Platform: PC

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Release Date: January 25th, 2019

Genre: Horror, Shooter

Nerd Rating: 8 out of 10

When I was just a boy of some 12 years of age, I was introduced to my very first Resident Evil game. I was far too young when the first handful of titles came out, and thus only caught a glimpse of them here and there. I never considered myself a fan of horror games, so this acclaimed franchise passed right under my nose until Winter of 2005, when the modern masterpiece Resident Evil 4 was released. The ex-cop-turned presidential bodyguard Leon Kennedy served as the first lens through which I saw this twisted world, and I loved it.

Years passed. Resident Evil 5 and the disaster that was Resident Evil 6 came around, marking what was perhaps developer Capcom’s biggest slump of all. Then, some years later, they came back with the fantastic Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in spectacular fashion. Little did I know, Leon Kennedy, he who first welcomed me into this grisly world, would be making a comeback in the new Resident Evil 2 remake!

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The events of the original Resident Evil saw our favorite protagonist, Jill, mowing down zombies in a mansion. Raccoon City, the epicenter of the zombie outbreak, is now in ruins. Zombies run amok in the city streets while even more sinister forces are at work under the surface. Leon Kennedy, a fresh recruit to the Raccoon City Police Department, teams up with an unlikely ally, Claire, who is looking for her brother Chris Redfield, a member of the special forces unit known as STARS, who were the first responders to the outbreak in the first game. Before long, Leon discovers that even his own police department is compromised, jam packed with zombies and other horrors. It is up to him to find a way out of Raccoon City and try to stop this outbreak from spreading to the rest of the world. Resident Evil 2 drops the player within the police department compound. Friends are few and far between while enemies flood the area, leaving the player scared and alone. The first order of business is to explore and take stock of the surroundings.

Right off the cuff, it becomes clear that Resident Evil 2 relies heavily on exploration. Peeking around nondescript corners and solving puzzles to earn some extra loot is essential to a successful playthrough. In a Metroid-Vania style, several parts of the police department, including spots that have useful ammo and loot, are closed off behind barricades or locked doors, requiring the player to find keys and special items to help them get through. This means that understanding your place in the map while also keeping track of where certain items can be used will make the difference between survival and death.

And this moment-by-moment exploration is heightened by Resident Evil 2’s fresh choice of camera angle. While the original title featured a type of control scheme that have come to be known as “tank controls,” where the camera took a fixed perspective and Leon was as difficult to navigate as a tank, the new Resident Evil 2 remake opts for an over-the-shoulder perspective much like Leon’s other title, Resident Evil 4. However, the still somewhat tank-like controls featured in Resident Evil 4 are completely gone, replaced by a much more seamless movement style with a free camera that isn’t locked behind Leon’s shoulder. While I think there’s something to be said about whether or not the fixed camera angle heightened the horror and suspense in Resident Evil 4, it really is a breath of fresh air to be able to actually look behind me from time to time.

Of course, you’re not just exploring the grim and ghastly hallways of the Raccoon City Police Department at your leisure; the place is filled with fricken zombies, man! They lay on the ground, ready to jump up at a moment’s notice, or bang on the windows, or literally even throw themselves down stairwells to come get a bite of ol’ Leon. This makes exploring the map quite a bit more intense, since you never know when a zombie or monster is going to hop around the corner or pop up from the dead behind you.

And let me say–kudos to Capcom for going full-on campy Night of the Living Dead-style horror with this remake. Not only can you gun down hordes upon hordes of zombies in Resident Evil 2, but you can even blow ’em to bits and mutilate them with your guns! Shooting a zombie in the face will peel back bits of its ugly mug, while shooting them in the hands, arms, legs, and knees will straight up blow off those corresponding parts as well. Tired of getting swarmed by zombies? Chuck a grenade at them and marvel at the charred red and black flesh of their lifeless corpses! Wanna stop a zombie from chasing you all the time? Blow its legs right off with your shotgun!

Of course, I suspect that part of the reason that Resident Evil 2 is able to have such a wonderful variety of enemy mutilation and dismemberment is that there isn’t really a huge number of unique enemy types. Off the top of my head, I can only think of five unique enemy types, not including the bosses. Some of the enemies, such as the basic zombie, are like fodder, serving only to suck up your precious resources while only posing a mild threat. Still, they are no less fun to kill, and can be deadly when encountered in large numbers or in tight spaces. Other enemies, such as the four-legged lickers, are extremely dangerous and induce heart-pounding panic whenever you’re near them. Despite there being so few enemy types, Capcom does make up for this relative lack of variety by giving the basic zombie type quite a few variations, including people of different sexes, ethnicities, and body types. Who knew the zombie apocalypse was such a strong proponent of inclusion?

Perhaps one of the most frightening things about Resident Evil 2 is that there’s hardly ever a guarantee that a given enemy is dead for good. Shoot an enemy down and watch ’em fall, but hours later, as you’re running back through the same area, that same zombie could pop right back up and grab you from behind. While other games in the Resident Evil series, most notably Resident Evils 4 and 5, allow you to be relatively certain that your enemies are dead after you fell them, Resident Evil 2 has no qualms in sending them right back at you when you least expect it. This is compounded by the impressive fact that Resident Evil 2 keeps track of all zombie bodies you leave behind, putting them right in the same spots when you revisit the same area. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of scares I was given as I ran through a hallway I must have been down dozens of times, only to jump out of my seat as I realized a zombie or two I had killed hours ago had gotten back up while I was gone. If you like a game that constantly keeps you on your toes, then Resident Evil 2 is right for you.

As I mentioned, Resident Evil 2 also features some Metroid/Vania and puzzle elements. Certain key items and other minor, yet no less useful items are locked behind doors or hidden behind barriers that require special keys and items to uncover. Some of these items, such as the poker keys, are pretty straightforward; key goes in door. But, others are a bit more esoteric. Resident Evil 2 has a fairly strong sense of physicality, as the 3D model for each item you find can be turned over, scrutinized, and examined. While this is a really cool inclusion, I can be a bit of a dunce, as I remember more than a couple occasions where I felt stuck, only to realize a while later that I was holding onto a key item the whole time, hidden at the bottom or inside of another item that I simply had to stop and examine. I wish there were a way to make this part a little bit more intuitive, but alas, sometimes that’s just the way the dice roll.

Aside from these weird items that you have to examine, there are also a few puzzles along the way. Most of the time, the “puzzles” simply require you to pay attention to the right environmental clues, but every now and then you’ll run into a legitimate puzzle, arranging chess-themed spark plugs in a specific order or turning the pieces of a switchboard to create a full circuit in order to progress. These puzzles aren’t particularly hard, but they are a welcome inclusion and give calm bits of respite from the otherwise stressful experience that is Resident Evil 2. And don’t even get me started on those few times where they make you solve puzzles and fight enemies. Those meanies.

At its core, Resident Evil 2 is not just a horror game; it is also a survival game. Since there are so many zombies and only one of you, you need to take advantage of the scattered resources as best as possible. Not only does this mean scouring every room for useful loot, but it also means managing your inventory efficiently so you have just the right amount of space to store things without bringing so little equipment that you can’t give your enemies what-for. A handful of times, I found myself shit outta luck, as my inventory space was packed to the brim and I wasn’t able to carry any more stuff, or I neglected to bring a useful item with me, resulting in my own downfall. Ammo and healing sprays can be picked up around the map, but gunpowder and herbs can also be used to craft more. This is where even more planning and forethought come into play, requiring the player to balance their need for a particular type of ammo or healing tincture with the availability of the materials. This system is very well done, and the availability of ammo, gun powder, and herbs keeps the player in a constant state of desperation as they frantically scrounge each room for that last bit of loot before they meet their doom.

Not only do you need to think ahead and plan efficiently, but you also need to play efficiently, as well. Since bullets are few and far between, you better make the best use out of them; while it can be fun to blow zombies’ kneecaps and hands off, your bullets are put to much better use with carefully placed headshots. Knives can also be effective tools, as well, useful for preventing zombies from biting you if they grab you. Also, stop using grenades on just one zombie! Save those suckers for when you got a bunch of ’em in front of you at the same time! Of course, no one will play perfectly on their first go-round, making ammo and equipment feel even more scarce and precious. I’m making my way through my second playthrough as we speak, and I’ve already made a handful of blunders with new weapons that I wasn’t completely familiar with.

Now, all these factors come together to create some really hard decision-making, but it’s all missing something to really pull it all together…that’s right! The atmosphere! To start things off, the art direction is rather superb. In keeping with the original version of title, the environment for Resident Evil 2 is rather bizarre. You see, according to the lore, the Raccoon City Police Department is actually a converted museum, and a lot of those old vestiges are still around. Strange statues and pieces of art, as well as a strange architectural setup characterize the hallways and rooms of this place. Just about every room has been converted to suit a different purpose, and this is sometimes reflected in the slipshod retrofitted reinforced doorways and other modern architecture that contrasts with the more classical look of the museum. Some rooms, however, such as some of the storage rooms and even a bell tower, are left probably exactly as they were found, giving the setting for Resident Evil 2 a kind of double identity, which enhances the surreal nature of the game’s events.

While I’m really impressed with the way zombies will fall apart as you shoot them, I am doubly amazed by the mastery of lighting in this game. Moody lights and dark hallways are abundant in Resident Evil 2, heightening the tension found behind each corner and doorway. Shadows are looming and foreboding, and creeping your way around a corner as your flashlight amplifies the corner’s shadow creates a heart-thumping sort of tension that simply wouldn’t be there otherwise.

Finally, all this is amplified by the stellar sound design. For one, the zombies are fricken horrifying, man! They screech, squelch, grunt, gibber, and everything in between. Thought you were alone in that room? Wrong! There’s a zombie right behind you, and now it’s letting out a blood-curdling scream! Every zombie makes very good sounds, from the basic shamblers to the deadly lickers. On top of that, the soundtrack is extremely effective at heightening tension when things start to get real. However, sometimes the music isn’t always on board with what’s going on in the game, continuing to play tense instrumentals even though nothing is going on. The voice acting is well done, especially considering the notoriously bad English voice acting of the original titles.

What would a Resident Evil game be without a few extras and bonuses? Along the way, you can hunt down in-game trophies for unlockables such as character models and concept art, but the most important unlockables come in the form of fresh campaign modes and extra game modes. Fight your way through an altered version of the game as Claire Redfield, or tackle it again as Leon with slightly different weapons. All told, there are four unique campaign modes you can work through, giving Resident Evil 2 plenty of replay value.

Aside from the bonus campaigns, there are extra modes, as well. The “Survivors” game modes each let the player play through an isolated story revolving around one of the side-characters featured in the game. Each of these scenarios is unique and challenging enough to warrant their inclusion. Personally, I’m pretty garbage at this game, so I found most of them to be rather hard. That said, the bonus game modes are a welcome inclusion to Resident Evil 2’s already impressive roster of content.

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And there we have it! A full rundown of the new Resident Evil 2 remake. However, this game is much more than a remake; it is an homage to the original title while striking off in its own direction, featuring an over-the-shoulder camera perspective with a freedom of movement that makes this game simply a joy to play. The game’s world is fun to explore, the zombies are fun to shoot, and, most importantly, this game has plenty in store for those of us that like to jump out of our seat in shock and anticipation from time to time. Capcom has really been doing us proud lately, and I’m excited to see what they do next. I had a blast with this game, and can seriously say that I’m pumped for the next Resident Evil title that Capcom has in store for us.