Undeadly fun!
The goal of Veronica X is survival and escape, and you control your players (Claire and Chris Redfield) from a third-person perspective. You start with little more than a bludgeoning instrument, but quickly discover various other weapons, with regular finds of ammo lying abandoned in various places. Each weapon comes in handy for different scenarios, different undead. If this is your first game in the series, then some of the characters' references to things that happened in previous games may be lost on you, like Wesker, but it hardly affects your playing experience, except to add some depth and generally liven up the rather chilling environs that are so common with games featuring masses of undead. So there are various enemies, all with their own agendas.
The biggest turn-off I found with this game was the clunky controls and ridiculous cinematic camera. The camera switches fixed positions and angles depending on where you walk - all pre-programmed. This is especially bad when you're fighting bosses, where the battle arena is large and transitions always seem to coincide with you wanting to change your running direction. The default direction of 'forward' is also NOT straight into the screen, it's the direction your character is facing. Combine the two and you have a veritable nightmare of disorientation. It's the sort of thing that'll make you only play this game in short intervals, as too much of it can be a drain.
But if you're an experienced gamer, this won't be a problem. Pretty soon you'll get used to the camera having a spasm, and getting your neck gored by even common zombies. To be fair though, these are the only problems I had a gripe with during my play-through. That, and the incredibly drawn out (movie-length?) opening of doors. It goes beyond being reminiscent of earlier games in the franchise and begs the question, "Why wasn't it fixed?"
The music is remarkably haunting, yet at the same time enchanting. Really good haunting music is hard to come by - not just in video games, but anywhere, so be sure to clap your hands with glee when you hear some of the piano themes. They go beyond random discordant notes and evoke a heavier, bated atmosphere.
The variety of environments are beyond incredible too. You can tell a lot of thought has gone into creating them. Walk into a study, or office with cabinets, papers strewn about, a hole in the wall complete with broken electrical wires and pipes, a computer screen still turned on, blood smears, spatter, drag marks - even zombies at the window, and it doesn't take much more for the gamer to imagine they're actually in that room, stepping around that bloody corpse, or marvelling at that frozen zombie.
Be sure to crank the volume, and play in the dark though. I love playing horror games after midnight. There are more than a few places where surprise attacks can just about put you in an early grave. There is nothing like a good scare to get the blood pumping and let you know you are still alive. I'm not talking about zombies crawling out of graves either. I'm talking about just strolling up to a seemingly mundane item, picking it up, and suddenly having the window beside you smash in. You won't have time to hang around and ask where those two pairs of arms came from.
I also love the journals and notes you can pick up. It makes for a great way to discover more about the background of some characters, provide some hints about what's to come, or give a bit of history to the installation you're stuck in. Best of all, it isn't all shoved in your face, or necessary, so for those that just want to get on with the action it's a relief to know you don't have to click through reams and reams of useless junk to get on with it. Some documents are vital though, so don't ignore everything!
The item stash system can take a bit of getting used to as well. It is a shared stash between your playable characters, so if you aren't familiar with it you may find the wrong character has all the big guns and health. The stash will let you hold any items you can't fit on your person, and allows you to swap items. Swapping characters occurs at pre-determined times during the course of the story.
There are other modes of play to unlock that may interest the perfectionist, but story mode was what fascinated me the most. There's even a first-person mode that may be easier to get used to as well.
Overall there's enough variety and story to keep RE fans entertained, but it may take you a while to get the hang of the camera and the controls. Still, a solid game, and a great story to boot, even if the controls are a little dated. It's worth buying, and worth coming back to.