Resident Evil’s next remake is a tough one to pin down, since there are so many different directions Capcom could take. It might revisit the original again after its 2002 remake, tackle spin-offs like Code Veronica that fill in the gaps, or move on to the logical next entry, Resident Evil 5. However, given 5’s baked in racist tropes, Capcom is probably best leaving it as a relic of the past. Even removing the next sequel from the remake line-up, there are clearly so many different games that we could see tackled. But hear me out—Darkside Chronicles, the obscure on-a-rails shooter starring Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser, should be the next stop.
It wasn’t a good game, not by a long shot. It’s probably up there as one of the worst Resident Evils, dragging you through familiar locales with a shaky camera while spinning you in all different directions as enemies pop up like cardboard cutouts in a firing range. In between these segments, you’re awkwardly spamming buttons as you try to grab gold and ammo, fighting bosses you can’t even dodge, instead having to shoot their arm at just the right time. The average Resident Evil fan probably hasn’t heard of it, let alone tried it, and I can’t say it’s worth hacking the shoddy, floating crosshair-based gunplay, no matter how good the story is.
I fully expected Capcom to completely ignore it and move on, never looking back at this weird retelling of Resident Evil 2 spliced with a Resi4 prequel. Then Resident Evil 4 Remake surfaced, and Krauser not only references Operation Javier, a story within Darkside Chronicles, but he has a scar from that game. It’s canon, and that means if you want to experience the full Resident Evil story from start to finish, get ready to strap in for eight hours of a mediocre arcade shooter.
I’m not asking that this whole clunky eight hours be polished and sold as the next big standalone. Instead, Capcom could gut the Resi2 retelling, remake the prequel elements, and sell it as a short and breezy one-to-two-hour DLC.
Despite Darkside Chronicles' weak gameplay loop, it has a great narrative nestled within. It’s made immediately clear when we fight Krauser in Resident Evil 4 that he and Leon have a history, but that history isn’t divulged within the game, as we only discover snippets of what the two went through together. Darkside Chronicles finally unpacks that, and it makes Krauser a much more tragic figure. He isn’t just the macho military man there to equal Leon’s agility with a brutal force behind each punch, piling weight on top of the combat prowess of our favourite himbo—he was thrust into a world he didn’t even believe in, and it ripped him apart.
When we start Darkside Chronicles, Krauser doesn’t believe in the existence of BOWs. Raccoon City made headlines as the undead began to devour the city from within, threatening to spread out and bring America and, eventually, the world to its knees, only thwarted by a nuke that saw the government admitting defeat in a public spectacle. But the idea of monsters and mutated animals the size of cars, with sprawling tentacles and bulging eyes, is hard to believe without seeing it for yourself.
When Krauser finally does, it drives a wedge between him and Leon, and even the history of BOWs ravaging an entire city to the point of nuclear catastrophe doesn’t dissuade him. Instead, he slowly unravels when his belief that they can be used for good takes a greater hold on him.
Leon has seen firsthand how that mindset leads to such horrific events in the first place, but Krauser slips deeper and deeper into this belief that things can be different this time, that he can use the BOWs for good where others failed, even if it means risking it all. That diametric relationship only makes their dynamic all the more interesting. It isn’t the story of good triumphing against someone cartoonishly evil like Albert Wesker, which is how Resident Evil 4 paints Krauser for the most part, but an old friend having to fight someone who has lost their way, and that newfound depth is what makes Darkside Chronicles the perfect compliment to Resi4’s narrative.
That’s exactly why its story deserves better than to be trapped in a crappy arcade shooter that you can only stream via PS Plus on current-gen consoles, held back by an even worse retelling of Resident Evil 2. It’s easy to throw your favourite games out there as the perfect choice for the next remake, but so far, Capcom has been reworking already great games with already great stories—maybe it’s time to look at the great stories buried within terrible games that could shine if only they were given the room.