"A nightmare that is not so new."

We are in familiar survival horror territory here. This game has all the traditional elements made famous by the Resident Evil series and although it adds some excellent visuals nothing else is sufficiently innovative for it to emerge from the pack of RE clones that followed that ground breaking game.

Gameplay -

The game has exactly the same control system as Resident Evil with all the character movement problems this involves. I am sure somebody will come up with a controller configuration that allows our hero/heroine to move in a natural fashion but here we are bumping into the furniture and bouncing off the walls as usual.

Shooting your weapons is the same again although there is a 'free view'option that allows you to aim more precisely (as long as you are standing still at the time.) Reloading is automatic but can take valuable seconds as some nasty creature gnaws at your vitals.

Overall the game is easy to play with no difficulty settings. The puzzles are fairly logical and none of them should take too much grey matter or mind bending to figure out. However there is a sudden hike in the difficulty level in the final area of the game which seems to be due to the developers running out of time (or ideas) and just thinking 'Hey, let's throw in LOADS of monsters!'

I am not sure if the word 'fun' can be used to describe playing a survival horror game? I must admit there were not a lot of laughs but there were some nice shock moments when things suddenly jumped out at you. I missed the gruesome touches when disposing of enemies that Resident Evil features. Here the monsters basically vanish in a flash of blue light (although the Canine Protection League may have a few things to say about what happens to the dogs when you shoot them.)

Story -

The plot is basically H.P. Lovecraft meets Night of the Living Dead. There is a complex background of a mad, bad family meddling with dark powers and some genetic engineering thrown in for good measure. But essentially it is the male hero versus the monsters and then the female heroine doing the same.

The two scenario setting is exactly the same as RE2 but the interweaving of the two characters' journeys through the game is cleverly done.

Audio/Video -

Graphics are the strong point of the game. Each character has a torch which can be switched on or off to illuminate the immediate surroundings plus there are light switches in most areas which tranform the rooms, The lighting effects are superb.

Background sound and general effects are excellent with offscreen shrieks, groans, rumbles etc. adding to the atmosphere.

The music is dire and repetitive. I found is so distracting that I turned it off after 5 minutes and left it off throughout the game.

Replayability -

There seems to be little or no replay value in the game. Beating it does not provide extra features, weapons, scenarios or costumes.

With a walkthrough the game could probably be beaten within a 3 day rental period. Even whilst writing a walkthrough it only took me a week to play through both characters. So perhaps this is a rental rather than a must buy title?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/01, Updated 05/24/01