Resident Evil Dead Aim is a light gun shooter and classic RE hybrid made by the infamous budget developers, Cavia. Games by Cavia often had a certain je ne sais quoi, where they punched far above their weight in certain areas while still very much maintaining their budget status. Dead Aim is no different in this regard. More interesting is how prophetic Dead Aim proved to be, hinting at the future of the franchise as a whole.
I played through Dead Aim on my Steam Deck through emulation, so I did not use a light gun or USB mouse to control the aiming reticle. I found the right stick was accurate enough in scoring headshots without wasting too much ammo, at least until the brutal final boss. It took me 3 tries to beat the boss on Normal mode, I had not died in my playthrough otherwise. I found the game to be fairly easy overall. Save rooms provide unlimited pistol ammo, which is enough to take down all non-boss enemies, and there is a large selection of other weapons that can make quick work of tougher enemies and bosses.
The best part of Dead Aim is not the shooting, but the atmosphere and sound design. The drab colour palette and dark lighting work wonders for the feeling of horror. Hearing a zombie shuffling in the distance where you can just faintly make out their silhouette in the darkness lends itself nicely to a sense of dread, even if you have enough ammo to deal with most enemies. The cruise ship is an awesome setting that is well executed, with the below decks being a particular spooky highlight.
Nobuyoshi Sano of Drakengard fame was in charge of the sound in Dead Aim. There are no real melodic tracks within the environments, but droning ambient noise, footsteps of your player character and enemies, and moans of zombies envelop the sound scape. The save room theme is a lush ambient composition that is among the best in the series. Surprisingly, sound effects actually contribute to the gameplay. There is a stealth element, where enemies will only notice you when you have been loud enough. This can occur by running instead of walking, or by walking on noisy metal grates, or of course by shooting at other enemies without a silenced weapon. The silenced pistol is the weakest weapon with the smallest ammo clip, but it is useful in sneaking through areas without taking damage or consuming excess ammo. There is one boss battle that makes full use of these mechanics in a very novel way, and is quite fun as a result.
Despite being a light gun game, Dead Aim incorporates plenty of elements of classic RE design. The game's environments utilize backtracking as well as lock-and-key puzzles to slowly expand the explorable area. There are lots of rooms off the beaten path containing additional weapons, ammo, and healing items, encouraging some light exploration. In true Survival Horror fashion, you are actually able to skip or run past most enemies in the game, saving valuable resources in the process. The above mentioned stealth mechanics contribute to this, as does a quick dodge similar to the one in Resident Evil 3. The quick dodge in Dead Aim is much more reliable and easier to activate compared to that previous game.
Dead Aim can be seen as a prototype of Resident Evil 4 in some ways, or at the very least a test bench for some ideas in that later game. You play as a blond-haired American Secret Service agent wearing a grey body suit. No, that's not Leon S. Kennedy, it's Bruce McGivern. There is another playable character, a Chinese spy also involved in the operation that serves as a love interest for the male protagonist. No, not Ada Wong, it's Fongling. The gameplay takes the Survival Horror base of the previous games and injects it with some shooting action. Both Dead Aim and 4 have tank controls but use over the shoulder cameras with stop-and-pop shooting gameplay when you press/hold a shoulder button, though Dead Aim transitions to first-person and allows you to move around while in aiming mode. These parallels are very interesting. It's fun to imagine some Capcom employees instructing Cavia to implement certain features as a test of their playability and fun factor.
The story in Dead Aim is mostly nonsense. There is a trans-coded male-presenting villain who transforms into an extremely femme, fishy-looking tyrant. That feels problematic to me, with Bruce referring to the tyrant with male pronouns at least once. The plot is mostly an excuse to get Bruce and Fongling onto the cruise ship, which is a very fun setting to be fair. The voice acting is terrible, but at least in an enjoyable RE-style way. Bruce's southern accent is constantly slipping, which doesn't help him avoid feeling like a complete loser. Whereas Leon is a dorky but cute action hero who tries to act cooler than he is, Bruce pretends to act stupider than he really is to trick his opponents into letting their guards down. That characterization doesn't really work for me, and makes Bruce feel as stupid as he acts.
The graphics are certanly budget, with even the CG cutscenes looking off. The environment design makes it work, as does the enemy design, which is mostly quite interesting. The zombies have gotten a lot of care, with many unique character models for different parts of the game. There are cool new enemy designs like the Glimmers, shadow-stepping Hunter-like bastards that are better ran away from than fought. There are 3 tyrant-like bosses in the game and they all look pretty unique and have novel mechanics. Unfortunately, Bruce and Fongling look terrible. They are low poly and have strangely elongated necks. It's not the hugest deal as you spend a significant amount of the experience in first-person view anyway, but it bears mentioning.
To conclude, Resident Evil Dead Aim is a fun and short little experimental spin-off. It does not overstay its welcome. I had a good time with it, with the exception of the difficult final boss. It's nothing special, but classic RE diehards and light gun enthusiasts might get a kick out of it.
I played through Dead Aim on my Steam Deck through emulation, so I did not use a light gun or USB mouse to control the aiming reticle. I found the right stick was accurate enough in scoring headshots without wasting too much ammo, at least until the brutal final boss. It took me 3 tries to beat the boss on Normal mode, I had not died in my playthrough otherwise. I found the game to be fairly easy overall. Save rooms provide unlimited pistol ammo, which is enough to take down all non-boss enemies, and there is a large selection of other weapons that can make quick work of tougher enemies and bosses.
The best part of Dead Aim is not the shooting, but the atmosphere and sound design. The drab colour palette and dark lighting work wonders for the feeling of horror. Hearing a zombie shuffling in the distance where you can just faintly make out their silhouette in the darkness lends itself nicely to a sense of dread, even if you have enough ammo to deal with most enemies. The cruise ship is an awesome setting that is well executed, with the below decks being a particular spooky highlight.
Nobuyoshi Sano of Drakengard fame was in charge of the sound in Dead Aim. There are no real melodic tracks within the environments, but droning ambient noise, footsteps of your player character and enemies, and moans of zombies envelop the sound scape. The save room theme is a lush ambient composition that is among the best in the series. Surprisingly, sound effects actually contribute to the gameplay. There is a stealth element, where enemies will only notice you when you have been loud enough. This can occur by running instead of walking, or by walking on noisy metal grates, or of course by shooting at other enemies without a silenced weapon. The silenced pistol is the weakest weapon with the smallest ammo clip, but it is useful in sneaking through areas without taking damage or consuming excess ammo. There is one boss battle that makes full use of these mechanics in a very novel way, and is quite fun as a result.
Despite being a light gun game, Dead Aim incorporates plenty of elements of classic RE design. The game's environments utilize backtracking as well as lock-and-key puzzles to slowly expand the explorable area. There are lots of rooms off the beaten path containing additional weapons, ammo, and healing items, encouraging some light exploration. In true Survival Horror fashion, you are actually able to skip or run past most enemies in the game, saving valuable resources in the process. The above mentioned stealth mechanics contribute to this, as does a quick dodge similar to the one in Resident Evil 3. The quick dodge in Dead Aim is much more reliable and easier to activate compared to that previous game.
Dead Aim can be seen as a prototype of Resident Evil 4 in some ways, or at the very least a test bench for some ideas in that later game. You play as a blond-haired American Secret Service agent wearing a grey body suit. No, that's not Leon S. Kennedy, it's Bruce McGivern. There is another playable character, a Chinese spy also involved in the operation that serves as a love interest for the male protagonist. No, not Ada Wong, it's Fongling. The gameplay takes the Survival Horror base of the previous games and injects it with some shooting action. Both Dead Aim and 4 have tank controls but use over the shoulder cameras with stop-and-pop shooting gameplay when you press/hold a shoulder button, though Dead Aim transitions to first-person and allows you to move around while in aiming mode. These parallels are very interesting. It's fun to imagine some Capcom employees instructing Cavia to implement certain features as a test of their playability and fun factor.
The story in Dead Aim is mostly nonsense. There is a trans-coded male-presenting villain who transforms into an extremely femme, fishy-looking tyrant. That feels problematic to me, with Bruce referring to the tyrant with male pronouns at least once. The plot is mostly an excuse to get Bruce and Fongling onto the cruise ship, which is a very fun setting to be fair. The voice acting is terrible, but at least in an enjoyable RE-style way. Bruce's southern accent is constantly slipping, which doesn't help him avoid feeling like a complete loser. Whereas Leon is a dorky but cute action hero who tries to act cooler than he is, Bruce pretends to act stupider than he really is to trick his opponents into letting their guards down. That characterization doesn't really work for me, and makes Bruce feel as stupid as he acts.
The graphics are certanly budget, with even the CG cutscenes looking off. The environment design makes it work, as does the enemy design, which is mostly quite interesting. The zombies have gotten a lot of care, with many unique character models for different parts of the game. There are cool new enemy designs like the Glimmers, shadow-stepping Hunter-like bastards that are better ran away from than fought. There are 3 tyrant-like bosses in the game and they all look pretty unique and have novel mechanics. Unfortunately, Bruce and Fongling look terrible. They are low poly and have strangely elongated necks. It's not the hugest deal as you spend a significant amount of the experience in first-person view anyway, but it bears mentioning.
To conclude, Resident Evil Dead Aim is a fun and short little experimental spin-off. It does not overstay its welcome. I had a good time with it, with the exception of the difficult final boss. It's nothing special, but classic RE diehards and light gun enthusiasts might get a kick out of it.