking back, I should have played the PS3 version, Code Veronica X HD (wonderful naming!), which has better lighting effects.
The game is brutal compared to Resident Evil 2, though. Or maybe I just know Resident Evil 2 too well. Plenty of ammo, but by the end of Training Camp I was running out of healing items.
Not being limited by the PSX hardware anymore, Resident Evil allowed itself to become bigger. And it is actually a problem. There are more enemies, that respawn more aggressively. And since the world isn't broken into small self contained chapters anymore, there is much more backtracking, much more things to remember.
Bowgun is arguably even worse than the basic pistol. The only useful role are the explosive arrows. And the fact that it doesn't need to be reloaded.

First encounter with the Tyrant is mostly a standoff, in a space so narrow all you are able to do is shoot and hope it will go down before you do.
The second encounter on a plane is much worse, though. If you didn't save enough explosive arrows, you may be out of luck, and will have to load an earlier save. The boss will stunlock you, and its attacks track quite badly.
Nosferatu boss was extremely annoying. At least it has a free checkpoint just before the fight. Maybe I just don't like "sniper" fights.

Chris is able to pilot a Harrier. Guess this is something they teach you in SWAT?
This is the earliest Resident Evil I can remember that has a shared storage between characters. What that means, though, and that is something the game never explains properly, is that whatever equipment Claire uses while fighting Nosferatu stays with her. While it doesn't matter much for the pistol, it matters more for the grenade launcher, that Chris won't be able to use.
Second episode with Claire is one of the most annoying parts of any Resident Evil game I could remember. First you need to run under a falling block multiple times. Which mean instadeath if you mess it. Then you need to run away from mutated Steve, and if you don't have enough healing items, it's back to the falling block again. Found it to be very frustrating switching between two characters with separate inventory, not knowing when it happens and what items will become inaccessible. That way some healing items were left on Claire before fights with Alexia.
Speaking of that, first fight with Alexia in the manor has instadeath if she catches you, which is slightly annoying. Easy if you know you need a magnum in your inventory. Hard if you don't. Second phase is just a standoff again. And the third is again a sniping match, with infinite ammo and only landing a single shot, but with slow projectiles.
A bit sad that by the time Wesker appears again in Resident Evil 5, everybody forgot both about Wesker face getting burned (although maybe he just regenerated it, the guy survived getting crushed by a few tons of rails) and about Steve.
And the whole Wesker fight is strange. In the fact that it doesn't exist. It's just a set of scenes. I was expecting some QTE, but nope, just sit back and watch events unfold.

This afternoon I had the satisfaction of finishing what was originally intended to be the third installment in the Resident Evil franchise: Code: Veronica. While there are a couple of problems I have with it, I for sure think it is worthier of being considered a main title than the transient Nemesis, which felt to me like a cheap, quickly made divertissement that wanted to milk whatever was left of the second game. For one, the meaty story is much more thought out and feels more significant in the canon than Jill's "last escape." In terms of gameplay, CV finds itself in a transitional state, between its predecessors and the mechanically transformed Resident Evil 4, but is very much the last cry gasp of the old-school style RE games.

I might find it easier to talk about the story by splitting it into Part 1 and Part 2. I thought part 1 was fantastic. While not initially all that scary, the slow immersion into the villain's sadistic psyche and dark subject matter was a gradual burn that worked really well for me. The recurring music box theme shed light on a tenderer side to Alfred and Alexia (and giving it lyrics in part 2 definitely ruined the mystique that it set up). Steve was definitely a likable presence, if only for laughing at his persona and "sorey!"s. Part 2 was rough at first, as it feels like you just finished a whole Resident Evil game with Part 1 and now you're starting another one. Once it got back on its feet, however, it felt quite all right, if a bit bloated.

The puzzles are some of the best that the pre-RE4 games have to offer, and clearly a lot of effort was put into them. Elaborately set up and often thematically perturbing (i.e. the dragonfly keys), I found them a joy to complete.

The bosses. Ugh. For me, the boss fights have always been the least fun parts of Resident Evil, as they are neither scary nor are they entertaining, as the RE game engine is not suited for boss fight combat. And in this game you get some ridiculously annoying fights; the tyrant on the plane being a potently irritating example. On the upside, I did enjoy the Nosferatu fight, which was set up very well and actually had some suspense and atmosphere to it.

The music! I loved the music in this one. For me, a soundtrack can really make or break a horror game, and Code: Veronica has some of the strongest up till this point in the franchise. The music box/piano roll theme I mentioned, the save room theme, "putrid smell", and the suspended doll theme are some of the ones I found to be the most effective.

Pros:

-Story

-Characters, including villain

-Puzzles

-Atmosphere/dark subject matter (one of the more atmospheric Resident Evils)

Cons:

-Too long

-Some annoying boss fights

Overall: A must if you like old-school Resident Evil titles!