Resident Evil: Dead Aim (Sony PlayStation 2, 2003)

Graphics and Sound, 9/10: Generally pretty good. The cruise ship level that you start out in is well designed and sufficiently novel to be interesting even if you've played all the other RE games. The player and enemy character models are fairly well detailed, and generally pretty well animated. Like most RE games, this game suffers from re-using the same enemies a bit too much, but you probably won't notice your first time through. There was one non-boss enemy design that I thought was particularly substandard, uninteresting and poorly done. But on the balance, there was also one that I thought was exceptionally interesting and well done, too. Most are a small cut above average.

Gameplay, 8/10: It's a fairly standard Resident Evil game, perhaps even a bit less so. You'll do a lot of walking around, exploring rooms, picking up ammo, health and keys, and of course shooting zombies. There are no puzzles to speak of, except perhaps figuring out the weak points of the bosses given the clues in the files you find.

You have unlimited ammo (well, as much as you can carry from each safe room) for your handguns in this game. Given that it may be more difficult to accurately hit enemies with the light gun than you might think, this actually turns out to be a fairly good thing. I didn't find it unbalanced the game much at all, as a matter of fact the first time through I think the game would have been much too hard and a heck of a lot less fun without this. Of course, I do like my games a bit on the easy side, and I love plugging zombies. But ammo for the better weapons is limited to only what you can find, so game balance is preserved. All in all, I am quite happy with this design decision - they were quite wise to include it.

The weapons and items are not hugely original, but they're original enough. It's very nice to be able to get additional healing items or handgun ammo from zombies that you kill quickly and/or with highly accurate head-shots. It adds a bit more strategy to the game.

Story, 7/10: The story is just novel enough and has enough character believability to not be boring. The good voice cast and voice acting helps to add some interest to what otherwise might be a bit less fun. The pacing can be somewhat uneven, sometimes a huge amount happens in a short time, sometimes it feels like it's taking forever for anything to happen. In general you probably won't mind as there are plenty of other things to keep you occupied.

Overall, 8/10: My overall rating is not an average, rather it is my general feeling after having played the game through a couple of times. The combination of decent graphics and general ''good production value'', plus the novel combination of controller and light-gun at the same time, lift this game above the average and deliver a playing experience that is somehow slightly better than the sum of it's individual parts. There are annoyances to be sure - controls that I think could have been better, and a price tag that is probably a bit high, especially if you don't already own a guncon. That said, if you are a gamer who enjoys RE games and enjoys using a light-gun, you will probably enjoy this game as well. You could certainly do worse than this game.

Resident Evil: Dead Aim is one of those games that as part of the lingering Resident Evil series, you just have to preorder. It has to be done, I so thought. Upon getting this game long ago I happily frolicked my way to the PS2, ripped off the plastic, and prepared myself for what was supposed to be a great Resident Evil game. What I found not only appalled me but forced me to set the game aside in a stack of dust covered games most of which I will never play again.

Why do you ask would a hardcore Resident Evil fan discard a brand spanking new Resident Evil game? A simple answer, the game was rushed and was horribly done. There I said it. Shame on you Capcom, perhaps you should listen to Nintendo's slogan "Quality not Quantity."

Now that my initial bashing of the company I love so dear is over I can start explaining a bit about the game. You only hurt the ones you love Capcom, you only hurt the ones you love. You play as "Bruce" who is a secret agent that is trying to capture a terrorist named "Morpheus" (no Matrix pun intended hehe) on one of Umbrella's Cruise liners where he has recently released a modified form of the T-Virus. From his position there he threatens to launch missiles loaded with the T-Virus to some of the worlds largest cities if he isn't paid a substantial some of money, so you have a bit of pressure you on.

Resident Evil Dead Aim starts out with an excellent introduction film that gets you prepped and ready to go into the world of survival horror. A great CG movie follows and then you are thrust into an environment that truly is survival horror because the controls are horrible and there is no traditional Resident Evil music. Some may think that silence is eerie but I prefer the music. Matter of opinion I guess. Anyway the learning curve is pretty steep on this one, not only do you have to learn third person controls that felt sluggish to me, but you also have to master first person shooting controls from a stationary position. This is easier said than done.

Regardless it is pretty easy to do once you play for a bit and the zombies are so easy to get by you can practically walk by them. I didn't fire a shot until the first boss. The CG movies are nicely spaced and nicely done I will give it that. After you're off the ship you go to another Umbrella ghost town so to speak and proceed to beat the game. Sadly this game was very short, just over two hours if you pace yourself. I also found the last boss to be insanely hard, not because of an actual hard boss but because of the horrible aiming controls. Perhaps it is better with a guncon please God. The ending was decently done and I loved the music in the credits, also wonderful idea for a continue feature kudos points for that Capcom.

Replay value is nil as I don't see why anyone would want to play it again but since it is short and sweet I guess you might want to replay it as the other character. This game is a nice attempt and would be an ok purchase for $20 or under I suppose. I will keep it just because I like the Resident Evil games but I must say I am a bit disappointed with this one as it could have been so much better.

Since this is the ONLY RE game that works with the Guncons I bought it. Like others have said at times the character seems to move too slow to take aim on the Zombies. I found that I had to point the guncon at a Zombie and pull the trigger once to switch to shooting mode if that makes sense. If the Zombie is too close it will not work. I think it is much better with the Guncons since trying to aim in 1st person mode with the dual shock controller really sucks. It definately is not as good as the time crisis series. But if you have Guncons it is worth buying since there are not that many games for them. Definately go find the walk in freezer on deck 1 and get the assault rifle. But get out of there quickly and dont go back in again because you will get swarmed with an endless number of Zombies that are too close to shoot.

To a Resident evil fan change can be tough this game did a complete 180 from all other titles by going with a strange choppy version of a first person shooter now its my belief that this game's idea lead to one of the greatest games ever in my opinion RE4, ( check out my review.) still this game is by no means RE4 the graphics are very mediocre although I realize is an old title it looks like something off the dreamcast system and I must say I was a little dissapointed. There was absolutely not one moment in this game were my heart got pumping our I was surprised by anything and that is the forte of Capcom Resident evil franchise and for that I really dont even consider this part of the resident evil franchise this game is kind of like the inbred hillbilly cousin of resident evil that ate to many paint chips as a kid. Well I cant completely slam this game because it does have some fun moments in it, the boss battles a pretty fun and although the gameplay is no comparison for the over the shoulder perfection of RE4 its nice to actually see what your shooting which has always been a pet peeve of mine of past RE titles. If you like resident evil and you jus cant wait for RE5 to come out than by all means buy the game because its very hard to find a rental and it should be rather cheap to purchase although i've seen it go for up to 60 bucks because it a pretty rare game. All and all this game will give you about two hours of fun and you will forget about it about ten minutes after you beat it.

If you enjoyed Resident Evil 4 and honestly who didn't and have wished ever since then that their were more Resident Evil games like it and have not played Dead Aim yet then you are in for a treat. Now Dead Aim is not as good as RE4, not even close, I played Dead Aim long before 4 came out and I enjoyed it and when I played 4 I could not help but think that it owed a bit of thanks too Dead Aim. You begin dead aim on a luxuray cruise ship out in the ocean that has been contaminated with the T-virus and will eventualy end up at an old umbrella facillity. Right away you will notice that these are not your old clunky RE controls, your character moves similar too Leon in 4 in 3rd person and when you ready your gun too shoot it changes too 1st person too allow for pinpoint accuracy, sure the aiming takes a little getting used too but you will have it down in no time flat. Much like 4 their is also plenty of ammo so don't be afraid too unload and man is unloading fun, it is especially great too watch the zombies go flying in 1st person when you blast them with the shotgun. I can't say that Dead Aim is excellent because RE4 was excellent but dead aim is a good game that is well worth playing if your looking for a new RE4 fix.