Article by Domenico De Rosa
After making titles belonging to the Resident Evil franchise of all kinds (just missing a platform-game), Capcom felt the need to create a competitive shooter set in and around Raccoon City. This need has been transformed into Umbrella Corps, a spin-off of the Resident Evil series with a strong multiplayer component. The publisher has therefore decided to get involved, proposing its competitive shooter, putting together in the same cauldron Umbrella soldiers, zombies and a lot of confusion.
The Shooter according to Capcom
It is good to keep in mind that this is one spin-off of the saga and therefore, in addition to not having to be considered as a Resident Evil, it has very little to do with what has been proposed to us in the past. Umbrella Corps is the classic competitive shooter that makes the online multiplayer component its greatest strength. Apart from a "simple" single player mode (which we will see later), 90% of the title is purely online. The player is called to take on the role of any Umbrella soldier, customize him, equip him and then take to the battlefield together with the other players and make his team win. This is in short what you need to know when approaching a competitive shooter. Unfortunately, Umbrella Corps is the fruit of an idea that was perhaps implemented too hastily, given that the final product seems to be something incomplete and with little meat on the stove. The matches are played between a maximum of six players, three per team: This favors matchmaking, making it faster than other FPS / TPS, but negatively affects matches, making them extremely short. Users can choose whether to play public or ranked matches, or play for fun or take to the battlefield to earn experience points and points for their ranking. The first limits of the game are highlighted by the types of online matches, which at the moment are only two (so to speak). The "Extermination" is the classic mode where to win you have to score more points than the opposing team, killing the enemy soldiers. After dying, you will have to wait for the end of the round before you can respawn… a classic. There "Multi-Session" mode is perhaps the only one that could trigger that bit of interest in the title. It is a real mixture of modes (if at all) already seen in the other shooters, chosen at random from the game. Each round (three for the victory) will coincide with a different mode, which are none other than the many types of matches already seen in the various Call of Duty, Battlefield and the like, with obviously some exceptions. They range from the classic team deathmatch (Respawn), to the confirmed kill (Steal Collars), to then move on to Conquer and Protect, where the team will only have to arrive on a predetermined area and conquer it before the opponents. All these modes are played in locations taken from the old Resident Evil: the maps in addition to being poorly defined and detailed, are also very small. The adaptation of the maps to the few players on the field certainly does not favor tactics, which is highlighted only by the "Analog coverage", the system introduced by Capcom that allows players to identify areas where it is possible to cover themselves from enemy fire. As for the personalization of your character, this favors the aesthetic aspect more than the tactical one. There are more decorative items than weapons and equipment. To firearms, however, must also be added the Brainers, white weapons such as pegs or axes that allow you to kill enemies with a single shot. However, the use of the Brainer generates gods boring one-on-one fights, where the winner is whoever hits the attack button first.
Zombie on the background
Being a spin-off of Resident Evil, our beloved zombies and the other BOWs are also present in Umbrella Corps. simple extras. The undead, zombie dogs, Ganados and other creatures are featured in the various online maps (and in single player mode), but they seem to be far too passive, at least until they are given a wake up call. One of the main features of the game is the presence of Z-Jammer, a device that allows Umbrella soldiers to be invisible to zombies. As long as the Z-Jammer is up and running, zombies are nothing but useless beings on the screen. If they aren't bothered, they won't bother you… simple! Things get more interesting when the device is damaged or put out of use by the appropriate grenades: at this point the zombies will "wake up", attacking the soldier or soldiers without Jammer, thus becoming a serious threat. The zombies become an important element in the online modes "DNA Hunt" and "Special DNA Hunt": to win in these two modes you have to kill the zombies or special BOWs and be the first to collect the largest number of DNA samples. The undead can be considered the main antagonists in all respects in the mode “The Experiment”, which is the only single player mode available. Unfortunately, these are little stuff enclosed in twenty increasingly difficult missions where the player, playing the role of one of the Umbrella soldiers (always them), equipped with pre-selected equipment by the AI at each mission start, will have to face the classic "hordes" of undead to collect their DNA or conquer some territories. The only difficulty of this mode is given by the limited availability of bullets, which often will tend to be scarce. Once you have become familiar with the surrounding environment and the BOWs present, finish the various missions it will be all too easy.
Even the eye wants its part
In Umbrella Corps the lack of attention to detail is all too evident: the game is graphically not up to the current generation. The developers have focused only on taking care of the Umbrella soldiers, well defined and graphically well detailed, but leaving out everything else. The maps and all the surrounding environment has been incredibly neglected, offering everything with a very low graphic detail. The same goes for zombies and the like, badly made, almost as if the latter were really the least important element of the game. What has distinguished the titles of the Resident Evil franchise have always been the many zombie models proposed, made with care and in the smallest details. The end result was a group of monsters that aroused fear in the players, fear that instead turns into a big laugh at the undead proposed in Umbrella Corps. In addition to the low-detailed chart, you have to contend with too a rather fluctuating frame rate, especially during The Experiment. The low graphics detail should benefit the fps, but that's not the case here.
In conclusion, is it worth buying Umbrella Corps?
Summing up, Capcom's competitive shooter offers an extremely simple and fast type of game. There little meat on the fire put on the grill by the developers it may not appeal to the classic competition player, who tends to approach more tactical and more competitive shooters. Umbrella Corps can and should be considered the eSport title set in the Resident Evil universe, but at the end of the day it could only appeal to fans of the saga, curious to try the new effort made by Capcom. Leaving aside the miserable single player mode, those who buy Umbrella Corps must know that they will find an incomplete title in their hands and above all poor both in terms of graphics and content. Perhaps the experiment went wrong and the end result is not what Capcom expected, but surely Umbrella Corps can accompany the average fan until the arrival of Resident Evil 7.
