so yeah im a little pissy pants the atmosphere of this game is amazing and really takes whatever modern shit we got to the next level and even towards the end of my plays i still got scared and jumped all the time to stuff id already seen happen because really the game is terrifying. the design of everything here is great, and it also does a good job of making everything a really tough risk when it comes down to it. however, after rpd everything after is just kinda meh? like from first stage g to third stage g it feels a little empty and just not as immersive as rpd was, but it picks up for a really cool end on the b side. speaking of which, i feel like they couldve added a little more variety between the a and b stories, we do get different plot details but gameplay wise its pretty much the same and i appreciate that they tried to do a little extra for us with a second playthrough but it kind of amounts to being almost the same playthrough just with a little more talent from my end. definitely still a fun experience minus a few of my nitpicks.

My attitude towards the Resident Evil series has evolved significantly over the course of my life. When I was a child, I was terrified of zombies. In one childhood incident, a friend and I "stormed" his basement armed with scissors and a baseball bat because we were so frightened of zombies. All zombies were to me back then was something to be afraid of. I thought they were terrifying.

At some point I tried to make sense of what I found so frightening about them. The answer that I used to give was that: zombies represent our fear of people. Later, I had an even more cynical take: zombies are just a proxy in games to let the player kill huge amounts of people without needing a justification. If you compare Dead Rising to Hatred, this point starts to feel obvious. In the most cynical analysis, Dead Rising is just a publicly acceptable version of Hatred. We don't need to feel bad about mowing down a mall because they're not people, they're zombies.

I don't disclaim everything about that interpretation. There are ways in which zombies are used in games as an excuse for depicting violence against humans. Dead Rising is a particularly explicit example of this, where the entire premise of the game is being able to unleash chainsaws, cars, swords, frying pans, whatever on crowds of "people". It is a game which gives players the opportunity to give into intrusive thoughts. Really, the game itself trades on human/zombie equivalence by offering its own cynical commentary on capitalism - malls full of "zombie consumers", assaulted by a kind of ubermensch figure with total freedom and full access to use the powerful consumer goods within. Frank West is a lot like Patrick Bateman. He has conquered capitalism without transcending it. At the peak of capital, he can literally enter any store, take what he wants without any consequence, and then use the goods he takes in whatever way he wants. But all he does with the goods it turn them on the people, stripped of everything that makes them human, that are trapped "inside the mall". Dead Rising is just American Psycho told a different way.

Using zombies as an analogy to explain our fear of other people, or using zombies as a proxy to justify and unleash our violent urges against other "people", frankly always made me feel bad. I am afraid of zombies, and truthfully, I'm afraid of other people too. And I feel morally wrong to sit on my couch and simulate killing huge crowds of people. I still think that there is value in this media. I just don't believe in it, if that makes sense. I don't think that's what we ought to do with games.

For a long time, I applied these same feelings to the Resident Evil series. Early on, I just found the games horrifying. The message of "survival horror" really read to me as: feel how scary people can be, and how weak you are against the world. My view (at least as it applies to Resi) has changed.

I think that Resident Evil II is primarily a sad game. I think that it tells a story which is motivated on much better grounds than zombie media like Dead Rising. Resident Evil II is not cynical or ironic. That's not to say that the game is not goofy or silly. Shinji Mikami himself has started how much was taken from films like TCM, and I think there is a valid reading of the game as a haunted house simulator. Many moments are intentionally over the top, melodramatic, and ridiculous. But I don't think that this is the core meaning of the game. At least, it is not to me.

RE2 is about the zombies. The game is about the horrible things that happened to everyone involved with the Umbrella Corporation, whether innocent or guilty. It's about the story of Raccoon City, which was taken advantage of by egotistical, morally aimless, corrupt individuals. At some point I started to feel genuinely bad for the zombies.

The zombies in RE2 are a perfect mirror of the zombies in Dead Rising. The zombies in RE2 are people: they are innocent, sick people driven mad by the T virus. Anyone who lived through Covid should be able to sympathize with that. The zombies in Dead Rising are people, too, but presented in such a different light: they are a moral rebuke of capitalist man. They dismiss the value of consumers as people. Dead Rising says: yes, the zombies are people, but the people may as well be zombies.

I don't see that in RE2. I see depictions of orphans being experimented on, some of them committing suicide from the trauma they endure. Police officers bravely holding the line in the face of crisis until the very end. Scientists driven to depravity by their moral weakness, even to the point of destroying themselves and truly becoming monsters. Staff members caught up in the middle of it all, unsure of what to do. The game is a tragedy, even more than it is a horror. It is a genuinely sad game.

If Dead Rising is just American Psycho told another way, RE2 is Disaster Report. RE2 is a story about crisis. It's about how crisis happens, how it impacts society, and how we respond to it. It at times does fall into the power fantasy typical of video games (especially in the last 10 minutes). But that is nearly the only time this presents in the narrative. Throughout the rest of the story, you're only a few small mistakes away from being another casualty in this awful disaster. You are surrounded by people who did nothing wrong, who were robbed of their humanity as their world fell apart. Even Birkin is not a cartoonish villain; he is evil, certainly, but he is evil in the way that ordinary people are evil. He is immoral. He is selfish and deeply flawed, and it leads to his literal transformation into a monster. He is destroyed by his weakness and finally dies at the hands of a feeble police officer.

Zombies are a lot of things. They are, or were, or are meant to stand in for, people. They are the animal nature of man divorced from the soul. The way we interpret narratives about zombies reflects deeply on us. Will we use their likeness to license endless violence against human beings? Or will we look at them as tragic victims of life's endless series of crisis? To me, it is important to see RE2 as a tragedy. It is important to see it as sad, despite the ridiculous mask it wears. It is important to see zombies for the people that they were. It is not a joy to destroy them. It is a tragedy.

When starting the game you get to choose either Claire or Leon for the first run. This is not a common feature in any game, and when implemented it is often done only as a skin swap. In this game you will not see the complete story unless you play twice with each. At least once with each is a minimum. That gives the game some replayability even for people like me that usually do not replay games.
I played Leon first and the Claire, which by many is said to be the "wrong" way. The game director has said in an interview that not any combination is the true way. All 4 paths must be played to see the hole story. Even though I have not done this, I am certain I have not missed out on anything huge. And if I have, then I am blissfully unaware :)

Claire is here in search of her brother, Chris Redfield (from RE1), whom she has not heard from in a while.
Leon is a rookie cop, starting his first day at Racoon City Police Department (RCPD).

So the first scene is you getting to a gas station, close to Racoon City. Everything is dark and quiet. You get in and the atmosphere tells you something is up. You search around, see a guy and he points to the storage room. You get in and a zombie is eating...
I am hooked I tell you :D Go game...
After this opening, you meet up with your other character (Claire or Leon), zombies breething down your neck, and you drive off to the city.

Now Racoon City is a total mess, zombies all over the place. You have to find a way to the Police Department through all these fires, road blocks and zombies.
When you finally get there, there is still no salvation as the zombies are also in here, and you also have no way out.
You objective is to somehow find a way out of this mess. The Police Department is in shambles, and you need to figure out how to traverse this place by finding useful items, solving puzzles and managing your inventory. All the while also not get eaten by zombies. You can either run from them or shoot them. If you shoot them, then make sure to hit because ammo is sparse.

This game is tense. The atmosphere from the lighting and sounds is absolutely amazing. I never played the original, so I am not biased that way.
The game mechanics are also very nicely done. Everything works. It does not make you feel like the mechanics are part of the problem like the controls in RE1. And it also does not take away the tension.

Pros:
- Graphics are amazing
- Very good horror game
- I love the story that is present
- Sounds in the game are just perfect (from ambient sounds to gunshots and voice acting. well done)
- Puzzles are quite good. Nothing illogical. You should not need a guide for any of it
- Good puzzle/action blend
- Replay value is great and also the other short stories are worth looking into
- Difficulty setting is very balanced. The dynamic ammo thing works so well as I always felt like I had low ammo, and only once ran out completely
- Amazing modding community

Cons:
- Story is still a little too thin (but compared to RE1 much better)
- Mr. X in stalker mode is my only gripe with this game. Everything else is enough horror for me personally. I do not need the Tyrant to breathe down my neck non-stop. I love horror games but have a hard time playing them because I tense up when playing, so the added pressure of Mr. X is not for me. But as a horror fan I love him.

SHEESSSSS MR. X DON'T EAT MY ASS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Acho q nada no mundo fez eu me cagar tanto quanto a caralha do mr. X aparecendo e levantando o helicóptero com uma mão, Eu sabia da existência dele, só n sabia quando ele aparecia, irmão, o que eu me caguei nesse jogo, re7 foi assustado, por ser o 1⁰ jg de terror q eu tentei jogar, MAS ESSE AQUI, mané, eu n conseguia abrir o jogo do tanto q eu me caguei com esse mr. X, eu devo ter ficado uns 15 minutos dentro de uma sala só esperando o momento "certo" pra sair, me caguei horrores, me diverti muito, e até q a história foi legalzinho, apesar de q eu esperava q eles fosse aprofundar mais isso, mas enfim, novamente os fã's ficam confusos sem saber qual rota é a correta, ja q o re4 remake cagou a lógica toda kkkkkkk
Mas excelente jogo, agora só esperar a promoção do 4 pra meter o louco.

Abriu várias portas com chaves distintas na minha mente, portas que estavam em outro setor, mas que me deram uma alegria imensa, como há dois anos eu não sentia, foi lindo, Resident Evil ficará comigo pra sempre

Música favorita: Credits Theme
Personagem favorito: Leon
Área favorita: Laboratório