London - Hollywood’s current love affair with zombies is a weak echo of the decades-long romance between videogames and the living dead.
In any fantasy game, zombies haul themselves up out of the soil with an almost calming predictability, and ever since Doom introduced the gargle of the undead to its eerie soundtrack in 1993, they ve been a staple of shoot- em-ups, too.
No game has ever treated the undead with such outright love as the cult hit Resident Evil, one of the first to deliver heart-stopping frights as its characters stumble down horror film passages awaiting the clawing arms of their foes, usually with just one or two bullets to protect them.
The game not only spawned dozens of sequels and remakes, but five Hollywood films and an entire gaming genre: survival horror .
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (3DS) HHH is basically the same game with slightly different settings, such as Dead Space, where you’re frightened on a spaceship instead of on Earth.
The first Resident Evil appeared when Japan ruled the gaming world. The silly title, which refers to the fact that the first game took place in a mansion, hence resident , was actually the winner of a competition at the Japanese gaming company to name the English version. The game arrived in Britain in 1996 and became as well-known for its badly translated dialogue as for its well-orchestrated frights.
The latest incarnation arrives in a very different world; one where top stars not only voice games but star in the film versions.
If any fans have been wondering what former model Milla Jovovich has been up to of late, she’s been busy annihilating the zombies in the big-budget Hollywood film version of Resident Evil and its sequels: Apocalypse, Extinction, Afterlife and the upcoming Retribution.
The plot of Resident Evil a sinister corporation, Umbrella, has developed a virus that turns people into zombies has been reworked so often that it s become as convoluted as any soap opera.
So it’s something of a relief that this new title is just a series of challenges. There is no dialogue beyond the odd exhortation to “Go out there and show me what you can do!”
What you can do, of course, is what you’ve always done: run around (it’s third-person, so you look at your character on screen, and the frights feel very physical as a result) and try to shoot as many creatures as possible before they claw you to bits. This time, it’s all against the clock.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D looks great. It’s the first adult game for 3DS, and it lets the machine flex its muscles effectively.
Sadly, however, it’s incredibly poor value for money. The missions here are similar to those from Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, and any competent gamer will burn through them in a couple of hours. It’s been a long time since I finished a full-priced game this quickly, and after an initial glow of triumph, I was seething.
This is worth renting for the 3D effects, but I wouldn’t buy it. - Mail on Sunday