Game Review: Umbrella Corps

Release Date: June 21, 2016

ESRB Rating: M ( Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language)

While gamers have been celebrating Resident Evil’s return to its horror roots, Capcom is still trying to experiment with a multiplayer adventure.

Sadly, Umbrella Corps is just another failed attempt to create a multiplayer experience based on the Resident Evil series. Sadly, this attempt is so poorly developed that it makes Operation Raccoon City look like a masterpiece by comparison.

Set many years after the collapse of the Umbrella Corporation, other pharmaceutical companies are competing to acquire research related to the development of Bio-Organic Weapons (BOW). Mercenary units have been hired to collect this research while also tasked with taking out the competition.

Umbrella Corps is a very generic multiplayer third person shooter, with all the basic setup and features that are seen in every other multiplayer shooter – ones directly influenced by Call of Duty that is.

Gamers battle against zombies and other players in maps inspired by classic Resident Evil settings. With each victory, players earn points that will allow them to level up and unlock new gear.

That is if one could get into a game, as finding a reliable server with other players has been almost impossible to find. If they’re lucky, then they have to suffer through the bad camera angles and the heavy lag.

A single player mini-game is also included, but it too suffers from the problems of a bad camera angles along with controls that don’t respond properly. Other gameplay issues also include poorly defined objectives along with player actions that fail to function properly.

Overall, there is nothing about this title that offers any chance of a redemption to this lost cause.

Resident Evil is an icon that has defined the horror genre for many years, but multiplayer has never been its strong point. The series has never been that successful in implementing a solid multiplayer experience, with the exception of Outbreak, that captures the feeling and tone of the series as a whole.

Hopefully this might be the last of its kind as it feels like Capcom is starting to give up on the idea. But as Umbrella Corps is a bad joke, let’s make another one. The only reason this game was made, presumably, was just to appease that one Capcom executive who still thinks a multiplayer Resident Evil could work.

Umbrella Corps is another example of why Capcom needs to seriously stop trying to make multiplayer Resident Evil happen- it’s never going to happen.

Final Score: 1/10

Words by Stan Razaee