4/5 ★ – BigEvil's review of Resident Evil Code: Veronica X.

RE has been a gap in my gaming knowledge for a long time and I’ve been slowly remedying that by playing through most of the games alongside my wife. And after the disappointment of the RE3 REmake, Code Veronica was a breath of fresh air. CV suffers in the second half in many of the same ways other RE games have. Repetitive action and too much busywork. Jogging back and forth opening locks over and over is as boring as ever. The first half of this game though, was a delightful surprise. Over the years I’ve somehow avoided knowing much about CV. It wasn’t a favourite of my friends that were RE fans, and I never played it myself. So glad I finally got to enjoy the ridiculous story and setting. Aside from Steve, who might be the most grating video game character I’ve seen, I loved it. The Gothic horror influence, the puzzles, the music, the mad voice acting and cartoonishly evil villains. All of it put a big dumb grin on my face and made dealing with the old school clunky controls worthwhile. Some aspects of the villain’s portrayal might not, and probably should not, fly in 2022 but I really enjoyed the over the top performance and characterization. We had a lot of fun and will sleep soundly knowing we won’t have to encounter Steve again.