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 in Capcom's Resident Evil series. It was released for the Wii console in Japan on November 15, 2007.

Plot
The game features past games stories through a first-person perspective and does not allow free movement. It features Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil, and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis to show the events that lead to Umbrella's end in 3 scenarios with sub-stories that were never seen before explaining other events. It retcons several events through the series and is narrated by Albert Wesker.

There is also a final scenario unlocked after beating the past three called "Umbrella's End". It features an original story set in a Russian Umbrella facility in February 2003. As the name implies, it ends Umbrella once and for all.

The game also features a whole new character named Sergei Vladimir, an Umbrella officer and founder of the UBCS that hails from Russia, who serves as the games main antagonist. He takes a crucial place in the last scenario and has several appearances through the aforementioned sub-stories.

Playable characters include Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira, Rebecca Chambers, Billy Coen, Ada Wong, Wesker and HUNK.

Scenarios
The game follows the story behind the downfall of the Umbrella Corporation by revisiting scenarios from Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil, 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 acts where the player chooses between Rebecca Chambers or Billy Coen. The first act follows Rebecca and Billy through the train and ends with a boss battle with the Stinger. The second takes place in the Management Training Facility and the church and a boss battle with the Infected Bat. The last scenario takes place in bowels of the Arklay Treatment Plant and the battle with the Queen Leech.


 * Beginnings: Reveals Wesker's actions during this timeframe. The t-virus escaped in Umbrella's 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 Arklay Research Facility. The Proto-Tyrant's death is retconned as being at the hands of Wesker. 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 Tyrant T-103s 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: Rebecca Chambers and Richard Aiken meet up at the Arklay mansion and try to find Enrico Marini. This scenario also shows how Yawn attacked Richard.


 * Mansion Incident: A summarization of Resident Evil, divided into three acts where the player can choose between Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. It first follows them through their meeting with the Spencer Estate ending with a battle with the Yawn and Rebecca's level. Then through the gardens and outer areas, ending with a battle with the Plant 42. And finally through the labs and a battle with the Tyrant T-002.


 * Rebirth: 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 3: Nemesis.


 * 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. . 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 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 due to suicide. 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 was 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 unnamed Umbrella executive 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 only surviving teammate, 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 self destructs himself with the T-virus and mutates him into a monster. Wesker kills 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 (Wesker) 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 one of two times in which Wesker smiles. The other time is in Resident Evil 5.

Gameplay
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles'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 even though this is which its based off of). Also 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 (although levels are timed and rank is affected by time of completion). Instead you progress through levels in a fairly linear fashion, shooting (often but not always) groups of Zombies and other B.O.W.'s which pop up from various off and on-screen locations.

The levels are fully destructible and shooting items such as chairs, picture frames, vases will sometimes relinquish various items such as 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 players to replay the levels so that you find every file, and get a better rank.

The weaponry you find ranges from the humble handgun and the Samurai Edge right up to the almighty Handcannon and Anti Tank Launcher. Also each weapon has the opportunity to be upgraded a level until it reaches Level 4 (Secret Upgrades at Level 5) and you earn points for upgrading weapons by finishing the stages. Points are earned throughout the level and are displayed at the end, based on your points and other factors such as "Critical Hits" and "Objects Destroyed" you will receive a rank (C, B, A, S). The more points you earn the more you can upgrade each weapon. At some points you will need to press an Action Command (Similar to Resident Evil 4&amp;5) to get out of a tight spot and/or survive.If not pressed right or not pressed at all you may lose severe health or may cause death(there's one in every level (For example:Chris and Jill in the laser room).

Development
The game was 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, were 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 6, 2007 the official Japanese website went live containing an official teaser video. On April 13, 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 11, 2007 Nintendo announced at the pre-E3 press conference that the Wii Zapper peripheral will be compatible with the game.

Reception
The Umbrella Chronicles has received above-average scores from critics. GamePro praised its unlockable secrets and satisfying gameplay. They added that "The only downside to The Umbrella Chronicles is that longevity will be an issue." GameTrailers called it "fantastic overall" and a "superb entry in the genre". They praised the game for its surprising length and unlockable content, but stated that while the graphics "look good", they were sometimes "a step behind" Resident Evil 4. They added that having the game on rails actually makes it scarier, and that it's "basically a love letter" to fans of the series. IGN praised the game for having "amazingly cool" design but complained about the lack of representation from Resident Evil 2 and 4 as well as the gameplay, which they felt was too slow. On the other hand, they called the presentation "pretty impressive" and stated that "there’s no denying the fun" they had with it. Zero Punctuation claimed that the game was a step back in time with it being on-rails, but as such had a "charming retro feel". Gamespot praised the easy controls and the look and feel of the game, but criticized the music, stating that "it undermines the atmosphere," and that the "on-rails shooter gameplay can still feel restrictive. 1up.com dubbed The Umbrella Chronicles "an accessible, mostly satisfying shooter". They praised the depth and strategy offered by the gameplay, but complained about difficult headshots and stated that "it never really amounts to more than its concept". They went on to call it "a surprisingly meaty experience" and praised its "welcome accessibility".

Despite high review scores, some fans of the Resident Evil franchise have criticized it for the heavy amount of ported graphics, character and enemy models and animations, as well as poor (and often glitchy) audio placement. The characters can often be found shouting out random, disconnected dialogue, disconnected from the story and characters. Perhaps the most heavily criticized sections are the areas involving Raccoon City, as all save for a sparse few elements are ripped from previous Resident Evil tittles. The entirety of the Raccoon City map is pulled directly from "Resident Evil: Outbreak" and Outbreak File #2, with little or no alterations. the only elements of the game that can be deemed new and original are the models for Carlos, NEMESIS and Vlademir Sergi, as well as the maps for the Resident Evil 0,1 and "Umbrella's End" missions. Some models were modified (Ada, Chris and Jill in winter gear) but the game is for the most part recycled.

The game has sold 1.1 million copies around the world since its debut on November 2007.