Resident Evil Code: Veronica may finally be getting its due, as a remake is reportedly slated for an announcement this year. As an incredible game and a sterling example of the early 2000s particular brand of survival horror ambition, it’s a great pick for a second go. But if the stars are finally aligning, it’s worth thinking critically about what a modern Resident Evil Code: Veronica should look like.
That means looking backward before looking forward, as Capcom’s modern remake run has been iterative and increasingly self-aware. Each remake has clarified what the studio is willing to change and what it refuses to abandon. Any realistic wishlist for a potential Code: Veronica remake has to start there, because this game might need a clear understanding of what modernization has already meant for Resident Evil, more than any other title in the franchise.
Code: Veronica Remake Has to Remember These Lessons From Capcom’s Prior Remakes
The Resident Evil 2 remake from 2019 kicked off the run by proving Capcom had the confidence to swing big. Sure, some later areas dragged on, and purists mourned some lost complexity, but the remake succeeded because it largely understood what could change without hollowing out the experience. The Resident Evil 3 remake tested the limits of that philosophy in 2020 and stumbled as a result.
RE3’s remake leaned harder into the linear action it felt primed for, but it made content cuts aggressively, crossing the line of reinterpretation into erasure. To Capcom’s credit, however, the Resident Evil 4 remake did everything right to restore confidence in these remakes as a larger project. The source material felt painstakingly re-examined; it was less campy but not humorless, dark without being dour, and characters like Ashley, Krauser, and Luis benefited from a much-needed second pass.
What the Remakes Imply for Code: Veronica
These previous remakes make it clear that Capcom will:
- Modernize characterization
- Cut or rework levels
- Cut or replace dated mechanics
- Re-emphasize horror
The thing is, though, a Code: Veronica remake might need to be approached with a bit more than that, to the degree that the RE3 might actually be the best example of what to do. Code: Veronica shouldn't be over-zealously cut up like that remake, but it can learn from the commitment to a singular vision, genre, and purpose.
Mechanically, Code: Veronica Is a Gifted Student Turned Problem Child
Time and distance have made several of Code: Veronica’s pain points clear today. For one, it’s mechanically challenging for (debatably) the wrong reasons, with pseudo-soft-lock scenarios like neglecting to stash the fire extinguisher or the Tyrant plane boss fight ammo sink. There are glimpses of good difficulty here in the resource tension and deliberate pacing, but something is clearly missing, a fact that’s led modern Resident Evil explicitly away from some of Code: Veronica’s style of boss fight and general ideas around difficulty.
Code: Veronica's excessive backtracking compounds the soft-lock problem, especially in spaces that lack the tight, looping elegance of RE2’s RPD.
The stash and protagonist swapping system is praiseworthy and conceptually bold, but the mechanical frustration of passing items back and forth and the abrupt inventory resets are a problem. It fractures the pacing and creates two halves of a game that feel stitched together rather than what was intended, two halves in conversation with each other. Something needs to soften that landing, because the interesting idea the system pitches is overshadowed by the feeling of abrupt punishment.
Code: Veronica Has a Giant, Man-shaped Narrative Problem
On the narrative end of the spectrum, it goes without saying that melodrama has always had a place in Resident Evil, but Code: Veronica whiplashes between gothic horror and unfortunate fanfiction-tier melodrama more violently and needlessly than any other entry from that period. The problem is that the gothic horror Code: Veronica pulls from already has those grand operatics baked in, and the game's themes of an isolated and decaying aristocracy would resonate more if they could just stand alone. A remake should let the genre do the heavy-lifting, instead of complicating it as the original did.
The problem is that Resident Evil Code: Veronica will always have tone and narrative problems so long as Steve Burnside exists as he does.
Steve Burnside Is Code: Veronica’s Scariest Monster
Steve Burnside is among the most unlikable characters in the Resident Evil series, and for a series like this, that is a remarkable feat. Hostile, grating, and oscillating between antagonizing Claire and professing devotion to her, any empathy he might generate is diluted when his trauma is delivered through blunt exposition and by his uselessness and bad behavior in general. Worse, his wildly creepy crush on Claire, though framed as fateful in the text, has aged like milk. While sexist dialogue could be altered just like what happened with Ashley in RE4, it might actually be best for Capcom to cut and replace the character entirely, with a similar kind of conviction the RE3 remake displayed.
The Code: Veronica Remake Has to Nail Tones and Characters
With the last few remakes and Code: Veronica’s problems in the rearview, the question of what an ideal Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake looks like remains. Hopefully, it starts with a modernized tone and less bad camp, not less camp in general. Narrative grandeur and outrage should be mostly reserved for elements like the Ashford twins, who embody Umbrella at its most horrifically indulgent.
That also means a reimagined Steve Burnside and Claire Redfield pairing, with him being altogether different and her being consistent with the RE2 remake portrayal. That’s absolutely necessary, and though it’s gone unmentioned so far, Wesker's characterization could use some solid rethinking, too. Code: Veronica is where he tips fully into supervillainy, and while Capcom likely won’t strip that away entirely, a touch of restraint there could make him properly scary and refocus the franchise on the horror roots it’s clearly invested in.
More Than Wishful Thinking
The good news is that all this seems possible, and even likely, as RE4 proved camp can coexist with restraint. Plus, though challenging as it may seem with someone like Steve, Modern Resident Evil has proven it can fix this kind of character—new Luis is charming before he’s tragic, Carlos earns trust through competence, and Ashley actually stuck the landing in the leap from burden to partner. Wesker is likely the only actual element in this portion of the wishlist that might remain wishful thinking.
The Code: Veronica Remake Has to Get Difficulty Right
The only mechanical item on this list is admittedly broad: fair difficulty that remains difficult. This spans from better boss telegraphing to less punishing inventory management, and heavily relies on the character swap system getting a second pass. Code: Veronica should still demand forethought, but punishing players for failing to predict the future should stay in the past. This stuff seems likely to change too, though it’s impossible to say how just yet.
The Respect Code: Veronica Deserves
This all seems so grand, but the Resident Evil Code: Veronica remake doesn’t need to sand down every rough edge. A lot of that roughness is the point, and modernization shouldn’t mean erasure (at least for everything but Steve, maybe). But Resident Evil Code: Veronica is unique because it didn’t have a number, and it never stood confidently alongside the series it helped shape. Getting the remake right could be what finally changes that en masse.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
