This review contains spoilers
Spoilers only discussed at the very bottom of the review
Resident Evil 2 is a magnificent feat- an example of how to remake a classic without alienating old fans. Take a look at any gameplay trailer and you’ll see exactly what I mean: AAA graphics, sharp gunplay, and quality-of-life features balanced against that old-school layout of tight corridors & inventory management. It remains a perennial paragon of authentic love, and should always be analyzed by those seeking to relaunch past titles.
And yet, I couldn’t help but be disappointed, a large part of that dejection admittedly having less to do with the game and more to do with core aspects of RE’s DNA that haven't aged well, the worst being the sheer amount of backtracking and lame puzzles galore. During the first 40-50% of the game, you’re forced to engage in multiple tedious fetch quests as you move between parts of a dilapidated police station in search of objects to use with other objects, and while retreading old ground isn’t inherently bad, what makes it particularly egregious here is the fact that nothing is ever changed - you’re going to see the exact same enemies in the exact same areas. Because you know where everyone is and how they act, there’s a diminished sense of tension akin to replaying a title for the second or third time, and it honestly ended-up getting very boring.
I might’ve been able to tolerate things had the item retrieval been fun, but as I alluded to above, it’s quite the opposite. In the first Resident Evil, a fair amount of objects were hidden behind puzzles you had to put some degree of thought into, like the light paintings, eagle statues, or needle wall room. Here, though, there’s nothing of the sort- minus one generator alignment, you’re literally just gathering glorified keys to put into glorified locks, and combined with the aforementioned enemy monotony, it ultimately wasn’t fun for me. To the game’s credit, a new foe is introduced halfway through this section as a means of spicing things up; however, given that they have their own slew of problems, it’s slim pickings at best(+).
Now, I did stress 40% as, once you leave the precinct for good, the game becomes significantly better: there’s less backtracking, a lot more zombie variety, and even the puzzle solving reverts to requiring an inkling of intelligence. Many fans will claim that things turn too linear compared to the station, and though that is true, I’d argue the change actually accentuates the horror since the devs are able to craft more-unique, scripted sequences compared to the prior areas of spammed zombies and extraneous jump scares.
It’s a shame it takes so long for the gameplay to get enticing because the shooting & running mechanics are actually quite good - guns respond well, and popping a headshot to slip past some braindead cretin never loses its edge. Really I’d argue the only dock against the enterprise arises in the form of the boss fights, wherein your character’s lack of a dodge renders plain encounters unnecessarily frustrating.
Speaking of the characters, they represent another latent issue with RE’s DNA that the remake simply couldn’t extract, that being the inherent campiness of the script. In a horror-themed video game set amidst a nightmarish outbreak, you’d expect a basic degree of humanism in the cast, yet what you get instead are traits more akin to an 80s action flick. I can only speak for Leon’s story since he was the one I chose, but I kid you not when I say the man shouts off more “cool” one-liners than Arnold in Batman & Robin. He has no reaction to the concept of zombies whatsoever, is hardly fazed by any of the crazy stuff he encounters, adopts a macho man approach to every ordeal, and boasts dramedic dialogue straight out of an action hero movie. I’d call this a case of Kagome Syndrome, but considering the game, as a whole, is full of campy moments beyond Leon (and considering too how heavily reminiscent everything is of Resident Evil 1), I’m convinced that this was deliberately done as a means of staying true to the OG game.
Of course, a horror comedy or satire isn’t intrinsically awful, but the problem is RE2 wants to have its cake and eat it too -- it wants to be a scary game about the aftereffects of corporate anarchy, yet can’t help undercutting these moments with inherently silly dialogue or situations (++). Leon’s a likable enough guy, but by the end I stopped caring about his overarching plot due to the writers clearly not having any interest in an atmospherically-cogent tale.
On the topic of atmosphere, RE2’s last big criticism has to go towards its sound scheme, which is flawed in two bigs ways: first the directional output is abysmal, with zombies screams reverberating so loudly, you can never tell where they’re originating from (I get that this was probably intentional, but if so, it comes across as heavily-manufactured fear). The second, arguably greater sin, though, involves the game being deliberately designed for headphone users (at least on PC). Now, it’s an objective fact that horror games are more immersive when played with earphones; however, it’s also an objective fact that a video game shouldn’t be reliant on such devices for the sake of engrossment, and that’s exactly the problem with RE2. If you don’t play with a pair of receivers, expect a general softness to everything but the footsteps and monster cries, with ambient noises, in particular getting diminished the hardest. Don’t get me wrong, RE2’s atmosphere is definitely nerve wrenching at times; it’s just not consistent unless you’re willing to self-induce long-term hearing damage (+++).
It’s disappointing as the overall sound design, besides those two caveats, is actually really solid, with the classic echoing of footsteps producing the most fear regardless of the surface you’re clamoring on. This diversity extends to every enemy archetype, all of whom you’ll be able to aurally-distinguish by virtue of their movements or calls alone (which you’ll become very intimate with in light of the constant backtracking).
Bullet impacts are a bit more erratic as, while impact variation does exist, it can be hit-or-miss whether or not the appropriate din plays. I shot at metal containers, for example, that sounded like stone, and glass, as a whole, lacks individuation. However, the burst of soft flesh never grows tiring, and when those aforementioned ambient noises do play (shattered windows, inclement weather, splashes, distant rumbles), they are absolutely riveting (zombie smashings against closed doors, in particular, being habitually haunting).
Voice acting unfortunately suffers from the tonal inconsistencies of the story: I don’t think any of the actors chosen were amateurs, but they can’t help coming across that way in light of the poor framing and direction surrounding their output. I’m not lying when I say some of the best performances derive from optional videos and tapes you stumble across, and that probably has to do with the directors treating those scenes seriously compared to almost everything else.
In terms of the main cast, though, I’d say Karen Strassman’s Annette Birkin ends-up the strongest of the bunch as every time she came on screen, it genuinely felt like she was in a completely different project from the rest of her mates. The worst offender, on the other hand, goes to Nick Apostolides’s Leon, who fails to nail both the “tough guy” and dry humor attitudes of his protagonist (not to mention him literally sounding Ed Norton if Ed Norton’s testicles never dropped).
Finally, the OST by Shusaku Uchiyama, Zhenlan Kang, and Masami Ueda is sufficient. It’s very much one of those Brown Noise-ridden scores that successfully underlines whatever is occurring in-game at the expense of not holding much resonance outside the work. There are times where the trio indulge in tracks beyond their normal scope, such as the synth-ridden bass of Black Impact, more-orchestral Third Demise, or Lorne Balfe-esque Mournful Pursuit, but overall it’s definitely not an album you’ll be listening to outside the game.
The next area to talk about are the graphics, which remain RE2’s most polished facet by far as this is a gorgeous specimen, with not a single area ignored in terms of texturing or general visilitude. Environments are liable to receiving the most praise courtesy of Capcom’s artisans doing a phenomenal job of not only lifting the sixth-gen style of the original game, but combining it with absolutely superb 3D modeling: from something as simple as a cracked desk to the specific placement of bloodstains, this is one of those games you can tell had strong art direction conveyed between the head designers and arthouse department. Every location resembles architecture straight out of hell, as though no one had a chance to evacuate courtesy of the T-Virus’s instant infection rate.
Unfortunately, I can’t really rave to you guys about any minor details the developers laid out due to a central problem core to RE2 - it’s ridiculously-dim lighting. I get that this is a horror game, but considering the plethora of similar genre fare that haven’t had to indulge in overly-dark settings, there was no reason why I had to strain my eyes every time I entered some ill-lit hallway. The flashlight itself shines fine; however, it’s a band-aid, not a cure, with the overarching darkness occasionally making it impossible to even see items in your vicinity (thankfully the new map system alleviates this, though more on that later).
Regarding graphical feats I could discern, I have to give an immense shout-out to the textile modelers as they went all-out. The T-Virus wasn’t isolated to singular demographics: you’ll run into innumerable populations reflecting the extent of Raccoon City’s damage, and the fact that I could discern what these victims used to do for a living solely by their attire is a testament to the design craft. Leon, especially, was fantastic - everything about his figure, from the placement of pouches to the seaming of the padding, was perfect, and seeing it sustain damage over time Arkham Asylum-style stood as an exquisite touch by the artisans.
Besides that, you’ve got some nice animation work implemented on various enemies and NPCs, including: falling zombie flesh contingent on damage, Leon raising his arms protectively against fire-and-rain, Claire’s hair physics, Leon shaking his arms to dry-off, undead “corpses” displaying subtle signs of movement, Leon exhibiting pain ala clutching his stomach, wincing, and grunting, and more I’m sure I’m missing due to the inherent umbra surrounding everything.
I’d say my only graphical complaints concerned two very minor minutiae: the first is the presence of trickling water on brick-based walls as it came across as a little too artificial-looking, and the second is the absence of destructible simulacra beyond scripted events (I know this is a largely-difficult facet to implement in video games, but to not even have breakable glass was disappointing).
Given the strong acclaim behind RE2, I do want to end this review on a positive note if only to highlight the quality-of-life features hinted at in the beginning. Anyone who read my review of REmake knows that I felt its minimal gameplay improvements from the original Biohazard significantly degraded the overall experience. Luckily, however, that kind of nostalgiabait didn’t guide the personnel behind RE2R as they’ve gone out of their way to make the game far more open to conventional players: objects can be dropped, ink ribbons are nonexistent, autosaves sprout after key storybeats, you periodically obtain upgrades to your inventory, the opening logos can be skipped, door loading screens have been removed, and, best of all, your map marks leftover items, obstacle names, and specific doorlocks for each and every room, providing some temperament to the backtracking.
But as a complete product, I do think the Resident Evil 2 Remake has been unduly praised beyond its tangible facets - it’s a good game, but unless you’re a fan of classic survival horror or Metroidvania titles, you’re not going to find as much enjoyment here as fans and critics would have you to believe.
NOTES
+++There’s literally an option called 3D Audio for headphones users.
-Absolutely hated whenever zombies would get stuck behind doors, giving you no choice but to get attacked by them.
-I liked that the devs redid the motion capture for the English voice actors, rather than simply having them dub over the Japanese cast.
-Reading notes, opening your inventory, and using items all stop the game clock. The first is perfectly fine since I don’t like to be pressured to read through integral lore quickly (a problem that plagued Alien: Isolation), but for the latter two, I do think something was lost by allowing players to essentially pause the game in the midst of any high-tension moment.
-Speaking of lore, once again whoever wrote the data entries deserves a raise for being able to combine enticing mystery with fascinating dives into a world run amok with mad science.
-The craftsmanship behind inventory items is exquisite, especially considering you can examine and rotate them in-full. I really liked, in particular, how keyheads had corresponding lock sigils with their targeted door.
-You get a flamethrower that reloads like a standard magazine, something I don’t think is realistic to the actual device.
-One thing I wasn’t able to naturally-orate in the review was the brilliance behind item placement. The devs were able to accurately glean what things players would need before & after set dilemmas (herbs, munitions, etc….).
-Is there a story reason behind why Leon and Claire don’t get infected from zombie bites? Or is this like the first Assassin’s Creed where, canonically, they were never actually attacked?
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SPOILERS
+Mr. X is the guy, and from what I understand they basically took aspects from the OG RE3 antagonist Nemesis and injected them into X, allowing him to randomly appear throughout the barracks. He has some scripted sequences following this portion of the game (for Leon), but most of the love you’ll see for the guy stems from this part due to it being universal for both MCs.
Unfortunately, he had the misfortune of debuting five-years after Alien: Isolation gave us a similarly-tuned Xenomorph that wowed (and continues to wow) gamers. Now, I generally don’t like to make comparisons between vastly-different games, but X’s flaws couldn’t help outlining them, the biggest one being the inconsistency behind his triggering - at first glance, sound would appear to be the obvious one, but relaunching the same save file multiple times, I found this to be untrue as running and shooting/alerting zombies only prompted him on some playthroughs.
That randomness would be annoying enough on its own, but what really got under-my-skin were the locations he’d appear in: sometimes he’d show his face in small chambers, other times the cramped corridors, and still others the more-open lobbies, and all these really illustrate just how poorly-designed he was in relation to the rest of the title. Maneuvering through claustrophobic interiors amidst hoards of zombies is of course what makes Resident Evil Resident Evil, but such schemes just don’t befit a mobile mammoth like X- one time the b#stard appeared when I was in a passageway with two Lickers, and I was forced to die due to the inability to get out of there without setting-off the adjacent zombies.
Compare this to Isolation, where you not only had tons of wiggle room and obstacles to navigate around the xenomorph, but rarely encountered it when facing the Working Joe androids.
Speaking of Lickers, these monstrosities are another attempt at spicing-up the game, and their AI is pretty hit-or-miss. You’re told via a note that walking slowly won’t alarm them; however, just like with X, that isn’t consistent - I got by some using this tactic, yet others would detect me and begin a slow crawl in my direction. It’s a case of not enough time being granted to sufficiently program them.
++Obviously the crocodile fight is the biggest one, but then you’ve got the gateway scene between Leon and Claire, the beat reporter who gets killed by X, all of the boss fights really, and, worst yet, anything involving Ada - a humorously bad remnant of that late-90s/early-2000s trope of a well-endowed women juxtaposed against suave dialogue as a way of making them stand “above” their blatant sex appeal purposes.
The thing these creators never realized is that the problem wasn’t that their females were sexy, it was that they were sexy amidst impractical scenarios (something the Charlie’s Angels movies, of all things, successfully avoided), and Ada is an anachronistic reminder of how dumb that looks in practice. Tell me why a spy, trying to extract a virus in a zombie-ridden locale, would be running around in a tight one-piece and heels(!) that would limit her mobility? Tell me why she’d boast juicy cleavage and sleeveless arms exposed to bullets and zombie bites alike?
The scenes between her and Leon aren’t inherently bad, but there’s no sense of a bond being built -- the conversational callbacks are cheesy, and the kiss loses all iconicness the second you realize they’re both drenched in sewer water. Don’t even get me started on her magical survival, something that even hardcore RE fans haven’t been able to provide a satisfactory answer to.
Despite adding some neat gameplay variation, narratively she is, without a doubt, the one sordid trait in an otherwise solid second half. Oh, and to add salt to the wounds, she initially engages in that irritating trope wherein an NPC will deliberately abstain from answering a question in order to “prolong” the mystery for the player.
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Resident Evil 2 is a magnificent feat- an example of how to remake a classic without alienating old fans. Take a look at any gameplay trailer and you’ll see exactly what I mean: AAA graphics, sharp gunplay, and quality-of-life features balanced against that old-school layout of tight corridors & inventory management. It remains a perennial paragon of authentic love, and should always be analyzed by those seeking to relaunch past titles.
And yet, I couldn’t help but be disappointed, a large part of that dejection admittedly having less to do with the game and more to do with core aspects of RE’s DNA that haven't aged well, the worst being the sheer amount of backtracking and lame puzzles galore. During the first 40-50% of the game, you’re forced to engage in multiple tedious fetch quests as you move between parts of a dilapidated police station in search of objects to use with other objects, and while retreading old ground isn’t inherently bad, what makes it particularly egregious here is the fact that nothing is ever changed - you’re going to see the exact same enemies in the exact same areas. Because you know where everyone is and how they act, there’s a diminished sense of tension akin to replaying a title for the second or third time, and it honestly ended-up getting very boring.
I might’ve been able to tolerate things had the item retrieval been fun, but as I alluded to above, it’s quite the opposite. In the first Resident Evil, a fair amount of objects were hidden behind puzzles you had to put some degree of thought into, like the light paintings, eagle statues, or needle wall room. Here, though, there’s nothing of the sort- minus one generator alignment, you’re literally just gathering glorified keys to put into glorified locks, and combined with the aforementioned enemy monotony, it ultimately wasn’t fun for me. To the game’s credit, a new foe is introduced halfway through this section as a means of spicing things up; however, given that they have their own slew of problems, it’s slim pickings at best(+).
Now, I did stress 40% as, once you leave the precinct for good, the game becomes significantly better: there’s less backtracking, a lot more zombie variety, and even the puzzle solving reverts to requiring an inkling of intelligence. Many fans will claim that things turn too linear compared to the station, and though that is true, I’d argue the change actually accentuates the horror since the devs are able to craft more-unique, scripted sequences compared to the prior areas of spammed zombies and extraneous jump scares.
It’s a shame it takes so long for the gameplay to get enticing because the shooting & running mechanics are actually quite good - guns respond well, and popping a headshot to slip past some braindead cretin never loses its edge. Really I’d argue the only dock against the enterprise arises in the form of the boss fights, wherein your character’s lack of a dodge renders plain encounters unnecessarily frustrating.
Speaking of the characters, they represent another latent issue with RE’s DNA that the remake simply couldn’t extract, that being the inherent campiness of the script. In a horror-themed video game set amidst a nightmarish outbreak, you’d expect a basic degree of humanism in the cast, yet what you get instead are traits more akin to an 80s action flick. I can only speak for Leon’s story since he was the one I chose, but I kid you not when I say the man shouts off more “cool” one-liners than Arnold in Batman & Robin. He has no reaction to the concept of zombies whatsoever, is hardly fazed by any of the crazy stuff he encounters, adopts a macho man approach to every ordeal, and boasts dramedic dialogue straight out of an action hero movie. I’d call this a case of Kagome Syndrome, but considering the game, as a whole, is full of campy moments beyond Leon (and considering too how heavily reminiscent everything is of Resident Evil 1), I’m convinced that this was deliberately done as a means of staying true to the OG game.
Of course, a horror comedy or satire isn’t intrinsically awful, but the problem is RE2 wants to have its cake and eat it too -- it wants to be a scary game about the aftereffects of corporate anarchy, yet can’t help undercutting these moments with inherently silly dialogue or situations (++). Leon’s a likable enough guy, but by the end I stopped caring about his overarching plot due to the writers clearly not having any interest in an atmospherically-cogent tale.
On the topic of atmosphere, RE2’s last big criticism has to go towards its sound scheme, which is flawed in two bigs ways: first the directional output is abysmal, with zombies screams reverberating so loudly, you can never tell where they’re originating from (I get that this was probably intentional, but if so, it comes across as heavily-manufactured fear). The second, arguably greater sin, though, involves the game being deliberately designed for headphone users (at least on PC). Now, it’s an objective fact that horror games are more immersive when played with earphones; however, it’s also an objective fact that a video game shouldn’t be reliant on such devices for the sake of engrossment, and that’s exactly the problem with RE2. If you don’t play with a pair of receivers, expect a general softness to everything but the footsteps and monster cries, with ambient noises, in particular getting diminished the hardest. Don’t get me wrong, RE2’s atmosphere is definitely nerve wrenching at times; it’s just not consistent unless you’re willing to self-induce long-term hearing damage (+++).
It’s disappointing as the overall sound design, besides those two caveats, is actually really solid, with the classic echoing of footsteps producing the most fear regardless of the surface you’re clamoring on. This diversity extends to every enemy archetype, all of whom you’ll be able to aurally-distinguish by virtue of their movements or calls alone (which you’ll become very intimate with in light of the constant backtracking).
Bullet impacts are a bit more erratic as, while impact variation does exist, it can be hit-or-miss whether or not the appropriate din plays. I shot at metal containers, for example, that sounded like stone, and glass, as a whole, lacks individuation. However, the burst of soft flesh never grows tiring, and when those aforementioned ambient noises do play (shattered windows, inclement weather, splashes, distant rumbles), they are absolutely riveting (zombie smashings against closed doors, in particular, being habitually haunting).
Voice acting unfortunately suffers from the tonal inconsistencies of the story: I don’t think any of the actors chosen were amateurs, but they can’t help coming across that way in light of the poor framing and direction surrounding their output. I’m not lying when I say some of the best performances derive from optional videos and tapes you stumble across, and that probably has to do with the directors treating those scenes seriously compared to almost everything else.
In terms of the main cast, though, I’d say Karen Strassman’s Annette Birkin ends-up the strongest of the bunch as every time she came on screen, it genuinely felt like she was in a completely different project from the rest of her mates. The worst offender, on the other hand, goes to Nick Apostolides’s Leon, who fails to nail both the “tough guy” and dry humor attitudes of his protagonist (not to mention him literally sounding Ed Norton if Ed Norton’s testicles never dropped).
Finally, the OST by Shusaku Uchiyama, Zhenlan Kang, and Masami Ueda is sufficient. It’s very much one of those Brown Noise-ridden scores that successfully underlines whatever is occurring in-game at the expense of not holding much resonance outside the work. There are times where the trio indulge in tracks beyond their normal scope, such as the synth-ridden bass of Black Impact, more-orchestral Third Demise, or Lorne Balfe-esque Mournful Pursuit, but overall it’s definitely not an album you’ll be listening to outside the game.
The next area to talk about are the graphics, which remain RE2’s most polished facet by far as this is a gorgeous specimen, with not a single area ignored in terms of texturing or general visilitude. Environments are liable to receiving the most praise courtesy of Capcom’s artisans doing a phenomenal job of not only lifting the sixth-gen style of the original game, but combining it with absolutely superb 3D modeling: from something as simple as a cracked desk to the specific placement of bloodstains, this is one of those games you can tell had strong art direction conveyed between the head designers and arthouse department. Every location resembles architecture straight out of hell, as though no one had a chance to evacuate courtesy of the T-Virus’s instant infection rate.
Unfortunately, I can’t really rave to you guys about any minor details the developers laid out due to a central problem core to RE2 - it’s ridiculously-dim lighting. I get that this is a horror game, but considering the plethora of similar genre fare that haven’t had to indulge in overly-dark settings, there was no reason why I had to strain my eyes every time I entered some ill-lit hallway. The flashlight itself shines fine; however, it’s a band-aid, not a cure, with the overarching darkness occasionally making it impossible to even see items in your vicinity (thankfully the new map system alleviates this, though more on that later).
Regarding graphical feats I could discern, I have to give an immense shout-out to the textile modelers as they went all-out. The T-Virus wasn’t isolated to singular demographics: you’ll run into innumerable populations reflecting the extent of Raccoon City’s damage, and the fact that I could discern what these victims used to do for a living solely by their attire is a testament to the design craft. Leon, especially, was fantastic - everything about his figure, from the placement of pouches to the seaming of the padding, was perfect, and seeing it sustain damage over time Arkham Asylum-style stood as an exquisite touch by the artisans.
Besides that, you’ve got some nice animation work implemented on various enemies and NPCs, including: falling zombie flesh contingent on damage, Leon raising his arms protectively against fire-and-rain, Claire’s hair physics, Leon shaking his arms to dry-off, undead “corpses” displaying subtle signs of movement, Leon exhibiting pain ala clutching his stomach, wincing, and grunting, and more I’m sure I’m missing due to the inherent umbra surrounding everything.
I’d say my only graphical complaints concerned two very minor minutiae: the first is the presence of trickling water on brick-based walls as it came across as a little too artificial-looking, and the second is the absence of destructible simulacra beyond scripted events (I know this is a largely-difficult facet to implement in video games, but to not even have breakable glass was disappointing).
Given the strong acclaim behind RE2, I do want to end this review on a positive note if only to highlight the quality-of-life features hinted at in the beginning. Anyone who read my review of REmake knows that I felt its minimal gameplay improvements from the original Biohazard significantly degraded the overall experience. Luckily, however, that kind of nostalgiabait didn’t guide the personnel behind RE2R as they’ve gone out of their way to make the game far more open to conventional players: objects can be dropped, ink ribbons are nonexistent, autosaves sprout after key storybeats, you periodically obtain upgrades to your inventory, the opening logos can be skipped, door loading screens have been removed, and, best of all, your map marks leftover items, obstacle names, and specific doorlocks for each and every room, providing some temperament to the backtracking.
But as a complete product, I do think the Resident Evil 2 Remake has been unduly praised beyond its tangible facets - it’s a good game, but unless you’re a fan of classic survival horror or Metroidvania titles, you’re not going to find as much enjoyment here as fans and critics would have you to believe.
NOTES
+++There’s literally an option called 3D Audio for headphones users.
-Absolutely hated whenever zombies would get stuck behind doors, giving you no choice but to get attacked by them.
-I liked that the devs redid the motion capture for the English voice actors, rather than simply having them dub over the Japanese cast.
-Reading notes, opening your inventory, and using items all stop the game clock. The first is perfectly fine since I don’t like to be pressured to read through integral lore quickly (a problem that plagued Alien: Isolation), but for the latter two, I do think something was lost by allowing players to essentially pause the game in the midst of any high-tension moment.
-Speaking of lore, once again whoever wrote the data entries deserves a raise for being able to combine enticing mystery with fascinating dives into a world run amok with mad science.
-The craftsmanship behind inventory items is exquisite, especially considering you can examine and rotate them in-full. I really liked, in particular, how keyheads had corresponding lock sigils with their targeted door.
-You get a flamethrower that reloads like a standard magazine, something I don’t think is realistic to the actual device.
-One thing I wasn’t able to naturally-orate in the review was the brilliance behind item placement. The devs were able to accurately glean what things players would need before & after set dilemmas (herbs, munitions, etc….).
-Is there a story reason behind why Leon and Claire don’t get infected from zombie bites? Or is this like the first Assassin’s Creed where, canonically, they were never actually attacked?
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SPOILERS
+Mr. X is the guy, and from what I understand they basically took aspects from the OG RE3 antagonist Nemesis and injected them into X, allowing him to randomly appear throughout the barracks. He has some scripted sequences following this portion of the game (for Leon), but most of the love you’ll see for the guy stems from this part due to it being universal for both MCs.
Unfortunately, he had the misfortune of debuting five-years after Alien: Isolation gave us a similarly-tuned Xenomorph that wowed (and continues to wow) gamers. Now, I generally don’t like to make comparisons between vastly-different games, but X’s flaws couldn’t help outlining them, the biggest one being the inconsistency behind his triggering - at first glance, sound would appear to be the obvious one, but relaunching the same save file multiple times, I found this to be untrue as running and shooting/alerting zombies only prompted him on some playthroughs.
That randomness would be annoying enough on its own, but what really got under-my-skin were the locations he’d appear in: sometimes he’d show his face in small chambers, other times the cramped corridors, and still others the more-open lobbies, and all these really illustrate just how poorly-designed he was in relation to the rest of the title. Maneuvering through claustrophobic interiors amidst hoards of zombies is of course what makes Resident Evil Resident Evil, but such schemes just don’t befit a mobile mammoth like X- one time the b#stard appeared when I was in a passageway with two Lickers, and I was forced to die due to the inability to get out of there without setting-off the adjacent zombies.
Compare this to Isolation, where you not only had tons of wiggle room and obstacles to navigate around the xenomorph, but rarely encountered it when facing the Working Joe androids.
Speaking of Lickers, these monstrosities are another attempt at spicing-up the game, and their AI is pretty hit-or-miss. You’re told via a note that walking slowly won’t alarm them; however, just like with X, that isn’t consistent - I got by some using this tactic, yet others would detect me and begin a slow crawl in my direction. It’s a case of not enough time being granted to sufficiently program them.
++Obviously the crocodile fight is the biggest one, but then you’ve got the gateway scene between Leon and Claire, the beat reporter who gets killed by X, all of the boss fights really, and, worst yet, anything involving Ada - a humorously bad remnant of that late-90s/early-2000s trope of a well-endowed women juxtaposed against suave dialogue as a way of making them stand “above” their blatant sex appeal purposes.
The thing these creators never realized is that the problem wasn’t that their females were sexy, it was that they were sexy amidst impractical scenarios (something the Charlie’s Angels movies, of all things, successfully avoided), and Ada is an anachronistic reminder of how dumb that looks in practice. Tell me why a spy, trying to extract a virus in a zombie-ridden locale, would be running around in a tight one-piece and heels(!) that would limit her mobility? Tell me why she’d boast juicy cleavage and sleeveless arms exposed to bullets and zombie bites alike?
The scenes between her and Leon aren’t inherently bad, but there’s no sense of a bond being built -- the conversational callbacks are cheesy, and the kiss loses all iconicness the second you realize they’re both drenched in sewer water. Don’t even get me started on her magical survival, something that even hardcore RE fans haven’t been able to provide a satisfactory answer to.
Despite adding some neat gameplay variation, narratively she is, without a doubt, the one sordid trait in an otherwise solid second half. Oh, and to add salt to the wounds, she initially engages in that irritating trope wherein an NPC will deliberately abstain from answering a question in order to “prolong” the mystery for the player.
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Não sou de jogar survival horror pq me cago toda, mas pqp, que jogo gostoso, valeu a pena cada susto! Talvez um dia eu platine.
Been 3 long years since I last played this. This game helped me get through early lockdown so much. Easily one of my most replayed games of all time just cause of the amount of times I played it in that time period, so it’s kind of insane that it’s been this long since I got back to it. It was my first resident evil game and i’ve played many more resident evil games since and no matter how good they are, they don’t even come close to this for me. We’ll see how 4 Remake is I guess.
who up survivin they horror
never played the original RE2, so I can't speak to how good of a job this does of doing justice to that, but as an RE4 normie, I absolutely loved it. mr. x is the perfect horror game antagonist.
replayed peak resident evil on Claire's run this time and i fucked with it so much. the story on her end is rad, gameplay for Leon is still better though BUT WE LOVE YOU CLAIRE REDFIELD AAAAAAAAA
It surely deviated from the original Resident Evil 2, but not in bad ways.
Still holds up in every regard. Only thing that takes away some fun: Running from Mr. X all the time. Kinda expected that from the RE3 Remake, but not in RE2.
Still holds up in every regard. Only thing that takes away some fun: Running from Mr. X all the time. Kinda expected that from the RE3 Remake, but not in RE2.
This game is considered a remake of Resident Evil 2, but it’s not an entirely accurate designation. That’s even when using the term “remake” somewhat loosely, like in the case of Resident Evil for the Gamecube, and the key point to consider when drawing the line is continuity of the core challenge. In the original games, the core challenge is applying character and resource limitations wisely, allocating your reserves in proportion to the difficulty of a given challenge. This isn’t what Resident Evil 2 REimagined is about, but it’s hard to notice that at first. It’s not because of the over-the-shoulder perspective or the enhanced movement, but in the inability for players to wisely invest resources. Similar to Resident Evil 4, this game has an invisible difficulty adjustment system, which secretly changes the rules as you play. I won’t divulge everything it does so you can enjoy the game without being spoiled, but I believe that just knowing it exists will prevent frustration. Resident Evil 4’s adjustments could be handled gracefully with its linear structure and item drops coming from enemies, adjusting your supply levels without interrupting the pacing at all, but Resident Evil 2 didn’t use this type of system. It instead has set locations for items and a small nonlinear play space, so the only place to automatically tune the difficulty was with the enemies. Players in a rough spot may cripple zombies with a single bullet and incapacitate them with four, when a well-performing player may require five and ten respectively. If you enter a new room and intelligently devise a plan, only for it to be thwarted by enemies that are suddenly incredibly durable and aggressive, the difficulty adjustment is why. You have to put aside your frustration and accept that the game is trying to make sure you stay on the edge of your seat, even if it means being unfair. In a genre about making smart decisions, these foggy parameters can cripple the experience.
Since arguments about difficulty can easily be dismissed with a “get good” and it seems like such a minor issue get worked up about, I feel the need to finally show my badge. I beat Resident Evil 2 six times, including a hardcore S+ run with each character, where the enemies are stronger, you can only save 3 times, and have to beat it in two hours. The reason I enjoyed doing all that is the same reason why I said you should know about difficulty adjustment before starting the game. Once the cryptic mechanics are demystified, Resident Evil 2 can be enjoyed as the most cinematic action game ever created. There isn’t a Devil May Cry level of depth, but the reactivity from each enemy in such a nuanced environment leads to an incredibly satisfying gameplay system to master. That’s why I recommend it under the caveat that you give it your full attention over multiple playthroughs. After all, if I stopped after my first run, this review would have ended after the first paragraph.
Since arguments about difficulty can easily be dismissed with a “get good” and it seems like such a minor issue get worked up about, I feel the need to finally show my badge. I beat Resident Evil 2 six times, including a hardcore S+ run with each character, where the enemies are stronger, you can only save 3 times, and have to beat it in two hours. The reason I enjoyed doing all that is the same reason why I said you should know about difficulty adjustment before starting the game. Once the cryptic mechanics are demystified, Resident Evil 2 can be enjoyed as the most cinematic action game ever created. There isn’t a Devil May Cry level of depth, but the reactivity from each enemy in such a nuanced environment leads to an incredibly satisfying gameplay system to master. That’s why I recommend it under the caveat that you give it your full attention over multiple playthroughs. After all, if I stopped after my first run, this review would have ended after the first paragraph.
I wanna fuck Ada and Leon so bad
NOTA: 9,25
Que jogo SENSACIONAL! Diferente de Re4 (estou usando ele como referência por ter jogado pouco tempo atrás) Re2 encaminha sua jogabilidade mais para o lado do terror e sobrevivência, com recursos muito mais limitados e alguns jumpscares, foco maior no mesmo mapa, e uma exploração e puzzles envolvendo backtracking e uma maior apuração e conexão dos itens garantidos, fazendo com que eu gostasse até mais dele do que do 4.
Assim como o 4 a história é muito interessante, envolvendo 3 personagens principais uma epidemia e uma aventura direto da fonte de todo o caos de raccon city.
Infelizmente todo resident evil parece ter o problema de ser curto kkkkk, a gameplay excelente e ambientação principalmente nesse título uma imersão de terror e suspense me faz nunca desejar que esse jogo terminasse.
Minha avaliação esteve muito mais muito próxima de ser 5 estrelas, uma pena que minha única decepção desse jogo foi que a campanha da Claire é muito pouco diferente da do Leon, o que eu não esperava, já que encontramos ela muito pouco e dá a sensação de que ela passava por outros lugares, mesmo de fato ela tendo suas diferenças e objetivos diferentes dele.No final da campanha da Claire, abre um leve furo/questionamento de roteiro á respeito do que aconteceu com o Virus G e o confronto entre a Ada e o Leon.
Mas mesmo assim, esse jogo me manteve imerso e impressionado com a qualidade do começo ao fim, assim como o Re4 mostrando que é a frente de seu tempo, recomendo demais e fiquei feliz em saber que a Capcom planeja mais remakes, agora, partiu para o Re3.
Que jogo SENSACIONAL! Diferente de Re4 (estou usando ele como referência por ter jogado pouco tempo atrás) Re2 encaminha sua jogabilidade mais para o lado do terror e sobrevivência, com recursos muito mais limitados e alguns jumpscares, foco maior no mesmo mapa, e uma exploração e puzzles envolvendo backtracking e uma maior apuração e conexão dos itens garantidos, fazendo com que eu gostasse até mais dele do que do 4.
Assim como o 4 a história é muito interessante, envolvendo 3 personagens principais uma epidemia e uma aventura direto da fonte de todo o caos de raccon city.
Infelizmente todo resident evil parece ter o problema de ser curto kkkkk, a gameplay excelente e ambientação principalmente nesse título uma imersão de terror e suspense me faz nunca desejar que esse jogo terminasse.
Minha avaliação esteve muito mais muito próxima de ser 5 estrelas, uma pena que minha única decepção desse jogo foi que a campanha da Claire é muito pouco diferente da do Leon, o que eu não esperava, já que encontramos ela muito pouco e dá a sensação de que ela passava por outros lugares, mesmo de fato ela tendo suas diferenças e objetivos diferentes dele.No final da campanha da Claire, abre um leve furo/questionamento de roteiro á respeito do que aconteceu com o Virus G e o confronto entre a Ada e o Leon.
Mas mesmo assim, esse jogo me manteve imerso e impressionado com a qualidade do começo ao fim, assim como o Re4 mostrando que é a frente de seu tempo, recomendo demais e fiquei feliz em saber que a Capcom planeja mais remakes, agora, partiu para o Re3.
what remakes should aspire to be, tbh. feels the same as the original but so much more playable
Wears thin once you work your way out of RPD and its parking garage, but until that point, it's a wonderful crawl through a building that is eating itself from the inside out.
probably one of the coldest takes imaginable especially on this site, but whatever — here goes. i'm typically pretty weary of video game remakes. i don't find myself immediately opposed to the idea of remaking classics when that kind of discourse makes its weekly round on Twitter and whatnot, but my preferences for that sorta thing tend to be pretty specific. the remakes I tend to enjoy the most are the ones that take the initiative in carving out their own identity as an experience — not necessarily existing separately from their source material, but alongside; companion pieces, almost. I don't care as much for straight faithfulness as much as I do reinterpretation, and that's what makes a remake so interesting to me.
you probably see where i'm going with this, but conversely I usually tend to be apathetic towards remakes that place a focus on copying their counterparts one to one. games that aren't really developed to be remakes, but replacements. obviously there's a myriad of inherent issues with taking this approach - you can't toss the vision of one team into another's lap and expect it to play it out perfectly, but the most grueling question of all to me is - why even bother?
this was kind of cemented for me a few days ago when I was playing the Resident Evil 4 remake's demo, not exactly a substantial portion of the game, but enough to get a general gist of what the action would look like. more than anything, I was kind of shocked at how intact, for lack of a better term everything was - the entire village fight is not at all dissimilar to how it plays out in the original, i was able to ease into the chaos so quickly because the layout and combat philosophy was virtually the same - line the villagers up, land a headshot, then go in for the kick. and you know what, it's not really a bad thing to be like the original RE4 per se, because RE4 is really fun! the simple but versatile nature of this on the fly puzzle solving gunplay hasn't gotten dull at all… but if this game plays exactly like Resident Evil 4, then why wouldn't I just play Resident Evil 4? what's even the point of this? why try to fix what wasn't broken to begin with?
even more head scratching is the stigma that comes with this sort of thing. for example, take a look at this excerpt from IGN's review of the RE4 remake.
"In preparation for this review I returned to the original game for the first time in years and was shocked at how badly this remake was needed. The movement of main star Leon Kennedy felt ridiculously restricted; he struggles to get around as though he’s wearing an old pair of skinny jeans that haven’t fit him since his police academy days, and is immobilized anytime he gets his gun out as though he’s incapable of independent control over his hands and feet at the same time. By modern standards it’s absurd, and would absolutely put off a lot of newcomers before they could begin to understand why this game is so highly regarded."
ignoring the fact that this is an absolutely insane thing to say about one of the most mechanically satisfying games ever, it does kind of answer the lingering question I've been posing throughout this review - why bother remaking these games? the answer, of course, is because they're too old. for whatever reason, unlike any other art medium, games are forever doomed to be treated as machinery almost, with metal parts that rust and degrade over time, as if so much of the design in these games weren't very deliberate choices and are simply just 'products of the time'. sadly, a lot of people, including companies see it this way, and we're probably always going to be destined to see so many more classics get "fixmakes." shame.
(i wanted to avoid this "review before a review" shtick, but got kind of sidetracked. oh well…)
somehow, RE2make manages to almost entirely avoid all of this. this is exactly what I would have imagined the series would look like today if they strayed away from action and continued down that claustrophobic survival horror road; not a retreading of ideas prior, but rather an evolution. it is genuinely astonishing how seamlessly they were able to translate the fundamentals of classic RE to this over the shoulder style of play - inventory management, efficient routing, ammo conservation… it's all here and fine-tuned to perfection.
for example, in the original, you'd generally want to stray away from engaging with enemies because not only would you be burning through ammo, but you'd also be risking damage as well - the tank controls added a layer of risk to going guns akimbo, having to stand still and adjust your shot to just the right angle for the auto aim to save you - not very easy in the heat of the moment. in the remake, you of course have a much more open range of movement, as well as standard free pointer aim. in theory, this should make dealing with enemies a lot more swift, but surprisingly, not at all! enemies are tougher to compensate for the free aim but not exactly damage sponges - the game still encourages running past them by making them hard to kill although easy to evade, you could shoot out their legs to slow them down, or quickly fire a round at their head to stun them and run past. power weapons still deal with the fodder quite easily, but the ammo economy is rather scarce, forcing you to take into heavy consideration your usage of them.
the way the two systems operate are very different, but in the end both achieve the same, almost suppressive on the fly micro-management, and that's really what it's all about — RE2make is a vastly different game than the original — granted, it's been a while since i beat the original, there are times playing this where I found it completely unrecognizable from its source, but make no mistake, it still, at its core, very much captures Resident Evil 2. i don't have much more to bring to the table when it comes to RE2make's own design achievements or its radically overhauled story because the top two reviews for this game dissect that way better than I ever could (on top of generally just being some of the finest reviews on the site), nevertheless ultimately I think I'm just happy that this game fuckin' gets it, man.
this isn't exactly praise but most of my qualms with the game lie in the back half with the sewer and lab as you've probably heard echoed a lot, yet in a fucked up sort of way, i'm happy that these are faults that stand on the game's own two legs rather than in contrast to the original. don't get me wrong - faults nonetheless, some miserable moments in those setpieces, however it represents a want by the developers to, as I remarked about other remakes earlier, carve out a unique identity for this one, and sometimes it falls flat, but at the end of the day I respect that immensely.
so - which one is better? truthfully, this is a copout but my answer would be that i like them both equally. they both have their faults and strengths, there are some things the original does better, there are some things the remake does better, yadda yadda yadda. my real answer, however, is who gives a shit? i just think it fucks that we can have two different resident evil 2s, and it doesn't hurt that they're both great games. not doomed to fight each other in a tragic eternal hellfire of internet discourse to see which one did it better, but co-existing rather, as companion pieces. because it's not trying to be a replacement, but a reimagining - just a different take. play this game and play the original.
you probably see where i'm going with this, but conversely I usually tend to be apathetic towards remakes that place a focus on copying their counterparts one to one. games that aren't really developed to be remakes, but replacements. obviously there's a myriad of inherent issues with taking this approach - you can't toss the vision of one team into another's lap and expect it to play it out perfectly, but the most grueling question of all to me is - why even bother?
this was kind of cemented for me a few days ago when I was playing the Resident Evil 4 remake's demo, not exactly a substantial portion of the game, but enough to get a general gist of what the action would look like. more than anything, I was kind of shocked at how intact, for lack of a better term everything was - the entire village fight is not at all dissimilar to how it plays out in the original, i was able to ease into the chaos so quickly because the layout and combat philosophy was virtually the same - line the villagers up, land a headshot, then go in for the kick. and you know what, it's not really a bad thing to be like the original RE4 per se, because RE4 is really fun! the simple but versatile nature of this on the fly puzzle solving gunplay hasn't gotten dull at all… but if this game plays exactly like Resident Evil 4, then why wouldn't I just play Resident Evil 4? what's even the point of this? why try to fix what wasn't broken to begin with?
even more head scratching is the stigma that comes with this sort of thing. for example, take a look at this excerpt from IGN's review of the RE4 remake.
"In preparation for this review I returned to the original game for the first time in years and was shocked at how badly this remake was needed. The movement of main star Leon Kennedy felt ridiculously restricted; he struggles to get around as though he’s wearing an old pair of skinny jeans that haven’t fit him since his police academy days, and is immobilized anytime he gets his gun out as though he’s incapable of independent control over his hands and feet at the same time. By modern standards it’s absurd, and would absolutely put off a lot of newcomers before they could begin to understand why this game is so highly regarded."
ignoring the fact that this is an absolutely insane thing to say about one of the most mechanically satisfying games ever, it does kind of answer the lingering question I've been posing throughout this review - why bother remaking these games? the answer, of course, is because they're too old. for whatever reason, unlike any other art medium, games are forever doomed to be treated as machinery almost, with metal parts that rust and degrade over time, as if so much of the design in these games weren't very deliberate choices and are simply just 'products of the time'. sadly, a lot of people, including companies see it this way, and we're probably always going to be destined to see so many more classics get "fixmakes." shame.
(i wanted to avoid this "review before a review" shtick, but got kind of sidetracked. oh well…)
somehow, RE2make manages to almost entirely avoid all of this. this is exactly what I would have imagined the series would look like today if they strayed away from action and continued down that claustrophobic survival horror road; not a retreading of ideas prior, but rather an evolution. it is genuinely astonishing how seamlessly they were able to translate the fundamentals of classic RE to this over the shoulder style of play - inventory management, efficient routing, ammo conservation… it's all here and fine-tuned to perfection.
for example, in the original, you'd generally want to stray away from engaging with enemies because not only would you be burning through ammo, but you'd also be risking damage as well - the tank controls added a layer of risk to going guns akimbo, having to stand still and adjust your shot to just the right angle for the auto aim to save you - not very easy in the heat of the moment. in the remake, you of course have a much more open range of movement, as well as standard free pointer aim. in theory, this should make dealing with enemies a lot more swift, but surprisingly, not at all! enemies are tougher to compensate for the free aim but not exactly damage sponges - the game still encourages running past them by making them hard to kill although easy to evade, you could shoot out their legs to slow them down, or quickly fire a round at their head to stun them and run past. power weapons still deal with the fodder quite easily, but the ammo economy is rather scarce, forcing you to take into heavy consideration your usage of them.
the way the two systems operate are very different, but in the end both achieve the same, almost suppressive on the fly micro-management, and that's really what it's all about — RE2make is a vastly different game than the original — granted, it's been a while since i beat the original, there are times playing this where I found it completely unrecognizable from its source, but make no mistake, it still, at its core, very much captures Resident Evil 2. i don't have much more to bring to the table when it comes to RE2make's own design achievements or its radically overhauled story because the top two reviews for this game dissect that way better than I ever could (on top of generally just being some of the finest reviews on the site), nevertheless ultimately I think I'm just happy that this game fuckin' gets it, man.
this isn't exactly praise but most of my qualms with the game lie in the back half with the sewer and lab as you've probably heard echoed a lot, yet in a fucked up sort of way, i'm happy that these are faults that stand on the game's own two legs rather than in contrast to the original. don't get me wrong - faults nonetheless, some miserable moments in those setpieces, however it represents a want by the developers to, as I remarked about other remakes earlier, carve out a unique identity for this one, and sometimes it falls flat, but at the end of the day I respect that immensely.
so - which one is better? truthfully, this is a copout but my answer would be that i like them both equally. they both have their faults and strengths, there are some things the original does better, there are some things the remake does better, yadda yadda yadda. my real answer, however, is who gives a shit? i just think it fucks that we can have two different resident evil 2s, and it doesn't hurt that they're both great games. not doomed to fight each other in a tragic eternal hellfire of internet discourse to see which one did it better, but co-existing rather, as companion pieces. because it's not trying to be a replacement, but a reimagining - just a different take. play this game and play the original.
Marking this as completed even though I only finished Leon's story and got like an hour into Claire's before walking away - please don't revoke my gamer license. (Even though I'm sure what I'm about to say will make you do that)
Um, man! Seems I really don't like this as much as other people! For what it's worth, at time of playing this I have never played any other Resident Evil game aside from 4 and its remake. I have no frame of reference for this version compared to the original. I suspect it's very impressive as a remake based on what I've seen and what I've heard from others! To take a classic, PS1-era Resident Evil game and rebuild it from the ground up with a whole new, over-the-shoulder perspective? That's really impressive! And damn this game is visually gorgeous and so well-done on every technical level.
Unfortunately, I don't think it's particularly fun or scary! It's trying to be a more survival horror-oriented game than say - RE4, right? So it makes sense if it's a lot less straight up fun than RE4, but yeah - damn! I also just think it's way less scary! Mr. X gives you a good fright every now and then, sure. But if you let fuckin' Mr. Blobby loose in that police station with me and he followed me around the map, standing outside doors to punch me every time I open them with the music changing whenever he draws near - I reckon I'd be pretty scared of him too! And imo the novelty with Mr. X, well executed as he is, wears off pretty quickly! Eventually he stops being scary and just becomes tedious! When trying to push the bookshelves together in the library to form a walkway across a broken balcony in Leon's story, I wound up having to push one of four bookshelves halfway across to their desired destination at a time to avoid getting nutted by Mr. X and killed because I was one hit from death with no healing items. In between every half-way push, I had to kite him around the whole room to just get him far enough away from me that I could push the bookshelf the rest of the way before he caught up to me and killed me. This shit wound up taking me like 10 minutes! It wasn't scary, it was kinda just an inconvenience!
And this "things being more tedious than scary" thing kinda extends to basically every enemy in the game for me. I really hate how zombies just get back up after a while in this game. I understand in a survival horror game you need to strip power from the player to make them feel vulnerable, but the fact that zombies infinitely respawn unless you blow them to bits just made traversal and exploration really annoying. I felt actively discouraged from exploring the police station because any ammo or healing items I could find I felt I basically wasted as soon as I found them, because I'd expended the equivalent in resources just wading through the endlessly respawning zombies on the fuckin' way! Is manoeuvring around these things any time you wanna get somewhere fun? No! But is it scary? Also, not really! I mean, they're just zombies. I've been lunged at by zombies in video games 1000's of times. I get that this is a remake of an old ass game and so this was maybe a bit more of a novel concept in video games at the time, but that has me wondering if maybe RE2's DNA doesn't really translate that well to a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective? I think it super works in RE4, I don't think it works here. It's funny because the tank controls and wonky movement are supposed to restrict you, to make you feel weakened. That should work way better in a more survival horror-oriented game like RE2 than an action-oriented game like RE4, but when I feel so disincentivised from fighting zombies who I know are just gonna come back, I'd at least like to be able to move around them with some kind of confidence or finesse. Instead I have to fumble my way around every single one unless I feel like wasting some ammo on them to keep them down for a short while, and it just gets trivial and tedious real fast.
There's some really dumb stuff on the critical path as well like inexplicably having to "examine" and look at the bottom of a trophy for a code that you need to enter at a terminal in the greenhouse. Like, some real 1998 shit. Some of this game's puzzles drove me a bit insane. I appreciate not being handheld, but I would have loved some hint or explanation as to what the fuck to do with the fuckin' wave-finding gadget towards the end of Leon's story, and the way you have to examine key items to get other key items off them in the first place I just found to be pretty silly and unnecessary. I got a USB Stick by examining a police badge I got for putting a ruby in a box. I got that ruby from a sceptre which I got by putting a red book that I got in the library in a statue's hand. Okay. The clock tower blew my mind. How you're supposed to know solving it will do that is beyond me. This is not the remake's fault, this is just the craziness of 1998 game design being given modern sensibilities, hahaha. One modern sensibility the original had that the remake doesn't tho - is this little thing me and the boys in the lab have coined music. Bro, where is the music in this game? This game is so quiet at all times, dry, even. Lacking in personality because of just a total lack of music except for when Mr. X shows up, the occasional save room and like, the final boss. I would love to know Capcom's rationale behind this. I think music could have added a lot of atmosphere to an otherwise limp game that lacked in tension a lot, and I'd be fascinated to know why there just...Isn't any.
I'm giving this 3 stars because I admire the craft behind it. I like the way the game handles resources (even if I think it's marred by constantly regenerating zombies) and think its weapons and upgrades are fun to play around with. But man, everything it does well I think RE4 does better. From traversal to resource economy to kinetic fun to straight-up fear factor. I found it very hard to come back to this game and appreciate it in the shadow of RE4.
Um, man! Seems I really don't like this as much as other people! For what it's worth, at time of playing this I have never played any other Resident Evil game aside from 4 and its remake. I have no frame of reference for this version compared to the original. I suspect it's very impressive as a remake based on what I've seen and what I've heard from others! To take a classic, PS1-era Resident Evil game and rebuild it from the ground up with a whole new, over-the-shoulder perspective? That's really impressive! And damn this game is visually gorgeous and so well-done on every technical level.
Unfortunately, I don't think it's particularly fun or scary! It's trying to be a more survival horror-oriented game than say - RE4, right? So it makes sense if it's a lot less straight up fun than RE4, but yeah - damn! I also just think it's way less scary! Mr. X gives you a good fright every now and then, sure. But if you let fuckin' Mr. Blobby loose in that police station with me and he followed me around the map, standing outside doors to punch me every time I open them with the music changing whenever he draws near - I reckon I'd be pretty scared of him too! And imo the novelty with Mr. X, well executed as he is, wears off pretty quickly! Eventually he stops being scary and just becomes tedious! When trying to push the bookshelves together in the library to form a walkway across a broken balcony in Leon's story, I wound up having to push one of four bookshelves halfway across to their desired destination at a time to avoid getting nutted by Mr. X and killed because I was one hit from death with no healing items. In between every half-way push, I had to kite him around the whole room to just get him far enough away from me that I could push the bookshelf the rest of the way before he caught up to me and killed me. This shit wound up taking me like 10 minutes! It wasn't scary, it was kinda just an inconvenience!
And this "things being more tedious than scary" thing kinda extends to basically every enemy in the game for me. I really hate how zombies just get back up after a while in this game. I understand in a survival horror game you need to strip power from the player to make them feel vulnerable, but the fact that zombies infinitely respawn unless you blow them to bits just made traversal and exploration really annoying. I felt actively discouraged from exploring the police station because any ammo or healing items I could find I felt I basically wasted as soon as I found them, because I'd expended the equivalent in resources just wading through the endlessly respawning zombies on the fuckin' way! Is manoeuvring around these things any time you wanna get somewhere fun? No! But is it scary? Also, not really! I mean, they're just zombies. I've been lunged at by zombies in video games 1000's of times. I get that this is a remake of an old ass game and so this was maybe a bit more of a novel concept in video games at the time, but that has me wondering if maybe RE2's DNA doesn't really translate that well to a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective? I think it super works in RE4, I don't think it works here. It's funny because the tank controls and wonky movement are supposed to restrict you, to make you feel weakened. That should work way better in a more survival horror-oriented game like RE2 than an action-oriented game like RE4, but when I feel so disincentivised from fighting zombies who I know are just gonna come back, I'd at least like to be able to move around them with some kind of confidence or finesse. Instead I have to fumble my way around every single one unless I feel like wasting some ammo on them to keep them down for a short while, and it just gets trivial and tedious real fast.
There's some really dumb stuff on the critical path as well like inexplicably having to "examine" and look at the bottom of a trophy for a code that you need to enter at a terminal in the greenhouse. Like, some real 1998 shit. Some of this game's puzzles drove me a bit insane. I appreciate not being handheld, but I would have loved some hint or explanation as to what the fuck to do with the fuckin' wave-finding gadget towards the end of Leon's story, and the way you have to examine key items to get other key items off them in the first place I just found to be pretty silly and unnecessary. I got a USB Stick by examining a police badge I got for putting a ruby in a box. I got that ruby from a sceptre which I got by putting a red book that I got in the library in a statue's hand. Okay. The clock tower blew my mind. How you're supposed to know solving it will do that is beyond me. This is not the remake's fault, this is just the craziness of 1998 game design being given modern sensibilities, hahaha. One modern sensibility the original had that the remake doesn't tho - is this little thing me and the boys in the lab have coined music. Bro, where is the music in this game? This game is so quiet at all times, dry, even. Lacking in personality because of just a total lack of music except for when Mr. X shows up, the occasional save room and like, the final boss. I would love to know Capcom's rationale behind this. I think music could have added a lot of atmosphere to an otherwise limp game that lacked in tension a lot, and I'd be fascinated to know why there just...Isn't any.
I'm giving this 3 stars because I admire the craft behind it. I like the way the game handles resources (even if I think it's marred by constantly regenerating zombies) and think its weapons and upgrades are fun to play around with. But man, everything it does well I think RE4 does better. From traversal to resource economy to kinetic fun to straight-up fear factor. I found it very hard to come back to this game and appreciate it in the shadow of RE4.
ada meu amor volta pra casa os nossos filhos estao com saudade
I often tell people I love horror, and I do. I certainly subject myself to it enough, whether it’s through Stephen King books or American Horror Story or any horror anime I can get my grubby hands on. But I’ve never been able to quite lay my finger on why I love horror. There is a joy in being frightened, but where does it come from? I believe that the true draw of horror is that the genre is based around discovering things that are unknown. Every horror movie is also a mystery movie, even if it’s a bad one. A lot of times the capital-U Unknown isn’t resolved by the end of the story, and that’s great. That leaves the Unknown as an all powerful entity. If you know something, you can fight it. What is Unknown is unkillable, and that is fascinating. The terror in Resident Evil 2 does not lie in the jump scares or the grotesque monsters, of which there are plenty. It lies in the Unknowable, the unkillable, the unsolvable, the incomprehensible. I cannot make sense of what I have seen over the course of these past 15 hours, despite my tedious detective work. And I couldn’t be happier about that.
Resident Evil 2 is comprised of two somewhat different stories. Choosing your character is essentially splitting the timeline, and you play through both scenarios, one as college student Claire Redfield and the other as young hot rookie cop Leon Kennedy. Their stories intersect with each other in a weird way, but they’re not two sides of the same story. The themes of each story are quite different, too. Leon’s story is a police thriller that features an investigation into a gigantic corporation’s shady activities. Claire’s story is a story of motherhood, and strongly follows the theme of finding your own family. I will not spoil anything from the story past the opening of the game.
RE2 is a puzzle/survival horror game. Resident Evil actually is responsible for popularizing survival horror games back in the 90s, and helped lead to renewed interest in zombies in pop culture that we saw going into the 2000s. I’ll be honest, I was completely unfamiliar with the franchise until now. I never played any of the games or saw the movies, didn’t know who Jill Valentine was, didn’t even know the franchise was about a zombie outbreak. After seeing all the Game of the Year praise a remake got in 2019, I thought to myself “this must be a pretty damn good remake then.” And it is.
I was not sold on this game in its first hour. I kept thinking “where’s the thing that makes this a game of the year contender?” I chose Claire to play as because she seemed confident and cool while Leon looked like the lost 8th member of BTS. Traversing the police station, collecting weird items, finding dead ends and dead friends scattered this way and that. I basically was in a state of being jump scared every 10 seconds by a zombie I thought was dead, always being low on ammo, and busting my brain trying to solve these 1998-ass puzzles.
And then suddenly I found the rhythm. A long string of Aah! moments cascaded forth! If I open the box and use the jewel to open the other box, then use that picture to decipher the statue puzzle and get the scepter, then I’ll have the key that’s printed on the back of it and can use it for the vault lock that’s stopping me from getting the goddess coin! The dopamine rush that comes with feeling yourself to be really intelligent hit hard, and I suddenly got what the game was about: it’s just a scary puzzle game. There’s nothing I’m missing. Put simply, scary puzzle game good.
The enemies are wonderfully grotesque. I have a rather high tolerance for gore but my big weakness in horror is people that have been forcefully mutated into monsters. So you can imagine I had to do a little soul-searching with RE2, a game that is exclusively about people that have been forcefully mutated into monsters. I have no problem with zombies, and quickly became relieved when I saw them. I know zombies, they’re not scary. Shoot them in the head, like every other piece of zombie media for the last hundred years. What I don’t know are the lickers, the ivy, the BOWs. I don’t know what the hell G is. And I haven’t the faintest idea what Mr. X is. Spoilers in the next paragraph, skip ahead if you don’t want to see.
I would like to talk about Mr. X for a moment. Mr. X is a large, broad shouldered, blue faced indestructible dad wearing a trench coat and a fedora. Once he appears in the police station, he continually stalks you for the duration of that area (probably about an hour or so of gameplay). He cannot be hurt, he cannot die. He does not speak, has no emotions, and walks exactly half as fast as you can run, never changing speed. It is absolutely terrifying. I was so scared of what was going to happen when he caught me. Would he break my neck? Eat me? Maybe a fade to black? No, it’s much worse. When Mr. X catches you, he punches you. Hard. I don’t know why it’s worse, but I do NOT want to get punched by the big stone man in the fedora. I just don’t. Do you? No, you don’t. Don’t get punched. He is the best and worst part of this game all at the same time and has been an inspiration to me. I recently featured him in the Dungeons and Dragons game I DM and my players are losing their goddamn minds.
RE2 is one of the best looking games I’ve ever seen, like ever. Beyond the basic stuff like textures and animations, the lighting is so… purposeful. The angle of every light that reaches every room is precisely calculated to maximize your fear. Directional lighting is a much bigger factor than we realize while playing games, but just keep an eye out when you play through this game. The music is not a top 10 of all time or anything, but it is sufficiently scary for sure. Mr. X’s Theme is the real standout. Hearing it as he slams open the door to the next room while you cower under the desk… Jesus Christ. Perfect horror.
There a few characters besides the main two that I won’t spoil the story of, but I really came to love Sherry and hate Ada. Like I mentioned before, Leon’s story is more the story of the Umbrella Corporation, what they did, why they did it, and how it started the apocalypse. Claire’s story is that of family, how people hold together and fall apart when all is lost. You’ll find that each of them feels different to play as, even if it feels like you’re playing the same game again. Claire gets a grenade launcher and Leon gets a shotgun, so they actually handle quite differently. The crafting is simple and as such lends itself to being fun. I find gunpowder, I immediately combine it with my one other gunpowder to make bullets. Easy, fast, and doesn’t kill the momentum of the scares. I played as Claire first and I found her story to be much more interesting than Leon’s, but I’m sure that’s a matter of preference. Remember to either play a 2nd run to get the true ending, or just look it up on Youtube when you finish your first runs. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Calling Resident Evil 2 a remake is almost disservice to the love, care, and passion that was obviously poured into this project. You will have a hard time finding another game with this amount of polish that doesn’t have Mario in it. It’s not the scariest game I’ve ever played, not by a long shot, but it does deliver the best scares that I’ve experienced. Mr. X, while overall not a huge part of the game, sticks in my mind as one of the most memorable video game villains I’ve ever faced off against, and the other creatures created by the Umbrella Corporation are the stuff of nightmares. The lighting, camera angling, pacing, and sound design come together to push you to the edge of suspense. The unrelenting bombardment of having the Unknown loom over you for 15 hours is something that cannot be replicated through a movie or TV. This is absolutely one of the best games of 2019. If you have the stomach for it, I must insist that you strap on your glock, dive into the sewer, and pray that something can truly deliver us from this evil.
Resident Evil 2 is comprised of two somewhat different stories. Choosing your character is essentially splitting the timeline, and you play through both scenarios, one as college student Claire Redfield and the other as young hot rookie cop Leon Kennedy. Their stories intersect with each other in a weird way, but they’re not two sides of the same story. The themes of each story are quite different, too. Leon’s story is a police thriller that features an investigation into a gigantic corporation’s shady activities. Claire’s story is a story of motherhood, and strongly follows the theme of finding your own family. I will not spoil anything from the story past the opening of the game.
RE2 is a puzzle/survival horror game. Resident Evil actually is responsible for popularizing survival horror games back in the 90s, and helped lead to renewed interest in zombies in pop culture that we saw going into the 2000s. I’ll be honest, I was completely unfamiliar with the franchise until now. I never played any of the games or saw the movies, didn’t know who Jill Valentine was, didn’t even know the franchise was about a zombie outbreak. After seeing all the Game of the Year praise a remake got in 2019, I thought to myself “this must be a pretty damn good remake then.” And it is.
I was not sold on this game in its first hour. I kept thinking “where’s the thing that makes this a game of the year contender?” I chose Claire to play as because she seemed confident and cool while Leon looked like the lost 8th member of BTS. Traversing the police station, collecting weird items, finding dead ends and dead friends scattered this way and that. I basically was in a state of being jump scared every 10 seconds by a zombie I thought was dead, always being low on ammo, and busting my brain trying to solve these 1998-ass puzzles.
And then suddenly I found the rhythm. A long string of Aah! moments cascaded forth! If I open the box and use the jewel to open the other box, then use that picture to decipher the statue puzzle and get the scepter, then I’ll have the key that’s printed on the back of it and can use it for the vault lock that’s stopping me from getting the goddess coin! The dopamine rush that comes with feeling yourself to be really intelligent hit hard, and I suddenly got what the game was about: it’s just a scary puzzle game. There’s nothing I’m missing. Put simply, scary puzzle game good.
The enemies are wonderfully grotesque. I have a rather high tolerance for gore but my big weakness in horror is people that have been forcefully mutated into monsters. So you can imagine I had to do a little soul-searching with RE2, a game that is exclusively about people that have been forcefully mutated into monsters. I have no problem with zombies, and quickly became relieved when I saw them. I know zombies, they’re not scary. Shoot them in the head, like every other piece of zombie media for the last hundred years. What I don’t know are the lickers, the ivy, the BOWs. I don’t know what the hell G is. And I haven’t the faintest idea what Mr. X is. Spoilers in the next paragraph, skip ahead if you don’t want to see.
I would like to talk about Mr. X for a moment. Mr. X is a large, broad shouldered, blue faced indestructible dad wearing a trench coat and a fedora. Once he appears in the police station, he continually stalks you for the duration of that area (probably about an hour or so of gameplay). He cannot be hurt, he cannot die. He does not speak, has no emotions, and walks exactly half as fast as you can run, never changing speed. It is absolutely terrifying. I was so scared of what was going to happen when he caught me. Would he break my neck? Eat me? Maybe a fade to black? No, it’s much worse. When Mr. X catches you, he punches you. Hard. I don’t know why it’s worse, but I do NOT want to get punched by the big stone man in the fedora. I just don’t. Do you? No, you don’t. Don’t get punched. He is the best and worst part of this game all at the same time and has been an inspiration to me. I recently featured him in the Dungeons and Dragons game I DM and my players are losing their goddamn minds.
RE2 is one of the best looking games I’ve ever seen, like ever. Beyond the basic stuff like textures and animations, the lighting is so… purposeful. The angle of every light that reaches every room is precisely calculated to maximize your fear. Directional lighting is a much bigger factor than we realize while playing games, but just keep an eye out when you play through this game. The music is not a top 10 of all time or anything, but it is sufficiently scary for sure. Mr. X’s Theme is the real standout. Hearing it as he slams open the door to the next room while you cower under the desk… Jesus Christ. Perfect horror.
There a few characters besides the main two that I won’t spoil the story of, but I really came to love Sherry and hate Ada. Like I mentioned before, Leon’s story is more the story of the Umbrella Corporation, what they did, why they did it, and how it started the apocalypse. Claire’s story is that of family, how people hold together and fall apart when all is lost. You’ll find that each of them feels different to play as, even if it feels like you’re playing the same game again. Claire gets a grenade launcher and Leon gets a shotgun, so they actually handle quite differently. The crafting is simple and as such lends itself to being fun. I find gunpowder, I immediately combine it with my one other gunpowder to make bullets. Easy, fast, and doesn’t kill the momentum of the scares. I played as Claire first and I found her story to be much more interesting than Leon’s, but I’m sure that’s a matter of preference. Remember to either play a 2nd run to get the true ending, or just look it up on Youtube when you finish your first runs. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Calling Resident Evil 2 a remake is almost disservice to the love, care, and passion that was obviously poured into this project. You will have a hard time finding another game with this amount of polish that doesn’t have Mario in it. It’s not the scariest game I’ve ever played, not by a long shot, but it does deliver the best scares that I’ve experienced. Mr. X, while overall not a huge part of the game, sticks in my mind as one of the most memorable video game villains I’ve ever faced off against, and the other creatures created by the Umbrella Corporation are the stuff of nightmares. The lighting, camera angling, pacing, and sound design come together to push you to the edge of suspense. The unrelenting bombardment of having the Unknown loom over you for 15 hours is something that cannot be replicated through a movie or TV. This is absolutely one of the best games of 2019. If you have the stomach for it, I must insist that you strap on your glock, dive into the sewer, and pray that something can truly deliver us from this evil.
my first time playing any entry in the resident evil series was back in 2019 when this remaster first came out. i wasn’t much of a survival horror player - rather just watched playthroughs on youtube. I remember having an absolute blast playing it back then and this time wasn’t any different.
Playing the ps5 update was incredibly satisfying, beautiful to look and controlled like a dream. The atmosphere of Racoon City Police Department is so eerie and i found myself exploring every square inch of it. Each level is designed so well the deeper you go underground.
The pure adrenaline you feel after finding a clue or completing a puzzle and running back to the objective only to be scared by and zombie rounding the corner was so fun. And of course being chased by Mr X when you are least expecting it.
The sound design was also incredible. I was also surprised by how quickly i was to jump straight into Claire’s story as soon as i finished Leon’s part. Just fun characters that i wanted to spend more time with.
I plan on playing through all of the games in the series, i think this is really a great starting point into the franchise aswell.
Playing the ps5 update was incredibly satisfying, beautiful to look and controlled like a dream. The atmosphere of Racoon City Police Department is so eerie and i found myself exploring every square inch of it. Each level is designed so well the deeper you go underground.
The pure adrenaline you feel after finding a clue or completing a puzzle and running back to the objective only to be scared by and zombie rounding the corner was so fun. And of course being chased by Mr X when you are least expecting it.
The sound design was also incredible. I was also surprised by how quickly i was to jump straight into Claire’s story as soon as i finished Leon’s part. Just fun characters that i wanted to spend more time with.
I plan on playing through all of the games in the series, i think this is really a great starting point into the franchise aswell.
Mr. X kinda gets a lot less scary when you realise he can be defeated by a room with a table in the middle of it.
for the love of fucking god i guess resident evil 4 really kickstarted a super resident evil marathon (i have only played the remake of resident evil 1 and a bit of original resident evil 2 and the massive resident evil 4 original and remake alike) so that definitely just means that im gonna go through my resident evil backlog for once so i can be one of the good kid
DISCLAIMER: i played the original game but not the full experience which means that if i remember correctly i just went through like half of leons route so i have no idea apart from that what they actually changed so thats basically it
now resident evil 2 remake exists in that weird space between a classic resident evil but with the new sophisticated additions of the resident evil 4 onwards era which is actually pretty fine if you ask me they polished some edges here and there and delivered some of the most atmospheric horror experience out there
on a visual level everything got rtx onned so its kinda pointless to go oh yeah everythings fancier bro of course its fancier we dont need to have this conversation right now to be honest BUT its also interesting to see how leon is younger and somehow even uglier than his resident evil 4 remake counterpart my brother in christ what happened to you im sorry guys but i think they hit the highest point of hotness with original resident evil 4 leon design like genuinely its absolutely fucking sad gimme a hunkier leon i dont want this
claire in the meantime is just there walking around being the most gorgeous woman ive ever seen in my entire life like shes just there kicking ass doing whats right shooting a bit running away from huge fucking monsters or whatever
so umh women amirite
being absolutely ignorant about the original material i cant say for sure what they changed forreals but as much as i have played the original i can see this is kinda legit like the locations look the same and the ambience is unmatched who wouldve guessed
you got a gameplay that really is emulating the original resident evil experience with the entire survival horror stuff and im glad it is like this like theres something about getting item a to do thing b and get result c thats absolutely fucking great i love this kind of game progression and its also the reason why resident evil 1 even tho kind of clunky in many aspects its still one of the greatest and most influential games of all time so its kinda expected that resident evil 2 would take a lot from that kind of game design
and the atmosphere about going into this haunted police department with some zombies coming up from everywhere that need like 99+ gun shots to take down and a big huge man with the most 1998 monster design ive ever seen in my entire life i wish they actually added some modernity to mr x hes still kind of freaky tho like you cant go around the police station without hearing his approaching footsteps every fucking where and shitting youself
thats also a great aspect of this the sound design is definitely some of the best ive ever experienced in a long time like every single little sound feels haunting real and clear and every bit of (scarce) music piece you listen to is absolutely phenomenal
i ended up doing route A with leon because im gay yknow this is what happens with gay people usually they just choose the hot guy like umh disgusting and anyway its weird how i liked claires storyline way more i just thought it was absolutely freaky and had a lot more intense situations BUT leons route got sexy hot ada so im pretty conflicted to which i liked more
people complained that route B was changed from the original game and it probably was if theyre complaining about it but as a person who doesnt know what the original is like i can say that the second route is pretty samey and i kinda hated it BUT claires route was really interesting anyway so i enjoyed it (me when nier replicant asks me to replay the exact same segments 4 times omg fucking great stuff me when resident evil 2 asks me to replay it one time with some different stuff UGH WHO DOES THAT)
umh
good game i just wanted leon to be hotter can you blame me
DISCLAIMER: i played the original game but not the full experience which means that if i remember correctly i just went through like half of leons route so i have no idea apart from that what they actually changed so thats basically it
now resident evil 2 remake exists in that weird space between a classic resident evil but with the new sophisticated additions of the resident evil 4 onwards era which is actually pretty fine if you ask me they polished some edges here and there and delivered some of the most atmospheric horror experience out there
on a visual level everything got rtx onned so its kinda pointless to go oh yeah everythings fancier bro of course its fancier we dont need to have this conversation right now to be honest BUT its also interesting to see how leon is younger and somehow even uglier than his resident evil 4 remake counterpart my brother in christ what happened to you im sorry guys but i think they hit the highest point of hotness with original resident evil 4 leon design like genuinely its absolutely fucking sad gimme a hunkier leon i dont want this
claire in the meantime is just there walking around being the most gorgeous woman ive ever seen in my entire life like shes just there kicking ass doing whats right shooting a bit running away from huge fucking monsters or whatever
so umh women amirite
being absolutely ignorant about the original material i cant say for sure what they changed forreals but as much as i have played the original i can see this is kinda legit like the locations look the same and the ambience is unmatched who wouldve guessed
you got a gameplay that really is emulating the original resident evil experience with the entire survival horror stuff and im glad it is like this like theres something about getting item a to do thing b and get result c thats absolutely fucking great i love this kind of game progression and its also the reason why resident evil 1 even tho kind of clunky in many aspects its still one of the greatest and most influential games of all time so its kinda expected that resident evil 2 would take a lot from that kind of game design
and the atmosphere about going into this haunted police department with some zombies coming up from everywhere that need like 99+ gun shots to take down and a big huge man with the most 1998 monster design ive ever seen in my entire life i wish they actually added some modernity to mr x hes still kind of freaky tho like you cant go around the police station without hearing his approaching footsteps every fucking where and shitting youself
thats also a great aspect of this the sound design is definitely some of the best ive ever experienced in a long time like every single little sound feels haunting real and clear and every bit of (scarce) music piece you listen to is absolutely phenomenal
i ended up doing route A with leon because im gay yknow this is what happens with gay people usually they just choose the hot guy like umh disgusting and anyway its weird how i liked claires storyline way more i just thought it was absolutely freaky and had a lot more intense situations BUT leons route got sexy hot ada so im pretty conflicted to which i liked more
people complained that route B was changed from the original game and it probably was if theyre complaining about it but as a person who doesnt know what the original is like i can say that the second route is pretty samey and i kinda hated it BUT claires route was really interesting anyway so i enjoyed it (me when nier replicant asks me to replay the exact same segments 4 times omg fucking great stuff me when resident evil 2 asks me to replay it one time with some different stuff UGH WHO DOES THAT)
umh
good game i just wanted leon to be hotter can you blame me
peak
Leon A continua simplesmente perfeito, exploração, atmosfera, admnistração de recursos, tudo tá maravilhoso, apesar da história com a Ada ser meio manjada.
Já a Claire B tem alguns defeitos, o principal sendo a parte da delegacia, colocando o Mr. X muito cedo na campanha, uma parte que é tolerável na campanha A fica muito zoada aqui.
Porém sua história e partes originais compensam, o drama com a Sherry é muito bom e o final verdadeiro é bem satisfatório.
Leon A continua simplesmente perfeito, exploração, atmosfera, admnistração de recursos, tudo tá maravilhoso, apesar da história com a Ada ser meio manjada.
Já a Claire B tem alguns defeitos, o principal sendo a parte da delegacia, colocando o Mr. X muito cedo na campanha, uma parte que é tolerável na campanha A fica muito zoada aqui.
Porém sua história e partes originais compensam, o drama com a Sherry é muito bom e o final verdadeiro é bem satisfatório.
This review contains spoilers
What a fantastic survival horror game. The exploration, item management, and 3rd person shooter elements of this game are all top notch. That quality Capcom camp oozes out of the cutscenes of this game - making the story an absolute joy to watch. It can be pretty damn scary too, and not just jumpscares. My biggest complaint is the sections of the game where you must avoid Mr. X. Since the only option is to run away the tension is completely dissolved and his apparences just make him annoying as all you can do is avoid him. Still, it's a small blemish on an otherwise amazing game.
Playtime: 10 Hours (Claires Campaign Run 1)
After "Dead Space", the remake of "Resident Evil 2" is probably the peak of survival horror games (I'm still missing Alien Isolation). Although part 2 is also always presented with a wink towards trash, the almost 10 hours in Claire's campaign are nevertheless much calmer and more seriously told than the action-packed chase in part 3 and the, in my opinion, far too long odyssey through Spanish forests in the fourth part.
Of course, the story itself is also rubbish here, but I don't mind it so much because the atmosphere is extremely well done and every shock is well-timed. In addition, simple but successful puzzles and a shortage of ammunition still play a major role in the gameplay, the whole level design is fantastic, both visually and in terms of the general structure, and the fact that parts 2 and 3 share the same location and time period makes for several great "aha moments".
When I first tried to play the game on release, the mechanics surrounding the indestructible Mr. X got on my nerves quite a bit. This time it was different and I love the twist they do with him. Very good game in every respect.
After "Dead Space", the remake of "Resident Evil 2" is probably the peak of survival horror games (I'm still missing Alien Isolation). Although part 2 is also always presented with a wink towards trash, the almost 10 hours in Claire's campaign are nevertheless much calmer and more seriously told than the action-packed chase in part 3 and the, in my opinion, far too long odyssey through Spanish forests in the fourth part.
Of course, the story itself is also rubbish here, but I don't mind it so much because the atmosphere is extremely well done and every shock is well-timed. In addition, simple but successful puzzles and a shortage of ammunition still play a major role in the gameplay, the whole level design is fantastic, both visually and in terms of the general structure, and the fact that parts 2 and 3 share the same location and time period makes for several great "aha moments".
When I first tried to play the game on release, the mechanics surrounding the indestructible Mr. X got on my nerves quite a bit. This time it was different and I love the twist they do with him. Very good game in every respect.
Still need to finish this one but I can't go without singing it's praises just a little bit. This might have the best sound design of any game I've ever played. I had to play at a super low resolution throughout and I was still scared shitless by the introduction. Definitely high on my list of things to play when I get a better PC.
Capcom modernising their Resident Evil catalogue was no small task, and they obviously had to make some tough decisions, but the end result was more than impressive. With such a revitalisation of the series (starting with 7 respectively) it made me fall in love all over again. Out with the old, in the new: third-person, photorealistic visuals, tweaks to the story, expanded maps, just a complete overhaul.
Resident Evil 2 was fantastic to play, the police department one of the best experiences—including all the backtracking. If the game was set solely in that station I would’ve loved it just the same. The added threat of Mr X stomping the corridors made for some stressful moments, the stalker enemy a mechanic Capcom clearly likes. Definitely a favourite of mine, I hope my love for the franchise never fizzles out.
Resident Evil 2 was fantastic to play, the police department one of the best experiences—including all the backtracking. If the game was set solely in that station I would’ve loved it just the same. The added threat of Mr X stomping the corridors made for some stressful moments, the stalker enemy a mechanic Capcom clearly likes. Definitely a favourite of mine, I hope my love for the franchise never fizzles out.
DMX was right...
8.5/10
8.5/10
Still my favourite Resident Evil experience and I doubt that's going to change any time soon.
society if this game didn't have one of the biggest drops in quality as it progresses on top of the worst boss fights in the series.
RE2 on the PS1 was rough for me to play, but an intense joy to vibe with. RE2-19 is great to play AND truly unsettling, in the best way.
The atmosphere and detail in every environment, every dismembered body part, and every item is bonkers. The remade RPD is a very satisfying piece of level design. Managing your resources while avoiding Mr. X and dealing with zombies that walk the right line between being a threat vs. being a pain in the ass. It encourages a lot of thoughtful movement strategy and kept me making real world notes on where to come back to solve puzzles later on.
The tone is well managed and there are a lot of nicely depolyed character moments between both scenarios. Additionally, the side missions as Sherry and Ada offer enough variety and world building without overstaying their welcome (especially Sherry's chapter, holy shit).
The one edge the PS1 OG has over this is the impact your first scenario has over the other. Gone are the character interactions, the items taken in A that you're deprived of in B. I wish Playing the 2nd run had less of the same puzzles and boss fights. You rehauled this game from top to bottom, you couldn't make each perspective of the story 100% unique? Also, as a side tangent, Mr. X outlasts his welcome in Leon B, especially the final obnoxious encounter.
A remake so good that it could've just been released without the familiar branding and characters and it would still be a fantastic play.
The atmosphere and detail in every environment, every dismembered body part, and every item is bonkers. The remade RPD is a very satisfying piece of level design. Managing your resources while avoiding Mr. X and dealing with zombies that walk the right line between being a threat vs. being a pain in the ass. It encourages a lot of thoughtful movement strategy and kept me making real world notes on where to come back to solve puzzles later on.
The tone is well managed and there are a lot of nicely depolyed character moments between both scenarios. Additionally, the side missions as Sherry and Ada offer enough variety and world building without overstaying their welcome (especially Sherry's chapter, holy shit).
The one edge the PS1 OG has over this is the impact your first scenario has over the other. Gone are the character interactions, the items taken in A that you're deprived of in B. I wish Playing the 2nd run had less of the same puzzles and boss fights. You rehauled this game from top to bottom, you couldn't make each perspective of the story 100% unique? Also, as a side tangent, Mr. X outlasts his welcome in Leon B, especially the final obnoxious encounter.
A remake so good that it could've just been released without the familiar branding and characters and it would still be a fantastic play.
MR X COM CHAPÉU DE MAFIOSO BOLADASSO
Every resident evil game got the amazing first 75% but proceed to completely drop the ball on the last 25%
Like bro just end the game sooner if that's what's gonna happen
Like bro just end the game sooner if that's what's gonna happen