Resident Evil Code: Veronica X (PS2)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil Code: Veronica X

What Resident Evil games deserve the “Remake” treatment? This question has floated around in the years since the release of the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, as well as the 2020 release of the Resident Evil 3 remake. Among the different answers, one that floated up frequently was Code: Veronica, notably the only mainline entry that hadn’t seen a physical PS4 release. Based on my own experience, the demand for Code: Veronica grew louder as the release of the highly-anticipated 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 drew nearer. This coincidentally lined up with when I would play Code: Veronica for myself as part of my deep dive of the series.

Before we try answering the question of whether Code: Veronica deserves a remake, we should first consider its history. After the original Resident Evil 2’s (RE2) success, Capcom put more Resident Evil projects in development. One of these was a Sega Saturn port of RE2, but it was canceled because doing so would require sacrificing the game’s quality. To make up for this, the team went to work on an original entry for Sega fans. This entry, known as Code: Veronica, would release on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Due to low sales, however, Capcom would port the game to the PS2 the following year as Code: Veronica X (CVX), followed by a 2003 GameCube port and an eventual release on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

As my Resident Evil journey followed the order of each game’s release, I went from the remake of Resident Evil 3 to the PS2 version of CVX, fully expecting a jarring shift in experience going from a fairly polished game to one comparatively archaic. By virtue of age alone, CVX certainly deserves a remake. Beyond that, however, it desperately needs a modern update by virtue of being an overrated mess of a game that has coasted by for far too long on nostalgia alone.

Three months after the events of RE2, Claire Redfield raids an Umbrella facility in Paris in search of her brother Chris, but is captured and imprisoned on Rockfort Island. Sometime after her imprisonment, an outbreak of the T-virus occurs, sending the island into chaos and seeing Claire’s release by the man who captured her. As she searches for a way off the island, she teams up with Steve Burnside, another inmate seeking an escape, and learns disturbing truths about the Ashford family, who run Rockfort and all of its facilities.

Claire Redfield (left) teams up with Steve Burnside (right) to escape Rockfort Island.

At its core, CVX’s story has great ideas. Claire’s story continues from where it left off in RE2, continuing her search for Chris in Europe, where a file said he had gone. Steve has potential as a sympathetic sidekick despite a mysterious past that led to him ending up as a prisoner for Umbrella. The Ashford family adds a layer of intrigue regarding Umbrella’s past, exploring their dark origins and the depraved experiments performed in the name of creating the T-virus. Chris himself shows up partway through, continuing his own side of the story from RE2 and eventually reuniting with his sister after so long spent apart. If that wasn’t enough, Albert Wesker makes his grand return, raising questions about how he had survived the Mansion Incident back in the original Resident Evil and setting up a bigger future role for himself as a major villain.

Unfortunately, CVX’s story never quite taps into its full potential. While making Steve a prisoner who works with Claire is a neat idea, continuing the idea of each protagonist having a partner of some sort, the execution results in a very “love it or hate it” character. On the one hand, he’s a prisoner of Umbrella potentially subject to cruel experiments and ends up in a confrontation with someone very close to him. On the other, he constantly makes mistakes because he’s clearly in love with Claire, not to mention the voice actor makes him sound whiny and nasally to the point that his most emotional moment near the end of the game can feel unearned depending on the player’s feelings toward him by that point. When Chris shows up during the second half of the game, it’s more of a slow burn because where Claire’s portion constantly revealed new information, Chris’ portion comparatively drip feeds it until a major setting change.

Then there are issues that (from my experience playing the Remakes) stem from a bizarre tonal shift from a fairly grounded and increasingly mature, if somewhat campy, storyline to one that’s filled with ridiculously over-the-top action and its campiness dialed way up. Wesker does make his grand return, but he has now inexplicably gained superpowers on par with Neo from The Matrix, potentially bringing his desire for B.O.W.s into question, at least in the vacuum of CVX. How he survived the events of the original Resident Evil (RE1) also goes unexplained, likely so players will pick up future installments in the hopes that they find out. This also extends to the Ashford family, who are certainly depraved in their experiments (as explained through optional files), but their direct involvement includes an odd Psycho reference and another superpowered being with abilities that can feel out of place, at least up to that point in the series. When taken as a whole, there’s the feeling that the seeds of the infamous series-wide shift from Survival Horror to Action Horror were planted in CVX and didn’t just suddenly come about with Resident Evil 4, which came out five years later.

There are some positives, but they are few and far between. The biggest is Chris and Claire finally reuniting, wrapping up the latter’s quest while setting up a new one. Others include the character of Rodrigo Juan Raval, a genuinely helpful character who comes off more sympathetic despite starting on the opposite side from Claire, as well as some of Wesker’s lines about willingly sacrificing his humanity for power.

As the one of the last “classic” style Resident Evil titles, CVX has similar gameplay to RE1, which includes relying on tank controls to navigate fixed camera angles. This is something I was already not a huge fan of, especially since they’re non-optional, and even after getting used to them following playthroughs of the modernized RE2 and RE3 remakes, CVX failed to change my mind. Not even the useful quick-turn helped all that much, as I only found myself further convinced that it would have benefited greatly from “2D Movement” controls for navigating all the tight spaces (it didn’t help that holding down a button to run would sometimes aggravate the “Gamer’s Thumb” I had while playing). That said, I more quickly adjusted back to the old inventory system where Chris and Claire had limited inventory slots, in this case both starting with eight, with the addition of two more if the player picks up the Side Pouch, as well as the old save system where using a Typewriter requires an Ink Ribbon. Having quick access to the Options menu and Map from a single button was also very helpful, though I questioned having to press the action button to ascend or descend a flight of stairs. For better or worse, CVX also omits the ammo crafting and dodge mechanics from RE3.

Though it has a lot of the classic trappings, CVX also introduces its own unique mechanics. In addition to Item Boxes, players will also encounter Security Boxes by the metal detectors in the prison, though items placed inside cannot be retrieved later through an Item Box. As such, items placed in here and not recovered by a certain point are effectively lost forever. The Grenade Launcher has new B.O.W. rounds that are effective against a specific boss, though due to their placement in the game, it’s easy to permanently lose them to the Security Box if you’re not careful. Claire can also now complete a “side quest” of sorts, where she can find the Hemostatic Medicine and give it to Rodrigo and trade him the Lighter she starts with in exchange for the Lockpick. The Lockpick is useful for opening Simple Locks, including those found on optional Duralumin Cases that contain useful items, including weapon upgrade parts. While combat remains largely the same, players can now shrug off zombies, potentially without getting bitten, as well as dual wield certain guns (though these take up two inventory slots instead of just one).

Compared to the remake of RE3, CVX has a greater emphasis on solving puzzles, though the execution is a bit inconsistent. Some are pretty easy, like filling in liquids to a certain amount, while others have a degree of complexity that’s not too difficult with a little critical thinking, like tracing the Ashford family lineage with portraits based on clues in the room. Then there are those with solutions that are obtuse enough that they may require the use of a guide, like a puzzle where the correct code is a series of symbols printed on a paperweight.

Inconsistent puzzle design is the least of this game’s issues, however. While the locations are fairly interesting, the level design relies far too much on tedious backtracking and key hunting, especially with rooms that include an annoying quirk from the Silent Hill series where the game will happily let you leave without an important item, potentially halting progress for unprepared players. It doesn’t help either that Chris’ portion of the game is basically playing through the first half again with few major differences in scenery. Add to that the insistence on not only having an excess of tight corridors, but filling those corridors with swarms of enemies, an especially bad decision when considering the complete lack of iFrames. In some cases, it’s next to impossible to go through certain rooms without taking any damage, including the first appearances of the Albinoid Infant and Hunter II enemies, regardless of speed and skill.

Unfortunately, the combat has some of the more noticeable issues, with downright baffling decisions thrown in. Compared with the remakes, and even RE1, aiming feels less precise thanks to the auto aim insisting on targeting explosives or other enemies you didn’t plan on shooting, not to mention that fast enemies feel even harder to hit than before. For some reason, enemies also feel a bit too bullet spongey, requiring a little too much ammo to take down. Dual wielding can also only help so much, as if you use it against rooms with more than one target, the aim will automatically split between two enemies, with no option to focus your fire.

To be fair, one could easily blame these issues on the lack of a difficulty select for international players (compared to the actual difficulty select in the Japanese version) in the name of making it so you couldn’t beat CVX during a game rental in its initial release. This, however, doesn’t explain why the game never tells you about the ability to shrug off zombies or even how the Herb system works either through an in-game file or in the physical manual; I only knew how to combine Green, Red and Blue Herbs, and what those combinations did, due to my experience from prior games. Then there’s the biggest issue, which is that in a game with limited resources, certain areas will infinitely respawn enemies if you go far enough away from them and then go back. While I didn’t run into that too much, I saw it enough that I got upset at how the game tricked me into wasting precious ammunition.

The worst hallway in the entire game.

And to top it all off, the unlocks are very sparse compared to prior games. There is a Rocket Launcher with infinite ammo, but only if you jump through hoops to get an “A” Rank. Otherwise, you can unlock certain things for the unlockable Battle Game (more on that later). As such, the replay value is very limited unless you’re a speedrunner.

As with previous games, CVX introduces new enemies to keep both veteran and newer players on their toes. Unlike previous games, however, the enemies feel imbalanced, likely due in part to the lack of a difficulty select. Besides the bullet spongey zombies and the traditional infected dogs, including a single Anatomist Zombie that requires Grenade Rounds to kill, Bandersnatches have a ridiculously long reach that lets them change elevation, requiring either skillful dodging or using up a good amount of ammo (unless you use the Grenade Launcher). Tentacles, encountered during the third act, similarly take a lot of bullets to down (and are pretty much required to kill if you want to get through the back half of the game in one piece). Players can also get swarmed by bats unless you have the Lighter equipped (good luck if you trade it away before you have to go through the castle) and Ants, while only located in one hallway, will usually deal unavoidable damage from sheer numbers. Ants, however, are at least not as annoying, as are the Albinoids and their Adult forms.

Most annoying, however, are the sheer number of enemies that can now inflict the Poison status. The Hunter II, for instance, already hits hard, but the more powerful Sweeper variant, which can be summoned if you’re detected by a Seeker, not only hits even harder, but has a chance of inflicting Poison if it so much as touches you. Black Widow spiders are not only hard to kill, let alone hit, but have a chance of inflicting Poison. Then there’s one specific hallway right outside of a Safe Room that has infinitely respawning moths that can lay parasites in Claire and, surprise, inflict Poison. You’ll need the right knowledge or skill to get past these enemies without taking damage. Otherwise, you’d better hope you had the foresight to bring a Blue Herb or know where all the Blue Herb planters are.

Bosses don’t fare much better than the enemies thanks to an abundance of rather lazy design, especially if (or even if) you actually know what you’re getting yourself into. Either the bosses are too easy, like Gulp Worm or the Giant Black Widow (that you can ignore altogether), or too difficult, like the “timed” T-078 Tyrant on the island or the infamous fight on the plane. Two of the bosses, Nosferatu and the final boss, involve a seldom-used wonky first-person view to inflict damage, though at least for Nosferatu the use of the Sniper Rifle is potentially optional. Meanwhile, two other forms of the final boss are ridiculously easy to kill, with its first form only difficult if you didn’t know about the fight beforehand. The only other boss in the game, the final one that Claire fights, is less of a boss fight and more of a “boss” “fight”, as you can’t harm it and only run away while using two or three healing items, one after each unavoidable hit; you can make this fight a little easier if you run around it at the beginning instead of going straight into a quick turn, making the first attack miss.

Easily the worst aspect of the game’s design, however, is how it intentionally screws the player over at every opportunity, changing circumstances without warning and without alerting them to the consequences. The only reason I didn’t fall into as many pitfalls during my playthrough was that I followed a guide and a GDQ speedrun at the same time just to make sure I wouldn’t get lost or miss anything. So that others don’t potentially get infuriated while playing, I’ll also include what the game doesn’t warn you about, so skip the next paragraph if you’d like to go in blind.

At certain points, control will swap between Claire and Chris, who both start off with their own inventories and can pick up many of the items the other character left behind, but they will retain anything physically on them prior to the swap (ex. If Claire has the Bow Gun before the fight with Nosferatu, Chris can’t access it because she has it in her inventory). If an item was left in an Item Box, both characters can access it. As for the control swaps: After the Nosferatu fight, control switches to Chris, who is playable until he frees Claire; Claire is then playable until a segment with a long hallway and her final boss encounter; Chris is then playable for the rest of the game, but is at first immediately dumped into a boss fight with whatever he had on him at the time. Throughout the game, you can permanently miss certain weapons, though the Magnum in particular requires stashing a Fire Extinguisher into an Item Box right after Claire uses it so that Chris can refill it and put out a fire in front of the weapon. If you’re unprepared for the Tyrant fight on the plane (which occurs soon after Claire boards an airplane), Nosferatu, Claire’s final encounter and the boss fight immediately after the last character swap, you can potentially be softlocked out of finishing the game. Rescuing the B.O.W. rounds from the Prison, obtaining the Magnum and saving Grenade Rounds and Explosive Bow Gun Arrows will potentially make certain boss fights significantly easier.

Beating the game once unlocks the Battle Game, which plays similarly to RE2’s 4th Survivor campaign, where you run through a route while killing enemies as quickly as possible. Although the Battle Game has a larger selection of characters, they all have the same route, but with different end bosses, and there’s no overt story. Giving them all the same route feels lazy, though the infinite ammo weapons at the player’s disposal can provide some catharsis. This mode provides the only real replay value the game has to offer, partially from unlocking certain characters, and an optional first-person view (technically making CVX the first Resident Evil game with this feature in any capacity), by fulfilling certain conditions during the main campaign and the Battle Game mode.

Battle Game has a first-person option.

As far as graphics are concerned, CVX is obviously more of a transitional work. It was the first Resident Evil game to completely do away with pre-rendered backgrounds in favor of full 3D, which helps increase the immersion in the environments. Whether or not it has aged well is entirely up to the player, though I would say it was probably considered much more impressive when it first came out. Interestingly, however, it still has one foot in the past, once again introducing the Hunter II in a similar fashion to the Hunter from RE1 and including unique door and ladder/stair animations that do a good job of building up suspense. For better or worse, certain other elements also stand out, like having a pink Poison status instead of blue, presenting collected files a little differently than RE1 (based on my own frame of reference) and the presence of at least one obvious typo (“existing” a room instead of “exiting”).

Compared to later releases, CVX has voice acting that’s less than stellar, largely due to an overabundance of cheesy lines and hammy overacting. I was continually reminded of just how much better the later voice actors are in their delivery, though Wesker’s VA did a decent job with the material. That said, the music is easily some of the best in the early series, including the calming Safe Room theme.

While Code: Veronica X may have received high praise on release, it has clearly aged very poorly and is in desperate need of a remake to rectify its numerous story and design issues. If you’re new to Resident Evil or just playing through the games in a certain order, I would not advise playing without a guide. Doing otherwise would result in an even more tedious and needlessly frustrating experience.