First off I am a fan of the series and of all zombie type movies, so this game started off appealing to me. But I also value my money and don’t spend it without taking the time to consider all my options on the final value of a product. The game puts you into a zombie infested world of slow moving blood-thirsty reanimated walking dead hell bent on having YOU for dinner. The premise is familiar to players of the Resident Evil series, except the adventure now allows up to four people to work together and splatter these disgusting creatures into oblivion. Now this game is all about the online play. To play all the scenarios online you must first complete them offline. The game does offer a multitude of difficulty levels from very easy to hard for the novice or completely insane. The harder the difficulty, the more your will have to cooperate to make it even five minutes through the scenario. There is nothing more satisfying than playing through an online game because you’re going to have to make every last bullet count to watch those closing CG scenes. Now I mentioned that the offline play was not my favorite. Simply put, once you play with a hand full of competent players online the flaws of the AI becomes quite apparent. For instance, I saw that one of the AI players had picked up some hand gun ammo and I already had a shotgun with plenty of rounds. So I try to pass my excess ammo to him and of course, he exchanges the ammo for the gun he was carrying. I simply sighed and deeply wished I could use my shotgun on him and continue on my own. Now don't get me wrong, the AI does a decent job of keeping up with you and helping out when you might need a hand - but I would never try to play a game beyond normal with AI, especially after I've seen just how excellent team play can feel online. If you’re thinking of buying this game for single player experience only, I would advise you to rent it first before you put down your money for it. Next, let’s talk about a story. There is a mixture of small stories that intertwine with the eight characters throughout the scenarios. Unfortunately nothing extravagant, or beyond the imagination of the typical zombie movie lover, is ever told. Once again, if you’re picking up this game, you’re picking it up to make the gauntlet run with some people online and to live the definition of survival, not because of the screenwriter's expertise, or there lack of. Character wise everyone in the game has their own attributes and special abilities that come in handy. For example, the college student Yoko can carry double the capacity of all the other characters. Kevin on the other hand, comes with a 45 magnum and has one hell of a kick that can keep lots of the undead at bay. The graphics are done quite well in full 3-d. There are no more pre rendered backgrounds as in the previous Resident Evil games and they do quite a nice job of showing off the power of the PS2. The sound is done nicely, but even with an optical cable and Creative receiver I find them to feel pretty average. They come across as being ripped directly from previous Resident Evil games with little effort to improve on them. The controls are finally improved on from previous games in the series. Previously you had to actual turn a certain direction to begin moving in that direction. Now when you use the analog stick to move to the right, you will actually move to the right. You will probably still have some quirks to work out with the controls when the scene changes abruptly to a different angle. Just remember that as long as you hold down the same direction that you originally had before the scene changed, you will continue in that same direction. This can be a bit awkward since your pushing to the right and you’re moving straight ahead, but it’s easily becomes second nature after a bit of practice. But once again I must reiterate, despite some of its shortcomings, this game is one heck of ride online with the right people. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing one of your teammates pushing against a door of starving zombies to give you just a couple of more seconds to grab that much needed ammo. Even better is when a teammate falls to the ground pleading for help, and you’re right there to help him back on his feet. Then the both of you turn 180˚ to do a double shotgun to that zombie begging for his existence to end. Oh yes, the sweet smell of burnt flesh...err victory!
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