Resident Evil: Gun Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (ufhh!) review

Behind this long title lies another game that I bought for my light-gun, one that I've actually been interested for some time. I know everyone, from fans to critics, says the Gun Survivor games are shit, but I always wanted to try them myself, since in theory they sound awesome. Imagine the trigger happy feeling of a light-gun shooter with the freedom to move everywhere of an FPS and the horror theme of Resident Evil games! Sounds good? Hell yes! So, what went wrong with this one? Well, let's find out...


Unlike the first game, originally made for the PlayStation, GS2 first debuted in the arcades. This explains alot, like the lack of a real story (forget about any new additions to the code Veronica narrative), the dated graphics and the game modes.

Talking about game modes, the first one I've tried is Arcade Mode, which I assume is a direct port of the original arcade game. Here you just have to go from point A to point B, where you always fight a boss, and usually you need to pick up one or two keys in order to open the point B door. In order to prevent gamers from being on the arcade machine for too long, Capcom introduced the "Nemesis timer", a timer that counts down and, when when it reaches zero, Nemesis is unleashed, which is stupid since Nemesis originally appeared on RE3 and has nothing to do with the Code Veronica storyline. Anyway, when this happens Nemesis will start pursuing you and one hit of this huge beast kills you instantly, so run like hell.


This is stupid, since this is a console game and you should be able to spend as much time as you want, exploring rooms and killing enemies, but hey, guess Capcom didn't realise this...

Now, before I continue with the game modes, maybe its time to talk about the gameplay. As I said before, you can use your light-gun to shoot the enemies (imagine you're playing House of the Dead), but there's no rails, so you have to move on your own. This is done with the d-pad on the back of the gun, but I soon realised that this sucks! The d-pad is slow, not responsive and a huge pain in the ass!


So, despite buying the game with the intent to play it using my beloved G-Con 2, I soon realised this game plays much better with the dualshock. The movement is so much better that you actually feel more powerful, being able to quickly turn around to shoot the zombie behind you in the face, unlike with the gun, where it takes ages to turn or even move, and even the shooting part is easier (!). There's autoaiming, so you just have to shoot; you can see the weapon you're carrying, unlike with the G-Con where you can't see your character's hands; and you can even tell if that zombie in the ground is really dead or just faking, by the way your character points automatically at him.

So, again about game modes, there's this Dungeon Mode which I think is the main mode for solo players. Here you have to complete missions in totally new areas created for this mode, with objectives like just reaching the end and fighting the boss or finding hidden objects throughout the level. This last one is really fucked up, since, unlike in Arcade mode, here you don't have a map. Well, how the fuck can you search for hidden shit in maze-like levels with multiple floors and rooms, then?


There's also a Ranking Mode, but this is just where you can see the highscores of the levels you completed and not really a playing mode per se.

And finally, the most...original...mode, VS. Roach mode. Unlocked when you complete your first Dungeon mode mission, I first thought this was either some kind of boss mode or a competition against some guy named Roach. How wrong I was...

The thing is, "Roach" is supposed to be taken literally. Yes, you're locked inside a room filled with cock-a-roaches and you have to take em all out within the given time limit. This is not only hard, due to the small amount of time and the hard to hit cockroaches, but also boring. Fuck, I want to shoot zombies in the face with a shotgun, not smash bugs! That I can do in the real life and it can be even more entertaining than in the game.


Now, about the graphics, the game was heavily criticised about it's aspect, but to be honest this really didn't bother me. The whole game has an undeniable arcade feel to it, with empty environments, without to many stuff to distract us, and huge items you can pick up. All the character and enemy models seem to be taken directly from RE: CV, which is not that bad and, and overall, I think anyone who misses the many arcade ports that came out for the dreamcast a long time ago will like the style of the graphics in this one. Oh, and by the way, the "door interludes" whenever you move from one room to the other are still present...


As far as the sound goes, both the sound effects and the soundtrack are the same present in many other RE games, so this should please every fan of the series.

So, overall, is this a game worth buying?Hmm...if you're a die-hard fan of Resident Evil, particularly Code: Veronica, you may find this game somewhat entertaining, but if you're just looking for a decent light-gun game or a good game overall, despite its genre, this game is not for you.

NebachadnezzaR gives Resident Evil: Gun Survivor 2 Code: Veronica 2 stars out of 5, which means "buy it if you have lots of money to spend".

Good bye and good games ;) [not this one, it seems...]