Resident Evil 2 Review (Sony PlayStation, 1998)

The first Resident Evil was a pioneer in the action genre, and is considered the game that popularized survival horror. It was also one of the early PlayStation titles that really showed what the CD format was capable of with loads of voice overs, pre-rendered backgrounds, and video cut-scenes. You’ll find mixed opinion about it, but I absolutely loved it. Then Capcom announced a follow-up, but to be honest it looked like more of the same. It wasn’t even that much prettier. As the end of the development cycle approached series creator Shinji Mikami wasn’t pleased with the final product, and scrapped most of it while returning his team back to the drawing board. What they came up with at this point was a huge upgrade in visuals, but was gameplay improved? You better believe it. Resident Evil 2 is one of my favorite games of all time and I still regularly replay it.

While the original game took place in the Spencer Mansion which was built in the woods beyond Raccoon City the story of Resident Evil 2 begins right in the town. Leon S. Kennedy is a rookie police officer who has recently been hired on to the local force, and his scenario begins as he is entering Raccoon City for the first time. Meanwhile, Claire Redfield (the sister of Chris from the original title) is on the search for her brother, and winds up in the same place. Both are attacked by zombies soon after arriving, and after a brief encounter they decide to work together to escape this wretched place. Unfortunately Leon’s car is destroyed, and the two are separated. With few other options they decide to meet up at the police station, but soon come to find the entire city has been decimated by the T-virus and it now belongs to the dead. From the onset you can choose which of the two characters to play as, and though many of the locations you visit are the same, and major plot revelations are shared, their scenarios differ greatly. After completing the game you can opt to play a second scenario as either of the characters, and the story basically follows the other’s but with the separate protagonist in play instead. The story is dark, and it’s gruesome. You’ll meet some rather unsettling characters, and eventually be forced to face down the Umbrella Corporation’s latest menace. The cut-scenes are unintentionally hilarious, and voice overs comical which give this one a very B-movie feel which adds a ton of personality and atmosphere.

Resident Evil 2 is an action game with fixed camera perspectives, pre-rendered backgrounds, and tank controls. When you walk out of the field of view the perspective snaps to the next. Holding up on the directional pad causes your character to walk in the direction they are facing, down will cause them to back up, and left/right turns them. You can only use weapons when standing still and holding them. The basic enemies you will encounter in this game are zombies. These are slow shambling undead fellows (and in some cases, gals) that generally attack by grabbing on to, and biting your character. After a few seconds Leon/Claire will shove the ghoul off of them but they quickly begin approaching once more. In many cases you will encounter several zombies at once, and in close quarters. These are some of the more difficult areas of the game because you must pick and choose which zombies to knock back with your bullets to keep them as far away as possible. Other enemies include lickers (mutated beasts that shoot their tongues at their prey), as well as zombie dogs and other animals. Your primary weapons are guns, and you begin with only a pistol, but throughout the course of the adventure you’ll find machine guns, shotguns, and even grenade/rocket launchers. The arsenal is improved since the last game, but only by a little.

Ammunition is extremely scarce. This is where the survival element comes in to the ‘survival horror’ genre. You need to learn to conserve because the only weapon you can use infinitely is the knife, and that will not get you very far. You must pick and choose which zombies you kill because you’ll rarely have enough ammo to take them all down. Although you start out on the streets of Raccoon City the majority of the game takes place within the police station itself. This is composed of a series of hallways and rooms meaning most of the combat is close quarters, and you won’t easily be able to simply run past the ghouls that inhabit its passageways. The way I’ve always played is by only destroying all of the zombies in areas that I will need to pass through on a frequent basis, and leaving those in single use rooms completely alone. Unlike in most shooter games enemies do not drop ammunition and instead you must find it scattered around in the environments. The environments are pre-rendered, and so the colorful ammunition boxes are easier to see. Meanwhile a big part of the game is about inventory management. Boxes of ammunition, healing herbs, as well as each weapon take up spaces in your inventory. You also need to take items to solve puzzles, as well as keys, but thankfully you can store anything within item boxes that are universal which means any stored item can be accessed from all item boxes.

Initially I was a bit put off by the fact that the majority of this game takes place within a police station. That simply doesn’t sound as spooky or ominous as a dark and looming mansion, but Capcom made it work. The building is very gothic in its architecture. This might not make sense for a police station, but we’re just going to suspend disbelief here considering most of the puzzles and monuments are nonsensical given the setting. It’s a huge building and it’s just as easy to get lost here as it was in the Spencer Mansion of the last game. It’s surprising that Capcom was able to make the atmosphere so oppressive and unwelcoming. The Raccoon City Police station is surprisingly scary. You’ll wander the halls as zombies break through boarded up windows and at some points even reach through to grab and damage your character. This was one of the most frightening moments I’ve ever experienced in a Resident Evil game, and I found myself avoiding this corridor late at night as much as I possibly could. Even the door opening sequences (initially put in place to mask the loading times) are scary after a chance encounter with zombies.

Resident Evil 2 is a huge upgrade in graphics from the original title. The first release featured only the same lab-coat wearing men, but now there are several different kinds. You’ll run into normal citizens, police officers, women, and even nude zombies. Every character is designed with, as far as I can tell, at least double the polygons as they were in the previous game. The animations are also significantly better and none of the movements look jittery like the often did in the first release. Unlike most games released in this era Resident Evil 2’s graphics still hold up pretty darn well. This is mostly because of the pre-rendered backgrounds which allowed the developers to focus more on the character models in respect to the limited hardware. The scenery was drawn with a lot of care, and the artists managed to make even a regular every day setting look well worn and like a place where people have been fighting for survival. They don’t look particularly great on an HD television so it might be high time to hook up the old CRTV. This is one of the best looking PlayStation games even now, but I’ve always been a huge fan of pre-rendered backgrounds.

The soundtrack is also totally incredible. It’s not something I would listen to on my own time, but within the game it totally solidifies the oppressive and dangerous atmosphere. The music that plays while wandering the halls of the decrepit police station is really well done despite its slow pace, and though it doesn’t fit when there are zombies coming at you it still sets in a very ominous feeling. The boss theme is my favorite of the bunch. I’ve never been terrified so much just from a song. It’s extremely well done and I actually had this as the ringtone on my phone for several years. The safe room themes are also awesome and are extremely relaxing. The sound effects are extremely realistic and are actually very helpful in terms of gameplay. You’re often blind when entering a room, and hearing the moans from a zombie is a fantastic cue not to let your guard down. The voice acting, as I’ve already mentioned, is laughable. It’s charming and I’ve really grown to love it though. The audio is amazing here, and the atmosphere owes a great deal to this.

For many years this was the absolute best Resident Evil title, and even the greatest survival horror release. It has been since surpassed (by the Gamecube remake of the original if you must know) but the game is absolutely amazing. It’s still perfectly playable even today, and should be experienced at least once by anyone who can bear with a game that’s pretty darn scary. This is nearly the pinnacle of survival horror, and here’s to hoping modern developers try to re-create the experience. Hopefully Shinji Mikami can make magic again with The Evil Within this generation. Resident Evil 2 is a pretty high bar.