Resident Evil 2 Remake: Good or not?

So we start 2019 with the remake to '98s legendary Resident Evil 2. For those of you unfamiliar with the premise; the game sees you in the shoes of Claire Redfield, a college student and younger sibling of the prior games Chris, or Leon, a rookie cop coming to Racoon City for his first day on the job. The pair by chance meet up before promptly being split apart again and deciding to head to the police station to get to the bottom of whatever caused the zombie apocalypse to strike this unassuming midwestern US city. The remake has high expectations to overcome, so let's see how it did!

First things first, let's talk about the narrative direction and map layout of the remake. For the most part, it follows the original to a tee; you progress from the police station to the sewer, to the lab. The main story beats are still there - the characters you meet are all the same and at relatively the same times, with a few surprises along the way. However, things are definitely in different places. The locker room is now a side room and not something you will be passing through every time you want to go back to the main hall from the darkroom in a hurry; the library now borders a small lounge, and the third floor has had a complete overhaul. Everything after the police department is COMPLETELY different in terms of layout. Somehow though, Capcom has nailed it. While things are different, it still *feels* like the RE2 I know and love.

The elephant in the room is probably going to be the gameplay for a lot of people - I was hesitant with it running in the same vein as RE4 and its successors but my word does it play wonderfully. The camera and controls are solid (even the mouse and keyboard controls are 100% usable and comfortable at that) and while some enemies are much more bullet spongey than I would like, it will make sense why they are like that when you play. I had to restart my first run because I ended up running out of ammo before the first boss fight due to trying to kill all the zombies I came across, I quickly realized the error in my ways and rectified it with my second run, deciding there to dodge enemies all together or kneecap zombies in high traffic areas to stop them coming through doors or lunging at me. Trust me when I say you will need the bullets and breathing room this allows you once you get past the first boss fight.

In terms of graphics... boy is this game deliciously good looking. Never before in a RE game have I really thought it warranted a 'scenes of explicit violence and gore' warning, but this time it most certainly does. Shooting enemies leaves gouges in the flesh, zombies can be de-limbed and decapitated, some of the boss fights later on feature some very juicy damage too. Fans of body horror will be right at home. Aside from this though, Capcom has really struck gold with the lighting engine. The contrast between brightly lit rooms to pitch black corridors with only your flashlight and the moans and skittering of enemies to guide you... absolutely beautiful. In terms of animation, it is overall pretty good but some of the facial animations in cutscenes does feel very robotic, and I do think that Claire grins far too much for a zombie apocalypse but I suppose that's just a personal gripe.

Audio is, like the animation, a mixed bag. Music is spot on and really hits home the atmosphere, as well as the voice acting - it is a much more mature and calculated script compared to the original although there is still a fair amount of signature cheese and cringe, especially when Claire and Leon are both on screen. Enemy sound effects are all sufficiently weighty and pleasing, be it the moans and wails of zombies or the dreaded pounding of the tyrants' heavy feet. Less can be said of the gunfire sounds - most could do with *something* more. Leons Lightning Hawk in particular sounds incredibly anemic for what should be a thunderous kick from the .50AE cartridges it spits out. Again, just a small gripe but one nonetheless.

In terms of features, it retains pretty much everything from its progenitor - you start off with Leon or Claires first 'A' scenario, and finishing it with one will unlock the second 'B' scenario for the other character. While the A scenarios are different for each character - both characters have different paths during the middle of the game, and each has an exclusively key for the police station - the B scenarios change up everything from the item placements and route through the game to enemy distribution and even boss fights. You will want to finish at least one A and B run to get the full experience and see the true ending to the game; in doing so with a B rank or higher on each run you will unlock the bonus '4th Survivor' minigame just like you could way back in '98. This will put you in the shoes of Hunk, a surviving USS member who is tasked from getting from the sewer all the way to the front gate of the RPD with a limited inventory. Those of you that manage to do so will unlock the hilarious Tofu survivor mode, essentially the same as Hunks run but with a much harder inventory of items. There is another 4 unlockable characters but I won't spoil the fun for you. Aside from those, sadly Extreme Battle doesn't return but Capcom has said that there will be extra modes coming in the future.

The most important thing for long time RE fans though is the character development. The characters from the original were admittedly a little flat; this is rectified very nicely with the remake. The character dynamic between Leon and Ada, and Claire and Sherry are much more natural this time around. Irons is a much more fleshed out character too - he is a much more sinister and vile man here, with various documents expanding on what you see in cutscenes. Anette is similarly expanded upon compared to the original and is actually fairly likeable here but I won't go into detail because of spoilers.

My only real gripe with the game are the boss battles. They feel very... outdated. Its almost as if they were lifted from the original with virtually no regard to the new controls - they boil down to basically standing still and unloading your small arsenal until the foe gets too close forcing you to run to a new spot to resume firing. There is a boss fight requiring a special mechanic to beat but other than that they just feel lacking and flat in an otherwise very vibrant game. A dodge button even only for the boss fights would improve things a fair bit, as well as perhaps obscuring the arenas from view - twice during the game I found myself walking along and saying to myself 'oh I guess that's a boss fight' before being proved right and it kinda ruins the surprise a little.

In conclusion, I would say this is probably one of if not the best remakes in gaming, as well as hands down the best Resident Evil game. It is an incredibly solid overhaul to the original while retaining everything that made it great. The atmosphere is a lot more refined with there being times where if you let it the game will genuinely scare you. While its run time for an average player is around 8-10 hours if you play through only one A and one B scenario, it is a very high-quality game and probably one of the best horror games on the market. Definitely worth full retail price in my opinion although some of you may want to wait for a sale due to its comparatively low $ to gameplay hour ratio.

Overall verdict: RE2 is an incredibly immersive and atmospheric survival horror game that earns a 9.5/10, losing out on a perfect score due to its poor handling of boss battles and a handful of poor animations and audio sfx.