Playing Resident Evil (2002) and absolutely loving it has inspired me to give the other games a try, which I picked up ages ago during a deep sale. I already have all the mainline ones in my collection because they were such a good deal. We’ll see how long my interest in the series lasts although I’m definitely going to play 4 at some point.
RE2 definitely has better bones than RE1, IMO. Better story, better characters, more creative enemies, more differentiation between the two playable characters, more reason to experience both arcs, etc. The core design philosophy of RE1 is of course present here and it’s once again fantastic at creating tension. Resource availability is perfectly balanced — Getting hurt by a standard enemy or wasting too much ammo on them is always a stressful experience because you know you’re going to need to save up both for the boss fights, which can be surprisingly difficult at times. All in all this creates an experience that isn’t particularly scary but is nonetheless brimming with the tension and dread that only the best pieces of horror media are able to create.
My biggest criticisms are mostly technical in nature. While the static camera works pretty well, it definitely hadn’t been fine tuned at this point. There are a lot of situations where enemies (including bosses) are annoyingly placed off screen making aiming and avoiding their attacks frustratingly difficult. Additionally, RE2 is a somewhat challenging game but isn’t nearly as strategic as RE (2002) mostly due to map layout, enemy characteristics, and enemy spawn locations. In RE2, the player isn’t required to think too hard about route and loud out selection, which is one of the things I liked the most about RE(2002). Most of the challenge in this game is honestly just getting good enough with the tank controls to evade enemy attacks and successfully bypass zombies you don’t want to waste bullets on.
On a related note, this is the first game I can recall playing that uses tank controls. There was a bit of a learning curve for me but they felt surprisingly intuitive once I got the hang of them, which I wasn’t expecting. I did my first playthrough with Leon, and I think I died maybe 8 times before reaching the first save point because I was so bad with the controls. This was a pretty funny albeit frustrating experience, which I was thankfully able to overcome relatively quickly. By the end of my second playthrough with Claire I was able to adequately evade enough of the penultimate boss’s lighting quick attacks to take him out.
As an aside, it’s honestly insane to put a boss as agile as Mr. X’s final form in a game with tank controls. I died in about two seconds during my first fight with him, which I couldn’t help but laugh at. I’m absolutely in awe of people that can beat him without getting hit. I initially didn’t conserve enough healing items to beat him and actually had to go back to an earlier save to rectify this. Some people might dislike that the player has the ability to essentially soft lock themselves by not conserving enough resources, but I think that’s one of the things that makes this game special. RE2, despite not being super difficult, definitely isn’t playing around with the survival aspect of “survival horror”. This is key to creating tension in the game, and if the frustration of potentially soft locking yourself is a byproduct of this I think that’s a worthy trade off.
One of the things that really surprised me about this game is how well it’s able to create an atmosphere of horror with its relatively simple graphics. Compared to the original Resident Evil (1996) this is a huge leap forward. Backgrounds are more detailed and generally feel more well thought out and more in tune with the tone of the game. There aren’t any moments where the graphics look primitive in a way that spoils the mood, which definitely isn’t the case for RE(1996) - the tunnels in that game for instance.
Overall this is a really enjoyable experience, and I can see why it’s considered a classic. RE2 holds up great today despite some technical issues that precent it from being even better.
RE2 definitely has better bones than RE1, IMO. Better story, better characters, more creative enemies, more differentiation between the two playable characters, more reason to experience both arcs, etc. The core design philosophy of RE1 is of course present here and it’s once again fantastic at creating tension. Resource availability is perfectly balanced — Getting hurt by a standard enemy or wasting too much ammo on them is always a stressful experience because you know you’re going to need to save up both for the boss fights, which can be surprisingly difficult at times. All in all this creates an experience that isn’t particularly scary but is nonetheless brimming with the tension and dread that only the best pieces of horror media are able to create.
My biggest criticisms are mostly technical in nature. While the static camera works pretty well, it definitely hadn’t been fine tuned at this point. There are a lot of situations where enemies (including bosses) are annoyingly placed off screen making aiming and avoiding their attacks frustratingly difficult. Additionally, RE2 is a somewhat challenging game but isn’t nearly as strategic as RE (2002) mostly due to map layout, enemy characteristics, and enemy spawn locations. In RE2, the player isn’t required to think too hard about route and loud out selection, which is one of the things I liked the most about RE(2002). Most of the challenge in this game is honestly just getting good enough with the tank controls to evade enemy attacks and successfully bypass zombies you don’t want to waste bullets on.
On a related note, this is the first game I can recall playing that uses tank controls. There was a bit of a learning curve for me but they felt surprisingly intuitive once I got the hang of them, which I wasn’t expecting. I did my first playthrough with Leon, and I think I died maybe 8 times before reaching the first save point because I was so bad with the controls. This was a pretty funny albeit frustrating experience, which I was thankfully able to overcome relatively quickly. By the end of my second playthrough with Claire I was able to adequately evade enough of the penultimate boss’s lighting quick attacks to take him out.
As an aside, it’s honestly insane to put a boss as agile as Mr. X’s final form in a game with tank controls. I died in about two seconds during my first fight with him, which I couldn’t help but laugh at. I’m absolutely in awe of people that can beat him without getting hit. I initially didn’t conserve enough healing items to beat him and actually had to go back to an earlier save to rectify this. Some people might dislike that the player has the ability to essentially soft lock themselves by not conserving enough resources, but I think that’s one of the things that makes this game special. RE2, despite not being super difficult, definitely isn’t playing around with the survival aspect of “survival horror”. This is key to creating tension in the game, and if the frustration of potentially soft locking yourself is a byproduct of this I think that’s a worthy trade off.
One of the things that really surprised me about this game is how well it’s able to create an atmosphere of horror with its relatively simple graphics. Compared to the original Resident Evil (1996) this is a huge leap forward. Backgrounds are more detailed and generally feel more well thought out and more in tune with the tone of the game. There aren’t any moments where the graphics look primitive in a way that spoils the mood, which definitely isn’t the case for RE(1996) - the tunnels in that game for instance.
Overall this is a really enjoyable experience, and I can see why it’s considered a classic. RE2 holds up great today despite some technical issues that precent it from being even better.