Now the player must escape from seven different areas, each one filled to the brim with many 'shocking' traps and monsters. The action (if you can call it that) is based just a bit quicker than normal survival horror games - which isn't necessarily a bad thing if its implemented correctly since most survival horror games plod along pedestranily.

Not everything in the Illbleed arsenal has been taken directly from other Silent Hill-type games. There are a few new additions to the stable. For example in addition to using their eyesight, the player also uses two other senses - namely smell and hearing. They are also armed with a 'sixth sense' which goes off when impending danger is approaching. Although this is a very original idea, unfortunately in Illbleed's case it is simply poorly executed. The sixth sense just tells you that a trap is soon going to activate and get you, which in turn results in possibly the worst blood cut scene in the history of videogaming.

The character models are almost identical to the previous Climax Graphics (who Crazy Games were formerly known as) game - Blue Stinger. If anything they are worse than the ones in Blue Stinger which really is saying something. The characters are brightly coloured, but it's very off putting to see the joins between limbs and body etc. Other developers have overcome this problem and yet it still apparent in this game. Some of the animations are just so poor that they would provoke laughter from anyone who has seen the game running, which is hardly what I expected the developers would have wanted.

The graphics in Illbleed are bright and colourful, but in comparison with Code Veronica or any of the latest survival horror games on the ps2 for example, they are looking extremely dated. It appears as though Crazy Games reached their graphical peak with Blue Stinger not long after the Dreamcast's Japanese launch and just haven't progressed from there.

Controls can make or break a survival horror game, and whilst the action in Illbleed is very fast - much faster than usual Silent Hill fare - but the controls are much more sluggish than usual as well. This does not bode well for the game. When you have triggered a trap and need to move out of the way quickly but cannot because the game doesn't seem to want to respond to your pad movements, it just kills any enjoyment you might have been having up to that moment. Or when a monster is chasing you and you press "jump" to get out of the way (cue the piss-poor animation of the jump), it seems that Crazy have done everything to stop the game moving along fluidly.

The camera is more 3d platformer based rather than the normal survival horror. By this I mean that it's not fixed in place in each room but you can fix it to follow your character yourself. You use the d-pad to change the camera settings but the one I found most helpful is following your character from behind in the usual tombraider-esque fashion.

Not everything is doom and gloom - the levels are pretty large and there are plenty of monsters and traps to keep you going. Also there are 4 characters to use - you start with the purple-haired girl Eriko and can use the others when you find them (that's if you persevere enough to find them or even care to use 'em)

So to finish off Illbleed is a poor attempt at survival horror by the masters of poor attempts - Crazy Games. If you thought Blue Stinger was bad then this is even worse. For a game which featured so much hype I was expecting something really good but yet again the rush of disappointment has hit me. There are a lot of great ideas in the game but great ideas mean nothing without great execution and I am afraid that's entirely what has happened here. Yes, the levels are numerous and large, same with the monsters. Yes, there are some good weapons to find and yes, the graphics are up to Dreamcast quality in places. But the game itself isn't much fun to play which is the main reason for buying a game.