Resident Evil 2 : This time its evil

The Price : Free, my friend got it for me for christmas. If you cannot find a friend to buy you this for christmas then normally it’s £35

The Total Play Time : 16.7 hours | 29/44 achievements | 3 playthroughs, leon, claire, and leon’s 2nd run

The Review :

My earliest memory of resi 2 was watching my uncle play it on my ps2 when I was about 6. There was no way I was going to play it myself, too scary for me. I could barely watch as he encountered lickers, as zombie hands smashed through windows, as rotting corpses popped back up, no matter how many times you put them down. The lickers intro and visuals have been burned into my brain ever since, and I still remember those parts of the game vividly, 20 years later. It’s little wonder zombies were my biggest fear as a kid, any and all media with them scared the shit out of me, every variation gave me anxiety and made me feel queasy. Maybe my uncle shouldn’t have let me watch him play … Now zombies are my absolute favourite. I’m kind of obsessed with them, I’ve seen pretty much every good zombie film I can get my hands on, and plenty of bad ones too, devoted hundreds of hours to solid titles like l4d, project zomboid, state of decay 1&2 (the latter being one of my favourite survival games ever), dying light, the last of us, days gone, 7 days to die, plants vs zombies, dead space (kinda zombies, right?), killing floor, honestly the list just keeps going on but this is my first time coming back to resident evil zombies and I was excited to face my childhood fears.

The first obvious thing to say is it looks gorgeous! I built a new computer this year after having a shit box for about 10 years, and now I'm maxing out settings and enjoying them on an ultra wide oled, and I’m glad resi 2 is the first proper game I’ve played through with this setup. The detail in each room, the ambient effects, the terrifying monster and zombie designs, frankly I never knew when to be scared and when to be awed. Add into that the incredible sound design and you’re suddenly listening out for every echoing step in that big , not-so-empty police station. The screech of lickers as they clamber around on the walls is grating and terrifying, worse still is the thud when they land right next to you, with their soft growls. The scattering paws of zombie dogs as they fling themselves at you. The scrambles and groans and awkward stretches of normal zombies as the lurch and shamble towards you. It’s excellent, and it always keeps you moving, even if you can’t see it, you can hear it, coming to you, slowly, and if you’re unlucky, quickly.

I thought resident evil games were puzzle games with zombies in them but after finishing it 3 times I’ve stopped thinking that. There were really only a few puzzles that were actually puzzles, actually being honest there was really only one, the chess pieces. Resi games are actually much closer aligned to metroidvanias with the ‘utility-gated’ areas just being puzzle components. Maybe this was common knowledge, I’m not really a resi-head (well, now I am) but it was a bit of a surprise as I was expecting something closer to tomb raider. It was a pleasant surprise though, the experience was seamless and I’d classify the Resi games, at least Resi 2, as a spectacle. More than anything, it wants you to adore its amazing hand crafted world. Hand crafted. That pretty much sums up the entire experience. Every aspect, every detail, every level, every room, every lock, every key, every enemy, every encounter, it just felt so tight, so expertly put together. Not a wasted beat, not a moment where I was wondering what to do next, all in aid of soaking in the wonderful environment, and fighting the incredible big bad bosses. And oh man! Some of those bosses!

Well mostly it's just the one actually, but he changes and grows throughout the game, an amazing piece of storytelling as he succumbs to the G-virus more and more each time you encounter him until there's absolutely nothing left of the man, at least from Leon’s perspective. It was great playing it the second time as Claire and learning more about him and seeing flashes of humanity in him as he protects his daughter, even buried under the raging virus as it ravages his body, there is still something of the original man. It made me wonder how much was left of the supposedly mindless zombies I had mowed down over the course of the game, was there anything left of those men and women, deep down? And would Umbrella care? Absolutely not! I loved the build up of Umbrella as the evil insidious corporation that after enough corruption, is finally free to do literally whatever it wants. Imagine if big companies were evil and could corrupt politicians in real life? A terrifying thought, so I’m glad I get to experience such a far fetched reality from the safety of my video games. Above all though, I loved how ridiculous Umbrella is. An absolute cunty underground base complex, complete with a giant Star Wars death star walkway rooms of abyss and sheer cliff face drops, an arboretum with evil plants, and a perfect boss arena samples room. The sheer quality of the craftsmanship this game exhibits only heightens Umbrella's design choices into hilarity. It’s as if the game is wearing a mask through the police station, the underground, the sewers, the orphanage, but when it finally gets to the underground base the mask slips and all is revealed that an expertly equipped and resource limitless company made some very obviously poor choices. I love it, I really felt the satire in the condemnation of giant “too big to fail” corporations with no oversight, how it’s left to ordinary folk to clean up the mess, and that any scrutiny at all makes you wonder how Umbrellas hasn’t already collapsed in on itself. I also love the genie in the bottle allegory, and now that the virus is out there and the damage is done, the unfortunate irony is that now umbrellas have firmly cemented their existence because it's too late to do anything. It was very reminiscent of climate change and corporate excess, more specifically shit like BP oil spills, tainted drinking water, nestle baby formulas, chevron oil drilling in the ecuadors, you know, real nasty stuff that if a single person, or a small company did it, everyone would be in jail for a million years, but if a couple of thousand of really rich people do it, then it’s alright.

Anyway, that was a bit of a ramble rant.

One more great mechanic I loved in the police station was the cruel combination of having one enemy that you can’t run away from (lickers because they’re blind and hear you if you run) and one enemy that you can only run away from (Mr X is immortal and can’t be stopped, running is your only feasible choice). It was a wonderful mix and the few sections of the police station where they intersect are memorable and horrible, in a good way.

The 2nd run story was a great touch too. It was interesting how having early access to a few “utility-gated” puzzle components straight away opened up the map so quickly and changed how you interacted with the world. It only further showed how well crafted and delicately balanced the game is that starting with the bolt cutters completely changed how I played the police station and made it into a unique experience from my first run. Unfortunately I didn’t have the steam for a 4th run as Claire's 2nd run, but with 3 playthroughs I feel like I got everything I wanted. I will at some point play the ghost stories and the 4th survivor mode I unlocked, but maybe after playing some resi 4 remastered or dying light 2 first. I’m looking forward to working my way through some of the absolute classics.

Anyway, this is a relatively short review. It’s just nice to have a computer that can actually play games, and with the monitor, everything feels cinematic. It was a treat to just play something from start to finish and enjoy a complete experience. It was also nice to type out a few of the things I enjoyed and showcase my new found adoration of the Resi franchise.

Also, I fondly remember watching that very same uncle play Dino Crisis, and they recently just re-released that on GOG. It’d be an extremely cool opportunity to break out my vintage Dino Crisis official strategy guide I have laying around.