Why do Zombies always moan?
The level we played (you can watch the level on the video below) saw us moving on-rails through the carriage of a train while zombies lunged, or should we say ambled, towards us. Aiming the Wii Zapper, the target reticule appears and it's simply a case of blasting the constant barrage of walking dead, shaking your gun to reload, throwing grenades or using your d-pad to switch between weapons.
There are some neat effects, such as blood splattering on the screen and the zombies animate well when you pop a bullet in their shoulder or in their knee caps, falling over in that humorous zombie way. You can also pick up grenades and shoot at objects other than zombies, shooting and smashing glass, lamps or putting bullet holes in the wooden floors. Unfortunately, we didn't get to fight the big scorpion boss that you see in the video below, but the boss battles will basically involve shooting at its weak spots and then pressing the A button at the appropriate time in order to dodge its attacks.
From the short hands-on demo I played, Umbrella Chronicles plays like most standard on-rails shooter, though the use of the camera on the Nunchuck allows you to look around the environment and pick up items, such as weapons, along the way. The Wii Zapper is great fun to use and the spooky atmosphere has been created well, thanks to the creepy soundtrack and the dark, eerie environments. After playing Capcom’s other game, Devil May Cry 4 only minutes previously to picking up Umbrella Chronicles, I couldn't help feeling slightly bored with the game’s slow pace. I'm hoping that when Umbrella Chronicles is released they'll be more to it then just shooting dozens of dawdling undead.
Capcom say that the finished article will feature interactive pathways, multiple weapons and enemies that are new to the Resident Evil world. The game is due for release in November 2007
