A survival horror with an interesting and strong approach to the moment-to-moment gameplay, and an emphasis in the action component which, ironically so, takes from the fundamentals of the original Resident Evil 4 and translates them in the context of a less bombastic but still cathartic experience.
There's an undeniable showoff, willingly so, made by the developers regarding their technical pedigree here: the biggest improvement from the previous entries (apart from Resident Evil 7) is an enormous jump in the sound department, from design to the original soundtrack: conveying the horror aspect also in this way enhance a lot the experience, and basically this alone sells such fantasy in a really successful way. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the lighting, god rays, lens flares and all details blooming around the ever-fascinating R.P.D. Station, used intelligently, never being too much in the way of the art direction.
The interesting parallelism which can be made with the previously mentioned RE7 is that RE2 Remake approaches horror mostly, if not only, from a design approach. You're not scared just because of the cut-scene, the set-piece, or the jump-scare, but because of the emergent aspect of the gameplay. The escalation of fighting a zombie, to a multitude of them in an open area, to more of them in a cramped area, to Mr.X approaching by himself, then by the zombies, then a lone Licker, then him alongside Mr.X, then two of them, and then more zombies... The game's constantly fighting against your comfort and your habits, and the tension never ends, given how they've managed the safe rooms this time around.
The game escalating this way also expects the player to further improve their tactics: shooting a zombie in order to discover how it reacts to gunfire, using a knife to counter and, before that, punishing another enemy in your way with melee attacks. It may not be enough, so better to focus on the head, right? Well, what if it moves too much? Time to cripple its legs. Are the resources not enough? Do not engage them at all. Are they are inevitable obstacle alongside your path? Now to master movement and evade them. And then, you start focusing on the stagger capabilities of your arsenal instead of their intrinsic lethality which, arguably, should be reserved only to bosses: mix movement, guns and melee, and there you have it. It's the evolution the series has always aspired to reach since Resident Evil 5 and 6. There could've been no other way to remake the original RE2 without falling into repetitiveness.
Some minor nitpicks may be found in the enemy variety, in the length of the experience itself or even in some missing moments of the original, which are either gone, replaced with something else, or even improved. Even with those (really) little issues, the game's phenomenal in a way it can only be experienced first-hand. Better so if the original RE2 nostalgia is vivid. Just like Rebirth, this game loves making fun of your memories.
Must-Play.
There's an undeniable showoff, willingly so, made by the developers regarding their technical pedigree here: the biggest improvement from the previous entries (apart from Resident Evil 7) is an enormous jump in the sound department, from design to the original soundtrack: conveying the horror aspect also in this way enhance a lot the experience, and basically this alone sells such fantasy in a really successful way. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the lighting, god rays, lens flares and all details blooming around the ever-fascinating R.P.D. Station, used intelligently, never being too much in the way of the art direction.
The interesting parallelism which can be made with the previously mentioned RE7 is that RE2 Remake approaches horror mostly, if not only, from a design approach. You're not scared just because of the cut-scene, the set-piece, or the jump-scare, but because of the emergent aspect of the gameplay. The escalation of fighting a zombie, to a multitude of them in an open area, to more of them in a cramped area, to Mr.X approaching by himself, then by the zombies, then a lone Licker, then him alongside Mr.X, then two of them, and then more zombies... The game's constantly fighting against your comfort and your habits, and the tension never ends, given how they've managed the safe rooms this time around.
The game escalating this way also expects the player to further improve their tactics: shooting a zombie in order to discover how it reacts to gunfire, using a knife to counter and, before that, punishing another enemy in your way with melee attacks. It may not be enough, so better to focus on the head, right? Well, what if it moves too much? Time to cripple its legs. Are the resources not enough? Do not engage them at all. Are they are inevitable obstacle alongside your path? Now to master movement and evade them. And then, you start focusing on the stagger capabilities of your arsenal instead of their intrinsic lethality which, arguably, should be reserved only to bosses: mix movement, guns and melee, and there you have it. It's the evolution the series has always aspired to reach since Resident Evil 5 and 6. There could've been no other way to remake the original RE2 without falling into repetitiveness.
Some minor nitpicks may be found in the enemy variety, in the length of the experience itself or even in some missing moments of the original, which are either gone, replaced with something else, or even improved. Even with those (really) little issues, the game's phenomenal in a way it can only be experienced first-hand. Better so if the original RE2 nostalgia is vivid. Just like Rebirth, this game loves making fun of your memories.
Must-Play.
Um dos meus jogos favoritos da franquia Resident Evil, facilmente uma das melhores ambientações em um jogo de terror, acho incrível a forma que eles conseguiram trazer o terror mesmo com a câmera acima do ombro, usando o cenário e iluminação a seu favor.
First started playing it around March 2023 and finished it over several months (since I was too afraid to continue it because of Mr. X and then my save file somehow got deleted lmao). But eventually I started playing it again (almost from the beginning) and it made me fall in love with gaming again. Another thing it made me fall in love with was the Resident Evil franchise, which is now my favorite franchise.
mr x was not that scary idk wtf ur all on abt but still great game
Friendship ended with Lickers, now Mr. X is my new best friend
I LOOOOOOVE LEON
Se hace muy repetitiva la segunda run :( pero me lo pasé bien matando 💋
hardcore mode makes this game a nightmare but it was so good
Eh never really could get into resident evil personally average game for myself and kinda boring. Its a blend of a shooter and a puzzle game. There a lot of back tracking and your character doesn't particularly move very fast so at times everything can feel so dragged out and so slow. Some of the game felt more like doing chores then having fun. You'll be Looking up the answers to a lot of the puzzles if you don't pay attention to the details.
I ended up modding the game and cheating before i finished it and it made things a lot more interesting XD
I ended up modding the game and cheating before i finished it and it made things a lot more interesting XD
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 of these 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 of these 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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the best resident evil remake from 2-4 if you ask me
Top tier survival horror game and a great remake (for the most part - looking at you B scenarios).
they made 2 of these things?!
Very good remaster of the original, loved playing through multiple times.
Very good remaster of the original, loved playing through multiple times.
AMAZING ATMOSPHERE
finally actually finished a Claire run! i didn't even realize there was a "true ending", because when I first played this a little over a year ago I rushed into the RE3 remake because I was marathoning the games with Eva as my audience.
Somehow was harder than re3 i ended up having to play on assisted because i got stuck in the police station but after that it was pretty much smooth sailing. I learned that i could dodge the zombies and monsters so I proceeded to do that and i collected about 4 stacks of handgun ammo. Probably the best part was Sherry and Claire they’re probably my favorite resident evil characters.
Without a doubt the best boxing game ever made for any platform. A few touches here and there will no doubt bring perfection.
Um bom jogo, tem uma boa duração. Tem a possibilidade de jogar duas campanhas que pouco se diferenciam, apenas o começo e algumas cutscenes, mas alguns bosses se repetem nos mesmos locais, e até alguns puzzles também. Se as campanhas fossem um pouco diferentes, onde o que fizesse no cenário A não precisasse ser resolvido no B seria excelente, mas não deixa de ser muito bom!
O jogo que começou com o catalogo de remakes da Capcom, a açao é muito legal e a gunplay tbm, a ambientaçao e os enemigos foram muito bem feitos. Mas o jogo patina um pouco quando vc ta chegando perto do final, mesmo o jogo sendo bem curto, e eu achei o ultimo chefe bem bosta. Tirando que a jogatina da Claire é 90% a mesma que a do Leon.
This review contains spoilers
What I thought was a very well-paced game. Leon's story in my opinion was fine, but I found Claire's story to be the more interesting one. The main thing I had an issue with was both stories having almost the same exact pathing, with small differences in-between. But the game is very enjoyable. I just feel like if you're going to have two different stories within the same game, there should be some substantial differences between the two. But finishing the game, then having to go back through for Claire's story to have almost the same pathing throughout, just felt like I played the same game twice. Game is worth a playthrough, and I could see a bunch of people taking a liking to it. If it weren't for the two playthrough's pathing being damn near identical, I would've rated it higher.
Replaying RE2 after finishing the RE3 remake and... wow. Liked it a lot more than I remembered. Engaging action, spooky survival horror, interesting puzzles and a well-written narrative. What more can you ask for?
Thinking of playing again for Claire's POV, even though I played it already when this first came out. Still, probably has more impact if I play both runs back to back.
Thinking of playing again for Claire's POV, even though I played it already when this first came out. Still, probably has more impact if I play both runs back to back.
Just about flawless
My favorite resident evil
Diferente do primeiro, aqui temos um jogo completamente DIFERENTE do que foi a sua versão original, sem câmera clássica, com inimigos completamente reformulados, o mister X arruinando meus pesadelos (traumas com os passos dele) e uma delegacia MIL VEZES melhor pra se explorar do que aquela mansão chatinha, uma pena que depois dos esgotos o jogo fica muito linear e vc acaba deixando de lado essa parte de exploração, triste fim, e o laboratório vish... Anda pra frente, pega item importante, volta tudo, usa item, e ai pum, batalha com chefe e ACABO??? SÉRIO??? O jogo é incrível, maravilhoso, gráficos incríveis e uma gameplay divina, porém, esse final... Meu Pai... Mesmo sendo o final "falso" e te dando um motivo pra continuar na rota B, essa porcaria de final não valeu muito a pena pelas horas de jogo...
Super spooky and Super fun. Leon is a great protag, and is repeatedly badass. gunplay is great and makes you feel very grounded and vulnerable at times. several difficulty scales to help beginners, or make the game hell for veterans. great story as well.
Big fan of this game's gameplay and the interactive puzzles. Can the characters run though???
my first re game loved every second of it
Great remake, this is how you do it.
mr x made me shit myself. it was worth it.
A crazy good re-imagining/re-do that keeps a lot of what's good about the original while bringing in aspects of its very successful little brother RE4. I'm real bad at horror, but I was able to finish this game as Leon and almost have finished a Claire run. A very good game, even if I can't play it without tensing up.