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PAX East 2016: Hands on with Umbrella Corps

by: Nathan -
More On: PAX East 2016

Ill be honest, I had extremely low expectations for this as they tried something like this once before with Operation Raccoon City and well..... the less said about that game, the better. Umbrella Corps to my surprise is actually a pretty decent and fun shooter.

Umbrella Corps is an online only action shooter set in the Resident Evil universe and fans of the series will be notice that the maps in the game take place in certain areas from previous Resident Evil games. The two maps that I played were based on Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Revelations. While I didn't get to see it, CAPCOM said that there will also be a map in the game based on Code Veronica.

There will be multiple modes when the game launches but the game mode that I got to play was DNA Hunt. In this game mode, zombies will be on the map along with your opposition, however the zombies won't attack you. This is because you are carrying a zombie jammer on your back. They will only notice you if you attack them and you need to attack them because killing zombies causes them to drop DNA which you can pick up. Picking up DNA adds to your team score and when the time runs out, whichever team has the most DNA will win the round. 

The other thing you need to watch out for of course is the other team. Since they are completing the same objective as you, killing them is essential because doing so will cause them to drop DNA that they have collected. If you shoot the zombie jammer on their back, it will cause it to malfunction. From then on, until they die, they will have zombies within their vicinity attacking them. Usually my deaths would come from the fact that I wasn't paying attention as I was too busy killing zombies and would completely forget that there are enemy players on the map. This was just one game mode but I had a ton of fun with it and look forward to seeing what other game modes come in the final release.

As for weapons, I was only allowed to pick from a list of preset loadouts but custom loadouts will be part of the final game. Speaking of weapons, the only issue I had with the game is a pick axe melee weapon you can equip using the L button. To me, this weapon seems way too OP as it will always lead to a one hit kill. I found myself unloading on an enemy player only to get killed like it was no big deal seconds later from the pick axe. 

I went into Umbrella Corps not expecting much and I really enjoyed what I got out of it, even though I didn't get to play much. As of now, I am excited to get my hands on the final release Umbrella Corps will be out this June as a download only title for PS4 and PC.