I have a long and storied history with the Resident Evil games. One of them I remember fondly was Resident Evil: Code Veronica X which I bought only months after getting a PS2 during the early life of that console oh-so many years ago. I remember that game as one of my true highlights of my youth; and even given the fact that, like many games I played when I was young, I didn't finish it. I played through most of the game, but I ended up getting stuck somewhere and I didn't have the resources then, that I do now, a decade later and grown into an adult. I bought the game when it released a year ago on Xbox Live as an HD remake. I haven't indulged in venturing through since and have really wanted to go back and play through that game. Both because I can but this to rest in my head, as I've thought about it hear and there over the years and would like to see the end of it for myself. As well as the fact that it does reward a hefty amount of achievement points for completion.

Is the game pretty much unplayable by now and how long would I be expecting to spend with it to see the end? I'm a little bit fuzzy on my memory of what those games truly where like and I suspect that going back down the road of old RE would be very scary ( and I don't mean from the story, but the gameplay )

Also, do you have any of your own situations with a particular game in your history that you just feel you have to go back and finish? Feel free to share.

Even as a fan of old Resident Evil, I am not a big fan of Code Veronica. It's the only game in the series where I have actually been screwed over, ammo-wise and forced to revert to a save I made hours earlier. It's also long and more than a little meandering. If you think you can stomach it and want those achievements, go for it. I would personally endorse you replaying any other game in the series (except 6) before you try to replay CVX.

@ArbitraryWater: There are many games we liked when we were younger, that we went back and played when we became adults and thought, "Well we were young and didn't know any better". You are starting to make me wonder if this may be one of those cases for me.

@MrPilkington said:

@ArbitraryWater: There are many games we liked when we were younger, that we went back and played when we became adults and thought, "Well we were young and didn't know any better". You are starting to make me wonder if this may be one of those cases for me.

The thing is, Code Veronica was well received upon release, and even now I think it's probably one of the more liked games in the series by crazies fans. I'm pretty sure my opinion is against what is considered the norm, but either way you won't know until you try, right? I'd rather replay the remake for the Gamecube or Resident Evil 2 myself.

I like CVX, but nostalgia still drips for me with that game. I totally understand that parts of it are stupid, meandering, and fuck-you-overish as much as possible, but I still replay it every once and awhile - last year being my latest and two years before that the next. It plays like shit, has a villain that is both unique (for the series, at least) and terrible, and was one of the first - the first? - games to give Wesker his weird matrix powers.

So, really, I should hate this game with a fiery passion but I recognize that nostalgia has ruined any objectivity on this game. Actually, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone anymore mostly because of two scenarios that almost ruined the game for me the first time I played it: the potted plant "puzzle" and the escape scene after you-know-what happens to you-know-who.

Code Veronica is super divisive, so you won't find a blanket answer here.

The thing that I hated about is that was the kind of game that openly let you paint yourself into a corner. It threw heavy after heavy at you in an attempt to con you into using your more substantial artillery, only to thrust you into a boss battle when your resources are the most scant. And it provides you no way to recoup any ammunition for the battle and just sort of tells you to deal with it unless you want to reload a save some several hours rewound.

There were a lot of things it did to spice up the by-then archaic structure Resident Evil had favored throughout the Playstation era. It rendered its environments to showcase dynamic cameras and allowed you at points to use two weapons simultaneously. But, eh. The narrative was forgettable (if not mostly irrelevant) and the aforementioned boss structure--really, just a metonym for the game's attitude toward the player--was a massive, massive turn-off.

Code Veronica's probably my favorite Resident Evil game but it's so fucking difficult in certain spots.

Couldn't stand how it played last time I tried. You can always try out Darkside Chronicles for an abbreviated overview. Or be dumb like me and read the novelization!

I finally went back and finished it myself just recently, having given up at the end of the first chapter years ago. There's still fun to be had with it. That said it can be very frustrating at times and it did take a long ass time. Worth it if you're a big fan of the series.