Resident Evil 2 Remake - A fine game in the Capcom library

Posted by Gemma @ Juicy Game Reviews / TheGebs24

Resident Evil 2 Remake - A fine moment in the Capcom library

Resident Evil 2 was released 1998 on the the incredibly successful PlayStation. In fact the Resident Evil franchise has been fruitful on all consoles and arguably gamers have seen some interesting twists across all of the RE games. Now here in 2019 Capcom delivered an astounding remake of an already amazing Resident Evil 2 experience. Without dwelling on the original release of Resident Evil 2 I want to talk through my experiences of completing the Leon and Claire campaign in the frightening new rendition of Resident Evil 2. Both campaigns were completed on standard difficulty. I played through on a base PlayStation 4 model. I was surprised at how good the Resident Evil 2 Remake looked. 

Don’t ask me why I chose to complete Resident Evil 2 with Leon first; I just did. My first play though took just just under eight hours to complete. Within the first hour I burst through the front door of Raccoon Police department and felt immediately engrossed.

The 2019 Raccoon Police Department had some stark differences compared to the original Resident Evil 2 release. Most noticeably were the stairs (left and right) leading straight up to the second floor. What I felt was a sense of where shall I go first? when entering Raccoon City Police Department for the first time. I liked this feeling as it added to my sense of bing lost. I went in to the Resident Evil 2 remake with high expectations of wanting to be scared. Did I feel scared? Yes I did. Within the first hour of playing the RE 2 remake I encountered multiple zombies and jump scares alike! I remember the age-old trick of shooting zombies that are half slumped against a wall. You never truly know if they are dead or not? For me; I felt the this was a key aspect of the Resident Evil 2 gameplay. That feeling of shooting the half slumped zombie and it actually killing it before it got you or that disappointment of wasting a bullet because the zombie cop is actually dead.

Resident Evil 2 Remake - Zombie attacks are rife!

The Resident Evil 2 remake dropped the old-school tank controllers and fixed camera angles. Instead RE 2 is much more fluid with third person camera angles. Awesome! The gameplay really flowed and with the the jump scares, ammo dispersal and puzzles were all drip fed at a balanced pace. Now when Mr X. appeared for the first time the gameplay pacing stepped up a gear in Resident Evil 2. Dressed in what appears to be a black overcoat; Mr X. charges at you as soon as he claps eyes on you. What do we do in return? We make a run for it. The suspense in these moments never fades. In fact the Mr X. moments were delivered beautifully in the RE 2 remake. The music quickens, your heart goes faster and meanwhile you are trying to dodge a mini gauntlet of Zombie cops! This is classic Resident Evil. A point to add is that I found Mr X. appears much quicker in to the game play in the Resident Evil 2 remake.

Raccoon City Police department is huge! Between Leon and Claire there are a couple of rooms in which are available or not; depending on who you are playing through with. In addition, I found the ammo to be much more scarce when playing through with Claire. Clearly this adds to the challenge when trying to escape from the undead! Perhaps you had a different experience in Resident Evil 2 (2019)?

Leon or Claire?
Between the two characters the story in RE2 the story is rich. The endings in particular serve to pad out the experience. Not only are the final two bosses different; Claire’s ending game me more satisfaction in that it seemed happier. In order to get the most out of Resident Evil 2 Remake you must play through both campaigns. The subtle intertwining stories between Leon and Claire are great and totally wet your palette to play through as the other character! If you choose only one play through then you’re missing a large chunk of the experience.

One thing that struck me with the gameplay mechanics was the cross-hair during aiming. At times it felt a little clunky. The longer I held the gun for (during aiming) the smaller the cross-hair got. This made aiming feel a little off at times. This is a minor down-side and should not detract from the beautiful horrors of the Resident Evil 2 Remake.

Puzzle flow
Puzzles have always been a part of Resident Evil games that encourage a lot of the back tracking we are so used to. Nothing quite says Resident Evil more than finding a cog, fitting the cog then having to dash through ten minutes of zombies to find a key to start a machine! You get the idea. For me, it’s these kids of moments in Resident Evil games that make you feel totally immersed and oddly familiar. In the 2019 Resident Evil 2 the puzzles are delivered at a steady pace so that they never feel overly burdensome. I liked that.

If you have not already experienced the Resident Evil 2 remake; you are missing out. Capcom delivered a fantastic testament to an already great game. Will there be a Resident Evil 3 remake though? Watch this space!
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Posted by Gemma @ Juicy Game Reviews / TheGebs24

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