Code Veronica is a very interesting game. I now understand why it has earned its infamy.

There's a lot to dislike about Code Veronica. The game seems to gleefully tease and taunt the player, presenting a high number of situations that would stump on a blind playthrough. The famous Tyrant plane fight that requires proper preparation to avoid softlocking your save. The big stretchy boi Bandersnatch enemies that can attack you from off-screen. The switches between Claire and Chris that are not telegraphed, do not have save points close by, and lock out the inventory of the character you were just playing as. The endlessly respawning moth hallway, which mocks the player for not doing puzzles in the most efficient manner (that they would likely only know about from doing before or from reading a guide) by poisoning the player and laying poisonous eggs on them that hatch into creepy moth babies.

The game lacks save points in general, especially in Claire's sections. This game's approach to safe rooms is like if there was one typewriter in the entirety of the Spencer mansion in RE1, or in the entirety of the RPD in RE2. Despite being a much longer game than RE1, 2, and 3, and featuring a much larger game world, there is a ton of backtracking, which is exacerbated by the lacking save points. Most puzzles require you to trek all across the game map, and there is a surprisingly high number of respawning enemies, forcing you to either get good at running by them or use more ammo.

At the very least, there is a large excess of ammunition in this game. There are tons of different guns, each having different effectiveness against different enemies. I played very conservatively, running by most enemies and using the knife when I could, and I ended up with a fully loaded assault rifle, fully loaded SMGs, 80 shotgun shells, 20 grenade launcher rounds, 8 acid rounds, 12 flame rounds, 200 pistol bullets, 11 magnum rounds, 47 explosive bolts (I used about 20 on the final boss), and 60 crossbow bolts. I might be forgetting others, but that is a ton. In retrospect, I could've killed every Bandersnatch I encountered instead of running by most of them. I really enjoy using the knife in RE games, and this game might have the best knife next to RE4. I used it a ton early game to conserve ammo, but now on completion of the game I realize that was completely unnecessary.

There is still a fair bit I liked about Code Veronica. At the end of the day, it is a classic RE game. The story is fun, campy schlock with overexaggerated voice acting and silly melodrama. I really disliked Steve at the beginning of the game but I grew to like him over time, a lot of his actions make more sense when you realize he's literally a child. Wesker is great and his rivalry with Chris is fun. The Ashfords are interesting villains, though I could've done without the crossdressing subplot, if only so that we could avoid the character assassination of Claire calling Alfred a "crossdressing freak." Come on Claire, you're no bigot. I love the classic tank controls, but I also appreciate the quick-turn from RE3 was brought into this game. The game plays well for the most part even if there are some parts with unavoidable damage such as the ant hallway and the Bandersnatches. The 3D backgrounds are a neat relic of their times, even if the prior RE games' pre-rendered backgrounds aged better. The setting might be the best part of the game overall. The gothic architecture of the Military Base and Private Residence are awesome and a great new fit for RE. The Antarctic base is another novel setting for the series and gives shades of The Thing, which is always a good thing to me. The graphics are an excellent showpiece for the Dreamcast, but of course I played this on the GameCube so they are not nearly as impressive for that hardware.

Code Veronica was not that difficult, even if I did reset quite a few times to improve my routes and avoid taking damage while mastering the knife. The game is more annoying than hard, and when you know its tricks it is manageable. I played on the only difficulty setting in the NA release, Normal. I was aware of the famous pain points relating to soft locks going in to the game, and my natural inclination to hoard ammo meant I was always prepared for bosses, which either went down easy using the strongest ammo or were able to be skipped entirely by running away, which I absolutely did when possible. One of the things I quite like about the RE series is simply running away from enemies when convenient, and this game does not disappoint in that area.

The puzzles were fun but not overly involved. None stumped me so hard that I needed to look up the solution, though the portrait puzzle took me a few tries. I think the quality of the puzzles is probably lower than previous RE games, but still acceptable.

Claire's section of the game can feel like a bit of a slog with all the backtracking, but when you switch to Chris suddenly the game is much snappier. Explosions and broken doors close off areas you previously visited and end up providing Chris with a more linear experience, though not one that is as simple as a straight line. This improved pacing does a lot for the game. Chris also ends up getting most of the better set pieces in the game, getting to fight more bosses than Claire and experiencing a greater enemy variety, while having access to the entire loadout of weapons right from the start of his section. It does feel a bit messed up that Chris outshines Claire in "her" game, getting the better sections and defeating the final boss himself, but it is what it is.

To conclude, I would say this is a worse RE experience than RE1, 2, and 3, but it is still worth playing if you are a super fan of the series. I enjoyed what I played, but I am not chomping at the bit for a replay. There is enough interesting stuff in here that I think a Remake has the potential to be an excellent game by fixing the problems and keeping and improving on the stuff that worked. Bandersnatches would be way less annoying in a third-person perspective!