Umbrella Corps' approach to doors is a cute throwback to older games - you can choose how quickly you open each one, either bursting in or slowly creeping one open. That's thanks to a Zombie Jammer positioned on your back - no, I've no idea how it works either - that can be deactivated with a simple shot from an opposing player, opening you up to the attacking hordes who move towards your location. You can use them as an inhuman shield, bundling them around the map to no great effect, but initially the undead pose no threat at all. It's an odd inclusion, at first at least, given how the undead mope about maps in considerable numbers without making a lunge for you or other players. There are zombies, because of course there are. Such cramped conditions encourage close-quarters combat, all of which is enhanced by several layers of novelty enabled by liberal use of the Resident Evil property. The maps are kept small, featuring air vents and a fair amount of verticality that lends them a pleasing density, ensuring there's plenty of opportunity to surprise other players - or be surprised by an enemy - through the course of a match.
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Yet Umbrella Corps' weird cover version manages to be something else entirely - this ropey hybrid and ham-fisted pastiche has got its own charm, like a scratchy Ghanaian action movie knock-off that's rescued by its own verve.įor all of Umbrella Corps' missteps, the shooting itself feels respectable, and it's got some pretty neat ideas.
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It's Resident Evil's take on Counter-Strike effectively, though it's not quite the measure of either series in their pomp. One life matches are small, three minute rounds where - as you might have guessed - players are limited to one life each, sitting out the round once they've been downed. A mode where it's even possible to have some fun with this strange, strange game. Elsewhere, though, Umbrella Corps has a mode where its merits are allowed to shine. It's madness and too often maddening, a confused scream of a multiplayer experience that quickly barrels out of control. Another in-game wheel lets you access the sizeable number of in-game commands and emotes - including unlockables such as cat sounds or unbearable ditties. This tactical wheel pops up at the outset of each round, allowing you to shape your team's tactics in some ways. One of them, Multi-Mission, is a chaotic succession of eight multiplayer staples, all strung together with little rhyme or reason - where takes on kill confirmed and domination smash into each other while players run around maps relishing in the overpowered brainer melee weapon that can be charged for a quick and grisly kill.
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Squint and you could be playing an all-new Mercenaries in that sole offline mode - open your eyes, though, and it's all a bit of a mess.īoiling Umbrella Corps down to two modes is both too generous and not quite generous enough. In the way of what, exactly? Umbrella Corps is a very limited game, with seven maps whose locales are lifted from the Resident Evil series that support two multiplayer modes - as well as a cursory single-player offering that sets a succession of slim score attack challenges within those same maps. As you fight with the controls to come unstuck from whatever surface you're attached to, it feels like the cover system simply gets in the way. Maps are infuriatingly fussy about what can and can't be cowered behind, and once you're pressed flat against a doorway it's hard to know exactly what advantage is proffered. It's a multiplayer game whose sense of movement is skittish at best, complemented by the fact you move alarmingly fast when prone - ensuring some matches see players slide around on their bellies like well-oiled snakes.Īnd Umbrella Corps is a cover shooter that can't quite get its head around what cover means and how it should work. This is a third-person shooter with a perspective that's uncomfortably close, snapping violently into first-person when you aim down sights. Then there's all those disparate elements that hang uncomfortably together. Perhaps in part thanks to Unity's refusal to play nice on consoles, or the smaller budget afforded this diminutive project, Umbrella Corps looks like it's been scraped from a festering zombie's arse, its murky textures and stuttering frame-rate making it an unsightly, stumbling mess. It's easy to get snagged on the the rough edges of Umbrella Corps. A three-on-three team shooter created in the Unity engine by a small team within the company's Osaka headquarters, it's a scrappy, fundamentally flawed and often downright ugly take on multiplayer. Umbrella Corps - which, tellingly, ditches the Resident Evil moniker from its title in the west - might be the oddest spin-off Capcom's yet devised.