well first off, and this one's on me, i made the mistake of stopping and resuming months in-between with an inventory full of items i had no idea what on earth to do with. how many of these keys have i already used? the game certainly wasn't going to tell me. after stumbling around aimlessly for 5 minutes i decided to just throw in the towel and go ahead and write out the thoughts that created the months long gap in the first place.

i do not understand resident evil 2 whatsoever. it seems to be a game about making very little sound, given the presence of enemies drawn towards loudness and the domino effect of one loud disruption awakening several enemies around. so the goal is to not shoot your gun, basically. okay, and i got through the west wing not doing so at all, bobbing and weaving inbetween these undead assholes in narrow corridors and taking a few punches along the way. but hey, no big deal, i've got a ton of ammo now. like, a ton ton ammo. should i even have this much? well, why would i spend even a single bullet if it means causing the aforementioned dominos to fall and make things even harder on myself? but now i'm brought to an even bigger problem: why is the gun here at all if i'm incentivized not to shoot it? is this why gunless horror like amnesia exists?

i'm viewing resident evil 2 in the same lense as i view dishonored, and in that latter game, you have a bunch of crazy ass killing tools at your disposal while the game actively incentivizes you NOT to use them. sounds familiar, right? but the difference between this and re2 is that it's still fun to sneaky sneaky stealth rat your way around guard patrols and navigate levels, while in this game it's excruciating to fumble around tight hallways and screw around with this shephard simulator. that's actually exactly how i felt when circling the shotgun room--leading sheep. and i bet that, in the same way dishonored's stealth appeals to me, re2's sheep herding appeals to others.

but again, not to me. i'll stick with re4.