Whilst the core entries to the Resident Evil franchise are about to reach the ninth release, there are many more games set in the same universe. Set at different stages in the timeline, these spin-off titles offer the player a larger impression of what Umbrella unleashed onto the world in 1997. Often set away from the settings seen in the main games (with the exception of Raccoon City), they also introduce new characters and scenarios, and sometimes alternative takes on already established events. Over the next few weeks, I’ll take a look at these spin-off games, beginning with the “Survivor” series.
RESIDENT EVIL SURVIVOR – 2000
Released on the PlayStation, Resident Evil Survivor was developed by Tose and published by Capcom. Whilst the Resident Evil games thus far had all been third-person shooters with fixed camera angles, Survivor instead utilised a first-person camera, and also featured light gun compatibility in Japan and Europe. The American release removed compatibility with light guns in the wake of the recent high school shooting in Columbine, as violent games were seen as partly responsible for the motivation of the killers, and light guns were targeted heavily.
Movement in Survivor was achieved using the controller, and pressing a specific button would bring up the cross-hair. The player was then fixed to that spot, and could only shoot enemies and items in their field of vision. When using the light gun, the player would aim at the screen to shoot, and shooting off-screen would move the character whilst the side buttons were used to turn. This made Survivor unique amongst the majority of light gun games, as the game was not on-rails like most in the genre. However, the cumbersome controls may be an indication as to why this was the case.
The story for Resident Evil Survivor takes place shortly after the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. A helicopter crashes on Sheena Island, which is owned by Umbrella and houses one of their secret laboratories. The player controls Ark Thompson, who begins the game with amnesia and is led to believe he is actually Vincent Goldman, the man responsible for the T-Virus outbreak on Sheena Island. Ark had been sent to the island by Leon Kennedy in order to pose as Vincent and investigate the facilities owned by Umbrella. Ark meets two children as he tries to escape the island named Lott and Lily Klein, whose parents worked for Umbrella. After saving Lott from an attack by a Hunter, Lott helps Ark regain his memories, and the three make their way to a railway station that leads to a heliport. Ark is confronted by the real Vincent Goodman, but he is swiftly killed by a new version of the Tyrant he designed. Ark fights the Hypnos T-type Tyrant off, and arrives at the heliport. Ark, Lott and Lily escape the island and kill the Tyrant, just before Sheena Island self-destructs.
Many of the enemies featured in Resident Evil Survivor are taken from Resident Evil 2, such as the zombie models used in that game, and also Lickers, Ivy plants and Giant Moths. Hunters from Resident Evil make a return, and a new enemy is introduced in the form of the Umbrella Trashsweeper Unit, who are soldiers armed with machine guns. The main antagonist, Vincent Goodman, had created a new Tyrant, called the Hypnos T-type Tyrant, and the player is made to fight this monster multiple times towards the end of the game, each time facing a new mutation.
Resident Evil Survivor will not be remembered as a particularly good game, as the first-person gameplay was at odds with the franchises slow pacing, low ammo count and puzzle solving. The result was a frustratingly slow shooter with controls that bring the action to a halt. The story is bare-bones, and confusing for first-time players. The technology was also a problem for the game, as character and enemy models would look terrible up close, which was a problem when only one enemy in the game could attack the player from a distance. While a novel idea, Resident Evil Survivor was a major disappointment upon release, and the characters and events were barely referenced again in the wider Resident Evil universe. Even the follow-up didn’t acknowledge it, instead using the same scenario as one of the main entries in the series.
RESIDENT EVIL SURVIVOR 2 CODE: VERONICA – 2001
Rather than revisit Ark Thompson and his next adventure, Survivor 2 instead was a retelling of part of Resident Evil Code: Veronica‘s story. Tose did not return to develop the game, and Survivor 2 was instead developed and published by Capcom in-house. Featuring similar gameplay to Resident Evil Survivor, the sequel was developed for Arcades and PlayStation 2. There were two modes available to the player; “Arcade mode” and “Dungeon mode”. Arcade mode featured Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside attempting to escape Rockfort Island, just as in Code: Veronica. This mode was split into several stages, and players had to find keys to leave the area and also defeat the level boss. Either Claire or Steve could be chosen as the player character, with the other controlled by the computer and could help in battle. The enemies encountered were the same as those seen in the original Code: Veronica, but when the time limit given to the player upon entering an area runs out, the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis would appear, quickly killing the player if they were unable to escape. No reason for the Nemesis’ appearance is given, but Nemesis is a pretty intimidating creature, so you don’t want that time limit to run down to zero. At the end of the game, it is revealed that the game has all been a dream inside Claire’s mind after her and Chris Redfield escaped at the end of the real Code: Veronica.
Dungeon mode is more like a survival mode type of game, with the player fighting waves of enemies. The stage ends after defeating the boss, but the more enemies killed leads to a larger score. Killing enemies in quick succession increases the player’s combo meter, leading to better scores at the end of the stage. The player can again pick either Claire or Steve, but they will not have the other character appear as back-up during gameplay. The player can also pick three weapons to take with them, with some weapons being character specific.
As an Arcade game, Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica is a fairly shallow inclusion into the franchise, with half the plot from Code: Veronica missing. This made the game very confusing to those unfamiliar with the source material, and even those that where would be wondering what was happening half the time. However, as an Arcade game, it is also quite fun, especially Dungeon mode, with the scoring system encouraging multiple play throughs. All in all, it was a slight improvement over Resident Evil Survivor, and would lead to a follow-up game, this time set in Capcom’s other survival horror franchise, Dino Crisis. The series would then return to the Resident Evil universe after that, with new gameplay features.
RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM – 2003
After Dino Stalker, the Survivor series returned to Resident Evil with 2003’s Resident Evil: Dead Aim, developed by Cavia for the PlayStation 2. Unlike the previous games, movement in-game used a third-person camera, whilst aiming and shooting reverted to the first-person camera from the first two games in the series. However, unlike those games, movement was possible whilst aiming, which was also a unique feature in the whole Resident Evil franchise at the time.
Dead Aim, like the first Survivor, featured an original story and new characters. This time, players controlled Bruce McGivern as he is sent to infiltrate the Umbrella owned luxury ocean liner “Spencer Rain”, which has been hijacked by former Umbrella employee Morpheus Duvall, who is threatening to fire missiles at America and China to cause a T-Virus outbreak, and is demanding $1 billion from both countries. China have also sent an operative of their own, Fong Ling, as neither country trusts the other. During an encounter with Morpheus, they succeed in wounding him, but he injects himself with a new version of the virus, the T+G Virus. The “Spencer Rain” is put on a collision course with a nearby island, and Bruce and Fong Ling discover an abandoned Umbrella facility on this island. Fighting multiple failed bio-weapons, they learn that China has given in to Morpheus’s demands, and are targeting Fong Ling with a satellite from space. Bruce stops this attack by removing a chip implanted under Ling’s tattoo, saving her life. The two find out that the bio terrorist organization owned by Morpheus has it’s base on the sea bed below the island, and they use an elevator to reach it, defeating multiple creatures along the way, including one Ling encountered earlier named Pluto.
Arriving at the underwater base, they discover a T-Virus outbreak has occurred, and Ling is captured. Bruce is made to choose between saving her, and completing his mission. He chooses the first option, and the two manage to prevent Morpheus from infecting the world by damaging his mutated form enough for him to grow in size, and the missiles crash into him and explode safely underwater, killing Morpheus. Bruce and Ling escape the base before it is destroyed, and Ling is believed dead by her own government. Bruce reassures her, and the two kiss as a rescue helicopter arrives. Awwww.
As a hybrid of a traditional Resident Evil game and a light gun game, Dead Aim is not a great example of either, but it is also not a bad game, with its gameplay being fairly unique. The story is a bit predictable and boring, with cookie-cutter characters and cheesy dialogue (a staple of Resident Evil, to be fair), but it also has a quirky charm to it, and despite not having played it for years, I still remember enjoying it a lot more than the first two Survivor games. In fact, if you get a chance to buy and play Dead Aim, I would definitely recommend it.
Resident Evil: Dead Aim was the last game in the Survivor spin-off series, but the franchise would revisit the light gun game genre years later with Umbrella Chronicles and its sequel, which I’ll be covering later in this retrospective series. Next week, I’ll take a look at how the Resident Evil universe went online, starting with the PlayStation 2 game Resident Evil Outbreak.
