Resident Evil: Survivor

"For Serious Collectors Only."

BioHazard: Gun Survivor is a first person shooter by Capcom. It was released in Japan on January 27, 2000. This review is based on the Japanese version.

Gun Survivor........Capcom's black sheep series that has never caught on with the masses. One of the many reasons the Gun Survivor series has had a niche fanbase is because of the initial entry; the notorious BioHazard. I remember hearing all the hype about this game back in the fourth quarter of 1999, and I picked up the import version on the first day that it was released. I blew $60 on that title and I was ultimately disappointed by the product. I immediately went back to enjoying the multitude of games on my Dreamcast. Three years later, I have completed Gun Survivor 3 times in succession, and my opinion remains the same. BioHazard: Gun Survivor is without a doubt the absolute WORST title in the BioHazard series (and is among the worst Capcom games that I have ever played). Gun Survivor joins the lowly ranks of Street Fighter The Movie, Street Fighter EX, and Final Fight Revenge as being a wretched title which has tarnished the reputation of a great franchise.

Graphics: 1

Gun Survivor's graphics are pathetic. They are the worst looking graphics EVER in a Biohazard game, and they are inferior to a majority of the first generation PSX games. This game was released in the year 2000, so Capcom had no excuse for this game to have appalling visuals. This game was developed by the same company who programmed BioHazard 3: Last Escape? Sure as hell doesn't look like it. The environments are incredibly dark and bland. As a matter of fact, it is so dark you can hardly see where you are going. The structures, rooms, buildings, and scenery lack detail. EVERYTHING in this game is a pixelated mess. The walls, landscapes, and atmosphere of the game is disgusting. The main colors that you will see are shades of dark brown and gray. It's quite depressing having these nauseating colors thrust upon you at every turn. The character models are horrid, and like I said earlier, they are inferior to their Biohazard 1 counterparts. All of the character models are composed of EXTREMELY blocky polygons. The main character, Ark, looks ridiculous. All of the character models have some sort of glitch or problem with them, and there is a lot of clipping and floating body parts. Other reviewers have said that the enemy models were taken directly from BioHazard 2, but I disagree. The monsters in BioHazard 2 never looked as pathetic as the monsters do in Gun Survivor. The enemies in this game are pixelated squares and rectangles waiting to be shot at. The Lickers, Hunters, Zombies, Cerberus, and Mr.X all look like cardboard shadows of their former selves. The frame rate for all of the characters models is atrocious, and the animation is incredibly choppy and jerky.

As for the cut scenes, they are truly craptacular. The cut scenes look like a PSX hardware demo that was done in 1993. I personally was offended by the low-quality FMV cut scenes that Capcom used in BioHazard 3, but Gun Survivor just reached a new low. I have read other reviews where people have said that Gun Survivor's graphics are up to par with other games in the BioHazard series. Those people must stop lying and misinforming the consumer, because anyone who considers themselves to be a real fan of the BioHazard series will tell you that Gun Survivor has the worst graphics in the series. Actually, anyone with a functioning pair of eyes will tell you it's inferior to other Biohazard games. And anyone who says that this game has good graphics needs to lay off the crack pipe.

Sound Effects: 2

The sound effects are just average. They don't deliver the impact that you'd expect from a 1st person shooter, and some of the weapon effects are a bit muted. The sounds of the Zombies and Cleaners tend to be the most annoying samples you'll hear. Every other sound effect is standard BioHazard stuff that sounds like it was recycled from BioHazard 2.

Music: 2

A lot of people describe the music in this game as being ''Techno'', and therefore it is not appropriate music for a BioHazard game (and for a Survival Horror game in general). Honestly, I didn't even notice the music. I was too busy being revolted by the awful graphics and horrible gameplay to notice the crappy music. The musical score is totally different from other BioHazard games, and this is why it suffers. The music in the original BioHazard was a classic, the music in BioHazard 2 was above average, and BioHazard 3's music was OK. Gun Survivor has several bland tunes that are totally unrelated to the BioHazard series. There is no ''suspense'' music, there's no eerie foreboding melody, there is no decent BGM. It's all a bunch of bland noise.

Voice Acting: 1

The voice acting in this game is so horrible that it deserved to be rated in a category by itself. While the first Biohazard had voice acting that was so absurd that it couldn't be taken seriously (and is now considered ''classic'' by many), Gun Survivor takes BH1's bad acting formula and multiplies it by 10000. To get voice acting of this wretched quality, you must have been doing it on intentionally. The voice of the main character, Ark Thompson, is so stiff and idiotic that you will swear that he had been pummeled in the skull with a jackhammer. Ark's voice is devoid of any emotion, and this imbecile tends to shout his lines as if to compensate for a lack of intelligence. Then there are Lott and Lilly, two annoying brats with pathetic English accents. For goodness sakes, even the woman who does the classic ''Self-Destruct Countdown'' announcement (that is done near the end of EVERY BioHazard game) is done horribly. To sum things up, the voice acting team is COMPLETELY devoid of talent, and the people who hired them should be bound, gagged, and shot. I honestly believe that it was Capcom's intention to have the worst possible acting in existence in Gun Survivor. In that case, they succeeded.

Control: 1

The control in this game is horrendous. Aiming is a crucial aspect of this game, and it is also the most frustrating. It takes forever just to move that incredibly tiny crosshair cursor onto an enemy, and if you are fighting a Hunter or Cerberus, then you don't have a chance in hell. Moving around and picking up objects is a tiresome chore. You can never control Ark precisely, and controlling him is like controlling a truck. Sometimes it can take a ridiculous amount of time just to grab a File or a Weapon that is right in front of you. The Auto Aiming is flawed, and the cursor will never line up on an enemy. By the time you have adjusted your cursor, a group of Zombies would have gang-chewed you to death. Switching weapons and going to the inventory screen is an incredibly SLOW and monotonous process. And believe it or not, the control gets even WORSE due to the abundant slowdown that runs rampant through the game. Two or more Lickers or Cerberus on screen at one time will slow the game down to a crawl (and as a result you lose total control of you character).

I have played through Gun Survivor using the Dual Shock controller, and according to several reliable sources, the GunCon 45 light gun actually controls worse. A light gun game that actually plays WORSE when using the required light gun? WTF?? I thought the Dual Shock had horrible controls, but when I heard the game is harder to control when using the GunCon, then I knew this game was a joke.

Gameplay: 2

The gameplay is that of a first person Arcade shooter. Yo move around at an insanely slow pace and shoot various monsters with your default Handgun (which has unlimited ammo). Along the way you pick up files to flesh out the poorly written ''story''. You also pick up additional handguns and other weapons, and you use various items (such as Keys) to move onto other areas. Despite what you may hay have heard, there are absolutely NO puzzles to be completed in this game. Puzzles are a signature staple of all BioHazard games, and they were excluded from Gun Survivor. Overall, the gameplay is meant to be straightforward shooting. There is no in depth exploration to be done, and everything is rather simplistic; you never have to backtrack to use a key you just found (usually it works on the door nearest to you). There is no critical thinking or strategy to be used. Just shoot, move, and pick up the occasional item. Although the gameplay is straightforward ''run n' gun'', it isn't linear. There are multiple paths and areas that branch out, and there are different places to explore.

The gameplay mostly suffers due to the abysmal controls. Everything is harder than it need be because of stupid reasons. You take cheap shots from enemies that you can't see, there are VERY few Herbs to replenish your vitality, and you usually battle enemies in confined corridors and tight spaces where you cannot maneuver properly. Mr.X could cheat by trapping you in a corner and punching you to death. A pair of Lickers could tag team you into oblivion. As I stated in the Control section, the slowdown makes this game unplayable in certain instances, and will often lead to your demise. Enemies can get plenty of cheap hits in while your slow to react cursor finds it's target.

One gameplay aspect that I found incredibly annoying was the Reloading feature. You can't reload your weapon at will like you could in other BioHazard games. In Gun Survivor you must empty your current clip completely in order to reload. Ark takes a few seconds to reload, so that makes you a sitting duck to any enemies that want to snack on you. The firing rate on all of your weapons is aggravating. Nearly all of the weapons are slow to fire (the grenade launcher and Rocket Launcher are the worst offenders), and you can be seriously hurt by enemies between shots. This problem is clearly seen when you are fighting a fast enemy and it can take years to reposition the crosshair cursor in order to get off a shot. The slow firing rates may have been done for ''realism'', but all it does is make the gameplay more tedious. Why couldn't Capcom have included submachine guns, gatling guns, and automatic rifles like in BioHazard 2 and 3? Shooting with all those lame handguns get repetitive.

Capcom also dropped the ball with the targeting system. In previous BioHazard games you could perform a ''Critical Hit'' by backing away from your enemy and firing at their head. This usually resulted in them taking heavy damage or instant death. You could also decapitate and and dismember enemies by isolating specific body parts, such as the head, arms, leg, torso, etc. However, in Gun Survivor, there is absolutely NO difference in aiming at specific body parts. Targeting an enemy's head nets you the same result as isolating their leg, foot, hand, crotch, etc. If you have a Shotgun, shooting a Zombie in the head will NOT decapitate it, and shooting it's legs will not leave it cut in half (with it's torso crawling). ALL enemies die with their limbs intact, which takes away from the realism and fun. Everybody's favorite part of a BioHazard game is popping the heads off of Zombies like melons. And since aiming at the head doesn't weaken enemies severely, what's the point of aiming at all?

Another lame aspect of Gun Survivor is the inability to Save. There are no typewriters or ink ribbons to save your progress throughout this absurd game. You only have one chance to save, and that is after you complete the game. The designers of Gun Survivor wanted it to be a fast paced Arcade style game that could be completed very quickly. Because of that aspect, all save points were eliminated. So when you play Gun Survivor, it's all or nothing in one play. The average finishing time for Gun Survivor is 1 hour and 30 minutes, and it is possible to complete the game in 45 minutes if you are extremely quick. That being said, Gun Survivor is the shortest game in the BioHazard series (and also the least entertaining). Save points would really have been a waste if they were implemented since the game is so short.

Story: 1

Let me just say that this is the weakest and most predictable story in all of BioHazard's history. Overall, you don't care about Ark, you don't care about Lilly and Lott, and you care even less about Umbrella than you ever have. It seems like Capcom rushed this game in production and realized at the last minute that a BioHazard game needs a story, so they let a drunk intern slap this tripe together in two minutes. Ark is such a dumb and obnoxious character that it makes you wonder why Capcom even bothered.

Character Design: 2

Ark has to be about the worst main character of ANY Capcom game in existence (including Maximo). He has no personality, he has no distinguishing traits, and there is nothing to like about him. And because of his reprehensible voice acting, Ark is incredibly repulsive. I really could care less if Umbrella kept him hostage and let the Tyrant sodomize him on a daily basis. Lott and Lilly are equally lame for the fake English orphan act. As a general rule, little kids are annoying. Little kids are even more annoying in video games. But the absolute WORST design goes to the ''Cleaners'' (who comes up with these names?). The ''Cleaners'' are the corniest enemy ever in a BioHazard game. Someone at Capcom was on acid when they designed these dorks. They have bodies like gorillas, they roll like pathetic gymnasts, and when they die they deflate, howl like a jaguar and leak green slime (in that order). WTF?!?! The only good design in the game is that of the Tyrant. Unlike other BioHazard games, which had Tyrants that resembled stiff Terminator wannabes, Gun Survivor's Tyrant evolves into a maniacal looking gorilla upon your 2nd encounter with it. This enhanced Tyrant really is horrific in appearance, and I wished Capcom could use this design in future BioHazard games. Because of the Tyrant's design, the character design category gets a rating of 2.

Presentation: 1

There is no intro FMV (a tradition of all Biohazard games), which is really weird. But then again, you probably wouldn't want to see it. The games presentation is unbelievably poor, as if Capcom wanted to deter you from playing the game altogether.

Replay Value:4

There are several paths to take in this game, and they cannot be taken all in one game. It is fun to take different paths and witness slightly different scenarios. The game is definitely nonlinear during the early parts of the game, and you'll be replaying the game to make sure you've taken every possible path. There is also a Rocket Launcher with Unlimited Ammo that can be unlocked if you beat the game with an S ranking. You can also try to collect all the handguns, weapons, and files and save your progress to your memory card. Once you have completed all of the objectives above, there is no point in replaying the game, unless you like subjecting yourself to migraines and headaches.

Overall: 2

It was a good idea with horrible execution. The way this game fails in EVERY category makes me wonder if Capcom did this intentionally. Gun Survivor was highly anticipated and over hyped, but in the end it was a severe disappointment. Normally, when a title this awful is made, Capcom Co.Ltd might be able to point fingers. Street Fighter EX was awful, but that wasn't Capcom's fault; Arika was the developer. Final Fight Revenge is a horrible piece of filth, but that wasn't Capcom's fault; Capcom USA designed and programmed that game. Maximo may have had horrible level design and gameplay but Capcom Co. Ltd wasn't responsible for that project; Capcom Digital Studios was the developer. But in the case of BioHazard: Gun Survivor, IT IS ALL THEIR FAULT. Capcom of Japan has no one to blame but themselves. It's as if Capcom let a 3rd party like Acclaim or Midway program this game for them. Gun Survivor is like a piss poor imitation of a authentic BioHazard game. It is very hard to believe that Capcom, a company with enormous resources, would allow this game to be published with their name on it. It is inferior to nearly all of their other products that have been released on the PSX. And considering that the game was released in 2000, when the PSX was in it's last generation and at it's graphical climax, this turd of a game is unacceptable. Thankfully, Capcom have learned their lesson, and all of the subsequent Gun Survivor sequels have improved over time. Gun Survivor 2: BioHazard Code Veronica is better than the original Gun Survivor. Gun Survivor 3: Dino Crisis is better than Gun Survivor 2. And Gun Survivor 4: BioHazard is supposedly the best in this ill-fated series. Capcom also realized what an embarrassment that Gun Survivor was to the BioHazard franchise, so they switched things around with the sequels. Instead of Gun Survivor being a spin off the BioHazard series, Gun Survivor became it's own franchise. The game deserves credit for having started the whole series, but other than that, it is worthless. Only buy this game if you are one of the following:

A.) a serious collector who needs to own all of the Capcom import PSX games.

B.) a die hard BioHazard fan that needs Gun Survivor to complete your collection.

C.) a person who already owns Gun Survivor 2, 3, and 4 for the PS2 and you want to see how the series started.

For anyone else, you would be better off avoiding this title, as it is complete garbage and is worthless (this is coming from a die hard Capcom fan). I seriously question the mental health of others reviewers who have given this game a rating higher than 5. It is dishonest to give bad games good reviews out of spite or for attention. The people who have said Gun Survivor ''isn't that bad'' are obviously lying. The game is horrid. I am ashamed to own this title until this day, and I am more ashamed in the fact that I paid $60 for it. As for the person who gave Gun Survivor a perfect 10, let me be the first to tell you: Crack Is Wack.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/03