At the very beginning of the game, you can express your intentions the rest of the team with a selection of tactics. Umbrella Corps hides a few interesting ideas behind walls of uninteresting design, which indicate the tactical aspirations of the game that never reach its goals. Such a small arena would make you think the game was designed to be a fast and frantic multiplayer shooter, but you would be mistaken. It was a singular space where both teams’ spawn points were mere yards apart. What I received was a large foyer with a small raised catwalk and some very cluttered cover. I imagined a catastrophic encounter as you slowly pace through corridors and prison cells attempting to hunt the other uninfected humans. My first match was in the Raccoon City Police Station. Amongst the entire handful of maps available is conceivably about two hundred feet worth of playable terrain. Perhaps the most depressingly lackluster aspect of Umbrella Corps is the level design. It’s such a simple, standard mechanic that countless games have mastered without any issues, making it even more noteworthy in the case of Umbrella Corps. Soldiers glide across the floors without any acceleration, like they exist in some strange frictionless world. The movement of these characters also feels weirdly artificial too. Weapon loadouts feel identical and the camera is permanently fixed to the shoulder so you can never reap the pitiful benefits of a new gas mask.
The game features customizable characters but lacks any flare or interest in doing so. Everything about Umbrella Corps feels like a half completed and completely unloved mess. The premise doesn’t sound bad, with a sort of tense and tactical element that inspires thoughts of Rainbow Six: Siege with the added fear of a hostile environment as well as hostile players, but the game just never holds up. Adapted from the already wholly confusing mythos of Resident Evil, Umbrella Corps has two three person groups of ‘elite’ soldiers killing each other in zombie infested locations. Not only is Umbrella Corps bad, it is so totally forgetful I had to find the game in my library to remember its name.