Survival! The constant battle to exist. Since the dawn of videogame time this has been a cornerstone of almost every title released. Many may state that it was Interplay who created a new style of game centred on this most primeval of instincts with Alone In The Dark, but even though they were the first through the doors of the survival horror mansion they were being followed. In 1996, the world could only stand and watch as Resident Evil lumbered out of the shadows, grabbed the fledgling genre and blew its brains out in our faces.

The game's combination of cinematic presentation, plot, tension and gore infected players the world over and spawned not only sequels of its own but mutant imitations from other developers. Time moves quickly, however, and Resident Evil struggled to keep up. Capcom's various different tactics of new back stories, half-assed online play and dodgy spin offs failed to reanimate their beast. Many devotees of the franchise grew disillusioned with the sluggish pace and difficult controls and began loading their shotguns ready to put it out of its misery. Running for their lives, the developers took shelter back at Capcom Towers, where they set to work on the ultimate mutation. When the angry mob came banging on the door they unleashed their last line of defence, their new creation, Resident Evil 4.

Back for another bite of the action is Leon S Kennedy. We first met Leon in Resident Evil 2 when, as an ambitious rookie cop, he arrived in Racoon City on the same day the locals became enraged with their You Are What You Eat cookbooks and switched over to a cannibalistic diet. Many would have taken this, shortly followed by the government's decision to wipe their new hometown off the face of the earth, as a bad omen for their new career in law enforcement. It didn't deter Leon though; after Racoon City went horizontal, he picked up his P45 and set off for pastures new. We join him at the start of RE4, now a U.S Government agent, travelling in the back of a police car, somewhere in central Europe, attempting to track down the President's kidnapped daughter who has been sighted in a nearby village.

Unsurprisingly, as this is a Resident Evil game, the villagers are not the friendly locals Leon might have read about in his Rough Guide to Central Europe. Instead they're the kind of people who would cause their local tourist board sweaty palm and sleepless nights (and not because they're all petty thieves or on ASBOs) and no amount of smug, attempted American charm or even a seemingly unending supply of US dollars for the purchase of tacky local souvenirs to hold up the local economy is going to help. As with previous Resident Evil games, the intro movie does a good job of building the tension without giving much away; in fact, the most horrific thing about it is the fact that Leon still appears to be sporting the same Duran Duran hairstyle he had in RE2!

When you finally get control of Leon you'll notice, even without moving a muscle, that the first major change which has been implemented for the new game is a complete overhaul of the visuals. The fixed cinematic camera angles are gone, replaced by a constant over the shoulder view. Holding down the L1 or R1 buttons makes Leon draw his knife or firearm respectively and also brings the camera in closer, narrowing your field of vision, but giving you a better view of what you're aiming at. Drawing Leon's firearm also brings up the fantastic new laser targeting system, which is a huge improvement over the old point and prey shooting of past games and works so well in no small part due to the stunning graphics, which are some of the best seen on the aging PS2, coming within a hair's breath of those of the Gamecube original, and super fluid animation. Aiming your laser sight at an evildoer allows you to pinpoint specific areas of their body for some strategic shooting; for example, if a villager starts running towards you, then you can put a bullet in his leg to slow him down, or you might allow a villager to light a stick of dynamite and then shoot him in the stomach for a predictable but satisfying reward. This new level of detail adds to the depth of the game play and, more importantly, is very cool.

When you finally do move a muscle the second thing you'll notice is the dramatic change of pace. The developers have gone through the gears for this new title, resulting in a radical effect on the game's style. Whereas previous games were a tribute to older horror films such as George A Romero's original zombie trilogy, RE4 moves at much more of an action packed speed similar to the pace of new movies such as 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of The Dead. The new enemies not only bring the evil at an increased rate of knots but in much greater numbers than ever before. They also seem more intelligent than the good old living dead, often calling for back up if they spot you.

In previous games the directional controls often changed from one screen to the next, creating confusion and slowing the game down further. Often you'd end up spinning round on the spot like an O.A.P at a rave while zombies moved in to devour you. Running from one screen to another was a particular problem and if Capcom had simply kept the set up of previous titles and ramped up the pace they could have found themselves with a turkey on their hands. Thankfully, moving Leon in RE4 is much more instinctive due to the new fixed view and controls. The camera position also seems to encourage the new, faster speed; maybe it's something to do with the fact you can't see what's behind you, but it feels like the screen is constantly pushing Leon ever onwards. The new controls are not perfect, however. When your weapon is drawn you can rotate but you can't move from the spot you're on. The ability to strafe is also missing and whilst these limits to Leon's abilities increase the tension, they can also lead, at points, to some annoying results. Thankfully, you do have a 180-degree turn move, which comes in very useful, especially when you stand your ground until the split second before it's too late.

A good job has also been done of increasing the pace during that great divider of gamers, the cut scenes. A number of these provide some of the most memorable moments of the game due to the fact they are now interactive, requiring various button presses at key moments. You can't help feeling that other highly regarded games could learn from the way these usually quieter moments have been turned on their head and spiced up into high adrenaline situations.

The puzzles in previous RE games weren't exactly Mensa standard, so it's slightly sad that what depth there was seems to have been reduced further to fit in with the higher tempo. As a result what you get is a collection of Christmas cracker style tasks that are generally easy to overcome with little intelligent thought and a bit of trial and error. Whether this is a bad thing is a matter of personal opinion but, with one exception, at least they don't keep you away from the main action for long.

In actual fact, the only real let up in the pace comes when you have to dip into your attaché case. This replaces the old chest storage system and gives you a limited amount of space to hold all your items. It's possible that the set up for the case could be regarded as adding an extra underlying element of strategy to proceedings, as you have to decide what you pick up and purchase, then arrange it all to make best use of the space, but there's no need for the sort of continual, mild frustration this causes in a game of this type and it really does nothing to assist your enjoyment. It's true that the game would be easier without the restrictions imposed by the case, but this extra difficulty could have been achieved in a less annoying ways, like having fewer items to collect or treasure being less valuable.

In any game it's always important that the music is appropriate. By the very nature of a survival game, however, it's critical that the music not only fits the mood but enhances it. The best survival game scores lead the mind down imaginary paths of thought and represent the awful possibilities just out of view. This means the music needs to be dramatic, hanging in the air, thickening the tension like an invisible fog around you. The development team are old hands at this now and understand exactly what's required. Even thought you may not notice it a lot of the time, the tone of the music keeps you on edge. Every major new area has a different musical accompaniment and every time you move from one area to the next the pace of the score seems to go up a notch, making you constantly believe you're close to the finale, even when you are still a long way off.

While the in game music is very good, it's hard to argue that the dialogue isn't cheesy at best. It needs to be remembered though that this isn't Shakespeare: The Video Game, but an attempt to create a playable action B-movie and, as a result, the scripting and acting are bad enough to be perfectly appropriate. A special mention must go to the merchant you meet at various points on your travels; he sells you items in exchange for the treasure you collect and appears to have been on his company's call centre style training course, as every time you meet him he has an extremely limited selection of set, impersonal phrases that he does not deviate from. The fact that you run into him so often means that by the end of the game you'll be embarrassingly reproducing his catchphrases in conversations with friends, family members and work colleagues (including doing the same stupid accent).

If you are searching for minus points, the only remaining grumbles about the game are the facts that whilst in previous episodes the plots were farfetched but still bordering on believable, the story in the new game is just that bit too silly. Also, as with many games, whilst some of the boss battles are inspired, others are much more run of the mill and seem like letdowns in comparison; for example, not far into the game Leon journeys down a cable car suspended above a chasm and when he reaches the bottom he follows a path to a house where he fights a boss. The fight has some nice moments but I couldn't help thinking how much better it could have been if it had taken place over the chasm with Leon having to jump from cable car to cable car whilst battling the boss at the same time.

These slight quibbles should not diminish the fact that, from the ashes of the series, Capcom has created one of the best action games ever seen. You creep around corners, you run for your life from chainsaw wielding Leatherface impersonators, you dodge axes and arrows sent at you with continual intent, you take cover behind pillars and throw yourself through windows to escape the onrushing hordes, you scream out loud as you empty whole clips into onrushing enemies who just keep coming as you desperately try and reload. Yes, this is survival, but as Capcom have said it's no longer survival horror - it's survival action and it's all experienced on a stunning journey through environments and tasks that change frequently enough to keep things fresh and interesting.

Capcom have achieved that great feat of managing to shed off the problems of the past without forgetting how they came to be here and the result is not only a joy to play but, compared to previous titles, is almost epic in length and introduces extra missions and weapons after the first time through that enhance the replay value even further. In a way parallel to the dark, Darwinesque message close to its soul, the Resident Evil species has adapted and, as a consequence, continues not only to survive, but to flourish.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).