Resident Evil 2 Review


Share.

Capcom proves itself to be The Master of Remaking.

I have fond memories of playing the original Resident Evil 2 in my dorm room at the University of Kansas back in 1998 and thinking the CGI cutscenes looked incredibly realistic. (Oh, 1998 Daemon, you had so much to learn!) Another great gaming recollection of mine is playing the 2002 remake of the first Resident Evil on GameCube with its beautifully updated visuals, completely new areas to explore, and terrifying new enemies. Now, in 2019, Capcom has given me a new experience I’ll remember for a long time: this ground-up remake of Resident Evil 2 is a very fun, very creepy adventure thanks to its completely new and modern graphics, controls, and some smart quality-of-life improvements. It does squander a golden opportunity to make good use of its two playable characters, but I enjoyed nearly every gory minute of my return to Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield’s shoes.

I hadn’t played the original Resident Evil 2 since its release 20 years ago and only remembered the broadest of strokes: I knew it largely took place in a police station, the Lickers were introduced, and the giant spiders in the sewers were a nightmare. If a similar amount of time has passed for you, or if you’ve never played it, it might not be apparent what an enormous improvement this remake is unless you look at it side-by-side with the original. That’s because instead of the usual remastering treatment where we see upgraded resolution and textures hung over an old game’s skeleton, here Capcom started from scratch and remade the whole thing using the RE Engine, which is the tech that powered Resident Evil 7.

These are the best-looking zombies I’ve ever seen in a game.

Now, instead of pixelated characters running from pre-rendered background to pre-rendered background, Resident Evil 2 is a fully 3D, over-the-shoulder affair with atmospheric lighting effects, impressive facial animations, and the best-looking zombies I’ve ever seen in a game. They’re juicier than ever (I’d venture a guess the designers were heavily inspired by the Tarman from Return of the Living Dead) and I love the way they lurch around and react when you blow off very specific chunks of their heads and hands courtesy of the satisfyingly detailed dismemberment system.

Capcom does noticeably reuse the same handful of zombie models, though. Especially later on in the story, you’ll likely recognize the same undead faces you blew off way back at the police station.

Some events have been rearranged or expanded upon and there are some surprising twists I didn’t remember, but this is a mostly loyal remake of the suitably dark and twisted story of Resident Evil 2. It’s two months after the zombie outbreak of the first Resident Evil, which took place mostly in a spooky mansion. The horror has now overrun the entirety of Raccoon City, which is divided into three large areas that serve as the story’s acts. Exploring its dark hallways, solving puzzles, and hoping to god there isn’t a zombie around the next corner all remains fun today. Charting each area, learning the lay of the land, and eventually overcoming the obstacles in your way really never gets old. There are statues with hidden compartments everywhere, mutated reptiles stalk the sewers, and there’s a vast scientific lab buried underground. None of it holds up against much scrutiny, but they’re all fun places to explore.

Our heroes Leon and Claire, meanwhile, have strolled into town at a really bad time and are almost immediately separated. The pair is likable enough but two dimensional in their unwavering heroism. They never have a moment of despair or self-doubt, and that makes them a bit dull, whereas a couple of the side characters are more charismatic and interesting. The mysterious Ada Wong in Leon’s campaign keeps you questioning her motives and wondering whose side she’s really on, for example.

This is real survival horror, where it always seems like you’re just barely scraping by.

Crucially, inventory and ammunition management is still a key part of Resident Evil 2’s gameplay. This is real survival horror, where it always seems like you’re just barely scraping by with enough ammo and healing items. You can’t carry everything you find with you, so what you should store and what you should carry is a battle constantly being waged in your mind.

Those quality-of-life improvements I mentioned include automatically updating your maps to let you know if a room has been cleared of items or if you missed something, frequent and unlimited save points, and freedom from the infamous barrage of loading screens. All of those are very much appreciated when exploring Raccoon City.

Tension has been elevated by the excellent sound design. Very little music accompanies gameplay, which leaves plenty of room for creaking doors, thunder and rain, the moans of the undead somewhere just out of sight, and heavy footsteps of something sinister in the next room over. Resident Evil 2 gets atmosphere like nobody’s business.

The real chiller in the first two-thirds of the campaign is the Tyrant super-zombie. He appears early on to stalk you, and his emotionless face and steady, unstoppable gait make him Resident Evil’s worthy counterpart to Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Hearing his relentless footsteps getting louder and louder, knowing there is nothing I can do to stop him, filled me with a true sense of dread. Eventually, though, his presence becomes more obnoxious than terrifying, when you’re trying to solve a puzzle and advance the story and the big lug just won’t take a hint and reside elsewhere.

Leon and Claire take extremely similar paths.

I beat the story from Leon’s point of view in eight hours, which felt a little short, but I was excited to fire up Claire’s campaign and see the fateful evening’s events unfold from an entirely new perspective. Unfortunately, that’s not what we get — at least not when we should. Whomever you play as in the main game mode, Resident Evil 2 will be largely the same when you finish and switch to the other person. Most of the same events happen and Leon and Claire take extremely similar paths, meet the same people, solve the same puzzles, and fight the same bosses. This was a bit of a bummer for me.

They’re not entirely identical, at least: If you play as Leon first you may get used to dispatching enemies with his shotgun and flame thrower, and when you return as Claire you’ll have to learn how to adapt your playstyle and make do with a submachine gun and grenade launcher. Plus, each hero meets a unique, important person who causes them to deviate from the shared path for a short time. I enjoyed all of it, but those small differences aren’t quite enough to justify a second playthrough of a very similar campaign.

It’s completely baffling that Capcom set up the alternate perspective this way.

It turns out that the other perspective I wanted does exist, but it’s confusingly hidden behind each character’s second Game mode. You have to play through as Leon once to unlock the second version as Leon, and the same for Claire. That’s annoying, and it’s completely baffling that Capcom set it up this way instead of just letting us play the alternate perspective on our second playthrough as the second character, but at least you’ll finally get to see some new areas and there is the promise of an alternate ending. This mode isn’t entirely new, though, and there is still a lot of overlap in the puzzle solving.

As much as Capcom added to Resident Evil 2, a couple things are noticeably missing. Those giant spiders I remembered being terrified of? Not here. I was really looking forward to being scared by more realistic monster arachnids. (At least this is good news for arachnophobes who’ve missed out on Resident Evil 2 up to this point.) Also, when you press start at the title screen, no cartoonishly scary voice says “Resident Evil!” Big miss.

The Verdict

Capcom did a fantastic job of resurrecting all the best parts of the classic Resident Evil 2 and making them look, sound, and play like a 2019 game. If you’re of the mind that the series had lost its way for a while there, this game is very much a return to form. The zombie combat is satisfying and exploring the dilapidated ruins of Raccoon City is a thrill. The one big letdown is that Capcom unintuitively hides the alternate perspective content behind an extra playthrough. But whichever you choose to play as, the experience of playing through the new Resident Evil 2 for the first time establishes a new standard for remaking classic games.

source: ign.com