More of a problem is simply not tiring of the gameplay. Shooting zombies is great and all, but it becomes repetitive too quickly. The same zombies come out from the same places over and over again, and all you can do is shoot them with different guns. There are the occasional zombified animals, like dogs and birds, and the rarer creatures we’ve seen growing in test tubes, but they don’t mix up combat enough to stow our bellyaching.

Shooting, the games only real action, has one small and tender problem as well, something it seems to lack when even Time Crisis 4 has it, which cannot display the crosshair without stuttering madly. It has precision aim. Umbrella Chronicle’s crosshair has fluid movement around the screen, but either falters around targets or the target area is simply too small, at least in respect to the area for instant kills. As we all know, zombies don’t function well without brains, especially their own, so removing theirs with bullets should do the trick. The thing is that if the shot is a tad off from where the crosshair points to, even if it’s on the head or whatever weak spot is pointed at, the bonus won’t count.

The list of weapons is great, especially with the ability to go through upgrading them to dish out real damage. The selection is nice to have, but sadly when a gun’s ammo runs out, it doesn’t mean that you don’t touch it until you find more ammo. More importantly, that it pops up at all when going through the list of guns. In a tight situation, the last thing anyone wants to hear is the empty click of a shotgun when no shell rings out with a deafening tone. And without an easy solution to finding weapons without scrolling, there is no avoiding this.

What is really cool about Umbrella Chronicles, as mentioned previously, are for those who are very much into RE. Revisiting areas and learning new facts isn’t all that’s exciting. Playing through levels that have been played through in past games and seeing everything be identical to before. It isn’t unfathomable to find the same items in the same places. Good memory will serve players well.

Remember the mention of gameplay getting boring quick? Thankfully two player support is available, so should a friend be around, the 20+ hours can easily be enjoyed in pairs for more than 15 minute segments. It can also become a heated competition for scavenging items which lay hidden within rooms and earning high scores.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a very large game for its type. It carries with it an excellent campaign, both alone and with a friend, though it does become tedious over time. The few squabbles with controls are bothersome, but manageable. It fits perfectly into any collectors hands with all the hidden extras, and even the casual gamer can rejoice over spewing the blood of the undead.