I walked into Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles with, probably for the better, never having played any non numbered entry in the Resident Evil series. Anything of the mainline typically hasn’t been of the most stellar quality, but I remember 2007’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles doing reasonably well, and not too bad critically either.

Still, I never played it, so I started fresh with DC. Immediately I noticed that I was, apparently, reliving segments from Resident Evil 2 as a rail shooter and from a different perspective. The game was mostly played in first person (occasionally pulling out to third person point of view for some extended cinematics), and it did some cool tricks with point of view. Falling down, getting pulled to the side, and taking quick glances left and right helped keep the melee interesting, even if it did take some getting used to. My shots rarely felt precise and often I felt like I was just blasting into the ether, but headshots started increasing in frequency the more and more I played. Weapon and item pickup was tied to pressing a button whilst pointing the Wiimote was crosshair at the item, providing a sense of immediacy for (especially) healing items. The remaining gameplay was a by-the-numbers rail shooter, which, I suppose, wasn’t a problem since it was all functional.

I hadn’t played RE2 in nearly ten years, so seeing the sights and sounds from the early part of the game sent my brain into nostalgia overload. The cars on fire, the weapon shop, the broken down bus, the backstreets, Leon and Claire, and, eventually, the police station were all calling cards of RE2, and seeing them reimaged in Darkside Chronicles provided an endearing sense of familiarity that instantly bridged the gap between old to new. Cherish memories of the past and a cool take on perspective might make this one a winner, even if the core gameplay doesn’t take similar strides.