WonderCon 2016: First Look at Umbrella Corps
Ted Hentschke
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With the death of Silent Hills, Resident Evil might be the last great horror franchise that still has a future. Don’t you pretend that Alone in the Dark is still a thing; we all agreed Alone in the Dark: Illumination never happened, so don’t go bringing it up now. Surviving all these years is a double-edged sword, with old school fans crying foul at each diversion from classic norms and new fans scratching their heads in confusion at the decades of convoluted canon.
As an affable simpleminded oaf who likes zombies and such, I’ve never found two shits to rub together about the continuity of Resident Evil. Still, even my feeble golem brain can see that the quality has been inconsistent since Resident Evil 4. RE5 is racist, RE6 stretched itself far too thin, Operation Racoon City is just plain bad, and Revelations 2 is a refreshing return to form.
So when Capcom reached out and asked me to try out Umbrella Corps at WonderCon 2016, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My hopes had been dashed before, so I decided to go in blind. For better and worse, I was surprised by what I found.
Twelve years have passed since the collapse of the Umbrella Corporation, and in the ruins of their abandoned research facilities and spooky mansions lies a treasure trove of diabolic biological weapons information. Hungry for power and unwilling to learn from the mistakes of their predecessor, several smaller rival corporations now frantically compete to reclaim this sinister knowledge. Not content with a “loot and let loot” policy, these corporations have hired teams of mercenaries to do their dirty work and duke it out for some good old fashion ill gotten gains.
Not that you’d know any of this. Or that it matters. Despite sharing the setting with Resident Evil, there’s nothing in the gameplay to tie it to any of the other titles. As for a plot, I’m not sure how various takes on “team deathmatch” constitutes industrial espionage. Ultimately, there is no plot, and it doesn’t really matter. It’s a game about shooting dudes in the face, and I’ve never required much more motivation to do that than different color uniforms.
Fuck you, desert camo! Solid black is where it’s at!
The plot isn’t the only thing they’ve decided to cast aside, as Umbrella Corps has shaken off the last vestiges of “survival horror” that the series has been trying to shuck of since Chris Redfield punched a boulder to death in the middle of a volcano. It’s a fast, team-based multiplayer shooter, so leave your herb combining skills at home and lube up your trigger finger. This is about murdering tons of dudes as fast as you can.
I want to stress how fast this game is, since it really shocked me when I first played. The variant I played was a best-of-five with cycling objectives, and each round only took a handful of minutes. Six players are split into two teams, and an objective is assigned at the beginning of each round. Objectives were pretty standard, ranging from zone control, regular kill scoring, VIP protection, and a more unique variant that required the teams to hunt down a powerful super zombie. All said and done, it took me about fifteen minutes to go through all five rounds. The only planned single-player is a bunch of training missions called “The Experiment,” so expect most of your time in the game to play out in these fifteen-minute chunks.
Many of the zones you have to control take you out of cover, making camping less of a viable option.
Realistically, I have no idea how tactical this game is, but it seemed like a frantic frag-fest that was more reflex than planning. I’ll admit I’m terrible at console shooters, and with how fast everything was, my kills were more luck than skill. I immediately gravitated towards the shotgun to compensate for my awful aim and, after discovering the instant-kill melee mode, stuck with that for the rest of the game.
Still, I’m a journalist, so I did check out the rest of what the game had to offer. The playable demo restricted us to a series of preset loadouts, and aside from the shotgun only a few different assault rifles and SMGs could be picked. The playable sidearms were the standard compliment of powerful hand cannon, midrange balanced pistol, and high rate of fire automatic Uzi, but also came bundled in with a protective ballistic shield. I lack the precision to use any of these weapons effectively, but was pleased to find I could have a zombie latch onto my shield and use it as an extra layer of fleshy protection. Despite the samey feel of the available non-shotgun loadouts, there were a surprising number of loadout slots to choose from. The weapons I saw didn’t warrant so much room for customization, so I’m hoping that there’s more variety in the final product.
Of these 10 loadouts, 6 of them were the same.
It wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game without zombies, and zombies there are, but not in the way you would expect. Players spawn with a “Zombie Jammer,” which makes the map’s various zombified stuff ignore you (save for the super zombies in that specific mode). If a player’s pack gets shot, the zombies will begin attacking them and add extra pressure. It’s a novel concept, but I’m not sure how useful it really is. Sure, knocking out a player’s Zombie Jammer and hiding to let the ghouls finish them off with little risk sounds like a cool tactic, but at that point wouldn’t it just be more effective to kill him? It feels like zombies were just something they had to tick off of a checklist to make the game more “Resident Evil-ey.” It’s a creative way to check off a box, but still doesn’t feel natural.
Ooooh man, I just shot the shit out of your backpack. You’re gonna be soooo mad when thirty seconds after you kill me, a zombie tries to eat you!
Therein lies the rub. There are a lot of mechanics in Umbrella Corps that feel out of place. For a shooter this fast, things like taking cover and going prone are often more of a liability than an advantage. The maps are all circular, so setting up a defensible position is almost impossible without expert team coordination. At the point where everyone is just running around as fast as they can trying to get the drop on other players, slowing yourself down is a death sentence. Grenades also take far too long to explode, and in the demo only came in an incendiary variant not useful in a game this quick. Maybe experienced players will slow things down and treat it more like a tactical shooter, but that certainly didn’t feel how the maps or combat was designed.
While I can see the flaws, what I played of Umbrella Corps was fun. It’s a $30 digital title, so I’m not expecting a magnum opus. It felt stock, but it worked. The engagements are quick and brutal, with a flair given to the melee kills that adds some much needed personality. The cramped maps and small teams lends themselves to this kind of rapid assault combat. Ignoring the more questionable mechanics and design choices, it’s a pretty cool budget shooter.
I’m happy that this is not the time for final judgement, since what I saw wrong with the game was enough to heavily temper my opinion. I’m hoping that as a final product, it’ll be more obvious how all of these elements come together. It’s launching May 2016 on PS4 and PC, so check back in around then for my full review. Until then, keep your mind open, and expectations measured.
Categorized:Horror Gaming News
