The game's premise is certainly attractive, serving as a backdrop to the entire Resident Evil series and promising to connect many apparently unrelated events; Capcom has noted numerous times that the game is not a side story, but a crucial part of the main Resident Evil plotline. The Umbrella Chronicles delves deep into the epic rise and fall of the Umbrella Corporation, the biotech company whose zombie-creating T-Virus lies at the heart of the series' narrative. "Witness the end of Umbrella," promises the trailer showed at last week's Capcom Gamer's Day.

Of course, nonstop on-rails point-and-shoot gameplay seems like an odd choice for a game apparently so steeped in backstory and plot, and, indeed, it is difficult to extrapolate a sense of how the whole game will pan out based on the single early level playable at Capcom's event.

Narrative mysteries aside, The Umbrella Chronicles' basic gameplay is very similar to that of arcade light gun games, the chief difference being of course that it uses the Wii remote rather than an actual light gun. This means that, like other console or PC games, its aiming system is relative (and thus requires a reticule) rather than being absolute as in an arcade light gun shooter which actually maps your aim to a discrete point on the screen. Having that FPS-style crosshairs present while perpetually on rails is an odd gameplay juxtaposition, and takes a few minutes to internalize.

Further blurring the lines between the two genres, a certain amount of camera control is afforded by the nunchuk's analog stick, allowing players to look around a certain amount in any direction. Like any good on-rails game, The Umbrella Chronicles keeps the camera pointed where it needs to be, but the aiming control can be useful to, for example, look around and grab a weapon or item that you may have missed as you pass by.

Control-wise, The Umbrella Chronicles is very straight forward. Pointing and shooting is the order of the day. Shaking the remote reloads, which can actually be performed with a decent approximation of the standard "shoot off-screen" reload method of light gun games. Weapons and items can be picked up by "shooting" them, and players cycle through weapons with the remote's d-pad. The level showcased last week had a typical lineup of a pistol, assault rifle, and shotgun. Intelligently switching between the different available weapons depending on the enemy and situation does actually pay off, particularly since the much more useful non-pistol weapons have limited ammunition. Items include standard Resident Evil trappings such as ammo clips and health-restoring herbs.

Capcom representatives present at the event stated repeatedly that the game is still early in development and still has plenty of polish left to undergo. This explains the somewhat twitchy nature of the game's aiming mechanics; the game appears to do very little smoothing out, resulting in frequent tiny movements of the cursor corresponding to minute vibrations of the player's hand. Fortunately, Capcom has demonstrated with Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition that it can nail pointer-based aiming, so hopefully The Umbrella Chronicles' designers can raise the level of their control mechanics to those of that game.

Occasionally, the player is given opportunities to pull off stylish context-sensitive action moves, such as counterattacks or kicks, similar to those seen in games such as Resident Evil 4. These are achieved if a prompted button is pressed at the appropriate time, at which point the camera pans out into a third person perspective to give a more cinematic presentation of the action.

Once again merging first person shooter and light gun gameplay, The Umbrella Chronicles features environments that are more interactive than those seen in most light gun games. Furniture, paintings, light fixtures, ornaments, windows, and other objects can be shot and destroyed. In some cases these have an effect on gameplay; shooting out lights will darken previously lit areas, which of course can make things more difficult. Sometimes, destructible elements serve more important roles. At the end of the demonstration level is a boss fight against a huge snake. When I played, I killed the monster simply by shotgunning its vulnerable mouth area for massive damage until it sustained fatal injuries. Another journalist, however, climbed a ladder in the room and shot out a chain suspending a chandelier, which then dropped down onto the snake's head, crushing it. During my battle, I had accidentally and uselessly shot out the chandelier early on, preventing me from employing it in such a clever fashion. Capcom reps also pointed out that the game will feature multiple pathways during gameplay, adding a touch of exploration, but it is unclear at this point what form that will take.

The demonstration level takes place entirely inside the well-known mansion introduced in the first Resident Evil game, with enemies including zombies and those dogs that jump through windows. The full game is promised to feature new scenarios from various key locations throughout the series, as well as introducing crucial areas not yet depicted in any Resident Evil game, such as the stronghold of the Umbrella Corporation. "This is not a port in any way, shape, or form," said producer Masachika Kawata during last week's event. In fact, various statements made by Capcom developers have pegged the game at a couple dozen hours in length--enormously unusual for an on-rails game--suggesting that is quite a lot about The Umbrella Chronicles yet to be revealed.

Capcom plans to release Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles for Wii this fall.