RESIDENT EVIL 4, Format: PS2. Publisher: Capcom. Price: £39.99. Family friendly? 16+: THIS game may have been around longer than a re-animated corpse in a Lucio Fulci splatter-fest but until now, the delights of Resident Evil 4 have been restricted to owners of Nintendo's Game Cube.

The exclusivity contract is now up and the latest instalment of this seminal horror franchise is now finally available on the world's favourite games console: the PS2.

Many Sony devotees reckon the PlayStation to be the natural home of this series, conveniently forgetting that Resident Evil also appeared on the Sega Saturn.

In the nine years since the first game appeared, this series has had its ups and downs, yet has remained the standard bearer for the survival horror genre. The years may have been kind to the original game but not its method of controlling the main protagonists. The robotic movement and clumsy control have become serious irritants, especially to gamers who arrived late to the series and couldn't see why a Resi game didn't offer 3-D characters and real-time environments.

Resident Evil 4 changes all that. It takes everything that was wrong and makes it right without ruining the white knuckle ride that every Resi game promises.

Some sequences are so breathtakingly cinematic that they could have come directly from the latest George Romero movie epic, Land of the Dead.

Fans of these games are reunited with STARS agent Leon Kennedy, sent to a strange European village to investigate the disappearance of the US President's daughter.

Only this time, he isn't dealing with mindless zombies.

As with the latest Dead movie, the monsters have evolved and have become more cunning. Consequently, they are more dangerous.

You'll understand the moment you meet an old man who comes at Kennedy with an axe, seemingly oblivious to the 9mm he holds in his hand. There's no time to reason, Kennedy has to unload a clip into his body or it's "game over".

As if anyone needed reminding that this game is a horror movie homage, the action is presented in a cinematic widescreen format. This helps give Kennedy more peripheral vision so he can see what's creeping up in the darker corners of the set.

You view the action from just behind Kennedy's head and the camera zooms in to an over-the-shoulder angle when your character draws a weapon. This helps aiming with the laser sight.

Most of the shooting is done at pretty close quarters anyway, so you don't have to become a crack shot to put down the bad guys.

Mind you, the zoom-in feature also stacks the odds against Kennedy because multiple enemies will try to surround him and it's sometimes hard to figure out when this is happening. The control command that turns Kennedy around is a godsend.

Just like the original game, Resi 4 has cracked the art of building almost unbearable suspense. So even when Kenndy isn't really doing anything more than exploring his surroundings, you're constantly on edge, anticipating the next attack.

The attention to detail is beautifully slick, such as the way Kennedy can shoot out a foe's knees to disable them or the way he staggers back when an enemy bursts into flames (incendiary grenades don't ya know?)

And remember those irritating doors that opened so slowly to disguise the original's loading times? Well now Kennedy can open them cautiously or simply kick them in.

More frights await veterans of this series. Always thought the sure-fire way of putting down a bad guy was to blast them in the head? Not in this adventure. Some of the baddies just flinch and keep on coming, even if you hit them right between the eyes.

The first time this happened I couldn't quite believe it. From then on, I approached every creature with renewed caution, even though Kennedy was packing some serious firepower.

Although it's pretty obvious where you should go most of the time, a map is available should you get lost.

The puzzle elements have taken a back seat to the action-adventure stuff in this sequel, but fans will still appreciate the need to use lateral thinking to solve the odd conundrum.

Capcom has also pitched the difficulty level just right, so you never feel cheated but you never feel comfortable, either. Save points are available throughout for players who need some respite (or want to check behind the curtains).

The usual inventory screen holds your weapons, items and potions. Capcom hasn't come up with a better way of switching things around and it still sometimes slows down the on-screen mayhem. You can purchase weapons upgrades from a mysterious shopkeeper along the way.

Capcom reckons it will take around 25 hours to play through the game first time around - that's about twice as long as the previous running time champ, Resident Evil 2. Multiple branching levels and lots of secret items to uncover add to the replay value.

The PS2 version has some extras not seen on the Game Cube, such as expanded missions, new areas to explore and a new story to play through using a new character (Ada Wong).

When it came out on the Game Cube, Resi 4 was rightly applauded as one of the best looking games available.

Time has not diminished its polish and Capcom's teams have clearly spent many a long hour transferring their work from Nintendo to Sony. This is a remarkable game, a classic of the genre, and any horror fan will have to add it to their collection.

Published: 04/11/2005