Capcom is predictable above all else. When they release a successful game they generally want it available on every console capable of running it. A good example is the original Resident Evil. This was first released on the Sony PlayStation but was later ported to the Saturn. At this time the sequel was soon to release. By then Sega’s 32-bit system was all but dead. It came out for the Sony PlayStation with the Nintendo 64 being the only other viable option. Unfortunately cartridge spaces were extremely limited.
A port was an impossible dream. That’s why it was so shocking that the geniuses at Angel Studios made it work. Resident Evil 2, in all of its glory, should have been impossible to cram into a single cartridge. Today we’re going to take a look at Resident Evil 2 for the Nintendo 64 and see if it’s still worth playing.
The first Resident Evil game focused around a zombie infestation in a mansion on the outskirts of a typical suburban town. It was thought to have been destroyed at the end in a fiery explosion. Resident Evil 2 begins as the virus causing this has spread to the city itself. Just like in the original you begin by selecting from one of two characters to play as. This time around your choices are Leon S. Kennedy a rookie police officer on his first day of duty in Raccoon City, or Claire Redfield sister of Chris (one of the original protagonists) who enters the town during her search for her brother.
Things go South real quick for both of them as they’re attacked by zombies, and in a chance encounter team up. They’re quickly separated but in both scenarios work towards the same basic goal of escaping the city.
Like the original Resident Evil 2’s story is firmly rooted in classic b-movies. It’s beyond cheesy with laughable dialogue and flamboyant horror scenarios. Honestly that’s what I love so much about this series. As far as sequels go the continuity is on point. There are a ton of references to the original and although you don’t encounter any characters from it the continuity rears its head at every turn. The writing has been upgraded a fair bit, but it’s still far from Oscar worthy.
What’s interesting is how different the two scenarios are. The characters explore largely the same environments, but often under different pretenses. Resident Evil 2 takes things a step further by offering an additional scenario per character that follows the other’s story more closely. It’s absolutely interesting enough to warrant multiple play throughs especially considering the length.
Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Resident Evil 2 is a traditional survival horror game. It uses pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D polygonal characters. Anytime you run off camera the perspective shifts, a new background is loaded, and because it uses tank controls your character continues forward in the direction they’re facing. This mechanic takes some getting used to for the uninitiated. Tank controls are commonplace for games of this era that used pre-rendered backgrounds.
By now anyone with any experience in the survival horror genre has become accustomed to them. You equip weapons via the menu, hold the R button to aim them, directions to turn, and then the action button to fire. Generic zombies take several bullets to put down, and other foes like lickers, G-Virus crocodiles, and infected plants are more dangerous and require more firepower.
The survival horror elements make Resident Evil 2 feel oppressive, and will leave players uneasy. In many of the environments you’ll find ammunition for various firearms. This is highly limited, and you’ll never feel like you never have quite enough bullets. You actually have to plan ahead because of this. Some zombies you’ll have to leave alive because you don’t expect to return to the area in question. In the most frequently traveled rooms however you’ll want to take them all out so they aren’t a pain later on when you’re backtracking.
This level of planning causes real world tension. Did I mention the jump scares? That’s pretty important. Resident Evil 2 has a significant number of them even surpassing the original in this regard. Zombies reach through boarded up windows, lickers jump through one way mirrors, you’re chased by a monster called X, and much more.
Resident Evil lives and dies by the environments in which it takes place. The biggest setting here is a police station. That doesn’t sound particularly interesting. There’s no way a simple police station can compete against a sprawling mansion, right? I’m happy to report that’s not the case. Capcom took some real liberties with the setting. The Raccoon City Police Department may seem like an ordinary location in some areas. The thing is it’s absolutely huge.
What’s more is that for some reason it’s filled with Roman-esque statues and some gothic architecture. It feels downright oppressive with narrow corridors and it’s maze-like design. It feels extremely decrepit, yet extremely lived in. A lot of care was put into establishing the immense atmosphere here. From here you will go underneath the city, through the sewers, and even to an underground laboratory. It’s all extremely creepy and well designed.
Unfortunately, as per series standards, there’s an absolute ton of backtracking required here. You’ll occasionally find keys or other items that unlock the way forward. The hard part is figuring out just where they need to go. Sometimes the map highlights the next destination but other times you’re left to your own devices. Speaking of the map you need to get used to it because you’ll use it a whole lot. Unless you’ve memorized the layout of the Police Station you’ll no doubt get lost.
Often. For years I refused and instead relied on memorization. This is not the optimal way to play Resident Evil 2 and most players will become frustrated almost immediately by this. The game just isn’t direct enough with your objectives. Worse yet you have limited space in your inventory and have to store things in item boxes. It takes some guesswork in this regard.
This Nintendo 64 version holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons. Not only is it a technical marvel fitting two discs of content into one cartridge, but it also has several exclusive features. For one thing there are no loading times. Moving from one screen to the next on disc based platforms results in brief pauses. That’s not the case here. Next up you can use the digital controls of the analog stick to bypass tank controls. That’s a fantastic feature considering this was one of the major complaints of the franchise at this point.
Resident Evil 2 uses the expansion pak to increase the resolution of characters, and it looked amazing at the time. Technical stuff aside there’s also new content as well. You can change the color of the blood (which is more interesting than it sounds), and even use an item location randomizer.
Resident Evil 2 was a fantastic looking game on the Sony PlayStation. It’s even more impressive on the Nintendo 64. I already mentioned that the game makes use of the expansion pak to increase the resolution. This makes characters pop out really well with far fewer jagged polygons. With the move to a much smaller storage format something had to give. Full motion video sequences were what they chose to sacrifice. They’re present, but play at a much lower bitrate.
These videos have a lot of artifacts and appear pixelated and even blurry at times. The Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil 2 just can’t compare with the PS1 release in that field. Personally I’ll choose the higher resolution character models, and lower audio/video quality over the PS1 edition any day. The music has also taken a bit of a hit, as have the voice samples.
