Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, known in Japan as biohazard: Umbrella Chronicles (バイオハザード アンブレラ・クロニクルズ), is an on-rails shooter game and a new installment in Capcom's Resident Evil series. It was released for the Wii console in Japan on November 15, 2007.

Development
The game is being published and developed by Capcom and produced by Masachika Kawata who was behind the PS2 port of Resident Evil 4. At E3 2006, Capcom officially announced that development was already underway for an exclusive Resident Evil game for the Wii and mentioned that it would take advantage of the console's unique Wii Remote controller, giving players a new experience in the series' franchise. Members of Capcom's Clover Studios, who created such games as Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami, have been called upon to help develop the game.

A short clip of the game was shown on the Nintendo World event on November 3, 2006, where 2007 was revealed as the release date. On April 6th 2007 the official Japanese website went live containing an official teaser video. On April 13th 2007 the official Japanese website updated with a second trailer, character profiles and screenshots. Capcom is planning on releasing the game with a limited edition collector's biohazard box featuring several items along with the game itself. Christian Svensson, Capcom's senior director of strategic planning and research, stated the game will support 480-progressive scan and 16:9 wide-screen resolution. A trailer was included in the Wii Edition of Resident Evil 4, which shows the mansion from the original game and areas of Raccoon City. On July 11th, 2007 Nintendo announced at the pre-E3 press conference that the Wii Zapper peripheral will be compatible with the game.

Gameplay
's room configuration for some buildings are exact copies of Outbreaks rather than main series (ie. RPD Car Park follows Outbreak's dimensions, not 2's).

Locations such as the Apple Inn, J's Bar and a few other buildings from the Outbreak series are shown in the Resident Evil 3 sections.

The Game itself plays in a similar fashion to other on rails games like Time Crisis and House of the Dead, except unlike Time Crisis, there is no on screen timer. Instead you progress through levels in a fairly linear fashion, shooting Zombies and other B.O.W.'s who pop up from various directions and also in groups as the game progresses.

The levels are fully destructible and shooting items such as chairs, picture frames, vases will sometimes relinquish ammunition, herbs for healing or even a hidden file. The explosive red barrels from Resident Evil 3 make a return in a few levels and shooting them can result in the destruction of an enemy horde; the same goes for the abandoned cars in some sections of the game.

In each stage, there are sometimes multiple routes which you can take, which encourages you to replay the levels so that you find every file, and get a better rank.

The weaponry you find ranges from the humble handgun right up to the almighty Handcannon and Anti Tank Launcher. Each weapon can be upgraded to a Level of 5 (Secret Upgrades at Level 5) and you earn points for upgrading weapons by finishing the stages. The better your rank (C, B, A, S) the more points you get to upgrade.

Plot
The story will shed more light on the Umbrella Corporation's activities and downfall, with the official trailer's motto being "Witness the end of Umbrella". Characters that appear in the game are: Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira, Rebecca Chambers, Billy Coen, Ada Wong, Richard Aiken, Albert Wesker, HUNK and the shady Umbrella Official, Sergei Vladimir.

While Claire Redfield does not make an appearance, Leon Scott Kennedy is shown and referenced briefly in the cutscene leading to Ada Wong's playable side mission "Death's Door." The May 2007 issue of Nintendo Power stated, "New characters are planned for the never-before-seen Umbrella sections, but the game is still too early in development for Capcom to reveal those characters". Voice actress Tara Platt has also confirmed that she will play the role of the Red Queen in the game.

In September 2007, it was revealed by Jeux-France that the final level in the game will be titled "Umbrella's End". It will take place in a snowy Umbrella stronghold located in Russia. The player will control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine for this scenario.

Scenarios
The game follows the story behind the downfall of the Umbrella Corporation by revisiting scenarios from Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It concludes with an assault upon an Umbrella stronghold maintained by Sergei Vladimir. In total, there are four main chapters with ten additional playable scenarios, divided up into a total of twenty two levels.

Train Derailment
All scenarios in this chapter take place during the events of Resident Evil Zero.


 * Train Derailment: A summation of Resident Evil Zero, divided up into three levels where the player chooses between Rebecca Chambers or Billy Coen.


 * Beginnings: Reveals Albert Wesker's actions during this timeframe. The T-Virus escaped in Umbrella's Management Training Facility due to Dr. Marcus' attack and Wesker must escape from the facility in order to pursue his next mission, luring the S.T.A.R.S. team to the Spencer Mansion. After successfully reaching the surface, Sergei Vladimir confronts him and, not noticing Wesker's betrayal and unknowingly mistaking his actions as failure, dispatches a derivation of the T-103 Tyrants called Ivan to punish him. . Wesker barely manages to escape with his life.

Mansion Incident
All scenarios in this chapter take place during the events of Resident Evil.


 * Nightmare: Covers Rebecca Chambers' ordeal before she met the two protagonists of Resident Evil. Upon reaching the residence at the Spencer Mansion, Rebecca falls asleep, exhausted by the events of Resident Evil Zero. Awoken from a nightmare by fellow Bravo Team Member Richard Aiken, the pair sets off to find other survivors from their team. While unable to locate the rest of Bravo Team, Rebecca witnesses Sergei Vladimir exiting the mansion with the T-A.L.O.S. prototype, carried by another of his modified T-103 Tyrants. Eventually Rebecca and Richard are attacked and pursued through the mansion by the Yawn. Richard ultimately sacrifices his own life to save Rebecca, leaving her to take care of him until the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team members arrive.


 * Mansion Incident: A summation of Resident Evil, divided into three levels where the player can choose between Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine.


 * Rebirth: Albert Wesker awakes in basement level four of the Arklay research facility, resurrected by a special virus sample he received from William Birkin and discovers that the Tyrant has been destroyed and the mansion's self-destruct system has been activated. He attempts to get Umbrella's data but has to realize that it has been backed up to a supercomputer called U.M.F.-013 by Sergei Vladimir. Furthermore, his access privileges to the mainframe system have been revoked by Red Queen. With minutes to spare, Wesker changes his plans and fights his way out of the mansion. At the very end, he finds the exit blocked by his long lasting test subject, the nearly immortal Lisa Trevor, whom he decides to give the final treatment.

Raccoon's Destruction
All scenarios in this chapter take place during the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis using the Maps from Resident Evil: Outbreak and Resident Evil: Outbreak File .


 * Raccoon's Destruction: A summation of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, divided up into three levels where the player can choose between Jill Valentine or Carlos Oliveira.
 * Part 1: This segment follows Jill and Carlos' way to the Train Station. It uses most of the Outbreak Crossover Map. The Boss is the Gravedigger.
 * Part 2:This segment follows Jill and Carlos going through a train station to the RPD, at the end of this segment the player/s must combat over 20 Hunter Rs'.
 * Part 3: This final segment follows Jill and Carlos' exploration through the RPD, and their fight with the Nemesis.


 * Death's Door: Covers Ada Wong's mission to bring the G-Virus sample back to Albert Wesker. Although heavily injured during the events of Resident Evil 2, Ada survived and returned to the surface. She attempts to rendezvous with a contact at the Apple Inn, but finds him already dead. Wesker then contacts her via phone and informs her that she has failed, and that her betraying them and rescuing Leon S. Kennedy would have consequences for their organization. Ada shows Wesker a tissue fragment of Birkin's dead body serving as a sample of the G-Virus, at which point he tells her that Raccoon City is about to be bombed and a helicopter with an Umbrella officer is the only possibility to leave the town, thus saving her life through the information. Ada handily defeats A Tyrant-R, possible the T-0400TP-4 that latter absorbed by Nyx, or merely another T-103-R. After the fight, she uses the grapple gun she collected from the dead contact to board the chopper. Inside the helicopter, Sergei Vladimir and an unknown individual (This may possibly be Ozwell E. Spencer, as the individual appears very old and Ozwell would be in his 70's at the time, and since James Marcus and Edward Ashford are dead, that leaves only one very old Umbrella official) talk about stealing the computer core, U.M.F.-013, from his own company.


 * Fourth Survivor: A retelling of the bonus scenario of the same name introduced in Resident Evil 2. It covers special agent HUNK's mission to return the G-Virus sample to Umbrella. In this remake, radio interference causes the player to pick up a variety of transmissions, such as the police's doomed attempts to fight the zombies, the last broadcast of a surrounded radio station, advertisements for various Umbrella products, the dying pleas of HUNK's teammates, and someone screaming "Raccoon City! Raccoon City!". HUNK makes it to the roof of the police department and is picked up by a rescue chopper.

Umbrella's End
All scenarios in this chapter are brand-new and have never been portrayed in the series before. They take place in the year 2003, five years after the destruction of Raccoon City, and one year before the events of Resident Evil 4.


 * Umbrella's End: A three-part story dealing with Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine attacking and securing Umbrella's most important remaining facility, the Russian stronghold in the Caucasus region where the Red Queen supercomputer and all of Umbrella's data is being held. Anticipating an attack, Sergei Vladimir unleashed the T-Virus in his own facility, along with the most powerful B.O.W.s the company had to offer. Jill and Chris penetrate deep into the facility, ultimately destroying Umbrella's most sophisticated bio-weapon ever, the T-A.L.O.S. project.


 * Dark Legacy: As Chris and Jill unintentionally cause a diversion, Albert Wesker also infiltrates Sergei's stronghold with a much more insidious mission. Sergei soon confronts Wesker, and sends two of his Tyrants to kill him. Wesker proves to be more than a match for Ivan thanks to his superhuman abilities, and continues his infiltration of the facility. In the end, Wesker faces Sergei for the last time, who injects himself with a virus that mutates him into a monster. Wesker defeats him and steals all the data Umbrella accumulated over years of research, and then wipes the computer clean. By gaining the data, Wesker starts his plan to revive the Umbrella Corporation under his command, as revealed in Resident Evil 4 to be his main objective.


 * During and after the credits, more about the storyline is revealed. It is stated that the Umbrella Corporation was finally found guilty on all charges of its involvement in the Raccoon City outbreak, though the prosecution remained quiet about how they acquired the necessary information. As a key witness, an anonymous witness close to the suspect also implicated Ozwell E. Spencer personally, starting a global manhunt for the Umbrella founder. At the very end of the game, Wesker is shown entering the same command room that he uses in Resident Evil 4. He places all of the stolen Umbrella data into his computer, allowing him to take possession of all the company's assets and information, and promises that he will meet Spencer again and usher in a new era for himself. This scene shows the only, if not one of the only times he smiles.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the game was composed by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda from Grasshopper Manufacture. A CD with 49 tracks called Biohazard: The Umbrella Chronicles Original Sound Track was released in Japan on December 19th. It was produced by Suleputer and was distributed by Sony Music Distribution for 3150 yen (after tax). The soundtrack includes a full-colour booklet. Initially produced items are limited editions with special sleeve cases.  Biohazard: The Umbrella Chronicles Original Sound Track


 * 1) "Briefing"
 * 2) "The Theme Of Umbrella Chronicles"
 * 3) "Begin Here"
 * 4) "Preparations"
 * 5) "The Ecliptic Express"
 * 6) "Convulsions"
 * 7) "Trauma"
 * 8) "Endogenous Opioid"
 * 9) "July 1998"
 * 10) "White Out"
 * 11) "Mimesis"
 * 12) "The Zombie Who Came In From The Cold"
 * 13) "Outbreak"
 * 14) "Salute"
 * 15) "Endtroduction"
 * 16) "The Mansion Incident"
 * 17) "Swoon"
 * 18) "July 24 1998"
 * 19) "Exposure"
 * 20) "Initial R"
 * 21) "Suicidal Explosion"
 * 22) "Virus Syndicate"
 * 23) "Escape Death"
 * 24) "Blacken Sabbath"
 * 25) "Slight Injury"
 * 26) "Raccoon's Destruction"
 * 27) "Fight Or Flight"
 * 28) "Sterilization"
 * 29) "Beasties"
 * 30) "September 1998"
 * 31) "Tetrodotoxin"
 * 32) "Oriental Woman"
 * 33) "Sympathy For The Zombie"
 * 34) "Extinction"
 * 35) "No Word For It"
 * 36) "Hazmat"
 * 37) "Live Evil"
 * 38) "Umbrella Ribs"
 * 39) "Unlikely Allies"
 * 40) "To The End"
 * 41) "Escapee"
 * 42) "2003, Somewhere Over Russia"
 * 43) "Corporal"
 * 44) "No Data"
 * 45) "Palma"
 * 46) "You Only Live Twice"
 * 47) "Accumulation"
 * 48) "Nothing Is Impossible"
 * 49) "Umbrella Lives On"