Resident Evil in Hong Kong: immersive live-action version of video game will satisfy your appetite for fright

• Just in time for Halloween, Legendary survival horror series that has spawned six films so far has been brought to life in a creepy office building in Kwun Tong
• The thought of a ravenous zombie waiting around every dark corner guarantees a scary, but hilarious, experience; will you be Leon or Claire?

"You go first," comes the call from at least one of our party. I could not tell you who. We're in an office block in Kwun Tong, East Kowloon, but the only business we're in is being scared.

This is Resident Evil 2: Infection, Hong Kong's first immersive live-action version of the video game " opened just in time for Halloween. For those not familiar with the game, it's a survival horror series " it actually coined the term for the first game in the series back in 1996.

The chances are that you are familiar with it on the big screen. The series " six films and counting over the last 14 years " has generated upwards of US$1.2 billion worldwide, the most for a video-game spin-off franchise.

There's no denying the cultural sway of the Resident Evil series " Japanese video game giant Capcom's gift keeps on giving.

According to reports earlier this year it is being turned into a TV show by Netflix;, there is another film on the way; and it has inspired board games and even a Tokyo restaurant.

There's clearly an appetite for fright, which explains why it has also been the source material for a haunted house at Universal Studios Florida and a live-action version at various video game launches, which brings us to an office in Kwun Tong one Saturday night and our first decision of the night.

Which of Resident Evil 2 's characters do we play as to escape the Raccoon Police Department (RPD)? Your options are rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy, who is on his first day of duty, or student Claire Redfield, who is looking for her lost brother.

It does not matter if you have played the game before, although those who have will like some of the faithful touches hidden within, starting with these separate adventures for Leon and Claire.

The only thing that you know for certain going in is that the Claire option is the one where you can also get a photograph.

This being Hong Kong, the ticket book for the Claire route is much more depleted than Leon's. Not wanting to risk being embarrassed by the photographic evidence of our fright " the example photo shows two men cowering behind a pretty scared looking young woman " we opt for Leon's adventure.

Mutters of always playing the game as his character back in the day are used to assuage our already diminishing bravado. The girl in the photo did look pretty scared.

We're taken outside into the main entrance to the RPD and up an escalator to where the paths diverge. There is no one here at 10pm on a Saturday night, but the airport-style queuing barriers outside the Claire entrance indicate its popularity.

Full disclosure: I jumped the highest when a blast of cold air from the air con hit my bare ankle, and I assume that it was not there for that purpose. That was merely a measure of how into it we had all got

One briefing video later, which makes it clear you are not to touch the "infected" " there will be no shooting zombies, let alone shovelling their heads in " we are told to turn our phones off.

Then we are handed colour-coded wristbands and offered a chance to test the QR code scanners that will open doors once we are inside the game.

The lift is beckoned. Let the games begin.

It's low tech " there's only one claustrophobic path to follow, with the horror coming from the dark and what comes out of it " but it feels high-stakes. Really high. That is a credit to Dorian Concept Group, the minds behind this and last year's live- action version of Dead Rising in the abandoned Riviera Plaza shopping centre in Tsuen Wan, in Hong Kong's New Territories.

They clearly know how to cater to humankind's age-old need to be scared. You know you are in an office building and this is perpetrated by actors, but none of that matters when you're in there.

You will get to know your companions. It will teach you who you can least trust in a zombie apocalypse and who is the fastest runner. These may be the same person.

It will also teach you who is much braver when it comes to telling their version of events than when they were creeping round dark rooms convinced that everything is a trick/trap. This is anyone who says it is "worse at the back" as they loiter there. This is all of you.

Full disclosure: I jumped the highest when a blast of cold air from the air con hit my bare ankle, and I assume that it was not there for that purpose. That was merely a measure of how into it we had all got.

Fear is infectious and hilarious. There will be laughter, but it is nervous laughter. This is more Dawn of the Dead than Shaun of the Dead.

There will be shocks and surprises, plus the occasional expletive. There is a sense of dread as you try to keep moving while eyeing everything as a potential fright.

After it is finished you could go and play the recent Resident Evil 2 remake " a game being spoken about as potential game of the year " on one of the PlayStation 4s in the entrance foyer. You probably will not feel like doing that.

Instead, you'll want to decamp to the nearest watering hole and point fingers as to who was most scared while your heart rate slowly goes down and your adrenaline subsides. That said, you'll eye everything on the way with suspicion. Is this another trap?

It does not last long " somewhere around the 20-minute mark and we were told to hurry up by the RPD police " but if it makes you jumpy enough to question whether it carries on to the mall next door, then immersive zombie experiences deserve to go viral.

Resident Evil 2: Infected, 1 Hing Yip Street, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. Runs until January 17, 2020. Times vary. Price: HK$298 (one route), HK$498 (both routes).

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