When I played the Resident Evil 1 Remake I was so disappointed, the fixed camera and constant loading animations were such an obstacle to me as it made exploration that is usually seemless in the 3rd person games a complete chore and not worth my time, as well as the bizarre puzzles and almost everything so tedious that I had to follow a guide in order to complete it. This bad experience bled into my expectations for the other fixed-camera RE games, as I assumed that if I don't like the most recent fixed-camera game from the franchise then I certainly won't like any of the older ones either, and that whilst I can appreciate the ideas presented, they're not games I can willingly say I enjoy to play.
I really love the remake of RE2, so wanting to say I've at least tried it I went in expecting to feel the same as RE1, but didn't expect to really enjoy my time with it. However, I am both joyed and relieved to say this disdain for the old format has changed after playing the original Resident Evil 2. I can't really explain why I find this game better than RE1, it might be because I'm very already familiar with the general locations and puzzles in this game from playing the remake, and whilst they're hardly 1:1 recreations of each other, I think that once I get a key item that I recognised I could predict where I'd need to find more and where it needed to go. It's definitely also to do with the fact this game is a sequel, so everything in RE1 like: the convoluted puzzles; the need to constantly backtrack long distances; and the length being 5 hours shorter means the experience feels much tighter and not as difficult. Whatever my reason for liking the game doesn't particularly matter to me because the point is I had so much fun to the point where the tank controls weren't even a bother to me, and in my opinion that's all I want to come out with after playing an old game, just a fun time as if I was born during 1998.
I can confidently say that original Resident Evil 2 has been one of my favourite experiences in the franchise, and whilst I don't think it's as strong as the remake, everything here is so good and utilised much better than the first game that it's just a really strong game on its own and I look forward to replaying it in the future. I hope when I come to RE3: Nemesis I feel the same enjoyment as I did going from the Remake of 2 to the original despite all the changes to the Remake of 3, and that RE1 is just an oddity of a game which I unfortunately can't seem to get behind.
I really love the remake of RE2, so wanting to say I've at least tried it I went in expecting to feel the same as RE1, but didn't expect to really enjoy my time with it. However, I am both joyed and relieved to say this disdain for the old format has changed after playing the original Resident Evil 2. I can't really explain why I find this game better than RE1, it might be because I'm very already familiar with the general locations and puzzles in this game from playing the remake, and whilst they're hardly 1:1 recreations of each other, I think that once I get a key item that I recognised I could predict where I'd need to find more and where it needed to go. It's definitely also to do with the fact this game is a sequel, so everything in RE1 like: the convoluted puzzles; the need to constantly backtrack long distances; and the length being 5 hours shorter means the experience feels much tighter and not as difficult. Whatever my reason for liking the game doesn't particularly matter to me because the point is I had so much fun to the point where the tank controls weren't even a bother to me, and in my opinion that's all I want to come out with after playing an old game, just a fun time as if I was born during 1998.
I can confidently say that original Resident Evil 2 has been one of my favourite experiences in the franchise, and whilst I don't think it's as strong as the remake, everything here is so good and utilised much better than the first game that it's just a really strong game on its own and I look forward to replaying it in the future. I hope when I come to RE3: Nemesis I feel the same enjoyment as I did going from the Remake of 2 to the original despite all the changes to the Remake of 3, and that RE1 is just an oddity of a game which I unfortunately can't seem to get behind.