Tension has been elevated by the excellent sound design. All of those are very much appreciated when exploring Raccoon City. 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. 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. This is real survival horror, where it always seems like you’re just barely scraping by with enough ammo and healing items. “Crucially, inventory and ammunition management is still a key part of Resident Evil 2’s gameplay. None of it holds up against much scrutiny, but they’re all fun places to explore. There are statues with hidden compartments everywhere, mutated reptiles stalk the sewers, and there’s a vast scientific lab buried underground.
Charting each area, learning the lay of the land, and eventually overcoming the obstacles in your way really never gets old. Exploring its dark hallways, solving puzzles, and hoping to god there isn’t a zombie around the next corner all remains fun today. The horror has now overrun the entirety of Raccoon City, which is divided into three large areas that serve as the story’s acts. It’s two months after the zombie outbreak of the first Resident Evil, which took place mostly in a spooky mansion. 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. Especially later on in the story, you’ll likely recognize the same undead faces you blew off way back at the police station. 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. “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. 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. 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.
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. The two playable characters’ stories aren’t as different as I’d hoped, but I enjoyed nearly every gory minute of my return to Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield’s shoes. 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. (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.
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.
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