As one of the most successful series in gaming history, the next-generation Resident Evil has surely been the most eagerly anticipated release of the year. It certainly has for me anyway and I'm delighted (and frightened) to say that it was most definitely worth the wait.

Surely there can't be anyone left who knows anything about games but doesn't know what Resident Evil is? But, for the benefit of that one person who fell down a crevasse and has survived deep beneath the Earth's crust for the last seven years, only to resurface recently, here's a quick rundown for you. Resident Evil is the original survival horror game. Your character is trapped in a location crawling with flesh-eating mutants of a revolting nature. With a very limited supply of ammo and medical help to hand, you must use skill, wits and guile to explore the area, solve puzzles, dodge and kill zombies and survive long enough to find a way out of this nightmare. Resident Evil also introduced the usage of movie-like camera angles in a game. Rather than viewing from behind your character, each room is viewed from several set camera angles that change depending on your location in the room. This serves to make the game feel more like a film and also creates tension as you can't always see around corners until you walk around them. However, the original Resident Evil was a PSOne release and as such was not really graphically advanced enough to produce that many big scares (although it managed a few, believe me). With the advent of this new release the rules have changed.

Resident Evil is a visually revolutionary game. It is the best looking game around. Although comparisons are perhaps unfair due to the different nature of the games, Resident Evil is in some respects graphically superior even to the astonishing Halo on Xbox. Never have characters looked more lifelike. Never has animation been so realistic. Never has character detail been so stunning. But that's not the best part. The mansion where the game takes place has been reinvented and looks pretty much real. Thunder booms outside and lightning flashes through the windows, lighting the room and momentarily creating shadows of all the objects and people in sight. Flickering candles and crackling fires cast eerie shadows across the walls, ceiling and floor. Dust flies up from the carpet as you run. In the several new outdoor locations, the moonlit trees and grass blow gently in the wind, as if real. Mist hangs eerily above the ground. I cannot emphasise enough how stunning this game looks.

But it is the combination of graphics, sound and music that creates the most tense and tangible atmosphere ever to exist in a game. The sound effects are absolutely real. Your footsteps on carpet, stairs or marble floors are totally authentic and whilst the carpeted footsteps are muffled, the marble footsteps echo. The opening of doors, firing of weapons and sounds of the creatures you find are totally convincing. Add to this the familiar soundtrack rendered with real instruments and stereo sound and the atmosphere is complete. Now, more than ever, it feels less like a game and more like you're really there. And that means that when dogs burst through windows and super-fast zombies burst through doors (yes folks, they've learned to use door handles) it really is scary. When you can see the rotting flesh hanging from a zombie's skeletal face as its blank, white eyes widen and it lurches forward to sink its teeth deep into your shoulder, it is pretty disturbing and unpleasant. And the sound effects that go with the flesh chewing sound very real.

It is not just the presentation that has been changed either. Although the control and inventory systems remain the same, there are new additions that improve the gameplay, making it easier and harder at the same time. The improvement in your favour is the addition of defense items. These come in the form of daggers and flash grenades that are littered around the game and you carry them separately to your inventory, so they don't take up those precious item slots. When attacked by a zombie, you can use these weapons to prevent it biting you. Just as it lurches forward you either whip out a dagger and stab it into its head, or you shove a flash grenade in its mouth and get far enough away before its head explodes! This is a very useful addition that gives you a second chance when a zombie grabs you. However, the bad news is that the zombies don't stay dead any more. You must either blow up their heads or burn their corpses. If you don't do this, in time they will come back to life and this time they are superfast psycho-zombies. I'm not kidding you, they tear down the corridors before you can react and swipe at you. It's very scary, especially if you don't have any ammo at the time! You can burn their bodies by filling a gas flask with fuel and setting light to them, but you are given time to find the flask and fuel cannisters before the ones you've killed start coming back to life.

The weapons and monsters from the original are all here, plus some new ones. I don't want to spoil the surprises, but a lot of the mansion has changed and been extended, with many objects in different places and a lot of old puzzles being replaced by different ones. There are also many completely new areas with brand new puzzles and objects to find. It's certainly different enough for fans of the original and the additions and extensions work extremely well. New movie segments expand the plot of the original game as well. There are two different versions of the game, as before. You can play through as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine and each character must carry out similar tasks and puzzles, but meets different characters and follows a different part of the story. Only by playing through the entire massive game (and it is massive, believe me) with both characters will you piece together the full story, from the people you meet, the notes and files you find and the puzzles you solve.

The only criticism I could level at the game is that the control method is still a little fiddly and annoying at times (but how else they could do this and whilst keeping the multiple camera angles I'm not sure) and the puzzles can be a little too easy on occasion, but neither of these minor points detract in any way from the experience.

Like the virus that created the range of disgusting zombies and monsters in the game, Resident Evil has mutated into something far more fearsome than its predecessor. Featuring the most lifelike and astonishing visuals and sounds you've ever seen, the spookiest atmosphere you could hope for, a gripping storyline and a vastly extended and redesigned location, this is without doubt the Gamecube's new number one, must-have title. Everyone who owns a Gamecube should buy this without delay and everyone without a Gamecube now has a rock solid reason to buy one.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).