Code: Veronica X is an excellent port of a Dreamcast game that came out a year before, and a must-have for any RE fan.
Lows: Bad voice acting, hardest game in the Resident Evil series by a longshot of course, too much backtracking, will not be nice on newcomers to the series.
Verdict: While not as good as the Dreamcast original, Code: Veronica is still a winner on the PS2, and each RE fan should own this classic.
After the end of the 32/64-bit era, Capcom's new Resident Evil series was on a hot streak after the success of the first three games in the series. That streak continued into the 128-bit era with Resident Evil Code: Veronica, released on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000, and then ported a year later Sony's lovely PlayStation 2, in the form of Resident Evil Code: Veronica X, an updated port of the Dreamcast original that features new cutscenes and more story, so I guess you can call it a directors cut if you want to. If you already have the original Dreamcast version, there is really no reason to buy this game, but for PS2 owners, it is indeed a must have. In Code: Veronica, Claire Redfield goes to Europe in search of her missing brother and R.P.D S.T.A.R.S member Chris Redfield, but gets captured by another party in the middle of her search, and is taken to an island run by Umbrella, but is later released after a T-Virus outbreak happens on the island. She then finds out that the evil Ashford family has deadly plans to continue Umbrella's evil deeds after the Raccoon City outbreak, and Alexia Ashford, who has the only existing sample of the T-Veronica virus in her body, has a plan to release the virus on the world, and take over the world. So it looks like Claire needs to find her brother fast, and of course, save the world. Playing Code: Veronica is pretty much the same as the first 3 games in the series, as fans should be able to get used to the tank controls, and there is also improved camera angles in this game, as the camera follows you where you go most of the time. There are excellent weapons in the game, as it has a basic handgun, shotgun, 2 sub-machine guns, a magnum, and a sniper rifle. The puzzles are still great too, as they keep you busy, but don't make you frustrated. The level design is also a lot more detailed than the first three games in the series. Code: Veronica X is an excellent port of a DC game that came out a year ago, but there are problems. The game can be very frustrating if you are not very good with conserving resources since there are so little (especially on newer players and on longtime fans), the voice acting is very over-the-top, as it is a huge step back from RE3, and it sounds so unbearable. It's Mega Man 8 bad. Not kidding. Also, the backtracking is the worst in this entry, as you will constantly be going back to the item box and back to where you were, or back and forth throughout the whole game. It will drown your health if you are not careful, and you could die too. Code: Veronica X dosen't do very much different than the original Dreamcast release, as all it does is just add in new cutscenes. Overall, it is still a good game and worth owning. Even though this isn't as great as the Dreamcast original, Code: Veronica is still a winner on the PS2, and each Resident Evil fan should have this or the original release for Sega's last hurrah. Just make sure you stay away from the GameCube port of Code: Veronica X.