Resident Evil: Uprising

Resident Evil has been through every possible scenario involving zombies and a couple of well-armed, very capable survivors desperately trying to get away from them.

It's seen huge success, and dismal failure, but it seems there's still life in the series yet (well, undead life) as Capcom returns to the roots of the series by putting a new twist on its genre.

Resident Evil: Uprising is based on the second game, which introduced series stalwarts Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, but plays in a very different way to most every other Resi game we've seen so far.

Isometric survivalism

In many respects, you could argue that it's true to its shooter origins, but being wrapped around an isometric game makes it feel more like an RPG. You take control of both Leon and Claire - switching between them at will through the in-game menu - as they fight their way through zombie-ravaged Raccoon City.

Because of the isometric layout, you can only move perpendicular to the walls, which also adds something of an RTS feel to the action. When a zombie attacks, for instance, it's easy to align yourself to shoot them down, as everyone is moving along the same grid.

Of course, this also removes much of the sharp shooting skills that epitomise this kind of game, replacing them with an interesting timer gauge that determines a head shot if you stop it when the pointer is in the 'red zone'. It works surprisingly well, and means you can still enjoy some pretty intense shoot outs even with such small characters.

A long walk

The plot follows the original game, more or less, and the exploration using the familiar method of hitting a button when stood next to something you want to examine, or use. It's all very simple, but there's really no need for complexity here.

The cartoony characters, and the strange disco dance they perform when trying to walk across a diagonal route rob Resident Evil: Uprising of much of its dignity, however.

The expansive environment, which at first seems like an impressive feature, also makes the exploratory aspects of play quite laborious, as walking from one end of a room to the other can be enough to give you serious thumb cramp.

It's definitely an interesting experiment on Capcom's part, much like Doom RPG was for id Software, though it's not the mobile reinvention of the franchise that it could have been.

Resident Evil: Uprising

More of an interesting experiment in trying to reinvent the Resident Evil franchise for mobile, and while it hasn't really been a roaring success, RPG fans might well appreciate the horror/survival take on this typically cute genre
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Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.