I've been playing this game quite a bit in the past fortnight or so. About half way through both Chris and Jill's scenario, my dreams revolve around finding more ammo and destroying more of the goddamned undead. How is it holding up so far? Well let's see.

The graphics are beautiful. Yeah, yeah they're pre-rendered. Whoopie. The game is still stunning. Lighting, reflections off of the leathers in character's clothing, the immaculate detail to the rotting flesh of the hordes of undead. It's simply gorgeous. What hit me the most was that in the opening FMV, the character models look exactly the same as the in-game. The weapons are modeled well and you can examine them in fine detail via the Menu command. Most of them will show the fire/reload animation too. (It doesn't cost bullets, of course.) Animation has been overhauled extensively. No longer do your characters do the "walk forward animation" when turning on a circle, instead when you press left or right they take actual steps.

Though I don't find the game remotely frightening, the mood is excellent. Mikami's team did very well in renovating the Mansion to have a dank, deteriorating look. Good use of camera angles and shadowing add to this effect. Zombies and other monstrous creations moan into the night calling you to your doom. Sounds have definitely been redone. All of the "classic" BH voice/sound effects have been redone. (For instance Cerberus dogs no longer have their "patented" "nail clicking".) Speaking of the voice, it's both a pleasure and a disappointment to find the Voice Acting extremely well done; especially by BH "standards". A disappointment in that part of BH's charm was the hilariously horrible dialogue and laughably bad voice actors. I'm sorry BH vets, "the master of unlocking" is no longer on the schedule. Even the classic "Barry........ Where's.........Barry?" has been redone into something entirely more serious.

Onto the controls. For you BH fans, the classic system is intact for your clumsy pleasure. Hold Up on the Control Stick (or D-pad, though I prefer the Control stick,) and hold B to run. It's actually a bit tighter than what we've been used to on the PSX. However, I would strongly recommend everyone use Control Setup "C". It sounds a bit complicated: you hold the R trigger to move forward. Hold it down slightly and you walk. Click-Action makes you run. The Control stick moves you left and right and you can press Down to walk backwards. I know it sounds very awkward, but it is a vast improvement over the original's controls. It's quite easy to dodge by zombies and all sort of other acrobatics. The only problem fans will have is that you'll still automatically want to press R to bring up your weapon (it has been changed to "L"): I know I spent my share of time running into Zombies instead of shooting them. However once you get past that initial screwing-up stage you'll grow to love the new controls.

While I did mention it in the mailbag, BH is nothing close to a "rehash". The game is almost entirely new. To get the first two keys, not only do you go through entirely unfamiliar areas, but there are new puzzles (I will say the Armour Key is quite ingenious, though not exactly realistic), and the only "familiar" things I have run into was the Shotgun Puzzle and a few minor things. The game takes into account your familiarity of the original and then uses it against you, thereby buggering you all up.

Now, one last thing I should get to. While the game is understandable to those without any Japanese knowledge, (the VA are already in English, and you can usually fumble through puzzles) I would recommend against importing unless you are extremely fluent in Japanese for two reasons: The game will be reaching American shores quite soon, and you won't understand any of the files or little references tossed throughout the game. And THAT is half of the fun of BH: reading the researchers' last requests, or the Gardener's famous diary entry of ".......itchy............. tasty........"