Video Game / Resident Evil – Code: Veronica

The Redfield siblings, in their first game together.

Resident Evil – Code: Veronica is the fourth game in the Resident Evil franchise.

Three months after the nuking of Raccoon City, Umbrella is still busy making bioweapons despite a minor setback or two. Claire Redfield, still on the hunt for her missing brother, Chris, is nabbed while infiltrating a Umbrella facility in Paris. They promptly ship Claire to Rockfort Island, a prison complex located somewhere in the South Seas; while Claire rots away in solitary, an unknown party bombs the island and sets off yet another T-Virus outbreak. Aided by fellow prisoner Steve Burnside, Claire searches for a way off the island while being stalked by the other survivor: Alfred Ashford, the demented former warden of the prison.

Meanwhile, Chris, who was alerted to Claire's arrest, comes out of hiding and makes landfall at Rockfort, where he bumps into the leader of the assault: Albert Wesker, who was thought to have perished during the Mansion Incident. But Wesker isn't after the Redfield siblings; rather, he wants the cryogenically-preserved body of Alfred's (even crazier) sister, Alexia.

Code: Veronica marks the series' leap into full 3D environments, with nary a pre-rendered background in sight. The alternate scenarios of the PlayStation era bid their farewell, at least until Resident Evil 6: Rather than picking which character to control at the start, Code: Veronica opens from Claire's perspective before switching to Chris' for the second half.

Originally a Dreamcast exclusive (hence the lack of a numbered title), and the final Resident Evil game to be released on a Sega platform, it was ported to PlayStation 2 a year after its initial release in 2000; this updated edition, subtitled Code: Veronica X, was ported the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. An HD version was later released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

---

Code: Veronica contains the following tropes:

A-D

• Action Girl: Claire is capable of taking care of herself. A good example of this is when she infiltrated an Umbrella facility in Paris.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In the original Dreamcast version of the game, Alexia smacks Wesker around like a bitch, forcing him to flee for his life. In Code: Veronica X, Wesker is able to dodge her attacks and even land a hit on her, which she shrugs off, and while he still realizes Alexia is too much for him, he affects a stylish Villain: Exit, Stage Left instead while sarcastically leaving her to "one of my best men" (read: Chris).
  • The already competent Claire, Steve, and Chris are turn into full-fledged Shōnen heroes in the comic book adaptation. Highlights include multiple feats of acrobatic combat bordering on Gun Fu, Claire and Steve beating a Bandersnatch to death with their bare hands, and Chris killing a Hunter with one punch.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Alfred dies in Alexia's arms as she strokes his hair and sings to him. And bear in mind that this is the first (and last) time they've seen each other since they were children.
• All for Nothing: Heavily implied by Wesker's comment. Alexia spent 15 years in cryostasis to gain control of the T-Veronica Virus, but she was still brought down by gunfire and a last minute surprise from her deceased father. Her virus was certainly a unique strain, but ultimately served not much of a notable difference from a run of the mill T-Virus break. With that, it's as Wesker muses at the end of the game that Alexia's research really amounted to nothing. However, Resident Evil 6 would later reveal that the T-Veronica Virus was a part of the C-Virus' makeup.
• And I Must Scream: Alexander Ashford was subjected to horrifying experiments by Alfred and Alexia, turning him into Nosferatu.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The player starts out as Claire, has a brief turn as Steve before going back to Claire, then switches to Chris after a mid-game cliffhanger, goes back to Claire a third time ever so briefly, before finishing the game as Chris.
• And Then John Was a Zombie:
  • Many of Wesker's subordinates became zombies during the invasion of Rockfort Island.
  • Steve is forced to kill his own father after he becomes a zombie, while Steve himself and Alexia both become T-Veronica monsters.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Averted in the main game,^note The reason is that unlike the prior games, Code: Veronica uses different, more detailed character models in its cutscenes, and the development team evidently didn't feel like going to the extra trouble of crafting new ones to go with alternate costumes. but the Battle Game mode has an alternate version of Claire who wears an Umbrella-branded "Race Queen" getup.
• Animal Motifs: Ants played a big part in the Ashford twins' lives. As kids, they happily watched a bunch of ants tear apart a dragonfly Alfred de-winged, which someone videotaped, there are several ant statues around their home, the basis for the T-Veronica virus was found in a queen ant, Alexia decided she wanted to rule the world like an anthill with herself as the queen, and all of Alexia's mutations involve a giant anthill in her base.
• Annoying Arrows: Played very much straight with the Bow Gun. It takes around ten shots to knock a single zombie down, and half again that to kill it for good. Unless you're using gunpowder arrows, it's worthless to shoot anything but zombies with it.
• Antagonist Title: Sort of. While there isn't an antagonist named "Veronica", the title refers to the project to clone Veronica Ashford that resulted in the creation of Alfred and Alexia Ashford. Furthermore, there's the T-Veronica virus, which is the crux of Alexia's plot.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • In every Resident Evil game prior to this one, picking up an herb or First Aid Spray when your inventory is full causes the game to tell you that you can't carry any more items. This installment is kind enough to ask if you want to use it at that particular moment. Future games in the series would keep this mechanism.
  • Late in the game, when you switch back over to Claire for a bit, there's a checkpoint, but no typewriter. Why is this a good thing? Because if you didn't leave Chris with enough weaponry to fight Alexia with before switching to Claire, if you could save during this point, it'd render the game unwinnable. While you can hinder your file by leaving Chris without any of the really powerful guns, this ensures that you at least have a chance.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Alfred and Alexia are of noble birth and completely out of their minds.
• Artistic License – Biology: Alexander Ashford created Alexia and Alfred by discovering a gene that raises intelligence. In reality, intelligence is governed by thousands of genes, each of which only has slight influence. Considering this is a franchise centered around a virus reanimating corpses and mutating humans into gigantic monsters beyond the realm of mortal understanding, this is par for the course for the series.
• Asshole Victim: The sadistic doctor,^note named as Dr. Stoker in the novelization. who horribly tortures the island's prisoners for kicks, ends up becoming a zombie.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Gulp Worm and Giant Black Widow are enemies that were mutated by the T-Virus and grew to enormous size.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Although the Virus Research Report file explicitly states that Alexia saw Alfred as nothing more than an "inept but loyal soldier ant", the first thing she does when she reawakens is avenge his death. Alexia then holds Alfred's corpse in her arms while she strokes his hair and sings to him.
• Ax-Crazy: Alfred. Such is what happens when one forms bonds with someone that remained frozen for over a decade. It doesn't help that he was mentally unstable prior to Alexia's 15 year slumber.
• Backtracking: While common in some areas of previous Resident Evil games, Code: Veronica takes this up to eleven. You'll find yourself running back and forth through the complexes often, especially when you accidentally forget to bring a required puzzle item with you.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: One early indicator of just how messed up the Ashford siblings are is a creepy home movie where they pull off a dragonfly's wings and feed it to ants for their own sick amusement.
• Bag of Spilling: Happens all the time throughout the series, but a literal example occurs here where Chris drops a bag of equipment into the ocean at the beginning of his portion of the game.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Claire's main outfit in the game does this. The black T-shirt underneath her red vest shows off her belly. This is also the case concerning her alternate outfit in the Battle Game.
• Big Brother Instinct: Chris goes all the way to Antarctica to rescue his sister.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Code: Veronica is, if nothing else, a big demonstration of how screwed up the deeply twisted Ashford family is. Contrast their main opponents, the far more stable and healthy Redfield family.
• Bittersweet Ending: Steve ends up dead, and Wesker escapes with his corpse to collect samples of the T-Veronica Virus. But Chris and Claire manage to kill Alexia, destroy her Antarctic base, and set out to take down Umbrella.
• Body Horror:
  • Nosferatu, the product of a failed experiment on the twins' father. Sports bondage, Eyeless Face, razor-tipped Combat Tentacles, exposed beating heart, poisonous breath, etc.
  • Late in the game, Steve is injected with the T-Veronica Virus and becomes a hulking monstrosity with spikes and muscle tearing through his skin. However, he goes back to human form before dying.
  • Alexia's transformations. In her first form, she burns off her clothes and turns her hair into a veiny material resembling either chitin or wood, with an arm and a leg, neither on the same side, being similarly covered. In her second form, her arms wither away as her lower body bloats up into a massive, tentacle-equipped, disturbingly yonic brood-sac that disgorges mutated insect-forms. In her final form, she sprouts four giant dragonfly-like wings and tears away from her brood-sac, now consisting of a monstrous wasp or dragonfly-like creature with Alexia's head.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Subverted. While Alfred does subject Claire and Steve to an overly elaborate death trap (and gives up on it fairly quickly), he does try to shoot and kill them both before and after. Though his aim leaves something to be desired.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • With practice, the player will discover that the knife in this game is unusually effective. Knowing how and when to use it makes the game a lot easier.
  • The Bow Gun with standard bolts is nothing to write home about, but ammo is plentiful and it can make for a decent anti-zombie weapon if you're low on handgun bullets, making up for its lack of power with its prodigious fire rate and limited homing ability.
• Boss in Mook Clothing:
  • The very first Bandersnatch. The best weapon the player can use on it is either their pair of M100Ps or their much more valuable explosive-tipped arrows, which a prudent gamer will probably rather save for the Tyrant later on. Yes, the player can try to run to its left side where it has no arm, but it can still slap them with its one elastic arm.
  • The zombified doctor on Rockfort Island seems like just another zombie at first glance, but he's easily the fastest, toughest, and all-around most dangerous zombie in the whole game.
• Bottomless Magazines: Played straight during the Battle Game for all weapons, favoring a speedy playstyle. Averted with the Calico M100-P pistols, though; they have a percentage-based ammo count but still hold a factually accurate 100 rounds each and can't be reloaded.^note They're chambered in .22LR, not 9mm like the regular handguns.
• Break the Badass: Near the end, after Steve dies, the normally tough and cool under pressure Claire becomes a crying, helpless mess.
• Call-Back: A lot to Resident Evil. Chris is one of the player characters, Wesker is back, and a portion of the Antarctic base looks like the Spencer Mansion in the Arklay Mountains.
• Cat Scare: In the first save room in Antarctica, you'll hear an awful racket coming from somewhere in the room. Moving a piece of furniture reveals a secret room with a set of lockers, with one of them containing something trying to get out, which was causing the noise. Open the locker, and you're jumped at by... a cute little mouse. He even stops and looks up at you, as if to say "Ha! Got ya!", before scurrying off.
• Checkpoint Starvation: If you want an "A" rank for the main game, one of the requirements is that you are only allowed to save once when prompted to do so.
• Cherry Tapping: The gas from the Anti-B.O.W Gas Grenades can't actually kill creatures, and has no effect if their hit points drop too low to divide... but a creature with such low health can be killed if it is hit directly by the Gas Grenade, as the explosion does its own separate damage to the gas itself.
• Cloning Blues: Alfred and Alexia are the results of Project CODE:Veronica, a human genetic engineering project with the goal of creating a "true" successor to the Ashford dynasty by using the DNA of its founder, Veronica Ashford. When the twins found out, they showed their gratitude by making their "father" a guinea pig for their horrific experiments.
• Colon Cancer: Due to the unusual placement of the colon in the title, the game is also referred to as Resident Evil: Code: Veronica.
• Complexity Addiction: Claire could have simply thrown the metal emblem through the metal detector, then stayed behind to reopen the doors instead of using a nonmetallic sample to make a new emblem.
• Cool Versus Awesome: The franchise's Greater-Scope Villain Wesker confronts this game's Big Bad, Alexia, in a cutscene. While neither of them manage to hurt each other, Alexia's pyrokinetic powers quickly put Wesker on the defensive, and he flees once Chris arrives on the scene.
• Creepy Child: Early on, you find a home movie of the Ashford twins as children that shows they were always deeply disturbed individuals.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Due to suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder, Alfred dresses himself as a woman and pretends to be his twin sister Alexia in Rockfort Island.
• Creepy Twins: The Ashford twins are cruel and apathetic to other beings. In their youth, they are shown entertaining themselves by removing the wings of a dragonfly and feeding it to a bunch of ants.
• Cutscene Incompetence: When Steve's father, who is now a zombie, tries to munch on Claire, she apparently forgets all about the weapons she's been carrying around. Steve does nothing for a while, saying that he can't help her. Admittedly, Steve's inaction is justified as he just found out that his dad is dead the hard way. There are also other situations in cutscenes where Claire is rendered helpless and in need of rescue.
• Cutscene Power to the Max:
  • Claire's infiltration of a Umbrella facility in Paris features her outrunning an attack helicopter and taking out a bunch of guards.
  • Steve vs. a Bandersnatcher.
• Cutting Corners: The reason that Bandersnatchers exist is because the Tyrant program cost too much money and finding a suitable host was more difficult than not. Someone came up with the Bandersnatcher project as a means of mass-producing Tyrants with a fraction of the costs; but they didn't succeed very well.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: This game returns to the classic RE1 scheme where the Start button brings up the status screen. The HD re-release doubles down by switching the action and run buttons. You can't change the control scheme.
• Daylight Horror: Due to it being Summer in the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic portion of the story takes place during the day, with Claire's fight against Nosferatu taking place in early morning, and Chris arriving at around noon, with the two leaving mid-day.
• Defector from Decadence: The guard who captured Claire in Paris, Rodrigo Juan Raval, stumbles into her cell to seek shelter, then releases her after an attack of conscience.
• Demoted to Extra: Claire and Steve during Chris' half of the story.
• Denser and Wackier: It's still a cult favorite, even if some elements are ripe for mockery: namely the cross-dressing villain and being the origin of the Wesker we know today, for better or worse. See Code Veronica X: the Wesker vs. Alexia fight was redone to make him look more badass. Originally, Alexia was so powerful that he got thrown around like a ragdoll and narrowly avoided dying. Critics single out this game for starting the series' trend of over-the-top action and fans are inclined to agree. It's amazing that an untrained college student can pull off such ridiculous feats in the intro.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: The Anti-B.O.W. Gas Rounds for the grenade launcher make their sole appearance here. You only find three of them in the whole game, which screams "Do not waste these on regular enemies!" pretty loudly, and indeed, this is justified: they have the unique property of halving the health of any creature hit with them, and this includes bosses. They work wonders against the Tyrant you encounter at the end of Act 1 and Alexia Ashford's One-Winged Angel form.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you make it through the area where you play as Steve without killing anything, Steve will have a different line of dialogue when Claire comes out.
  • The Navy, Army, and Air Force Proofs are required items to leave the island. If you are missing one of these before the cutscene where the self-destruct system would normally activate, it won't occur until you pick up all three items, with a short cutscene triggered on the last pick up.
  • Nosferatu has different death animations depending on if you kill him by normal means, with the sniper rifle or knife.
  • If you have the boss fight with Alexia before the Giant Black Widow, then the scene with Alexia taunting Chris doesn't happen, skipping right to the spider crushing the crane.
  • If you didn't take the Sniper Rifle as Claire, and instead go into the bulldozer, When Alexia appears after Chris frees Claire, she will not have the rifle in her hands that she would take from Claire.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight:
  • Alfred dies in Alexia's arms.
  • Steve dies in Claire's arms.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Unlike the previous "classic" titles before it, the knife is actually a very viable weapon this time around^note Jill's knife in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is also surprisingly effective, but guns and ammo are so plentiful that the knife is unlikely to ever see any use. Attacking the legs of an approaching zombie can drop it in as little as one swipe. You'll likely get an extra bite or two on the odd occasion where it doesn't down them in time, but using the knife even for brief stretches of gameplay can save loads of ammo, eliminating the possibility of running out when you need it most.
  • The Gold Lugers Steve can use in Battle Mode have a hidden ability to deal lethal headshots to zombies. Since you can only continuously aim weapons in the usual three directions, it requires you to quickly tap upward and then time your shot at the exact point where the barrels are aimed directly at a zombie's head, but if you get it right it's a guaranteed One-Hit Kill.
• Difficulty Levels: They are in the JP/Asian releases (with Normal, Easy ^note Take less damage from enemies, double the ammo pickups, plenty of ink ribbons to get, and three first aid sprays in both the Security Box and Item Boxes, along with some bonus ammo inside the first item box you find. and Very Easy ^note Same as Easy, but take way less damage, even from bosses, infinite ink ribbons, and most, if not all of the weapons, bonus ammo, and upgrades earned normally can easily be picked up from the first item box you find. Although you can still pick up the same weapons in the same locations for more extra ammo.), but definitely not in the Western versions (fixed to Normal difficulty).
• Disc-One Final Boss: Alfred. The Rockfort Island Tyrant and Nosferatu could count as well.
• Disney Villain Death: Alfred is shot up by Steve, causing him to fall down an elevator shaft. He does survive the fall, but soon succumbs to his injuries after Alexia wakes from her cryogenic sleep.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Happens to Steve twice, once while Claire is sleeping on the plane, the second time when trying to operate a crane. Unfortunately, the second time has him distracted enough that he slams the crane into a pipe, spilling poisonous gas into the room and requiring Claire to find a gas mask elsewhere to traverse it.
• Distress Ball: There are a couple of moments where Claire seems to forget how to fight or use firearms.
• Distressed Dude: Steve claims to be Claire's "knight in shining armor", and to his credit he does save her bacon a few times, but he also needs to be saved in return. Very early on, he falls for the boobytrapped golden Lugers in the Palace, and needs Claire to solve a puzzle to free him. Late in the game, he is captured by Alexia and is experimented on to turn into a monster, which leads to his death soon after. Not to mention that the reason he's on Rockfort Island to begin with is because he's an Umbrella prisoner.
• Dramatic Chase Opening: Although it takes a minute for the chase to show up, once the opening cutscene flashes back to Claire escaping from Umbrella's security.

E-Q

• Early Game Hell:
  • Claire doesn't actually get a gun until after zombies show up, and even then it isn't fully loaded. Ammo doesn't get plentiful until well into the training facility. In an interesting zigzag, though, the lack of early-game ammo becomes much more tolerable once you learn that the knife is actually a decent weapon this time around.
  • An initial blind run by a new player is the hardest that the game will ever get, due to several difficult bosses, a couple of well-hidden weapons, and Claire's limited arsenal. There's actually an astonishing amount of ammo lying around the game compared to the previous installments, but it's expected that you're using most of it up in a blind panic.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Steve, in the original release of the game, had the curtains hairstyle that was wildly popular at the time and made him look not unlike Leonardo DiCaprio. The release of Code: Veronica X took the product out of his hair, giving him some unruly bangs that he has had ever since.
• Easter Egg: Try heading back to Claire's location when playing as Steve. If you do, you'll be treated to a brief cutscene where she makes fun of Steve. This even nets you an achievement/trophy in the HD version.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Antarctica Facility, a sprawling Umbrella base with housing, laboratory and military facilities, as well as a mockup of a mansion with a small "outdoor" courtyard. It makes more sense than the usual Resident Evil fare: the Antarctic continent has no population centres and not much wildlife, so an outbreak would not spread much, and any spies would be hard pressed to get in and out unnoticed.
• Emergency Weapon: Subverted. In this game, the knife is actually useful, since, as opposed to the measly stab from the predecessor games, it registers multiple hits as the blade slices through.
• Empowered Badass Normal: This is the game that reveals that Wesker's had some enhancements since the first game.
• Enemy Mine: Subverted. It looks like Wesker and Chris will fight Alexia together, but then Wesker runs off sarcastically remarking Chris can handle it.
• Enter Solution Here: A code to open a sealed lab. The code won't work until the contaminated laboratory finishes venting. Learning the code, by reading it off of a painting in the lab via a surveillance camera, also causes the venting to finish. The player still has to enter the code manually. Subverted in another case where the player can enter the temperature setting for the refrigerator to identify a needed chemical without having to learn it in-game.
• Equipment Upgrade: The Beretta 93 you find near the beginning of the game can be upgraded to use its burst-fire capability and a larger magazine if you find the parts for it. Chris's Glock can also get a damage boost if you bring it to a workbench at the right point in the game.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Ashford twins clearly love each other despite being thoroughly evil and insane.
• Evil Brit: The Ashford twins. Alfred is this in Claire's half of the story, while Alexia is this in Chris's.
• Evil Is Hammy: The Ashford twins. This is especially the case when Alfred confronts Claire for the first time.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Alfred tries to do it, but it's closer to a Noblewoman's Laugh.
  • About half of Alexia's dialogue, some of which she will turn to a camera that she cannot possibly know anyone is looking at, laugh, and turn it off. The novel explains it by giving Alexia psychic powers (to the point that the narration from her point of view really gives the impression of her being omnipotent). The fact that she could project herself in an island half around the globe, or the fact that she knows that an agent of Umbrella is there, scares the shit out of Wesker.^note The novel is based on the original version where Wesker is utterly dominated by Alexia unlike in X.
  • Wesker gets one at the end of X.
• Evil Versus Evil: Wesker and his invading battalion versus Alexia and her monster-filled base. Claire and Steve are caught in the middle of it.
• Exposed to the Elements: Umbrella's Antarctic facility is clearly no longer heated, but lightly dressed Claire and Steve barely seem to notice. Claire even has an outdoor boss battle in a snowstorm with apparently no ill effects.
• Face–Monster Turn: Steve is infected with the T-Veronica Virus and attacks Claire until The Power of Love stops him from killing her. He then returns to (almost) normal after being mortally wounded.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Both Alfred and Alexia are good-looking, fair-haired, blue-eyed, and absolutely batshit insane.
• Friend or Foe?: In the opening cutscene, when Claire is running from the two security guards chasing her, the helicopter that chases after her accidently guns down the two guards while trying to get her.
• Fixed Camera: Still fixed like the PlayStation games, but this time the camera follows the player around in certain areas as opposed to only switching at fixed points, since Code: Veronica uses real time environments instead of pre-rendered backdrops. This is also the only game with the classic gameplay that doesn't have a delay when a new camera angle loads.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: When Claire finally finds a pistol, she fires three shots into the bunker Steve is hiding in. When the cutscene ends, Claire's gun, which holds 15 rounds, only has 12. And no, skipping the cutscene will not save those three rounds.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Although Claire can use an item box to re-equip herself with any weapon in it, it's implied in the cutscenes that she is completely unarmed, hence why she doesn't try to defend herself against mutant Steve or Alexia. This is certainly the case in the S.D. Perry book.
  • Claire's meeting with Wesker isn't exactly gentle since he lays the smackdown on her. You could be hobbling up to the Palace entrance, a mere single hit away from death, yet the cutscene happens and you're no worse for wear after watching Claire getting the crap beaten out of her. Obviously, this would be pretty unfair if you were injured after, but it's a pretty glaring and almost silly example.
• Gas Chamber: The Torture Cellar and part of the Training Facility basement.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Gulp Worm.
• Giant Spider: Like in many other games in the series, you'll have giant spiders to contend with, only here they're based on black widows rather than tarantulas.
• Giggling Villain: The Ashford twins.
• Girls Stare at Scenery, Boys Stare at Girls: When Claire and Steve crash land in the Antarctic, they enter an Umbrella base and attempt to move a work vehicle out of the way with a crane. Steve operates the crane, with Claire staring off into the frigid tundra. While she's doing that, Steve proceeds to longingly stare at Claire's backside, resulting in him not paying attention and unknowingly knocking the vehicle into a gas pipe, resulting in the two needing to evacuate the base.
• Glamour Failure: The reason why Wesker wears his sunglasses everywhere is to not show off his gold/red cat eyes.
• A God Am I: Alexia. She wants to make the world like an anthill, with herself as the queen.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Wesker's eyes sometimes flash red, Terminator style.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • You know the fire extinguisher, the one the you used way back at the very beginning of the game and then left in the security box? Well you better take it with you to Antarctica or you're not getting the magnum, which makes the final boss much easier to handle. The only clue the game gives you at all is that it's still hanging around in your inventory after you emptied it (as items normally vanish from your inventory once they're no longer needed), which is ridiculously easy to write off as an insignificant detail.
  • The Anti-B.O.W. Gas Grenades get no files dedicated to them and don't have an obvious effect when used, as they flood the screen with a temporary green tinge and knock all visible enemies to the ground temporarily. You need to either read a strategy guide or go online to find out that what they do is halve the current health of all enemies within the area of effect.
• Gun Fu: Claire and Steve went to John Woo's at one point.
• Guns Akimbo: The gold lugers, sub-machine guns, and calico pistols are all paired and are each able to target two different enemies at once.
• Halfway Plot Switch: Unlike Resident Evil 1 and 2, the characters must be played in order:
  • First half: Claire and Steve versus Alfred.
  • Second half: Chris must rescue Claire, retrace her steps through the ruins of Rockford Island and the Antarctic Base, as well as confront Wesker and finally Alexia. Steve barely appears here, losing the role of deuteragonist.
• The Heavy: Alfred isn't the Big Bad, but he's the one who drives the plot. Even though he dies about halfway through, he manages to wake the real Big Bad, Alexia, from her cryogenic slumber, which causes no end of trouble for Claire, Steve and Chris for the rest of the game.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Wesker, having returned from his death in the original game. True to his word, he's looking to steal Umbrella's best-kept secrets and enrich himself.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Mutant Steve. Cannot be defeated, and will kill the player in two hits, lest there're a couple of full-health items handy (or heavy-duty weaponry to hold him off while running away).
• I Surrender, Suckers: In the opening cutscene, Claire runs into a room full of Umbrella soldiers. She drops her pistol, grabs it again before it hits the ground, and takes them all out by shooting a fuel tank.
• In a Single Bound: By extending their arm and latching onto a wall, railing or the ceiling, Bandersnatchers can pull themselves over to new areas in a grappling hook manner.
• Incest Subtext: There's loads of hinted sexual tension between the Ashford siblings.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Like in the very first edition of the original Resident Evil, the Rocket Launcher is your only unlockable weapon in the main game. Just like in the original, it has infinite ammo and works wonders on almost everything... except that you cannot aim the weapon up or down, so certain enemies are impossible to hit with it, making it necessary for you to keep a backup gun to deal with those threats.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Zigzagged with "Berceuse" (taken from the French for "Lullaby"), which is the leitmotif of Alfred and Alexia's childhood. Played in instrumental form throughout the first half of the game, it's fairly unremarkable, and barely qualifies as an Ominous Music Box Tune. But the game's OST has a vocal version of the song, which can also be heard in brief during the cutscene after Chris reaches Rockfort Island's control station. This reveals the song is about a friendly but naive king who is wed to a ruthlessly evil queen, who is implied to ultimately murder him to seize power for herself. The vocal version of the song reappeared in the Code: Veronica levels for The Darkside Chronicles, where it was retitled as "Alexia's Lullabye", and it makes it impossible to not be creeped out by the instrumental version ever again.
• Jerkass: Steve seems to be this at first, stating that he doesn't want Claire following him as she will only slow him down. Claire seems to be offended by this, but only for a little bit, she lets it go almost right after he leaves and continues on her journey.
• Justified Save Point: The "security boxes" in the prison are actually metal detectors. Each security station has a save point and a box for confiscating metallic objects. You can use them like a regular item box. However, they aren't tied into the regular item boxes elsewhere in the game, so don't leave anything in them that you either want or have to use later on.
• Karma Houdini: Suffice to say, Wesker went on to star in more Resident Evil games.
• Kick the Dog: Early on, you find a home movie of the Alfred and Alexia as children, in which Alexia watches Alfred slowly pull the wings off a dragonfly before they drop it into a jar to be eaten alive by ants. This becomes your major clue to solving a small puzzle later on, where you find a Silver Dragonfly key in a room with a giant mural of an ant on the wall. You must check the Dragonfly in the menu to remove its wings before sticking it into the keyhole in the ant mural's mandibles.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Some versions of the game have Wesker's face on the title screen, and all the Code: Veronica X re-releases display him prominently on the back of the box, despite the fact that his resurrection is supposed to be the game's big plot twist.
• Late to the Tragedy: Chris only makes it to Rockfort Island after Claire and Steve have already left and the self-destruct has already occurred.
• Leitmotif: The Ashford twins' favorite lullaby is heard multiple times in instrumental form (via an automated piano, a music box, a carousel, etc.), and Alexia later sings it to Alfred's corpse.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Claire attempts to avoid this situation several times, but Steve is so moody and confused that he keeps running off on his own anyway. She does play this straight in Antarctica, however, saying that she and Steve should split up because they'd have a better chance of stopping the gas leak this way.
• Life Saving Misfortune: In a way, Wesker and his men attacking the island saved Claire from the fate of some of the island's other prisoners. Given some of them were used as guinea pigs in Umbrella's experiments on the island, if that hadn't happened and the T-Virus hadn't leaked as a result, Claire would have probably become a victim in said experiments. Of course, some of the other prisoners weren't so lucky and ended up turning into zombies. Steve was also lucky enough to survive... for a while at least.
• Lonely Piano Piece: When the Ashford Lullaby is played on the piano.
• Luck-Based Mission: There's about a 20% chance of finding D.I.J.'s Diary in the Battle Game instead of the usual special weapon or ammo. Chris, Steve and both Claires can make do without the extra goodies, but because the knife-only Wesker's boss fight happens to be against Alexia's first form, who uses a One-Hit Kill attack if you get too close, getting the diary instead of the magnum means you are completely and utterly screwed.
• Male Gaze: When Claire bends over the computer to email Leon, the camera (and Steve) quite blatantly focus on her backside.
• Minigame: The Battle Game available upon completing the main story mode.
• Moth Menace: The Moths, which are poisonous nuisances.
• Mythology Gag: The gas in the Anti-B.O.W Gas Grenades is confirmed by sources to be P-Epsilon, an anti-B.O.W toxin that was mentioned and optionally used in Resident Evil 2.
• Naked on Arrival: Alexia, upon awakening as an adult from her cryogenic tube.
• Nice Guy:
  • Mostly played straight with Claire who is still as kind as ever in this game. She even goes out of her way to help Rodrigo, even though he's the one who had caught and brought her to Rockfort Island in the first place. But if the player, as Steve in his playable sequence, opts to retreat back to the room where Claire is waiting instead of taking on the zombies in the rooms ahead, they're treated to a first person view of Claire turning bitch mode on and mocking him royally for being afraid.
  • Steve, despite his jerkass attitude when he and Claire first met.
• Nintendo Hard: This game is widely considered to be one of the toughest in the series. Inventory management at its trickiest, with complex map design and a lot of key items to keep track of and loads of backtracking. Claire also doesn't get any powerful weapons until hours into the game, after she has already had a boss battle and the Bandersnatchers having started showing up. And that's not even getting into the security boxes on Rockfort Island that you can lose valuable items in if you don't get them out before leaving the island, and knowing to leave certain items for Chris before switching to him from Claire later in the game.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Steve's haircut in Code: Veronica X was altered to lessen his likeness to Leonardo DiCaprio.
  • Claire's look in the game is similar to Liv Tyler.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Wesker brutally manhandles Claire in their first encounter. He later gives Chris an impressive beating in the ending of Code: Veronica X. Both times, he's interrupted before he can finish them off.
• No-Gear Level: Well, technically the game doesn't have any levels, since like most of the other earlier games it's just one huge game from the start. But Claire starts the game in a jail cell with no weapons. Just a lighter and a playing manual. But once she is let out she starts with a knife, having to find more weapons along her journey.
• Non Standard Game Over: At the start of the final confrontation with Alexia, Claire tries to make a run for it while Chris stays to deal with Alexia. However, as she tries to escape, Alexia turns towards her, and you, as Chris, have to shoot Alexia in order to get her attention and trigger her final mutation. Otherwise, she'll kill Claire instantly, resulting in an immediate game over.
• Nostalgia Level: A replica of the Spencer Mansion? Sure, why not. Fittingly, Wesker, Chris, and Claire finally reunite in a facsimile of RE1's great hall. This is also where they do battle with Alexia.^note According to the logs, the first mansion was based on the Umbrella CEO's family estate, which was also copied by the Ashfords.
• Oh, Crap!: Wesker gets one of these moments in the original version when Alexia mutates in front of him. She follows it up by slapping him down the stairs.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • The Tyrant is capable of doing this during both of its boss fights:
    • In the first fight, it can punch Claire into a fire pit.
    • In the second boss fight, it can knock Claire out the back of the seaplane.
  • If Claire is near the edge of the platform during the boss battle against Nosferatu, he can swipe her off it with his appendage leading to an instant death.
  • In her first form, Alexia will do this, regardless of health, if you get too close to her.
  • The Hunters have a secondary swipe attack from the ground that can hit the players neck and can immediately kill the player, regardless of health.
  • While not an enemy, and while controlling Claire, the stone press can be this if you take too long not avoiding it or not breaking the crystal in time and also to get the key card. However, once you get the key card, the stone press locks back into place.
• One-Woman Wail: Heard during Alexia's boss themes, and during Alfred's death.
• Opposite-Sex Clone: Alfred, who is an accidental result of the project to clone Veronica Ashford. This might be the source of his various issues.
• Outrun the Fireball:
  • Wesker's battle against Alexia. While wall running, no less. Only in Code: Veronica X though.
  • Chris's escape in both versions.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Claire is the main playable character for the majority of the game. But she's largely regulated to a secondary role after Chris shows up.
• Papa Wolf: Nosferatu, oddly enough. Hearing the sound of his son's dying scream prompts him to break free and attempt to murder the protagonists.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The final puzzle of the game is to enter a password which is "Veronica". It acts as a Title Drop too.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • You know that extinguisher you used early in the game, and then might have left in the security box? Well you better go get it before the island's self-destruct sequence starts, otherwise, you're not going to get the magnum.
  • If you don't give Rodrigo the hemostat, then you miss out on the lock pick and all the goodies you could only get with it. If you do give it to him, then you will have traded in the lighter. To get it back, you have to have Chris fight the Skippable Boss Gulp Worm, which has swallowed Rodrigo. It's needed to unlock the sub-machine guns.
• Pet the Dog: Rodrigo releases Claire from her cell, deciding that if she has no hope of escape anyway, she may as well die free. Claire later returns the favor by bringing him another bottle of hemostat to staunch his bleeding.
• Plot Armor: Claire, Steve, and Chris all enter Antarctica without the necessary clothing or equipment to protect them from the extreme cold. Furthermore, there's the series wide example of none of the protagonists being infected by the T-Virus, even if a zombie chomps on them.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: Chris and Wesker's fight during the Antarctic Base's self-destruct sequence following Alexia's death.
• Puzzle Boss: Downplayed. You cannot kill two specific bosses with your conventional weapons, but need to instead weaken them low enough that you can successfully deploy an environmental weapon to kill them. The Tyrant in the plane's cargo hold has to be knocked out of the hold using the cargo launcher. Alexia's final form has to be shot with the unlocked Linear Launcher.

R-Z

• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Wesker, Alexia, and Steve.
• Red Right Hand: Wesker's not a bad looking guy, but his red catlike eyes should tell you that he doesn't want to be your friend.
• Respawning Enemies:
  • The zombies in the graveyard and prison area.
  • The Moths. Any that are killed get replaced as soon as you leave the room.
• Revenge by Proxy: Wesker attempts this by killing Claire so Chris can find her body later, but decides at the last minute that she still has some use to him alive.
• Sauna of Death: The trap room in the Palace seals itself and heats up to an uncomfortable degree when the Gold Lugers are removed, though it's impossible for Claire or Steve to die this way. There's also a literal sauna outside the training facility with a zombie lurking within.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the original version of Code: Veronica, Wesker leaves after losing to Alexia. Even in Code: Veronica X, where he puts up a much better show, he decides to not continue fighting her and let Chris have a go at it.
• Sequel Number Snarl: While not a numbered entry in the series, Code: Veronica is seen as a truer sequel to Resident Evil 2 than the actual Resident Evil 3 released a few months prior for several reasons, including the return of a certain villain from the first game.
• Shout-Out: See here.
• Shows Damage: Once you manage to severely wound the Tyrant in the seaplane, he begins to limp and noticeably bleed. This isn't just for show; it's your cue that it's time to activate the catapult and push him out the back of the plane.
• Skippable Boss: With the exception of the first Tyrant fight, Hopeless Boss Steve and Final Boss Alexia, every other Boss Battle is skippable to some degree:
  • The Gulp Worm can be skipped not once but twice; the first time by Claire, the second time by Chris. However, doing so the second time results in a couple of items being permanently missable (assuming Claire gave Rodrigo the hemostat earlier; otherwise there's no point in fighting it).
  • While the Tyrant must be catapulted from the seaplane in order to be defeated, Claire can either do that five times in a row and defeat him. Or she can choose to fight him, weaken him enough and then catapult him to his death.
  • With Nosferatu, Claire can One-Hit Kill him with a precise sniper shot or stab to the heart, bypassing the whole fight, though this requires quite a lot of luck in striking the one polygon.
  • Chris can fight the adult Albinoid from a safe distance and afterwards fetch the Eagle Plate unharmed. Or he can just jump in, absorb some damage from the electrified pool and leave with the Plate without even firing a shot.
  • Chris can fight the Giant Black Widow guarding Alexander's Pierce. Or he can fetch the item in question without even getting hit once, so there's even less of a reason to stay and fight the spider in the first place.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Don't take any big guns when you switch back to Claire, or you won't be able to get them back as Chris. Although it's quite a good idea for her to take the explosive bowgun to stall Mutated Steve long enough to escape him.^note However, doing that is not a good idea, considering that 1. You won't have the bowgun back after fighting/dodging Steve and 2. Alexia's second form is really weak against the explosive bowgun ammo.
• Spin-Off: The game is considered this, but the storyline is still canon to the series. Which is pretty odd, considering it did just as much to advance the overall storyline of the series as Resident Evil 3 did, if not more.
• Staking the Loved One: Steve is forced to kill his father after the latter becomes a zombie.
• Starter Villain: During Claire's portion of the game, Alfred is the main antagonist causing problems for her and Steve. At the end of her portion, Alfred is mortally wounded by Steve and soon dies of his wounds... but not before waking Alexia, the real Big Bad, who proves to be much more dangerous than her brother.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Steve, wannabe Lothario with connections to Umbrella, shares a few characteristics with Resident Evil 3's Carlos. He's even wearing fatigues. His haircut in Code: Veronica X makes him look similar to Leon S. Kennedy. In fact, he was originally supposed to be Leon.
• Talking Is a Free Action: In the original version, Chris kills Alexia, triggering the self-destruct which he barely escapes. Code: Veronica X includes a long extra scene while that clock is ticking. Somehow, Chris still barely escapes.
• Swallowed Whole: The Gulp Worm is large enough that it can devour a man in a single swallow, hence its name. It kills Rodrigo this way.
• Tank Controls: Up and down on the D-pad to move forwards and backwards, left and right to turn clockwise and anti-clockwise. It is possible to turn and move at the same time, and if you're not careful you can find yourself lurching off in all sorts of unplanned directions.
• Tap on the Head:
  • Claire is knocked unconscious on three separate occasions. In the opening cutscene, a guard hits her on the head with the butt of his rifle. Later, she and Steve are both knocked unconscious when their plane crashes at the Antarctic base, and again when their snowmobile is wrecked by Alexia's tentacle.
  • In the comic book adaptation, after Steve frees Claire from her restraints after they are captured by Alexia and she injects Steve with T-Veronica, she goes looking for Steve and is almost killed by a hunter, which is killed by Alexia. Alexia immediately knocks Claire out again and places her in the cocoon.
• A Taste of Power: Very early on, you'll find yourself playing as Steve for a few zombie-filled rooms right after he gets the twin submachine guns, quite a while before you'll get the chance to use something fully automatic as Claire or Chris. This is also the only time you'll play as Steve, and you have more than enough ammo to mow down anything that moves, so feel free to go nuts. In fact, if you don't kill all the zombies, you'll get an alternate cutscene afterward where Steve will say that he didn't need to take down anyone without a scratch and saves the ammo for future use.^note Not that it really matters anyways, since he still uses it in the next cutscene after.
• Title Drop: Late in the game, there's a computer you need to access whose password was mentioned in a previously obtained file. It's "Veronica". In a change of pace, it's used to manually activate the facility's self-destruct sequence so the lock on the door Claire is trapped behind from when she encountered mutated Steve will be released. The title isn't dropped by the game — it's up to the player to type it in.
• Too Awesome to Use:
  • You'd best get used to the pistol and the bow gun — and get used to running out of ammo for both — because you won't start finding enough ammunition for bigger guns to actually stockpile until about the last third of the game.
  • The magnum is a One-Hit Kill against any normal enemy and rips holes right through bosses, but there are only eighteen bullets for it in the entire game. Six of them are inside a duralumin case, which means the player can quite easily miss them. Heck, it's already pretty easy to bypass even getting the magnum by forgetting to put the extinguisher in the Item Box before Claire leaves Rockfort Island.
  • The B.O.W. Gas Rounds for the Grenade Launcher are insanely powerful, capable of quickly sending any enemy the game throws at you packing. You'll find three rounds very early on... and you'd better take them with you and not waste them, because those three rounds are the only rounds you'll find in the whole game. A lot of players use them during the fight against the Tyrant on the plane, as they make one of the toughest bosses in the series much easier. Others only use one on the Tyrant, and save the rest for the final fight with Alexia.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Claire, to a surprising degree considering she was already somewhat of a badass in RE2. She's been upgraded from an Action Survivor to an active protagonist in her own right, as her first appearance has her caught while infiltrating an Umbrella facility searching for her brother.
  • In terms of weapons, the Combat Knife — normally a Joke Weapon in earlier RE games — gets a big boost in efficiency here, as it can easily floor zombies, and each swipe that hits a zombie or dog does multiple hits. More so if you swipe a downed zombie. As a result, it now does a better job of helping you save ammo, and it's helpful for clearing out hordes of zombies and dogs deep into the game.
• Tragic Monster: Nosferatu and Mutant Steve.
• Tranquil Fury: After waking from her cryogenic sleep to find that Alfred has been mortally wounded, Alexia seems calm and composed as she comforts him in his final moments, but judging by the huge tendril she sends after Claire and Steve, she is royally pissed at them for killing her brother.
• Twincest: Implied between Alfred and Alexia.
• Twins Are Special: Alexia and Alfred both believe this is played straight, but they wind up being a subversion. Only Alexia was created with the explicit purpose of recreating Veronica. Alfred is merely a byproduct of the cloning process.
• Twin Switch: That Alexia you interact with for the first half of the game? Yeah, that's Alfred who has at some point had a psychotic break and masquerades as his sister from time to time.
• Unique Enemy: Once you take over as Chris, the Bandersnatcher becomes this, as you only fight one the whole time you play as him. There is also parasitic creatures that erupt from a handful of zombies that are the result of the hatchlings the moths lay being allowed to grow.
• Unwinnable: Since Claire's final playable section after being rescued by Chris has all the hallmarks of leading up to a boss fight, it's pretty easy to load up on heavy artillery for what you think is gonna be an epic throwdown. The issue comes in that any weapons and supplies Claire takes in this segment are lost, which can leave Chris without enough heavy weaponry for the final boss.
• Updated Re-release: Code: Veronica X for the Dreamcast (in Japan only), PlayStation 2 and GameCube, which adds in some new cutscenes and changes some existing ones to add more Wesker into the game. Further explored in Code: Veronica X HD for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which offers increased resolution and improved lighting effects.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Bringing Rodrigo the hemostat and lighter will reward Chris with submachine guns in his segment of the game. Not doing so will have him flippant to Chris' arrival and unceremoniously bleed out to death after Chris leaves his room.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Linear Launcher.
• Weaponized Offspring: Alexia's penultimate boss form turns her into a queen ant-like creature that constantly births small poisonous insectoid enemies that run interference while Chris tries to fight her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The guard who knocks Claire out in the intro is never seen again after this. Of course, given what happens to Rockfort shortly afterward, it can be assumed he simply died.
  • Finding D.I.J.'s Diary in the minigame Battle Game tells the player exactly what the mouse was up to. Fittingly, the mouse is the only peripheral character to get any closure.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • The guard who knocks Claire unconscious in the beginning of the game.
  • Wesker easily overpowers Claire when they first meet.
• Younger Than They Look: Claire seems like an adult woman while Steve seems like a teen boy, but the two of them are actually both roughly the same age (Claire is 18-19 and Steve is 17 when the game takes place). The Umbrella Chronicles gives Steve a more muscular and masculine appearance, making him look closer in age to Claire.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The game subverts this since the zombies don't get the spotlight this time around. The two major outbreaks of the game take place on an isolated island and the middle of Antarctica, so the virus has little chance of spreading around the world.

---