Resident Evil 2
Head back to Raccoon City in Capcom’s zombie-infested remake
Ionly remember small things about 1998’s Resident Evil 2. Making my dad buy it for me because I wasn’t old enough. The grainy cutscene showing the licker crawling on the ceiling. Unloading Leon’s last three or four bullets into the giant sub-boss, Tyrant. Me and two mates crowding around a CRT TV to finish it, because we were too cowardly to do it alone. Still, it’s possible this all means nothing if you’ve never played ResidentEvil2 before, and that’s more likely on PC, where it was ported over a year later (we didn’t have a gamepad in my house at the time, so I tried playing it with the budget joystick I used for X-wing, like an idiot). It was a fixed-perspective survival horror game in the vein of AloneintheDark, using prerendered backgrounds to bring its setting to life. They still look pretty nice today, if low-res. First, the game took you to the zombie-infested Raccoon City, then its spookily quiet police station, and, later still, the facility of the evil Umbrella Corporation.
This remake is a third-person shooter in the ResidentEvil4/5/6/Revelations mould, though the general spirit of the original game is here: You don’t always have enough ammo to fight the enemies in front of you, and sometimes it’s better to run away. There are still plenty of keys to find and puzzles to figure out, but their exact setup has changed, so you can’t just race through with your knowledge of a 20 year-old game.
You might recognize a puzzle from the original version of ResidentEvil2, but how it’s represented in the remake could be completely different. This means my three-or-so hours with the game offers a mix of nostalgia and mild surprise, which I think is probably a better approach than a faithful recreation.
Playing the remake with my hazy memories is more satisfying than putting it side-by-side with the original, I figure. It lets me work out which parts of Resident Evil2 have left an impact that’s lasted almost two decades—the cavernous and iconic Raccoon City P.D. building has, of course, as well as its winning leads, floppy-haired Leon S. Kennedy and the crossbow-wielding Claire Redfield (except she didn’t have one in the build I played). I’ve always had a real soft spot for the daft, one liner-spewing fitties who lead the ResidentEvil series. Two decades of advances in cutscene presentation pay off: As in ResidentEvil7, the characters are photorealistic, the violence looks nasty, and very little is played for laughs.
sewer DIVING
My demo session is split across two areas of the game. Like ResidentEvil2, the remake has two campaigns starring each protagonist, and I’ve played about an hour with Leon, then two or so with Claire. Leon spends a little time in Raccoon City before ending up in the sewers, while Claire is exploring the RCPD headquarters. Leon’s section in the sewers is grim to look at. You can really feel the poo sloshing through the drains.
It’s a faithful remake in the areas that count, which means it looks the part and retains the series’ idiosyncrasies. Even though this is the first time I’m seeing them in 3D, locations are still entirely familiar to me—my muscle memory from playing this game almost 20 years ago tells me where the library and staff room are. The police station is also lit and colored like I remember it. This isn’t a gray, drab revision of what Resi used to look like: It’s full of bright colors and lighting that reminds me of what it used to look like in isometric form. How they’ve captured the space is really fascinating, and having no loading screen when you open a door gives exploration this strange immediacy. Unlike 2012’s Operation Raccoon City, which felt like a budget retread of classic
This isn’t a gray, drab revision of what Resi used to look like
ResidentEvil2 locations that never earned it, this is the real deal.
The story has also been expanded for the remake. I play one section as Ada Wong, who dabbles in corporate espionage, and is trying to get hold of the deadly G-virus. Her section gives you a Batman-style EMF visualizer that lets you activate objects remotely—you can even see their wiring through the walls.
I’m trying to stay away from spoiling puzzle solutions, but one highlight for me was when I ended up in a sewer area, and I had to activate a switch that dropped a ladder in order to escape. The space was filled with slightly too many enemies to kill with my limited ammo supplies, even if I’d been constantly landing headshots. That meant I had to carefully run around them, seeking the switch out. I’m not used to having an actual ammo shortage in a recent ResidentEvil game; even Resi7 ended with lots of bullets being unloaded into identical goop monsters.
Zombies will also get up when you think you’ve killed them, so I died a bunch during this scenario, trying to work out the optimal way to get around the enemies, activate the switch (which takes a few nervous seconds) and escape. If I wasted my bullets here, who knew what was waiting for me next? Crucially, Ada doesn’t have the armory that Leon does, or a knife that does melee damage, so playing as her offers a different challenge.
Claire’s section is a more mixed experience. The opening, set in the RCPD’s parking lot, is fantastic. The second part, set inside the RCPD building, I enjoyed less because one enemy disrupts the flow of play so much.
Capcom’s chosen to show off a section of the game where you’re being constantly pursued by the monster Tyrant, which means I spend a lot of the demo sprinting through classic locations trying not to get beaten to death, instead of taking the time to drink them in. I assume the Tyrant’s appearances in the game are scripted, but there is some suggestion that he’ll turn up whenever you make a commotion.
In this demo, he follows Claire everywhere, up and down stairs, into different parts of the building. You can hear him stomping from rooms away. You can blast him with a few grenades or score a few headshots in order to temporarily slow him down, but it doesn’t seem worth wasting the ammo.
I guess Capcom wanted to create some real peril and excitement, but given this is my first sample of the remake, I’m not overly fond of how the pace is dictated by this giant jerkwad forever chasing after me. Hopefully in the context of the game, it’ll make more sense.
I will say, though, I love how Capcom has done zombies this time around. As well as being hard to kill, they’re a real threat in numbers. Lickers, meanwhile, are brilliantly introduced in this demo: They’re hiding behind a door in the parking lot near the start of Claire’s section, teased by a quick look at one darting around a corner. Their gross, exposed brains make their designs even more disgusting than before.
I also like how other elements from the original game have made the journey across. The police station is packed with items to find, including better weapons that are locked away. There are still ludicrous locks with shapes like hearts and spades that need specific keys to be opened (who designed this place?). Sometimes you have to examine an item to discover its true purpose, pressing a correct combination or opening a lid to obtain what you need.
Greatest hits
It’s quite a tricky game, too. I died a bunch of times playing as Ada, and a few more as Claire when I sprinted away from the Tyrant and straight into a pack of enemies. Strategic saving, via the returning typewriters, is a must, then. This remake offers a greater sense of struggle than the more action-oriented ResidentEvil games of recent years.
I finished the ResidentEvil2 demo certain I want to play the full game. ’90s nostalgia is on an upswing right now: The old C&C games are getting a refresh, BlackMesa’s Xen levels are so elaborate they’re taking years to make, and System Shock’s seemingly been through a rough patch figuring out what should and shouldn’t be part of a remake. Capcom seems to have figured it out: Keep the strangeness and iconic enemies, smartly use color to evoke characters and places the player remembers, but change enough that they can still be surprised. I just hope I don’t have to spend too much time running away from the Tyrant.
I finished the Resident Evil2 demo certain I want to play the full game