Resident Evil: Dead Aim

Resident Evil: Dead Aim is one of the series' lesser-known spin-offs, and the only version was made specifically for PlayStation 2, where it makes use of the GunCon 2 peripheral. The story takes place aboard the cruise ship Spencer Rain and later in an underground military complex, where secret agent Bruce McGivern and former Umbrella employee Fong Ling get caught up in a search for a bioweapon that a criminal organization is trying to obtain. The game mixes classic third-person environment traversal with the familiar tension of limited ammo, save ribbons, and security doors that the series is known for from its earlier numbered entries.

The key difference from the main line is the combat system: at the moment of engagement, the camera switches to a first-person view down the gun sights and the player shoots directly at the screen, ideally using a light gun instead of the standard controller, which the game also supported. This hybrid makes Dead Aim more of an action rail shooter than a classic survival horror – the pace is faster, there are fewer puzzles, but the game offers collecting special weapon parts for upgrades and steadily escalating waves of enemies, something the rest of the series never relies on. In terms of engine, the game builds on older entries, so the environments of the ship and the underground laboratories look dated even by the standards of the time, when more graphically advanced titles were already coming out on PS2, but the combination of classic exploration and arcade shooting still makes it an interesting experiment within the series.

Dead Aim never got a sequel or a remaster and remained a closed chapter for PS2 and the GunCon peripheral, which makes it something of a curiosity today, more for series fans than for newcomers who'd want to start with the series through it.

Why play it: Dead Aim is for series fans who want to see an unusual experiment with sight-based shooting, and for collectors who own a GunCon 2 light gun at home and are looking for another use for it beyond classic arcade rail shooters.