Resident Evil Dead Aim Review

I played on: PS2

I paid: £10

Available on: PS2

Notes: Dead Aim is a spiritual successor to the Survivor series

I went into Dead Aim expecting to hate the experience and to that extent, I can say it’s not as terrible as I expected. That’s not to say I like this game because although it makes a valiant effort to be more than just another RE Survivor it falls short.

Similar to Resident Evil Survivor 1 and 2 this is made to work with the PlayStation light gun accessory. Similar to arcade games this plastic gun would allow players to shoot at targets on the screen. For the most part, this worked but the accuracy left a lot to be desired. Unless you have a CRT-TV connected to your PS2 you won’t be able to use this toy anymore. This means that most players today will be stuck using the PS2 controller to play this mediocre game.

Similar to early ResiEvil games you have an area to explore and as you do you find keys and other items needed to slowly open up more areas. Unlike those games, combat is much more of a viable and necessary tactic. To fight you press R1 and go into a first-person view with a cursor controlled by the left analog stick. If you’re able to use the light gun this would be where you used it. Headshots do extra damage, but due to the zombies swaying as they make their way towards you, they are much harder than torso shots. Outside of combat, this is a very barebones classic RE game. You have the puzzles, the files explaining the background details, and the slow but steady progress. But none of it is ever anything special. Everything here feels like it’s been done elsewhere in the series but better.

In a similar fashion to the gameplay, the story is pretty much just a safe and familiar early era Resident Evil. You play as US agent Bruce McGivern sent on board the Umbrella owned cruise ship the ‘Spencer Rain’ to investigate a rouge Umbrella employee. Morpheus D. Duvall, an ex-Umbrella scientist is threatening to lunch missiles carrying the t-virus all over the world. It’s up to you and Chinese agent Fong Ling to stop Morpheus. This is a very simple and predictable plot and if you’re a fan of the series it’s one you’ve seen more than once.

A bad story can be saved by a unique and interesting presentation, which is why it’s a shame Dead Aim lacks even this saving grace. The graphics aren’t awful. The locations and some of the monsters honestly look pretty decent. But then you look at the character models and they’re just janky looking. Everyone seems to have a neck that doesn’t work as a human neck should as they’re too long and leave everyone’s head at strange unnatural angles. Human faces don’t look much better. The only thing more awkward than how everyone looks is how they sound. This voice acting isn’t RE1 bad. Which is a shame because those performances while terrible are at least enjoyable. During Dead Aim everyone just sounds lacking in experience and flat. It wouldn’t surprise me if the actors were reading most of these lines from the script for the first-time during recording. Not so bad it’s good, just so bland it’s bad.

Dead Aim isn’t a bad game like I expected but it’s far from great and a short distance from good. Sadly, this game is just bland and mediocre. If you want to play it as a fan, then I’d say go for it as it’s not an awful experience but don’t expect it to stay with you after you finish it. For more casual Resident Evil fans I’d say stay away from this one as there are more interesting games in the series that deserve your time more than this middling entry.

Recommendation Rating: 5 out of 10