CAPCOM Resident Evil Confidential Report 1. 240x320
Pocket Gamer may not be Vogue, but boy do we know a trend when we see it. And this season, zombies are hot stuff. The vacant look to the eyes; the aloof, couldn't-care-less plodding; the blood-soaked lips that appear like smeared lipstick – already hot on the catwalk, it's a look to die for. If you aren't already undead, that is.
Just look at the games charts. Xbox 360 slash-em-up Dead Rising has already been a big hit – and now we're treated to a mobile phone version of Resident Evil.
Treated? Or should that be tainted? You see, Resident Evil Confidential Report is a bit of a poisoned chalice.
Taking the famously gory PlayStation zombie saga and compressing it down from 3D to 2D, Confidential Report File smartly contains all the hallmarks you'd expect to find in a horror-cum-action game, especially one in the Resident Evil series.
Divided into two distinct storylines, one focusing on rookie security guard Tyler Hamilton and the other on special agent Naomi McClain, you're charged with investigating the outbreak of a virus that has turned average citizens into brain-guzzling, flesh-chomping zombies. Playing as one of the two in alternating chapters, you explore both the inside of an exploded science facility as Naomi, and also find a way to escape while playing as Tyler.
All the series' devices are on hand and implemented. Typewriters dotted around the levels enable you to save your game; enemies vary between the traditional zombies through to mutant dogs and even weirder flesh-based monsters that defy description (in part because the animations are less than pint-sized, natch); levels require exploration, back tracking, and some mild switch-throwing puzzles to proceed; and ammo is rationed out like its caviar during World War Two in a bid to make battles tense and tactical.
Frustratingly, however, the execution disappoints – despite the fact that all of the Resi saga's key elements have been successfully regurgitated.
Combat is a pseudo turn-based affair that renders encounters with enemies fairly staccato and, when they aren't being deathly dull, hugely frustrating. You take a step, the enemy takes a step – it's not the most responsive system, and could be better, especially when the controls are a direct copy of what barely satisfied back when this series made its debut.
Admittedly, the original PlayStation Resident Evil games were known for an odd control system, where moving forward on the D-pad meant your character took a step forward, and you had to press left and right to make them turn left and right rather than move in that direction.
But is there really an excuse to recussitate the brain-dead controls from ten years ago on phones a decade later? We think not.
None of which is to say that this is ultimately a bad game. Tolerate the awkward controls and the stop-start action, and you'll find it satisfying, if a little short-lived.
But that slender lifespan is another off-putting element. This is just the first in an instalment of Resident Evil Files games – after working through this one, you'll be expected to buy the next and the next in order to see the story play out.
Episodic gaming like this is a great idea – it's chopped up and cheaper, and perfect for mobile phones – and of course it means you don't end up playing full price for a dud. But Resident Evil's take on it only proves the latter point a little too succcessfully, by being unappealingly average.
All in all, it's a missed opportunity. The insistence on being so faithful to what Resident Evil is – a zombie shooter game with sometimes iffy controls – means that this one will only feel right to the series' old faithful. As the first episode in a series of adventures, it should have started by hitting the ground running instead of shuffling along like a reawakened zombie.
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