Reviewing Monsters - Resident Evil Chronicles

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (2007); Darkside Chronicles (2009)

Don't worry, the blog's not dead. I'm just going back fixing image links for all of the 'Reviewing Monsters' pages. Mostly the Pokemon and Digimon ones -- I'm moving the hosting of the images into the blog instead of linking them to the Wiki. And that has been going on in the background slowly, leaving me not much time to actually write new articles. I'm also busy doing a bit of research on my next big "Reviewing Monsters" series. 

But in the meantime, have this shorter review! Resident Evil VIII: Village came out earlier this month. I won't be reviewing it until I've watched a playthrough of it, but I from the screenshots I've seen it looks like a very effective horror game -- just one that I probably won't have much to talk about from a monster design standpoint. Vampires and werewolves are cool and all; they're just not giant flesh bio-weapon horrors. 

There's a whole bunch of side-games released around this time of the franchise's history, but a lot of them just feature older monsters or are retellings of older games. The two 'Chronicles' games certainly are. Umbrella Chronicles was released during the relatively long break between RE4 and RE5, and Darkside Chronicles is released alongside a bunch of other spin-offs between RE5 and RE6. 

In lieu of an actual remake, these games basically tell re-tell the story of the first batch of Resident Evil games, mostly the original three, Code Veronica and Zero, although some of them are told from other other viewpoints but with fancier graphics and a more actionized gameplay. This means that we get a lot of older enemies (and it's mostly a way for me to source higher-graphics renders for the creatures in some of the older games) but we surprisingly get a bunch of new monsters, too, particularly from Darkside Chronicles. 

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The Stories:

Umbrella Chronicles, in rough order, adapts the following events: Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3. It also gives extra campaigns to fill in the gaps between stories, among others showing Wesker's actions after encountering Rebecca and Billy in Zero; showing Rebecca looking for Bravo Team survivors in Resident Evil; showing Wesker's survival and confrontation with Lisa Trevor slightly after Resident Evil; Ada Wong's actions and escape during Resident Evil 2... and a final campaign sequence, "Umbrella's End", showing Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine assaulting one of the last Umbrella facilities a year prior to the events of Resident Evil 4, fighting against the command of Sergei Vladimir, while Wesker uses their fight to gain information for his own purposes -- ultimately gaining all of Umbrella's resources for himself as the company crumbles. It retcons some events and basically 'canonizes' certain endings in some prior games, while expanding on just how Umbrella falls between the events of RE3 and RE4.  

Darkside Chronicles, meanwhile, has a fair amount of new original material. The first part of the game deals with Leon S. Kennedy's backstory with Jack Krauser, only very vaguely hinted at in Resident Evil 4. Leon and Krauser go through a South American jungle to investigate a particularly notorious drug-lord, Javier Hidalgo, who's implicated with Umbrella. They discover that Javier has imported not only several B.O.W.'s, but also the T-Veronica virus. They meet a mysterious young girl, Manuela, while finding a nearby village zombified. They discover that Manuela is actually the daughter of Javier, who has been feeding her the T-Veronica virus in order to contain and suppress a deadly illness plaguing her. Leon and Krauser end up fighting a giant monster that they had encountered several times in their journey, which turns out to be Javier's wife, who mutated due to a failure of keeping the T-Veronica virus in check. After killing her (at the cost of Krauser's arm), Javier merges himself with the Veronica plant, transforming into a giant monster. After defeating Javie, the two of them manage to escape with Manuela in tow. 

Darkside Chronicles also has a retelling of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica events, albeit rather awkwardly shoehorned in-between the Operation: Javier storyline as Leon's flashbacks. It also has some chapters that retells part of the Leon campaign from Krauser's point of view, showing how he was at first horrified by these bioweapons before becoming increasingly fascinated, ultimately embracing the 'dark side' when he realizes that the military will discharge him thanks to his arm injury, ultimately being approached by Wesker and setting up for Resident Evil 4. 

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Umbrella Chronicles features a record number of returning enemies, thanks to being a retelling of a bunch of previous games and featuring a main villain obsessed with older bioweapons. The following guys show up here: Zombie, Crimson Head, Zombie Dog, Cerberus, Leech, Mimicry Marcus, Web Spinner, Eliminator, Plague Crawler, Hunter Alpha, Hunter Beta, Neptune, Lurker, Black Tiger, Chimera, Licker, Ivy, Sliding Worm, Crow, Bat, Wasp, Adder, Cockroach, Stinger, Infected Bat, T-001 Proto-Tyrant, Queen Leech, Yawn, Plant 42, T-002 Tyrant, Lisa Trevor, Grave Digger, Tyrant R and Nemesis.

Ivan

Umbrella Chronicles gives us yet another Tyrant. This one at least has a funny name, "Ivan", and between his funky J-pop glasses and his fancy office shoes, at least this one's a lot more memorable for all the wrong reasons. Ivans are modified versions of the T-103 Super Tyrant and used as bodyguards of Sergei Vladimir. Honestly, these look more like a parody than an actual serious Tyrant variant. It's those sunglasses, I can't take those seriously. 

T-A.L.O.S. (Tyrant-Armored Lethal Organic System)

Apparently the ultimate result in Umbrella weaponry until Chris and Jill (and Wesker, although they don't know it) brings Umbrella down is the T-A.L.O.S., short for Tyrant-Armored Lethal Organic System. Because I'm too lazy to make sure all the punctuation marks go in the right places, this dude will just be known as "Talos" for the rest of this review. And Talos here is... it's a cyborg tyrant. I mean, it sure is a cool and actually sensible 'evolution' for a bio-weapon. Clearly if the Tyrant is the pinnacle of what a humanoid bioweapon can be, the clear way to improve on it is to graft some big-ass guns on it, yeah? It's just that... at this point, it's just a cool sci-fi monster that wouldn't be out of place in Final Fantasy or Star Wars or something. As a Resident Evil boss, it just feels out of place.

One of the things that I do like about the Talos is that it's actually operated by the sentient software known as the Red Queen, the best thing (some would say the only good thing) to come out of the live-action adaptations. Again, it sure is a cool cyborg man with giant cannon arms, but it just kind of feels out of place in this world. 

Sergei Vladimir

Sergei Vladimir is one of the remaining Umbrella bosses at this point in the game's history, and one of the remaining people still loyal to Oswell E. Spencer. Vladimir is, pretty interestingly, kind of obsessed with bioweapons that others have deemed as 'failures', which is mostly a way for the game to have a bunch of older monsters show up in Umbrella Chronicles. Vladimir himself is also one of the people genetically compatible with the T-Virus, and I think the implication was that he apparently was one of the bases of the people that were cloned to make Tyrants. 

That is why when Sergei Vladimir mutates with the virus, he doesn't become a flesh-glob like msot Resident Evil bosses. He still gets a hideous monster form, and it's interesting that his two arms basically fused together at the elbow to form a giant ten-fingered tentacle-claw. He's also got like a giant weird sphere with a spike on his chest, four thorny tentacles, and the lower parts of his legs have degenerated into a tentacly mess. not really my favourite monster design, I have to admit, but at least it's a different one. I really have no opinions on this one, though, it's quite all right, but it's not quite scary or unique enough for me to say too much. And, hey, at least it's not another Tyrant!

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Darkside Chronicles

Darkside Chronicles features a bunch of returning enemies, too. We get Zombie, Zombie Dog, Lurker, Licker, Evolved Licker, Giant Spider, Ivy, Giant Moth, Bandersnatch, Black Widow, Moth, Hunter II, Sweeper, Alexia Pod, Hunter Gamma, Plague Crawler, Crow, Cockroach, Bat, Ant, Veronica Plant, G-Adult, William Birkin/G, Giant Alligator, T-103 Super Tyrant/"Mr. X", Gulp Worm, T-078 Prototype Super Tyrant, Nosferatu, Steve Burnside and Alexia Ashford

In addition, the wiki talks about the "Javier Zombie" and "G-Zombie", which are apparently zombie variants. Javier Zombies seem to be identical to regular zombies, while G-Zombies are just flayed corpses reanimated by the G-Virus.

Jumping Maneater

I can't find a good image of this one's in-game model, so have this cute artwork! As you can probably tell, the Jumping Maneater is this game's giant zombie spider, but one that's based on a jumping spider. It can jump at you, it has cute eyes and it eats men. What more could you ask from a bioweapon? As a biology enthusiast, I can appreciate the variety of spiders in this franchise, even if as video game enemies or as monsters they're kind of simple. 

Piranha

Okay, this game takes place in South America, so I guess they needed to have Piranhas, Like the Jumping Maneater, I can't find good images of this one's CGI model, so have this artwork. It sure is a zombie piranha, that's pretty cool even if, like the Jumping Maneater, I don't have much to really say here. 

Ivy+YX

The Ivy+YX, or, as I'm choosing to call it, just Ivy YX, is apparently a more advanced version of good old Ivy from Resident Evil 2. It doesn't look that terrible with updated graphics, right, Resident Evil 2 remake? This one has a more humanoid lower body, which I like a lot less than the original Ivy and its chunky plant-matter legs, but it apparently is an adaptation that allows it to run faster. Its mouth is now a three-part set of jaws that look like some kind of hideous crocodile, and I like that even the long leaves at the end of Ivy YX's arms look like 'jaws'.  

Anubis

Wooooah, what the hell? The Anubis here is apparently designed by Umbrella as a replacement for the Hunters, probably because no one can innovate past Alpha, and... what the hell, this thing is cool. Look at this lanky motherfucker, with those super-long arms and legs. And that cool monstrous skull-head! Anubis here is basically just a walking skeleton monster, and it apparently has these weird bone-whips that it can thwip out from its wrists, Spider-Man style. 

Bizarrely, despite its name, the Anubis doesn't have anything to do with zombie dogs, but instead is made out of a bat who was genetically engineered with insect and t-Virus DNA. I'm not sure what part of this is "insect", but the bat inspiration certainly explains the anatomy of this thing, particularly the super-long upper limbs... even if those fingers are definitely wrong for a bat. Apparently, despite being mostly just bone, the Anubis is super-duper fast, can move on walls and ceilings like a Licker! The lack of most of its organs makes its ribcage and the heart within it vulnerable. I like this one. It doesn't really make too much sense as far as the idea of these mutations being made by bioweapons go (doesn't explain how those legs or arms work without muscles) but who cares it's a cool skeleton monster with long arms. 

Jabberwock S3

So the Jabberwock S3 is yet another bioweapon, and I'm not entirely sure what's going on here. It's this large, shambling monster with a neck that droops down to have a face set around its chest, and a whole lot of talons -- two on each arm, and three that jut out of its back. Because they're borrow their name from Lewis Carroll's work, you can guess that the Jabberwock is an improved version of the Bandersnatch... although why one would pick the Bandersnatch of all things (lest we forget, the Bandersnatch is the failed mass-production Tyrant prototype with the hideously mutated arm) as an inspiration. But it sure is a monstrous sickle monster, and apparently is smart enough to obey orders. Not a whole ton to say here, it is actually a pretty cool bio-weapon. 

Hilda Hidalgo

So yeah, the named characters get to transform into a hideous monster. The monstrously mutated parent stalking a child is a trope Resident Evil as a franchise loves to play with after the whole Sherry Birkin thing from Resident Evil 2, but Hilda Hidalgo is, as far as I know, an actually kind mother (other than being married to a drug lord thing) who simply got a "cure" for her incurable disease from her desperate husband. But the cure turned out to be the T-Virus, and she transformed out of control... but still retained enough of her original self to restrain herself from attacking her daughter or her husband. 

A pretty interesting monster. The wiki describes her as 'amphibious', and she does chase you across the rivers for a good chunk of the game, I feel, and look at her weird anatomy! Two legs, a vaguely dinosaur-like main body, four tentacle arms... and that face! It took a while for me to realize what's going on, but she basically has a gigantic underbite with four extra tusks, and she's still got a human skull wrapped around those two long blue or red dorsal armour. Click here to see that absolutely wretched-looking face, with the lopsided upper skull. 

Apparently, her body's colour transforms from blue when she's calm and red when she's enraged... which is actually a transformation that made her more vulnerable, exposing parts of her brain. An actually very sympathetic monster, and probably one of the first truly sympathetic monsters that you have to put down (William Birkin was still a bioterrorist even with his more redeeming parts; and they screwed us over with making Eveline not the least bit sympathetic). Pretty all right monster design, actually, and an appropriately sad backstory to go with it. 

Javier Hidalgo / V-Complex

In contrast, Javier Hidalgo is something more akin to William Birkin. As a drug lord and someone who gleefully purchased bioweapons, he's kind of a monster! But he's also doing a lot of it in order to finance his daughter and wife's incurable disease. Apparently Javier has the Veronica Plant in his possession, which flourished thanks to the humid atmosphere in South America and not the frigid temperatures of Antarctica. The Veronica Plant merged with Javier and turned him into tis giant spider-teratoma called the V-Complex. It sure is a Resident Evil final glob-boss fight, although I can appreciate the amount of thought here, with a whole lot of focus on bony parts. That one little attempt at an angry lizard-skull head is a bit pathetic, though, and I probably would've liked it better if it was just this mass of pulsating flesh with bone spikes and giant bone spider legs and that's it. He's got a scythe arm, a massive bone-mouth arm thing. Apparently these bizarre bits of anatomy is because during his mutation, V-Complex basically spread across the facility and consumed and merged with the enemies killed by Leon and Krauser, meaning that parts of its anatomy came from eating things like the Jabberwock and Anubis. Okay, that's... that's more interesting and somewhat similar to Nyx from Outbreak 2. Not my favourite thing on this page, but a pretty appropriate Resident Evil final boss fight. 

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I trawled through the Wiki to look at other games -- we've got Mercenaries 3D, Umbrella Corps, the three CGI movies, plus around 18 mobile games, but pretty much the only one with a somewhat-interesting bestiary with unique monsters is Operation Raccoon City, abbreviated into "ORC". The story is simple, you play in an alternate universe as one of the cool gas-masked Umbrella operatives and you kill monsters in Raccoon City; in basically an alternate-universe where Umbrella successfully wipes out all witnesses, destroys all evidence and even battles notable RE2/RE3 enemies.

Elite Hunter; Nemesis T-02; Tyrant T-103

We get a bunch of extra 'unique' enemies here, like the Elite Hunter -- not to be confused with Hunter Elite -- which is bigger and redder. ORC's version of Nemesis is the Nemesis T-02, which was explicitly based on the live-action movie Nemesis, which is most obvious from the head design. Neat! There are also multiple T-103's, which is actually to be expected. All of them can go into the cool magma-claw form that Mr. X can. The T-103 we know and love as "Mr. X" was, of course, originally shown being one of many body-canisters to be airdropped into Raccoon City. Now we know where the other T-103's went... at least in this universe!

NE-Beta Type / Parasite Zombie

The "Nemesis Alpha" originally just referred to the tentacle-parasite that gave birth to good ol' Nemesis, but in ORC, we get a version of the Nemesis parasite that basically replaced the head of its hosts, similar to the Las Plagas, called "Nemesis Beta". This is more obviously just a giant bug for a head, though, with a bunch of spider legs just waving around. The 'canon' games would steal this for the Resident Evil 3 remake with Nemesis Alpha Zombies, although they don't quite go as over-the-top as Nemesis Beta. This feels a lot more like a Plagas mutation anyway, which was always more arthropod themed. 

More interestingly, though, is that the Nemesis Beta just runs around as a giant spider, before slicing off a zombie's head and taking control of it, unlike all other head-replacing creatures in the Resident Evil universe. 

Parasite Super Tyrant

One of the unique boss of ORC is the Parasite Super Tyrant, serving as a DLC boss. It's what happens when a Nemesis Beta takes over a T-103 body. It... it sure is a pretty decent-looking mutant Tyrant. It's a bit of a messy design, but one that feels at home among the many different final boss monsters. At least this one looks like a swarm of pillbugs and assorted giant mantis claw parts are piling themselves all over this monster's body! It kinda looks like one of those defensive J'Avo mutations from Resident Evil 6, actually, at least as far as the legs and upper bodies go. I actually like this, it's a combination of a different creature with a Tyrant instead of just making it bigger and spikier. Not a whole ton to say here. 

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With that, I've wrapped up most of the Resident Evil spinoffs that have unique monsters. Next up will be the two final games in this series of reviewing Resident Evil monsters... the two Revelations games, which many people do count among the 'main' series, and actually having played at least one of them, I am reasonably excited to talk about them!