Resident Evil: Dead Aim

"This time Capcom gets it right"

When Capcom was making another Survivor type game I was a little bit skeptical after the abysmal Resident Evil:Survivor. Luckily a lot of the problems that were present in that game were absent here but I dont even want to mention that game again anymore so I wont. So on with the review!

Concept:8
I must say I was very pleased that when you were not fighting enemies you would be in 3rd person view and when you were fighting enemies you were in 1st person. I dont know of any other game that changes between those two POVs and the game pulls it off rather well. As for everything else Resident has always been this game excels pretty well at, plenty of zombies,hunters, and new creatures, and the good ol' jump out of your seat that happenned once but I had been missing that for a while. The storyline is a pretty basic RE idea. Umbrella Corporation has a virus, virus gets loose, people become zombies.

Graphics:6
Ok I admit I may be giving the graphics a bit of a low rating and I am not saying they are bad, I just have come to expect better. I have been spoiled with REmake and 0 and these just are not up to par. But the good is that they are clear, the animatiion is very smooth and the FMVs are purely beautiful at times. There are also very good lighting effects although the backgrounds are somewhat bland.

Sound:7 and 1
I have to break it down into two sub categories. The 7 is for the music and sound effects while the 1 is for the voices. First off I only gave a 7 for the music and sound effects because there really isnt any music to speak of througout the game. But the sound effects more than make up for it. The wonderful groaning of zombies is ever present and every shot of your weapon has true power behind it. Every handgun sounds like a handgun and the shotgun sounds like a shotgun, wonderful sounds. Now for why I gave a 1 for the voices. Quite simply for some odd reason they talk very softly and its very hard to hear them. Well, at least you can turn the subtitles on, but after noticing that most of the time the subtitles didnt even come close to what the characters are saying you will just turn the subtitles off again and strain your ears just listening, just awful. But dont let it get you down, there isnt too much chatter in this RE.

Playability:8
I really liked the controls for this game for the most part. Moving around in 3rd person was great and a break from the RE control scheme. Usually the camera would always follow behing your character and the only problems I found were sometimes turning around a corner or trying to go in completely the opposite direction. I sometimes had to make him run in a circle before I could go the way I wanted to but for the most part it was pretty easy. There is a problem with going from third person to first person to shoot. First you must press the R1 button, then you must press it again to shoot. It may sound simple but when there is a zombie right next to you he will be chomping on you before you get a chance to press R1 again. Luckily though, this situation doesnt happen very often in the game.

Entertainment:10
I gave this a 10 because after playing it once I really cant wait to play it again. It was a little short though but I am sure I missed some items like those fun files that I just love to find. Although there are not really that many extras, the main game is very fun.

Replay Value:5
Although it may be fun to play again as I just stated I gave it a low replay value because there really isnt anything new a 2nd time through except maybe a different challenge level. As for just playing again for the fun of it, that is entertainment, just nothing new really to offer.

Rent of buy:
I really did like this game and for any die hard RE fan it is a must buy and a worthy addition to the series. For others who are curious I suggest renting it first as like any other game it may or may no be for you.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/03, Updated 06/20/03