Not Resident Evil: Multiplayer Spin-off Umbrella Corps
Competitive team-based action
Umbrella Corps sounds like the name of an English regiment in an WW2 spoof movie starring Adam Sandler. Under the leadership of Sir Lance Corporal Wilbert Bottombugle, the Umbrella Corps turn their noses up at Sandler until "that blasted Yank" saves the day by accidentally blowing up Oberleutnant Schnauzersniffer's sausage stash. The Queen awards him a medal, then squeezes his bum.
Not quite. Umbrella Corps [official site] is actually a competitive team-based shooter spin-off from Resident Evil. Capcom announced it today at the Tokyo Game Show, and are planning a 2016 release.
Capcom had a crack at a co-op spin-off in 2012 with the unremarkable Operation Raccoon City, and now they're going competitive. Folks drafted into the Umbrella Corps will be running around, murdering other mercenaries and trying not to get eaten by zombies. Capcom say:
"Umbrella Corps aims to provide a deep, concentrated multiplayer shooter experience like those offered by contemporary eSports. This title packs in classic Resident Evil gameplay elements, such as menacing zombie hordes. We've stripped out excessive theatricality and constant respawning, and pruned away the story elements."
Going by brief explanations on the game's site, it sounds like they're going for a game of cautious movement and consideration of space, with an analogue cover system that lets you peek out as little as you want - costing accuracy - and a mix of long range shootybangs, mid-range bangbangs where you automatically raise a shield when using a sidearm, and close-range action jamming an ice axe into someone's skull. It also has odd equipment like 'jammers' to ward off zombies and boot spikes to stomp faces.
Using the Resident Evil setting (but do note not the name - although it is Biohazard: Umbrella Corps in Japan) will likely rile up folks hungry for an actual new RE, but the idea of carefully considering combat range does interest me a bit.
Umbrella Corps is due to launch in "early 2016", priced at £24.99/29,99€/$29.99.
This trailer, eh, it's an announcement teaser trailer:
