Price: £39.99 Players: 1 Widescreen: No NTSC 60Hz: Yes DTS sound: No The Resident Evil series has long-built a solid reputation on complex puzzles, strange camera angles, creepy crawlies and eerie locations. I loved the first game, especially. It was one of the few games, along with Thief II: The Metal Age, both of which really scared the shit out of me when playing late at night with the sound system turned up louder than it should be. The second was fun, but I didn't play it through all the way with both combinations of characters. Games three (Nemesis) and four (Code Veronica) bored me silly because, by then, it was more of the same and the plodding around soon became dull with a complete lack of excitement of any kind whatsoever. Then, on the original Playstation, Capcom via Eidos, released what was meant to be a combination of the famed series and the House of the Dead shooter-on-rails, Resident Evil: Survivor. It sounded like an intriguing proposition, but turned into the dullest game I've ever played, and also the only game I can remember which actually put me to sleep - literally!

So, this new game had a lot to live up to. I never got to play last year's PS2 title, Resident Evil: Survivor 2: Code Veronica, a shooter version of the Dreamcast adventure, but figured that by now they might have got things right. Who knows... perhaps there's no actual way to do it without making it look too much like a House of the Dead III ripoff? Upon starting my first game, one thing I instantly noticed was how you can only - extremely annoyingly - move the gun-sight horizontally. You cannot look up and down and this immediately indicates how limited this title is about to become. I also had to use the standard PS2 controller as this game does not support the original G-con controller, mainly because you have to move around inbetween blasting away. That's presuming you have something to shoot at. Early on in the game, there's lots of bodies lying around but only one or two actually try and have a go while you find this key or that electronic keycard, along with bullets aplenty. If you can sustain the boredom thus far, then they all seem to jump up and head your way. You may not find enough bullets, but on the medium level of difficulty I at least managed to find ample sustinence with which to regain my strength.

On an audio-visual scale, the graphics are not a great deal to shout about - not terrible but not particularly outstanding either. As for the sound, the ship creaks (oh, I forgot to mention you're on a deserted cruise ship) and the zombies moan and groan at you like a multiple orgasm being played at the wrong speed. Or perhaps they've just received their VISA bill since having paid full price for this tosh. To summarise, this is more like a normal Resident Evil game, but without the restrictive camera angles and with the first-person shooting element inbetween the third-person wandering about. The storyline is incredibly lame and there's little difference in the enemies you face - just groaning full-height adults to kill. At least the adventure-style games had enemies of differing stature and the ability to shoot high and low. As your starting man, Bruce McGivern, hold your gun up high in a defensive position while staggering back and forth and you'll look like a Spanish dancer walking about. Ole! For those looking variety, you might find it in the Chinese government agent Fongling, if you make it that far. Rent this if you must, but at least try before you buy.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2003.