Released in August 2000 for the PSX, Resident Evil: Survivor (a localization of Japan's Biohazard: Gun Survivor) was a The House of the Dead wannabe with horrendous graphics and control, a first-person GunCon shooter bizarrely stripped of GunCon support by a politically correct Capcom USA. The 2001 follow up, Gun Survivor 2 (based on Code: Veronica), didn't even rate a U.S. release, but Gun Survivor 3: Dino Crisis came to American last year under the name Dino Stalker, receiving a tepid 50 percent review score from this very website.

Considering the sordid history of the series, Resident Evil: Dead Aim (a.k.a. Gun Survivor 4) had nowhere to go but up -- and judging by the preview version, it's gone way up, addressing virtually every flaw of the previous GS games. It's a fast and fluid take on Resident Evil that effortlessly jumps between third-person exploration and first-person action, and replaces the convoluted movement and inventory systems of the early RE games with a simple, streamlined interface.

I'm gonna get goofy with old-school references here, but Dead Aim's gameplay somewhat reminded me of The Lone Ranger (an NES game that combined third-person side-scroll levels with first-person zapper sequences), and its 3D engine somewhat reminded me of Die Hard Arcade (a PlayStation game that wisely sacrificed detail for blinding 60 FPS speed). Dead Aim is, in many ways, a better game than any Resident Evil before it; the earlier entries in the series would be significantly more playable and fun if they were recast in this engine.

Dead Aim casts you as Bruce McGivern, an American spy who's infiltrated a cruise liner owned by Umbrella and infected with the zombie-makin' T-virus. After being pistol-whipped by a white-haired terrorist named Morpheus, McGivern is rescued by a mysterious grenade-lobbing female, and makes his way into the ship to capture him a scumbag and shoot him some flesh-gobblers.

Dead Aim can be played with either the Dual Shock 2 or the GunCon 2, although it's unquestionably more entertaining with the latter. When playing with the DS2, the left stick or d-pad controls McGivern's movement; press and hold L1 to sneak around, or press and hold X to sneak/strafe. When playing with the GunCon 2, the d-pad on the back of the barrel controls McG's movement; press and hold A to sneak, or press and hold B to sneak/strafe. While you could feasibly "one-hand" your way through most of the game, it's easier to work the GunCon 2 with both of your paws, working SELECT and START with your left thumb and everything else with your right hand.

Fongling, the grenade-lobbing female.
The SELECT button calls up a map (if you've found one), on which the game very kindly indicates which doors are impassable, which are newly unlocked, and which have been passed through. (I wish all in-game maps were this friendly.) The START button calls up the inventory screen, where you select your weapon, use healing items (including RE's ubiquitous medicinal sprays and green herbs), and view any documents you've collected. Puzzle-solving items are viewable, but not accessible, from the inventory; they're automatically used when you examine the item's related puzzle, by pressing X on the DS2 or B on the GC2.