It’s not the first time we’ve had online based Resident Evil spin-off’s during our time; in 2003 we had the first Resident Evil: Outbreak, a co-op survival game that was perhaps way ahead of its time (which by the way Capcom, a new game in that series would be great). Then in 2012, we had Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City which was a very average game at best, but if you managed to somehow find friends to play it with, there was enjoyment to be had. Other then perhaps The Mercenaries 3D on the 3DS, these seemed to be the two most relevant games in the series when comparing titles with the latest spin-off (if I had to pick two); Umbrella Corps. Operation Racoon City can take all the bashings it can handle, and rightly so, but despite its flaws, Capcom have somehow managed to make an even worse game with Umbrella Corps.
Umbrella Corps is an online based third-person shooter set in the world of Resident Evil featuring some of your favourite maps from the long running series. However, despite Resident Evil being my hands-down favourite series ever, even I could only wear the tinted goggles for so long. I really did try my hardest to try and enjoy this game, but the more I played, the more frustrated I grew with it. The number one way that I tried to convince myself and others was by saying “try to think of this as a standard online shooter with a Resident Evil theme.” Which is largely the truth, as after all, it’s not carrying the Resident Evil name in its title. But make no mistake, this is a game that is relying on your love for the series in a cheap attempt to make you part with your cash and I urge you to hold out on purchasing before you’ve perhaps read one or two credible reviews or at least waited for the game to drop heavily in price.
For starters, the shooting is downright awkward. For some reason, your generic looking Umbrella Agent holds his gun to the side of his head when shooting and I have no idea why the developers made it this way. Other than just looking odd, it also makes the camera pan way to close to your player, obscuring much of your view in the process. On top of that, aiming is very clunky and no matter what gun you use, aiming is a bitch. You can complain about other shooters such as your Call of Duty’s all you want, but at least they get their core gameplay mechanics right, making them very easy to pick up and play, something that Umbrella Corps is not. Shooting would perhaps be made easier if you had choices for which viewpoint you could use. For example, having the choice of a more panned out third-person camera or even giving you an option of playing in first-person would have gone a long way in making the game more accessible for a larger variety of gamers.
However, its arguably not the shooting that frustrates the hell out of me most of all when playing this game online, it’s those fucking annoying Axe/Brainer melee kills! I swear, the vast majority of games that I’ve played, involves players sprinting around the map waving their Axes about, rather than actually trying to shoot someone, which kind of defies the point of this game being a third-person shooter. The main problems that I have with these Axe kills is that one, the range is insane! Even when you seem to be far away from a player or even at an angle when it looks like you’re safe, the game will jitter for a split-second, before placing you beneath the wielding axe for yet another frustrating melee death.
Secondly, if you see a player running at you with an axe, they will sponge the hell out of your bullets and add this to the weapons ridiculous range, you stand little chance of surviving the incoming attack. Pretty much all the online games that I have experienced are dominated by these axes and I really do hope that Capcom are listening to fans pleas, because their range and bullet sponging seriously needs fixing, which could perhaps encourage players to actually use their guns once in a while.
The other problem that I have with Umbrella Corps, is its lack of content. More content will be added at a later date, but this shouldn’t excuse the bare bones that this game possesses at launch. For now, you have only two modes to choose from and that’s it. All modes (and I use the terms “all modes” loosely) in Umbrella Corps are 3v3 team-based, with each match lasting 3 minutes. The ‘One Life Match’ is essentially a Team Deathmatch for which players only have…yep you’ve guessed it, one life. Once dead you will then watch the remainder of the match with a top-down viewpoint of the map. Which in fairness, if playing as a functional team with headsets, you can give tactical support to your team-mates as to where the enemies are on the map.
Then you have ‘Multi-Mission’ mode, which will playthrough a series of match-types that will change when one match comes to an end, this will playthrough 5 modes at random. The match types are Respawn Match (which is basically Team Deathmatch), Domination (capture and hold the zones), Target Hunter (only one player on a team can be killed for points), DNA Hunter (collect samples from downed zombies), SP DNA Hunter (collect samples from special monsters), Protector (obtain a briefcase and hold on to it longer then the rival team to win), Collector (find five briefcases before the rival team does) and Collar War (collector collars from downed players, similar to Kill Confirmed in Call of Duty). In Umbrella Corp’s defence, this sounds like a fair share of modes to play, but it baffles me as to why you can only currently access them by playing Multi-Mission. Yes, I agree that this mode should stay, but wouldn’t it also be beneficial to have the option to play each of these modes individually to give the players more choice?
The maps in Umbrella Corps are multi-layered to an extent and are very small, but this does actually in-fact benefit the 3v3 match types. If the game had larger maps, but kept the player size and game length the same, maps would feel very empty and you’d probably spend much of your time wandering around looking for a kill. Which brings me on to my next set of points. I get that Capcom wanted to keep team sizes small and so to the match length, but I believe the game would benefit greatly if you had the option to play with bigger team sizes, for example 5v5 or 6v6 on larger maps. Maps like the Racoon City outside of the Police Station would have been fantastic on a larger scale with larger teams to accommodate it.
An issue in particular that I found with the smaller maps was the with respawning. Many times I found myself re-spawning up the enemy’s backside, which resulted in instant deaths. If Umbrella Corps had larger maps, the chances are that this wouldn’t be so much of an issue. Again, I get the smaller match types and maps, but I would have liked to have seen a little more variety in this respect also, perhaps this is something that Capcom could eventually add at a later date? We’ll just have to wait and see.
You would have likely had seen the zombies and other enemies that populate each map, now you’d probably think that they offer a genuine threat, as well as being on the guard against player controlled enemies? Sadly, that’s not really the case. Much of the copy and paste NPC’s (with exception of one or two modes such as DNA Hunter where they are more aggressive) just wonder about the map not doing much. Other than to collect a few cheap team points in your favour by killing them, their existence in the modes are pretty much pointless.
Then you have the games match-making system (if that exists at all). If you’re a new player, then chances are that you will find yourself pitted against higher level players with much better gear then you. This again is something that I believe needs fixing, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. If I was going to give Umbrella Corps some positive points, it would be that the maps do offer some good moments of nostalgia and it has a pretty decent levelling-up reward system.
Oh but doesn’t Umbrella Corps have a singleplayer mode to indulge in should you get tired of its multiplayer feature? Yes, it does have a singleplayer mode called The Experiment, but much like the NPC’s of the game, it’s pretty much pointless. In The Experiment has 24 missions which will require you to mostly collect zombie DNA over a series of recycled maps. It offers practically no story or reward and if there was ever a game with a mode attached to it for the sake of it, then it’s this one.
Being the Resident Evil fan that I am, I could easily be in denial and defend this game blindly, but that’s not who I am. If anything, with the fact that I love the Resident Evil franchise so much, the waste of a license that Umbrella Corps is, just makes me all the angrier. It’s simply a cheap cash-in to take the money of fans such as myself that love the series. I’ve not played many free-to-play games, but with the ones that I have seen, they offer more content then Umbrella Corps, but this is a game that’s asking you for at least £25/$30 to play it, which is just wrong. Perhaps at £15-£20, then that would be more reasonable in my book, which is why I’d recommend you until it’s on offer in a sale (if you really want to buy this game). But even then, I’d also wait to see if any of your friends buy it too, so at least then you know you’ll be playing as a proper team.
What I find even more odd is that with the recent releases of Resident Evil games such as Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 5 (out this week), is that both games arguably offer you a better value in multiplayer experiences with their various modes, and they’re both primarily singleplayer games. I really hoped that Umbrella Corps would have been something more, but somehow its managed to be a worse game than Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City, which is a dam shame. Hopefully from now on, Capcom will focus the series on the singleplayer experience (as we’ve seen with the Resident Evil announcement at E3), unless of course you want to bring us Resident Evil: Outbreak 3? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).