#it also features the endings to both the leon B & A scenarios with B being told from wesker's perspectives because he could see

[yngai]

actually hate the ressie wiki for adding ada's falsified backstory from the umbrella chronicles novelization to her wiki page because it claims 'the validity of this account is questionable', leaving people who are otherwise unfamiliar with the franchise's lore who naturally peruse the wiki to assume there's a possibility ada isn't lying through her teeth in the novel, or that there's a nugget of truth hidden in her account, despite it being clearly stated otherwise pretty early on. after ada is done reciting facts about the reunification of vietnam & the treatment of the hoa people to leon the narration states succinctly that 'it had nothing to do with ada or her family in the slightest', without even mentioning the amount of times ada is surprised by how gullible leon is

i'm not even sure why they're treating the novel as a source, other than the absnece of a concrete backstory for ada, but it's like adding the dick valentine master thief background to jill's page. it isn't canon owing to the fact that it contradicts the events of the game, given there is no rendition of RE2, not even the darkside chronicles' own retelling, where ada gives her backstory upon first meeting leon in the parking garage. while the wiki does make note of two pieces of information which are true to the novel's version of ada, as they are told through ada's own thoughts about her mission in raccoon city & her work with wesker, that being the migrant workers who died because of her spreading pesticide on a sweet potato farm + her rising through the ranks of a chinese-american criminal syndicate who was crushed by the FBI, ada almost getting caught but being noticed by wesker & given the job to spy on umbrella right after, i feel like whoever's editing her wiki page didn't read the novel all the way through because they don't mention the most insane part of the whole thing, which is that ada was present for the khmer rouge in cambodia & the rwandan genocide

these aren't things i consider in my portrayal both because there's only so much real world suffering in relation to resident evil i wanna discuss on this blog, the war on terror is already so horrible that i am tiptoeing around it sometimes for the sake of not just going on about how much i hate the united states of america, & that these are narrative elements meant to show us how prepared & ready ada was for the outbreak in raccoon city which contradicts my own portrayal & both versions of RE2 where she is very much flying by the skin of her teeth clinging to desperate manipulations & leon's gullibility to make it through alive & finish her mission. it doesn't make any sense for ada to go into raccoon city having been witnesses to this amount of cruelty already, but its also a little strange to equate a fictional zombie outbreak to horrible things that have happened throughout history

[itsletstalkgames]

Let’s Talk Resident Evil 2 (Remake)

“If you see one of those things-uniform or not-you do not hesitate. You take it out, or you run.”

The zombie apocalypse is something everyone thinks about at least one point in their lives. Then there’s those people who bring that idea to life, and one of those products is Resident Evil 2. This game was first released back in 1998, but recently remade from the ground up for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. I’m one of those few that never experienced the original, even though I have a console (N64) that can play it. I never decided to grab it because I’m not a huge horror fan, but I became very intrigued when the remake was revealed at E3 2018. A week after launch I decided to buy it on PS4 and try it out, but didn’t finish it until recently, so I’m gonna talk about it now. Bear with me as I am not a great writer, but let’s dive right in.

Main Story and Game-play

Resident Evil 2 is an action, survival horror game with puzzles here and there. The game confines you into small areas with limited supplies, making you explore your surroundings to progress while avoiding death by the numerous zombies littered about the areas. Plot is pretty straight forward at first: survive and find your way out of the zombie infested city known as Raccoon City. Overtime the game explores how the outbreak happened and who is responsible, but I won’t discuss that here as I’ll try to make this as spoiler-free as I can. There are two main characters in this game: Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Leon is a rookie cop who recently got enlisted to the Raccoon City Police Department, but never gets orders for his first assignment. He decides to head into the city to see what is wrong. Claire is a college student who is looking for her brother Chris, who was last seen at the Raccoon City Police Station. The two meet at a zombie infested gas station, where they experience the horror of the outbreak first hand. While narrowly escaping death, the two head to Raccoon City to find answers on what is going on. After getting separated in the city, they decide to go to the Raccoon City Police Department (I’m gonna call it RPD from here on out) hoping for survivors. When you arrive (as one of the characters) you realize there’s no one left and you have to find your way out before you’re somebody’s dinner.

Now let’s talk about game-play. As I said before this game is an action survival horror game with puzzles thrown in, and it does a really good job. The horror aspect is spot on. The zombies are so well detailed they feel like people with lives before they were turned, unlike past zombie games I have played. The move around with such realism, sometimes staggering, making it seem like they’re avoiding your attacks, when they’re actually just moving around. They are literal sponges though, taking a lot of bullets before getting taken down, and even then sometimes they’ll play dead and ruin your time later. This mechanic gives the whole horror aspect a lot more, well, horror. You’ll shoot a zombie to the ground and then go into another room. When you come back, the body is gone, and it gives you adrenaline thinking like, “Oh crap where is it now”, as in my experience the zombies usually hide when they come back to life-sometimes in plain sight-and will take a nibble out if your nice fleshy shoulder. The lighting is amazing. Lots of dimly lit places giving you a horror vibe that you’re alone and helpless in this world of man eating zombies. In these hallways and rooms you carry a flashlight, which gives you a limited amount of sight. The music sets the tone of the game, only showing up when you are in danger

Throughout the game you’ll explore the police station, unlocking rooms and grabbing new weapons, ammo, health items, and key items to help you progress throughout the station and later different areas. The police station in my opinion is where the meat of the game-play is. Exploring a station with puzzles that have intertwining solutions, where solving one puzzle will give you an item to solve another puzzle, and so on and so forth. After a while you’ll feel that you have conquered the police station. The best part is that the game knows this and puts your knowledge to the test by sending a big and menacing enemy at you: The Tyrant. This unstoppable foe will hunt you down throughout your time at the police station right before you leave it, Doing unbelievable damage with just a punch. At this point you’re gonna have to change your style of play, with now an unkillable enemy on your tail, the game gives you a sense of urgency to find out how to escape the station once and for all. Ways you can tell when the Tyrant is nearby is his loud footsteps. If you hear his footsteps he is probably a room or two over, which at times has scared the crap out of me. Sometimes he’ll appear without warning and sock you right in the face. The tyrant is also attracted by any noises you make. If you shoot a gun or get hurt from a nasty zombie bite, the tyrant will know where you are and immediately head over to the location where the noise happened. If that scenario happens-and it will-the best you can do is leave that area before he gets there. You can avoid him by stunning him with gunshots or sub weapons, or hiding in “safe rooms”. These rooms are basically rooms where no enemies will go, giving you a breather from the games constant action.

One of the few problems I have with this game is the characters. This game wants you to feel alone and helpless. So when the game introduces more characters, I want to know who and what their motives are. The game doesn’t really tell me the backstories of these characters, killing most of them off before they start to open up the personalities of these characters. With Leon and Claire the game gives you only the necessary things you need to know, while throughout the game expanding their personalities at least a little bit. It doesn’t do that with most of the other characters which I found disappointing, as some characters were really interesting, then just killed off (like game of thrones? I don’t know I haven’t watched game of thrones yet). To me this is really minor to the game being the game it is but still a gripe I have with it nonetheless.

After beating the game the first time you’ll unlock the “second run” for the other character. I decided to play through the game as Claire and the did the second run as Leon. This run takes place during your run as the first character, so in this case there were subtle hints littered throughout areas that Claire was there. There were a few problems though. Some puzzles I solved as Claire were completely untouched when I played the second run. I understand that this will ruin the second run if these puzzles were already solved, but they could try to make different ones just to make things fresh. Second run switched items around and enemy placement around, also since you played the game already and know your way around the map, the game will send the Tyrant at you minutes after you first enter the police station. The game also gives you a new starting weapon to deal with the difficulty rise that the second run gives you. Overall the second run was different enough for it to be fresh, but is towards the end just like the first run in terms of puzzles and enemy placement.

Extra Modes

The last thing I’ll touch on is the extra modes, each just kind of an aggressive escape sequence. There are 6 in total, 3 being unlocked from the start and the other 3 being unlocked after specific requirements. I’ll start with the 3 you do get. These 3 modes are called the “Ghost Survivors”, you play as a certain character in the main story that you meet and it's a what if scenario that they survive. I think it’s really cool that they added this little feature, as it was something I thought about when I met these characters. There’s one more ghost survivor that you unlock after you beat all 3 of the others and this one is a little different. Instead of getting from point A to point B you stay confined in one area and have to kill a certain amount of enemies to win. Like I said before I’m being very vague with characters so I don’t spoil anything.

The last two extras are tied to the main story and actually happen. Well, one of them. “The 4th Survivor” is unlocked after you beat the second run with either character. It follows a soldier by the code-name of “Hunk” who is trying to meet his extraction point to leave raccoon city. This mode is like the ghost survivors but is different in a way where you don’t get more items to progress, what you have is what you have and you don’t get anymore things. It’s a thrilling adrenaline filling mode that challenges you to your limit. After beating this mode you unlock the “joke” mode of this game: “The Tofu Survivor”. Yes you heard that right, you play as a giant block of tofu. It’s the same as the 4th survivor except you only start out with combat knives instead of having guns, and obviously you’re a giant block of tofu. When you beat this mode you unlock different flavors of tofu that’ll give you different load outs, but all in all it’s the same experience and I laughed while watching my piece of tofu getting eaten by zombies.

Conclusion

Resident Evil 2 excels at making you feel alone and helpless in the zombie infested place of Raccoon City. It’s atmosphere is rich and terrifying, and its game play is nice and solid. The plot is not the best but the mystery it gives you makes you hungry for more on what happened in this world. Characters are vague when it comes to personality and the second run was a lot less unique than I wanted though. This is a horror game, and one of the best I’ve played to this day. I played around 25 hours in total with both main story runs and all the extra modes you get, and had an amazing time. If you like horror, you’re going to like this game. And even if you don’t like horror, maybe this’ll be the game that’ll help you turn. It’s a great game I’m glad I chose to experience.

How can it be better?

As I said before they don’t go in depth with some characters since they get killed off. Maybe the best way to approach this problem I have is to make use of the files that are littered throughout the game and make it so they’re like other characters being suspicious of said character or the character writing a memo about what they’ve done or just something around those lines. Now let’s move to the tyrant. he would be way more of a menace if he was “killable”. what do i mean by that? Why he just plays dead like some zombies do. You shoot this menace down and he’ll play dead, you walk away feeling way more relaxed and victorious, only to hear him walking around the station a minute or two later and bursting into the room you’re currently in. This solves the problem of having no time at all to do puzzles without the tyrant bursting in and interrupting your progress, and a nice touch would be going to where the dead body was and not seeing it there cues some kind of music to play or even just one shrill sounding chord to add impact to the tyrant still being alive. Another minor change I would've liked is making the starting weapon you get in the second be a little more useful later on. the only reason i kept it over the original starting weapon is because you can’t find normal handgun ammo anymore as they replace it with the special ammo you use for the new starting weapon. the new starting weapon also doesn’t get upgrades like every other weapon. so it becomes a little obsolete near the end and I’d rather use the original starting weapon when the game gave me gunpowder, because combining gunpowder makes handgun ammo and not the special handgun ammo, which I found bizarre. But that’s enough rambling. Thanks for listening to me talk Resident Evil 2

Be sure to comment what games you wanna see me rant about next!

[fullysowerewolf]

My Thoughts on Resident Evil 2 (2019); It Could Have Been Great

I've taken some time off to reflect on Remake 2 and take into account all of my thoughts on its gameplay and story. And I think it's time for me to give my full review on the game.

WARNING: This post will contain unpopular views on a well liked/received game. Turn back now if you want to return to the comfort of the status quo.  

Resident Evil 2 (2019) is not a bad game. It is entertaining as an experience and functions as it is supposed to. The atmosphere, outside of some issues I have with the tone and how they've been marketing it with the series presently, is good. The revamp they gave the environments and and enemies, while not something I personally give much value to, is impressive. The sewers look grimy and disgusting, the BOWs look like rotting corpses and react to getting their heads blown off like, well, someone getting their head blown off in real life. The best environment by far is the police station though. I am completely satisfied with how they've designed the station here.

On paper, the zombies function well and their AI is decent. Mr. X is the breakout feature of the game and he does end intensity to the game but I think he overstays welcome a bit too much and steals away attention from G-Birkin, as I feel there's not enough scenes or standout gameplay moments with G. Sherry's segment is actually tense and I like it.

Some of the story works, the new addition of the Orphanage is good and adds a neat new location to experience in the city as well as a chance to actually explore the city outside of the station. Something that fans had complained about in the original. Annette Birkin and Marvin Branagh both stand out as well portrayed characters, with Annette being given more things to do in the story and interact with the characters. And Marvin's interactions with Leon and Claire (Leon in particular) are great and make you feel for him and his steady decline in health. Annette's death scene in Claire's story and the scene with Kendo were the only moments in the game I felt an emotion for. It's not the worst story in the series. But it's not the best. It fulfills its requirement of being a story. As a whole, it is a good horror game to play and an ok RE game.

This game, however, may as well be called "Missed Opportunity the game". They had the ability to really make this game pop out and be a new experience while still giving a good showing of what made RE2 so great and they completely dropped the ball.

Files are omitted, something well known and beloved in the series that's used to add flavor and life to the story and environment are gone and replaced with bare bones explanations that just tell you how to solve puzzle Y.

The option to interact with the environment is removed as well, something that's been a part of the games since the beginning and only RE6 has ever done until now. Why?! This is the perfect game to add these kind of details in, to add more charm and flair to the setting and even some depth to the character you're playing as and to make the story feel more alive. They may not add anything to the mechanics of the game, but it gets you further invested into the story and environment around you. This is the ultimate irony of RE2 remake. The environment and graphics look and feel more realistic than ever before, but you are completely unable to simply look at or comment on them like a real person would in the world, be able to experience them. You can look, but you can't touch.

Characters this time around feel off and simplified from how they were in the original.

Irons is an example, in the original his villainy was more understated. You couldn't trust him as far as you could throw him, but he still came off as someone in command and faked being morose about what was happening. It was only later after you meet him in his torture chamber and after reading the various files throughout the game that lay out his depravity he really becomes unhinged. But in this new telling, he just automatically beats up Claire and kidnaps Sherry right on first meeting him, no subtlety, no buildup, just straight up asshole. And that's just not interesting.

Ada feels very cardboard in this game, there's not very many standout moments with her, even when she's given her own gameplay segment, she immediately makes herself suspicious with her noir ripoff coat and glasses and behavior. Gives away that she's here to steal the G-virus to Annette when originally she didn't break cover as John's girlfriend until the very end of the game. Her 'death" is unrealistic and contradicts what Capcom has been giving us as her death scene for years by now, as well as just not being as emotional or engaging. And her relationship with Leon come off as more like a partnership the likes of Helena in RE6 than of a growing romance that eventually spans decades. It felt more like manipulation mixed with appreciating Leon as a person overall and not as "wow, this guy really cares about me and is charming, there's something I really love about him".

Leon comes off as much flater than he did originally as well. Originally, he took charge of the situation and made it his mission to gather survivors and get out of dodge as fast as he can. Even though he was a rookie and in over his head, he actively tried to help people and get them to listen to him and what he had to say. Here, Leon just fumbles around obeying whatever anyone says to him. He never questions Ada and her odd behavior until the end, which comes off as weird considering he did everything she asked and never has seriously questioned or brought up concerns about her until that point. Just blindly says he's got to talk to Irons first when Ben begs him to let him out, rather than question seriously what Ben had to say about Irons or how he had locked Ben up in the first place. Leon's really passive this time around rather than being active in trying to help people. 

Claire (and also Leon) is way too casual about this whole thing. Neither really reacts appropriately to seeing this messed up shit. Some of this might also be the lackluster dialogue (which tried too hard to be gritty and edgy at times especially when it came to Claire, my god) and acting on Claire's VA's part but it's still negative. 

Claire should not be so gung ho about facing down a 15 foot tall abomination against nature like it's Revelations 2 rather than it being her seeing these things for the first time ever. Critical Nobody made a good point in how in the original the boss fights happened out of the blue and neither Leon or Claire actively tried to take on G- Birkin or Mr. X. They were ambushed and had to fight their way out of the conflict and neither made some dumb action quote line during it as well until the very final boss where it was warranted. It's like Ethan and RE7 all over again with the generic action movie responses to shit he should be freaking out about. And once again it takes me out of the experience.  

Claire's story revolving her brother just gets dropped like a sack of bricks during it for dumb reasoning, after being placated by some coded message with which her mild confusion at doesn’t sell me on her being so concerned she’d fly to Paris and bust into Umbrella’s HQ over later on.. What I think they should have  done if the devs really wanted to sell this one being more “real” than the original, was put that scene with Leon and Claire in the STARS office over some limp wristed attempt at Chris writing a coded message. That scene in the original was one of the best in the game. 

The scenarios and how they handled them is fucked. We all know it. They completely shat the bed when it came to making use out of the A/B gimmick. 

Both the 1st run and the 2nd amount to playing the same story, only you don't meet Marvin in the 2nd. Which is not enough of a difference to justify the existence of a A/B scenario thing. In the original, A and B discs gave you an obvious difference. Characters have different deaths, the boss fights were different, there were changes in the actual story if you play Leon or Claire first or second that affected the B scenario, whatever items you picked in the A scenario affected the B one. This greatly increased the replayablity of the game and added much more bang for your buck in enjoyment.

I understand if they seriously weren't able to really do an A/B gimmick like before due to different constraints on the budget that differed from the 90's. Which is why when I heard they weren't going to do the A/B thing that didn't bother me. But they either lied or changed their minds mid production and shoehorned it in, most likely for nostalgia points and to haphazardly add more replayability. What is the point doing alternate scenarios if they don't differ or add anything new to the game? That's just a waste of resources and everyone's time. They could have spent their time on simply making two solid stories/campaigns that worked coherently, but they didn't. 

Turns out IGN weren't completely lying or wrong when they said that the two stories played the same way. Even when you play the 2nd run there's no real difference.

The story changes are really bunk as well. Why omit the police knowing about the Mansion Incident and making Marvin and Co look like idiots who can't put 2 and 2 together? Why change things like Claire's story progression and removing the interactions between the two throughout the game (even though this game really wanted to push the idea of them being an item they only had two scenes of them interacting??)? Leon and Claire talked with each other via the radio the whole time and really let you believe these two were working together to get out alive, even with you weren't face to face most of the time in the original. Leon also played a roll in saving Sherry as well, which carries over into future games but that's completely scrapped here. 

Why is Ada's connection to the original game, (which is still in Remake 1 which now is the prequel to this game), absent? Where's new lore and enemies like Lisa Trevor? Where's the potential of connecting things to future events like the Simmons thing with Ada from 6?They had a golden opportunity to clear up some confusion about what events from which scenario were canon or not here and to really add some surprise into the story, but nothing was done with it. 

The enemies are all bullet sponges, even the bosses, that makes fighting them really cheap and frustrating. You have to shoot a zombie something like 4 times with a shotgun to put it down. I repeat. A Shotgun to the head takes more than two times to put down. And even than that's probably not good enough. That's not good enemy design, that's just an exercise of my patience that I am now very in short supply of.

There's also a severe lack of enemy variety. You only get zombies, lickers (for one part of the game), zombies with a plant skin, and G-embryos. That's it. No Licker B's, no giant moths, no giant spiders, no new enemies that could add some more challenge to the game. Nothing. And with most of those enemies being of the zombie mold, that means more repetition in gameplay. Add in the frustration of everything being a bullet sponge, and you're not in for a good time.

The Characters you're playing as feel the same with little to no different weapons or attributes to set them apart. Unlike in Remake 1, where both Chris and Jill had completely different defensive items and skills such as exclusive lockpicking, more inventory space, and a lighter preset. Remake 1 also had interesting mechanics that really added more challenge and intrigue to the game in the form of a new enemy (Crimson Heads) and a way to effect directly how much challenge you want in your playthrough (you could choose to leave the corpses unburnt and make life harder or make things easier by burning as much as you can). In Re2make, there are no such distinctions between between Leon and Claire that really make them stand out as unique characters in gameplay.

The soundtrack is bland and generic. You also can barely even hear it. You absolutely have to play the OG OST to really get any kind of musical accompaniment in the game. Too bad that's something you have to pay Capcom $3.00 for. I think the only music that really stands out are the G-3 and 4 boss themes and The 4th Survivor music.

In the end, I was let down heavily from Remake 2. I wanted to like this game. I wanted to see Capcom learn from their mistakes with the foreign, lackluster 7 and see them make an actual RE game again. They succeeded, somewhat with the latter. RE2 '19 IS better than 7 and does feel like an actual RE game and deserves the title of such. But it's not better than Remake 1. Or even as good. Every time I look at Remake 2, all I see is what could have been. And every time I think about the positives of this game, a niggling thought of "but it could have also done..." is there in back of my mind. While seeing and viewing this game, I was in an emotional dead zone, not excited, not angry, just a near continuous state of "meh".

The story's mediocre and feels simplified from the previous one. The environment, while looking nice, feels lifeless (and not in a good way). I don't feel like I'm in a real breathing world, fighting against zombies. And this trend towards photorealism and making things more "gritty" for the sake of gritty while sliding further and further on quality in writing is not something I wanted or expected of this series. And it feels like the heart and soul of this series is getting drained out and replaced with some mediocre expy of the latest horror trends rather than doing its own thing.Which to me seems like we're going to head for another slump like what happened with 6, where the series gameplay quality generally increases, but the meant of the characters, writing and series' uniqueness gets worse and worse.

Before Remake 2 came out, I was excited to see what the remakes of Nemesis and Code Veronica were going to be like. But now I'm very wary of what they might do to the story and gameplay of those games when they remake them. And I'm even less enthused than I already wasn't about RE8 or any new games going forward.

Remake 2 was Capcom's last shot of getting me on board with their new "vision" for the series started with RE7. And I'm just not interested. So this will be last game I give any attention to for Resident Evil.

[illusivegore]

Gore Reviews Resident Evil 2

Release Date: January 25, 2019 Platforms: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

It’s been 21 years since Resident Evil 2 released on the original PlayStation and to some, it’s regarded as the pinnacle of the series. Regardless of your feelings on the survival horror classic, it’s safe to say that most people would agree that the Resident Evil franchise has had some major ups and downs since 1998. We saw the amazing Resident Evil 4 change the series in drastic, yet positive ways, then had the series take a serious stumble when Resident Evil 6 tried to incorporate a few too many changes. There were games like Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Corps that are probably best not even discussed. Finally, back in 2017 Resident Evil had a return to form when the seventh entry was released to much acclaim. Now, it has all come full circle with Resident Evil 2 getting a complete remake, but where does it fall on this spectrum of quality? Let’s find out.

If you’re unfamiliar with Resident Evil 2, it follows the stories of Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Leon is a rookie cop arriving for his new job at the Raccoon City Police Department and Claire is trying to find her brother Chris, a veteran of the RPD. They both arrive in Raccoon City to find it overrun by the blood-thirsty living dead and eventually join forces only to quickly be separated again, each looking for answers and a way out. This is where one of Resident Evil 2‘s best features comes into play. You’ll be able to play through the game as either Leon or Claire and then do a playthrough with the other that is completely unique from the prior one. In total, you’ll be able to play through four different scenarios, as Leon and Claire both have A and B versions of their stories.

The ability to play through the game four different times not only adds to replayability but helps pad out the time you’ll spend with Resident Evil 2. It’s a rather short experience otherwise. If you chose to simply run through one scenario, you’re looking at around a six to eight hour game. This may be a turn off to some, but the length and, more importantly, pacing is perfect for Resident Evil 2. You’ll also be able to unlock a couple other game modes after completing both an A and B scenario. Plus there’s plenty of other ways to experience the game like going for the best rank in each scenario, speedruns, no heal runs, no item box runs, and more. So if you end up enjoying the game, there will be plenty to keep you coming back if you so desire.

There are also three different difficulty settings to choose from that may help you add some time to your experience if you don’t opt to go for the hardest one from the outset. After giving each difficulty a try, I can say that each make the game feel like a completely different experience. If you’re looking for an easy run, Assisted Mode will make enemies weaker and let you utilize auto-aim. Ammo is also plentiful, so, by the end of the game, you’ll probably feel like an unstoppable badass. Standard Mode, is, well, pretty standard, but still has some intense moments. Hardcore Mode is where things really get wild. In this mode enemies will deal more damage, you’ll get fewer inventory upgrades, and you’ll need an ink ribbon to save your game (no auto-saves!). Old school fans of the series might be more at home with Hardcore, but this variety of difficulty settings makes Resident Evil 2 a game that almost anyone can pick up and complete.

If you played Resident Evil 7, then the way Resident Evil 2 looks should feel familiar. Both games are made in the same engine, so the user interface is nearly identical. That means RE2 is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Seeing memorable areas and gruesome enemies reimagined in this new engine really was a treat . The biggest change from RE7 is that RE2 makes the switch from a first-person perspective back to third-person. In a lot of ways, this makes gameplay feel very similar to Resident Evil 4. RE2 really is a perfect mix of the original RE2 story, RE4‘s gameplay, and RE7‘s look.

The third-person combat feels similar to most other third-person shooters. It controls great and I never had an issue with it from a mechanical standpoint. There’s nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary about it, but it always feels solid. Each scenario offers up a variety of weaponry that you can find (some can even be upgraded) and they are all satisfying to use. Leon and Claire each have access to different weapons, which makes their separate playthroughs feel that much more different. On top of your standard weapons, there are also a few defensive items such as knives and grenades. These will allow you to get out of sticky situations like being grabbed or mobbed by a group of zombies.

Exploration and puzzle-solving are the other gameplay aspects most important to the Resident Evil series and this remake gets them right. The puzzles aren’t the hardest to solve by any means, but when you’re being hunted by relentless creatures hellbent on killing you, even the easiest puzzle can be stressful. Exploring each area of the game is something I looked forward to as every location had a unique aesthetic and was filled with surprises. Sometimes you’ll find much needed health or ammo, sometimes you’ll find a new weapon/weapon upgrade, and sometimes you might even find a nice little Easter egg if you’re a fan of the series.

From a horror standpoint, Resident Evil 2 isn’t the scariest game I’ve ever played, but it does create tense situations very well, especially on the Hardcore difficulty. Finding yourself low on health and ammo just hoping to make it to the next typewriter so you can save can lead to some intense encounters.  If you’re not usually into horror, I’d say RE2 is game you could still get through. There are some jump scares and plenty of gore, but it’s nothing that is going to psychologically scar you.

One thing for fans of the original game that I feel is worth mentioning is just how similar the remake is. Without giving too much away I’ll just say that there are plenty of nods to the original that fans will love including returning enemies and characters. But there’s also plenty of new stuff that make this a must play for any fan of the series. This feels much more like a reimagining of Resident Evil 2 than a remake, which makes for a quality experience that will always keep you on your toes.

I’d be hard-pressed to come up with any major issues I had with Resident Evil 2, but there are a few things that might be worth mentioning. The first is that the zombies are absolute bullet sponges. They don’t adhere to the normal rules of zombies as you are far better off taking out their legs than aiming for the head. I’ve seen some zombies take upwards of 7 or 8 shots straight in the brain and still keep coming. Not to mention that you’ll find plenty of zombies that you thought were certainly dead up and moving around the next time you visit an area. This can make your already finite resources even more limited if you’re dumping tons of ammo into these seemingly invincible creatures.

Enemy hitboxes and their ability to basically magnetize to your character can also be a bit of an annoyance sometimes. There were plenty of times I felt I juked a zombie only for it to grab me with its Stretch Armstrong arms and take a bite out of me. This issue is most noticeable in boss fights as it’s nearly impossible to avoid some attacks if you aren’t perfectly positioned. Some sort of dodge would have been a welcomed addition, but I guess that wouldn’t necessarily be in the vein of old school Resident Evil. These can result in frustration, especially on harder difficulties, but are just minor issues.

If you’re looking here for my final thoughts on Resident Evil 2, well, it’s amazing. It’s the best survival horror game I’ve played since Dead Space. It’s a perfect blend of Resident Evil 4‘s gameplay, Resident Evil 7‘s aesthetic, and Resident Evil 2‘s story. It’s familiar enough that it doesn’t lose its identity as RE2, but offers up enough new elements that old school fans will be surprised at times. It’s also a great place for newcomers to jump into the series thanks to its variety of difficulty settings and a backstory that doesn’t need much explaining. Resident Evil 2 just might be my favorite game in the series and that’s saying a lot because Resident Evil 4 has long been one of my favorite games of all-time. Only time will tell how these feelings hold up, but right now I’d go as far as saying that Resident Evil 2 is a must play.

Score: 5 out of 5