Ever since it was first released on Playstation, the Resident Evil series has been the pinnacle of survival horror games. It has had a number of titles including the regular series, Code Veronica, Gamecube remakes with the inclusion of Resident Evil 0, and the online Outbreak series. (Not including a GBC game and a first person shooter that didn't quite cut it) The fourth installment came out sometime last year, and now Playstation 2 owners get their chance to play it.

You may recognize the main hero, Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 2. Leon was a rookie cop and got mixed up in the Raccoon City crisis on his first day on the job. He met up with Claire Redfeild and Ada Wong, and battled his worst nightmares in order to escape from the zombie ridden city. Now, Leon is a government agent of sorts, and his assignment is to rescure the president's daughter from a villiage in Europe. Sounds easy? Not quite.

You won't be fighting zombies this time around. The standard baddies are Spanish speaking cult members who are discriminately violent towards intruders. That means you. There will be no biting, instead, prepare to be slashed, set on fire, and shot by enemies who weild weapons and can actually run towards you. These guys could run circles around your everyday zombie.

Luckily, the fixed camera angles and archaic aiming system that made the origonal zombies so hard to kill is gone. Instead, you follow Leon from behing in a n almost cinimatic sort of way, and you can aim at your enemies by pressing the R1 button and pressing X to fire. Bam, headshot.

You'll still feel at home. This is still Resident Evil, complete with puzzles that don't seem like they belong, and keys and gems and the whole bit. The storage box is gone, but now you have an expanded area to hold your weapons. New weapons, upgrades, and bigger boxes can be bought by a mysterious merchant who seems to be everywhere you are. The boss battles are magnificant, and combat against regular enemies gets progressively harder... and more exciting. The new bonus missions, "Seperate Ways" exclusive to the PS2 version is interesting, but not as exciting as it could have been. But don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this game at all.

We've all seen better graphics, but this is as good as you'll get on PS2. The game always runs smooth too.

Overall, if you're a fan of the series or not, pick this one up. There are a few extras on your second play, so give it another go when you're done. If only all the Resident Evils could be remade like 'this' masterpeice.