Ah, memories: those fond nights of running for your life through streets and buildings full of undead terrors, blasting madly at anything that looks rotting and hoping it drops before it draws close enough to rip the flesh off your throat. Who wouldn’t want to relive that?

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, like The Umbrella Chronicles before it, sends you back in time to scenarios from previous games in the franchise, placing you firmly in point-and-shoot mode. It also adds a brand new story arc, although it’s still from the past of the series’ history, so it’s technically new but literally old, or maybe metaphorically — look, you get to shoot zombies. As long as that’s established, we can move on.

Darkside Chronicles is fundamentally similar to its predecessor, but benefits from several improvements. One of the more satisfying tweaks is the elimination of Umbrella Chronicles‘ “look controls.” Previously, tilting the nunchuck’s control stick would move the camera about an inch in that direction; not terribly useful or fascinating. Darkside Chronicles dumps this, freeing the control stick for quick weapon mapping and keeping you from having to frantically tap the C Button searching for the gun you want while something gives you some first-person gnawing. When not playing with the nunchuck, weapons are mapped to the control pad; also a better move.

Another change in camera style, however, might initially give some people fits. Darkside Chronicles has gone for heightened immersion by making the camera react more to the motion of your character. Hence, if you’re running, falling, leaning, etc., the camera will shake and tilt accordingly. There will likely be some instances where you’ll miss a shot because your character moved a bit, but for the most part I found few instances I felt were compromised. The majority of the time the camera is shaking violently from running, you’re running away from something and won’t face immediate danger. May it still be annoying to some, though? I could see that being possible.

Kill it! You have to kill it!

You don’t have to worry about fighting the controls, though, as Capcom has kept them tight — perhaps even a bit more accurate than in Umbrella Chronicles. The overall difficulty appears to have been taken down a notch and the spot you need to plug to make a zombie’s head burst like a gooey firework feels easier to hit, although still challenging. Enemies will respond well the majority of the time, although sometimes they seem to get hung up on each other, and boss fights remain large and epic. Weapons are again upgradable in several different categories using funds found within the stages, with the incremental boosts feeling small yet noticeable.

The graphics are more detailed than Umbrella Chronicles, recreating scenes from Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica, as well as new areas based in South America. The South America stages often stand out as fresh and exotic, although at times you receive what feels like a few scant seconds of breathtaking vista before you are forced back into the dank, repetitive bowels of a dam. Weapon sounds also seem better and an orchestra-heavy soundtrack does a good job at providing background tension with a dash of class. The zombies seem a bit… lackluster to me for some reason, though — like the voice actors weren’t putting their hearts into groaning. I know, I know, who died and made me f–king king of the zombies? But it’s how I feel.

The scenarios are more fluidly connected to each other this time around, with the South American arc encompassing the other flashbacks. It added a bit to the experience of the game for me, but I also can’t help but feel the in-game dialogue is awkward and contrived — a problem blamed more on the writers than the respectable voice actors. The characters feel more like action movie stars than people facing real horror. Even in parts meant to expand upon the thoughts of certain characters, it doesn’t feel like you’re really getting into their head. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Dead Space: Extraction, but that game made everything feel a lot more real — and in outer space, too boot.

Aim for the head. This is fact.

The “chronicles” part of this sub-series remains, with plenty of bios, profiles and files mined from the previous titles and new items made up for the South America scenario. If you’re a fan of the series — and if you’re playing the game, you likely are — most of it won’t be new to you. Finding these items no longer affects your score, however, so there’s no harm in having it there. If you’re a Resident Evil purist, you may get miffed at the alterations in story made at some points, mainly to keep both the main characters together. Actually, if that makes you mad, you need to get over it; Resident Evil‘s timeline already had plenty of places held together with duct tape and congealed gray matter before the “Chronicles” line started.

So What I’m Really Trying to Say Is…
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles provides a cleaner, longer and slightly more immersible experience than Umbrella Chronicles, making it a safe buy for fans who loved the original. Although the “shaky-cam” isn’t that big a deal, in my opinion, those who are still worried may wish to rent first to ease or confirm their fears. If you’re new to the series, however, or not that big a fan, the Wii is saturated with “light gun” games. While Darkside Chronicles qualifies as a sound purchase, there are other titles that may better suit your individual tastes.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles was developed by cavia and produced by Capcom. It is available at a MSRP of $49.99 USD. Review based on completion of main game on Normal difficulty in 10+ hours, plus about 90 minutes of exploration into unlocked content. Just look at the face. It’s vacant, with a hint of sadness — like a drunk who’s lost a bet.