When I played this way back when, I found myself getting lost and turned around, forgetting where I was going, and getting in a panic so often that I'd end up rushing or charging into something and getting myself eaten-on a lot more than I should've. Honestly I found it pretty frustrating at times, but the overall experience when carefully preparing and planning and all that was so good I still gave it a 4/5.

I had done Leon A/Claire B on Standard blind, then Claire A/Leon B Assisted with guides to get all the misc trophies and left it there. Too scared to play on Hardcore or bother trying for S rank (my standard playthroughs were 6+ and 5+ hours..)

Recently I've gotten back into Resident Evil in a big way, replaying 3 Remake to give that a fair shot after many requests from my partner, and after loving that game alot more I came back to this one, deciding to do a Claire A standard route. About halfway through the run, I was once again sent a helpful guide by the missus to provide a tip on getting past some lickers. The creator of this guide - Darkness - was so darn charming and comforting that I immediately wanted him to help me get that S rank I'd been so afraid of.
I finished my Claire run (mostly) un-aided, got myself an A Rank and decided my next play would be Leon B on Hardcore, guide at my side and gf cheering me on.

Whole new experience honestly. Just as stressful at times but much, much more calculated. I made more than a few mistakes but was able to accommodate or make up for them, and every milestone came with a wave of pride in my success. It was so much fun! I completed Leon B with a final time of 01:54:26 (albeit it took me over double that in real time lol) but I bagged myself an S+ rank!!

This "review" ended up being me rambling for days about my life-story with this title, but I guess the point is that even after 3 playthroughs with each character I'm finding new ways to have fun, learning new tricks, what once felt like unbalanced, arbitrary bullshit now feels like sneaky but effective challenges.

I really like this shit man, this is how survival horror zombie games should feel. I'm upping my rating a full star to 5/5 idgaf. I'm so hyped to get back in tomorrow with a Claire A Hardcore run, infinite launcher in hand for the wackiest, slackiest playthrough yet :p I don't need that S+, a regular S will get me the platinum and playing in a new style is exactly why I'm so excited. Lesfuckingoo >:)

If you read this far, hi lmao. It's 4:40am and I am high on RE2 :)