The sequel to Umbrella Chronicles plays exactly like its predecessor, apart from some distinct control changes. The game can now be played exclusively with the Wii Remote, as weapon switching is mapped to the D-pad. Grenades are treated like a 3rd gun that is also mapped to the D-pad, so you don’t have to hold down A + B to throw them anymore. Zombies are still hard to shoot directly in the forehead, of course. Harder, in fact, and I wonder if that area of the gameplay is fully tuned yet.

In the demo I played, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield are wandering through the ruins of zombiefied Raccoon City in a stage that was essentially identical to the Jill & Carlos areas in Umbrella Chronicles. The only real gameplay switch is that the first player (in my case, Claire) controls the camera. In one sequence, Claire is knocked out by an explosion and the action just continues while player 2 (Leon) does nothing. Eventually Claire gets back up, and the game continues as normal. It’s odd that control was pulled away from both players during that particular area. You’d think player 2 (Leon) would hold back the horde while Claire recovers, or something. However, sometimes one character will walk ahead and it will be up to his or her partner to cover them should an unfortunately-timed attack occur (and it will).

Capcom wants you to think that Darkside looks like an Xbox 360 game, but in practice it looks just like Umbrella Chronicles. If changes are present, I certainly can’t see them. What’s more, the demo was entirely too dark—I would’ve liked to have messed around with the TV’s settings. Overall, the gameplay is similar to Umbrella Chronicles with some streamlining, and it doesn’t look or sound any different. Despite that, the demo was quite fun and showed off more of the first-person zombie-killing that made the original so fun. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles should be out by the end of the year.