Resident Evil 2 for the PS1 is a deserved regular in the upper echelons of survival horror. By the late 2010s, a remake was long overdue. Capcom finally obliged, and boy did it do them a world of good. 2017 onwards has been a second golden age for Capcom: the once wayward developer, infamous for on-disk DLC and treating Mega Man like a bastard child, now releases hit after hit, games that are both critical and commercial juggernauts. Resident Evil 2, I feel, is what solidified this success.

A good remake is one that modernizes a classic yet preserves its spirit (something the House of the Dead Remake was emphatically not). Resident Evil 2 passes this test with flying colours. For someone who first played the original shortly after learning to tie his shoelaces, this game looks like what my child mind - unbothered by how pixelated and polygonal things were - imagined the PS1 version to be. Great care has been taken to breathe new life into the original's visuals; however, this game looks great even on its own terms. If you shoot a zombie, he'll lose a chunk of flesh at the exact point of impact. If its raining outside, your character will get realistically drenched. If a character smiles, you can count their individual teeth (which was at first almost uncanny to me, not being used to realistic teeth in games).

While RE2 could easily have dwelt in the past, its gameplay also looks ahead. This game blends old and new survival horror conventions: resource management, puzzle-solving and exploration are combined with hide, seek, or flat-out flight from an indestructible monster as in Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It makes for a thrilling and at times unpredictable game that kept even an RE veteran like me on his toes. The combat is solid, and in all honesty, this game feels better to play than the original. There, I said it.

The first third of this game is a masterstroke. It feels oppressive and stressful, yet so compelling, and its gameplay is so well-designed that you'll get 'organic' jumpscares. There is rarely a time where you feel completely safe.

That said, this game does peak early. The police station is far more fulfilling to explore than the later sewer section and the underground lab. (Spoilers for anyone who's been under a rock for 26 years - RE2 has an underground lab). While they're still fun, a great deal of tension is removed from the game once you've gotten past the iconic locations.

First impressions last, but after 19 hours with RE2, I can see that it's not the flawless game I thought it was in the honeymoon phase. Most egregiously, unlike the original, there aren't four scenarios in this remake. To be completely honest, there aren't even two. Oh, you can choose between Leon and Claire - you have to play both, to get the real ending. But apart from about ten minutes' worth of differences, depending on your character, there is really only one scenario in this game. The original RE2's scenarios melded into each other perfectly, with the characters even meeting each other at various points. In the remake, almost the whole campaign - including puzzles, boss fights and rooms visited - is the exact same, and while it may be good enough to warrant playing twice with different characters, it's still recycling.

Not only do Leon and Sherry never interact till the end, but there are scenes regarding Annette Birkin that make it impossible for the two scenarios to be set in the same continuity - and it's up to you to decide what's canon. I'm not a fan of that, really - it means there's less content than the original. A few extra modes - including a nail-bitingly tense special mission as beloved characters Hunk and Tofu - round out the offering.

Regardless of these nitpicks, RE2 is an excellent game that's accessible to new players and familiar to series veterans. This is a triumph whose high Capcom still rides five years later. Now do Dino Crisis.