![]() ![]() ![]() I found even the regular zombies more challenging than in the first game, taking quite a few bullets to down and even then sometimes getting back up or crawling towards me. Fights with freaksĪs usual, you encounter a variety of enemies along the way, ranging from standard zombies to more agile variants that crawl the ceilings, plant mutants, dogs, and so on. The sudden changes in their relationship are just plain jarring. I’m really not skipping over too much there, either. She’s consistently cold to Leon, begrudgingly cooperating with him to kill zombies, but then she suddenly kisses him and can’t bear to shoot him when she’s revealed to be a traitor. She pops up fairly early on and tells you she’s with the FBI, and is a big presence from there on in - you even play a small gameplay segment as her. While we’re covering the story, Ada Wong is a character worth mentioning. It all culminates in an epic final chase with fire and enemies on all sides as you race to escape the self-destructing facility. You’ll spend the bulk of the game retracing your steps there before the later game descends into the sewer and the Umbrella lab. Things start with a semi-tutorial at a petrol station before you move to the police station, which is a substitute for the first game’s mansion. ![]() The game lacks the original’s unity of place, but has a similar overall structure that has you exploring areas, solving puzzles, and unlocking new rooms to progress, with the occasional boss peppered in. The voice acting is a definite step up from the previous game, but it still has some awkward moments - for example, telling a guy to “hang in there” as the bottom half of his body is ripped off, or the famous delivery of the “horrible things I’ve seen” line. This once again gives you two campaigns that are broadly similar with some different story content. Resident Evil 2 gives you the choice of playing as pretty boy police rookie Leon Kennedy (who I chose), or Claire Redfield, younger sister of Chris from the first game. Hidden zombies will startle you, not least because grabs are harder to avoid, but some of the game’s most effective mechanics - which we’ll cover later - are the ones that build a quiet and persistent sense of dread. Much of the game is spent exploring dark areas with a torch, dreading whatever might be lurking around the next corner. I remarked that Resident Evil felt like a puzzle game in horror dressing, but its sequel strays further towards the scary end of the spectrum, combining both jump scares and psychological horror. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this could be the most violent video game I’ve ever played in terms of the detail and volume of blood and guts on display. The increased graphical fidelity makes much more gore possible this time out, and the game revels in it, with close-ups of bodies being ripped apart and bits of zombies’ faces being blown off as you shoot them. Instead of static cameras, we now look over the main characters’ shoulders in third person, and oh the things we see from this new perspective. The flip side of this is that the first game’s gorgeous static backgrounds are gone – but hey, you can’t have everything. The graphics are up there with the best modern games and we get full cinematic cut scenes that don’t just look like PS2 models with HD textures applied. First, this is a full remake, and it shows. Having recently completed the first game, that was my natural comparison point going in, and some big differences were immediately clear. Seriously, I spent way too much time thinking about this. If you can think of a better name, let me know. There were a lot of these on the shelf at my local preowned video game shop, which I thought was an ominous sign, but I’m pleased to report that Capcom have done a sterling job of extracting the best bits from the 1998 original and bringing them into the 21st century in a very slick package.īefore we get started, you might be wondering - is a long article about a three year-old remake of a 24 year-old game really a true retrospective? The label isn’t super important to me, but it’s certainly too late in the day to call this a review, and enough of the soul of the original Resident Evil 2 has been retained to give this piece a retro vibe. My journey through the Resident Evil universe continued this month as I picked up 2019’s Resident Evil 2 Remake on PlayStation 4. ![]()
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