Resident Evil 2: Review

Some time after the events of Resident Evil 1, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield had their own set of ghoulish experiences in Raccoon City. No longer being isolated to the infamous Umbrella mansion, the virus has quickly spread to the streets of the city. The only citizens who weren’t infected by the epidemic, were eaten by those who were. What’s more, a special strain of the virus has been developed by the crazed William Birkin, which when injected, is capable of mutating a human being into the “perfect biological weapon”. Once the two heroes arrive at their first destination, the Raccoon City police department, they find that it is crawling with zombies, a strange new type of mutant, and a particularly powerful monstrosity that’s wandering throughout the station, terrorizing any survivors who are unfortunate enough to cross its path.

Resident Evil 2 shows a remarkable amount of growth from its predecessor, and considering how young survival/horror was at the time, the game can be considered a remarkable achievement. While the first Resident Evil was the game to solidify the blueprint of Survival/Horror gaming, Resident Evil 2 pulled out all the stops and took the genre about as far in one direction as possible. While Silent Hill would take the genre in a vastly different direction a year later, Resident Evil 2 pushed the jump scares, horror movie visuals, and the feeling of being trapped in a massive building to a whole new level. What’s even better is that it still holds up remarkably well, especially for those who are looking for a great old-school horror game.

Due to the split plot line, each protagonist encounters different supporting characters, giving the game a broad range of personalities, although a few are flat. Leon Kennedy will find the enigmatic Ada Wong, who reveals only little personal information about herself, but one senses she isn’t always telling the truth. He also encounters the reporter Ben, whose last name is not given in-game, which hints that his only purpose in the game is to advance the plot. Claire Redfield encounters the mostly useless Cherry Birkin, a scared little girl who is doing her best to hide from the zombies that stalk through the police station. Claire also runs into the best supporting character in the game; Bryan Irons, the chief of police. Upon their first meeting, he is lamenting the death of the mayor’s daughter at the hands of zombies. She is dramatically sprawled on the desk in front of him, and keen eyes will observe that the wound is in her stomach, not her neck, where zombies typically bite. Interesting revelations about him come to the surface, and he remains one of the more interesting characters in the franchise. As for our heroes, Leon and Claire, they are quite different from Jill and Chris in Resident Evil 1, in that they are not special agents; they seem much more like average people.

With the whole special forces scope of the first Resident Evil gone, the immediate focus is on the survival aspect of the game. Leon and Claire don’t have an inkling of what they are getting themselves into at first. Leon, years before he became a jaded wise-cracker, is a rookie cop on the way to his first day in the force. Claire is searching for her brother, Chris, unaware of what sort of mess he’s been involved in. While they do gradually become aware of the Umbrella conspiracy plot, their initial goal is simply to survive. This puts the game in an overall gloomier light, especially when Leon and Claire encounter numerous dead bodies littering the city’s streets, as well as the halls of the police station. Considering all this alongside a moody score, the game has a constant sense of imminent death, and it works tremendously in its favor.

The locations are also executed well atmospherically. The first major location, the police department, looks deceptively wide open and unconfined at first, giving the player a strange sense of comfort. However, that comfort is soon vaporized when it becomes apparent that the station is almost entirely made up of narrow hallways and small rooms, adding an effective sense of claustrophobia to the location. Even in the larger rooms, there is little open space, as they are cluttered with desks and other obstacles that prevent movement. And as nearly every single confined hallway is filled with the living dead, the only way to gain a few moments of peace is to blast them all away, using up precious ammunition in the process. In the next major location, the sewers, movement is always hindered by thigh high water, once again giving the player a feeling that the location itself is one huge obstacle. The final location, a secret Umbrella laboratory, is a grand-scale industrial complex. Every room seems to have been overtaken by a different test subject; plants, ice, insect larvae, you name it. And all of the games most powerful monsters are lurking about, giving the laboratory an undeniably oppressive aura.

And when I mentioned the fact that the game boosts the horror movie visuals to a whole new level, I was not mincing words. As the potential of the G-Virus becomes apparent, the game surprises you with shocking visuals. Two supporting characters die horribly, and the physical appearance of the game’s ongoing antagonist, William Birkin, gets more and more gruesome as time goes on. The game also makes excellent use of the fixed camera angles for more subtle scares; a brief glimpse of an unrecognizable monster, a quick movement behind a window, and one particularly effective jump scare all stand out in my mind. A notable boost in monster design is also worthy of mention. Introduced to the fold are the Lickers, and although they do not appear in any other canon Resident Evil titles, they have certainly left a prominent mark on the franchise. They crawl up and down walls and ceilings, can lash at you from a distance with their spade tongues, and if you hear them shriek, get out of the way quick or suffer a particularly powerful lunging attack.

Resident Evil’s token campyness is present, but in smaller doses this time. The voice acting, while still not high quality overall, has been improved considerably, and although the dialogue is generally better, we have a few snippets that are guaranteed to incite hysteria. Because of that notable absence of camp, the game genuinely strives to be something more than a B movie in video game form. While it doesn’t succeed entirely, it remains perhaps the best overall of the early Resident Evil games.

Gameplay: 8.5/10 – Solid action gameplay that is leaps ahead of Resident Evil 1 is prominent, but the game also has tremendous replay value due to its split storyline. The dual shock edition of the game also features an entertaining bonus game for those looking to spend more time with the game.

Scares: 7.5/10 – Perhaps the most atmospheric of the early Resident Evil titles, the game also sports some intense visuals for good measure.

Plot: 7.5/10 – A few interesting supporting characters (Chief Irons and Ada Wong in particular) help keep things interesting, and while the Umbrella conspiracy plot is still present, the main focus is on survival. Nothing too deep is found within the plot, but it aides in the entertainment value of the game.

Screenshots were provided by forum member Samael.