RESIDENT EVIL 2: REMAKE

We’re ready for a new outbreak

The thought of heading back to Raccoon City’s police HQ and going toe-to-tongue with an HD Licker fills us with joyous dread. Considered the Godfather 2 of videogames, it was a class act that clawed its way out of the original’s haunted house trappings and offered so much more. It was also our first run-in with videogame bad girl and soundbite villain, Ada Wong. Playing as either Claire Redfield or Leon S. Kennedy, the game offers two different storylines, and your actions in each game affect the story of the next (in total there are four scenarios to unlock). On replay actions you perform on your first playthrough remain intact, so items found and used by Claire will be missing for Leon, or characters react differently. Memories of tackling the same game from a new perspective impressed our younger selves, and we can’t wait to, quite literally, venture deep into Umbrella’s corridors of power beneath Raccoon City all over again.

This will be more than a retrospective HD re-enactment too, as producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, who worked on the Resident Evil HD Remaster, has hinted this will be a complete, ground-up remake. Expect new character models, full 3D environments and a new control setup, bringing it closer to Resi 4 in terms of gameplay. Comparisons with Square’s Final Fantasy VII Remake are apt, given the massive amount of work involved, and that makes us want to play cat and mouse with Ada all over again.