Resident Evil: Degeneration

Posted on May 14th, 2009. Written by Isaiah.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. With Capcom’s success with their MegaMan and Street Fighter apps, it was only a matter of time until they decided to port one of their most popular franchises to the iPhone. So they gave us Resident Evil: Degeneration [App Store], and fan boys of the series, like myself jumped for joy.

To anyone who has seen the CGI animated movie Resident Evil: Degeneration, you’ve probably wished they would make a game out of it. Well Capcom attempted to, following almost every bit of the film’s storyline, incorporating well received game play they gave us their first Resident Evil app.

For a video game series that has been around for ages, it’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t played a Resident Evil game or seen one of its movies based on the series. For the hefty price of $6.99, many hardcore fans won’t think twice about purchasing it. But for those out there who are on the fence, glad you decided to read a review first.

Gameplay
To anyone who has played Resident Evil 5, the game play in Resident Evil: Degeneration wont be new to you. The introduction of a weapon’s merchant, enemies who drop cash and treasures galore, Capcom has given you a viable way of finding the extra money you need to upgrade your weapons, and buy much needed health items. While running through the airport, health items, ammo and cash/treasures are highlighted with either green, red, blue or gold rings, making them easier to find, and easier to decide if it’s worth going after.

The enemies are the normal Resident Evil variety, slow moving and dumb, this doesn’t include bosses of course. But don’t get me wrong, they are dangerous. With the ability to latch on to you and struggle, you’ll have to be quick and tap what I like to call the “get off of me” button. If you don’t hit it in time you’ll receive a nasty bite that takes a considerably large amount of health from you. But if hit successfully, Leon will perform a flip kick to knock back the enemy, giving you time to draw your weapon and finish the job.

Health items are abundant, but their use overall affects your ending score on the level. I found it a bit hard to use the items when I wanted to. The menu option “Use” didn’t show up for me on the first level, but showed up for me every level after that. You also have the option when first picking up health items whether to use them on the spot or add them to your inventory, which is limited to 35 items.

Also Capcom decided to include a feature I loved in Resident Evil 5, and that’s the ability to access doors by shooting the padlock that was keeping it shut. As realistic as past Resident Evil games have been, everyone who has played one has thought to themselves, “why am I running around looking for a key, when I can just blow the doorknob off with this shotgun?”. A feature not used on every door, but in my opinion cuts down on needless backtracking looking for a single key to unlock a door halfway across the map.

Your PDA offers information vital to staying alive, your map, items, document logs, key items and options. The map is identical to past Resident Evil games, and serves only one purpose, telling you where you need to go, and where you have been. Although by purchasing a Treasure Map from the weapons merchant, it will also show treasures in your immediate area.

Controls
Here’s where a game will either sink or swim, and I have to regretfully say Resident Evil: Degeneration is well on its way to being shark food. Choppy controls and camera angles on top of a horrible and slow aiming system might have the average player ready to uninstall this game.

Capcom failed attempt at a auto aiming feature falls horribly short of salvaging this games playability. I found myself being turned around backwards when pulling out my pistol, giving the zombies a open invitation to my brains. The reaction time of the virtual thumb stick slows down dramatically if your weapon is drawn, and by the time you actually have your laser sight on a enemy you have to holster it to run away and give yourself some breathing room. Running into walls and constantly backing up to face my character the way I want got very annoying.

Capcom’s vision is there, but it’s hard to water down the controls of a game that normally gives you multiple buttons to keep yourself alive. I hated the fact that you can’t reload your gun on the fly, you have to wait until your gun is out of ammo is reloaded automatically. The only saving grace is the action scenes that require you to press a action button that appears randomly on your screen. I thought dodging falling debris from the ceiling fun, but those moments are few and far between.

Presentation
All honestly, for a cell phone game it’s beautiful. Think PSP graphics, which are pretty awesome for a handheld, on your iPhone. The character models look like they are from the original Resident Evil, but that doesn’t really matter. No one is expecting home console graphics on a cell phone. The story flows, it’s done through cut scenes and mini conversations using your characters headset.

The setting is straight from the movie, looks just like it. But as expected things were added to actually make this a game, which is fine. The zombies are from the normal mold, nothing too spectacular about them. Overall the graphics are good for a iPhone app, honestly some of the best I’ve seen.

Final Impression
It’s Resident Evil! One of the scariest survival horror genres out there, you can’t think zombie without thinking Resident Evil. But I have to say I see this game as being more of Capcom’s way of squeezing every possible dollar from this franchise than delivering an epic, turning your airplane mode option on to avoid getting interrupted game. A lot of people will purchase this game on name alone, and I feel that was the motivation for making its conception. It hurts me to say that this, because I’m a HUGE fan of the series, but this  is one of the games in the series I could go without playing, along with the Resident Evil: Dead Aim titles.

Current Status: Wait for price drop.

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.0
Download size: 9.5MB
Released on: 24th Apr 2009
Retails for: £3.99 / $6.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G