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Review
Capcom have finally released the sequel to 2007's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. As with Umbrella Chronicles, Darkside is an on-rails shooter on the Wii, where you have the option to go through the playable chapters by yourself or join up with another person to take the nasty zombies down!
Where as the previous game dealt with the events of RE0, RE1, RE3, and Umbrella's dealings in Russia, Darkside looks back at what transpired in RE2, RE: Code Veronica, and how Leon S. Kennedy met Jack Krauser before RE4. The Darkside Chronicles, like its predecessor, has abridged versions of the games that it lifts its story from. I warn you now, those who have not played through the original games, and Umbrella Chronicles, may find the story and game-play of Darkside confusing at times.
The story revolves around the events that led up to Leon S. Kennedy and Jack Krauser working together for the US government in 2002, investigating strange goings-on in a remote area of South America that are related to organised criminal Javier. As Leon and Krauser go through their mission, they soon learn that Javier has unleashed biohazards on the area, and Krauser asks Leon about his previous experiences with them. Cue flashback to Resident Evil 2, and Leon's first brushes with Umbrella's biological nightmares whilst fighting alongside Claire Redfield, and what happened to Claire, Steve Burnside and Chris Redfield in Resident Evil: Code Veronica after Leon and Claire parted ways.
When you first start the game, there are three difficulty levels available to you: Easy, Normal and Hard. What is surprisingly obvious if you have played through UC is that Darkside is easier on both the single and two-player modes. A great deal easier in fact. This is not just due to changes in the challenges presented (collecting Archive materials is not important for your final chapter score), but in part due to the way in which the weapons system is organised. UC had numerous versions of weapons in specific groups and one particular weapon could only be equipped by one player at a time, whereas in Darkside there are less weapons; only one handgun, magnum, shotgun, sub-machine gun etc, and each player can equip the same weapon and use the same ammo stash. In some ways this new system is good, but some will miss the wide availability of weapons that the first game had.
