Game Discussion of the Week: Resident Evil 2

I've just finished a Leon A / Claire B campaign!

All those initial impressions I got on the game were pretty much confirmed through my playthrough: visually, it's leagues ahead of the first game and does its best to create many more interesting setpieces. There is a lot of interesting storytelling in the environments, like the room were Leon's welcome party was supposed to happen (you see the destroyed barricades there), or when you find the burning helicopter in Scenario A (to only see how it fell in Scenario B). One thing that surprised me was how many zombies the game could throw at the same time: usually just two or three in the first game, but as many as six or seven in a single room this time. They also are not only better designed (looking like actual dead humans now), but also are much better animated, so it all looks like a strikingly good video game rendition of Dawn of the Dead. Besides the higher number of enemies, the only noticeable gameplay change is the character animation showing the current health, as Leon and Claire will look hurt and even move slowly when close to dying. Besides that, most of the gameplay is unchanged from the first game.

It is much more linear and action-based, though. While the Police Station is as hilariously convoluted as the mansion and the best area, demanding a lot of carefully planning in how to navigate it, all the latter areas are a bit disappointing for being just point A to point B affairs - in the first game, the Guardhouse and Laboratory were still a bit open in how you could tackle them, while the Sewers and Laboratory in RE2 are very straightorward. There are also less bosses, so no giant snakes, plants or sharks this time - just Birkin's forms and Mr X. On the other hand, I don't miss the bosses because Classic RE combat is not great anyway, and the more dangerous zombie encounters are a good replacement for the lack of bosses. Another change was in the survival aspect - I felt like I never had to conserve ammo or ink ribbons and literally had hundreds of ammunition by the end of each scenario. You still can't go out killing every zombie, of course, but it's more generous than the first game.

Also, the different scenarios are well integrated - while in the first game Chris' and Jill's stories were too similar and impossible to happen at the same time, RE2 makes more of an effort to make it look like Leon and Claire are acting simultaneously, so playing both A and B scenarios is needed to get the full story. I don't know if I have the will to play Claire A / Leon B right now, but the fact that I'm curious enough about it (which means going through the game a third and fourth time) shows how well designed and addictive the game is.

Last but not least, the story and characters are much more likeable and fun. This is the game that set up the quirkness of the series, with badass characters, secret agents and disgusting body horror - it has a more distinctive personality than RE1.

If I was to make any changes to the game, it would be adding a quick turn move (RE3 and Code: Veronica later did it) and redesigning the latter areas to be less linear. Besides that, I see why this is considered by many people as the best game in the series. I hope the remake holds up: going by the videos/reviews, it seems to keep the scary factor and to turn Mr X into something more similar to Nemesis from RE3 or the xenomorph from Alien: Isolation, which is a nice choice.