Probably the game’s most interesting moment is Steve’s (the aforementioned annoying teenager) transformation. Claire faces off with him when he goes into giant green zombie mode, enormous battleaxe in hand. This sequence falls into a favorite category of mine: almost certain to die. It is possible that you may quickly turn and run and have and use the appropriate healing items to survive the encounter. But most likely, you’ll die. Since he has an upcoming cut scene, Steve cannot be killed in this encounter. He must be out run, and in the most sinister twist, Claire must get hit. Hits from Steve will take you from Fine to Danger. Essentially, if you do not have at least one full heath item (more likely two), you cannot pass this, and will have to restart back earlier in the game. Hope you’ve been keeping a couple of old saves!

Is this really true? Is this sequence impossible to pass without one or two full health items? There may be another way. Using ten explosive bow gun rounds, I was able to walk backwards slowly, stunning him every time he tried to swing. Of course, I think it would take thirty-plus such rounds to get out of the area without getting hit. At the same time, the area’s gate is slowly closing, so you may not get hit, but still may not make it out in time. Which would you rather spend anyway? Two first aid sprays or thirty of the best ammo in the game? Running just makes sense.

Phew, what a rant. The bar for the RE series was pretty high at this point, so I think its clear that CV’s shortcomings are more interesting than its merits. However, though it may not sound like it, I do think the positives outweigh the negatives. Much of the puzzles are classic RE, always a good thing, and I found the final power/tiger/music box puzzle to be quite clever. Music is first rate, post-ending Battle mini-game is decent. Today, it’s hard not to compare it to the vastly superior RE4, at least unconsciously, so in that sense, some of my comments may be unfair. Code: Veronica, while respectable, is not the finest moment of the series.

A small afterward: I’ve started RE:0. I….. don’t like it. The two-character scheme could hardly be more clumsy. Rebecca, so far, is Ashley + a small, portable item box, who also happens to waste a lot of ammo if you let her. The centipede boss is…. OK, I’m not even going to get into this here. Let’s see if I have the will to complete it. Or maybe just one more run through RE4. Hmmm...