Resident Evil 2 (1998)

This is a pretty big departure from the original game, in terms of tone and ambition. The original RE game is your quintessential claustrophobic horror game. Brimming with atmosphere. And it's fantastic for it. RE 2 has atmosphere, but it does play to a different tune in terms of its ambition and tone. RE 2 has an action movie vibe to it. And this is reflected in the general gameplay as well. It still plays like RE 1, in terms of the clunky tank controls and being resource starved. Traversing and puzzle solving. I didn't really find any of the puzzles to be that challenging, but overall exploration was engaging, the game looks much better than RE 1 did and in general there is far more detail in the environments and character models.

The "Police Station" is kind of silly. They do justify it narratively by stating it was a museum prior. I'm not complaining that the police station has secret doors, special keys linked to card suites and puzzles to solve. Just putting that out there. A mansion certainly fits those tropes more aptly.

Still the plot is more ambitious in scope, there are new monsters to fight and the game puts you under constant pressure. The concept of a B scenario is cool, especially at the time when people typically only bought a few games so you would typically replay your games. So having replayability in mind in both the gameplay and narrative are cool and well executed here. Though I personally don't really like immediately replaying games. It does kind of suck that crucial parts of the narrative are gate-keeped behind the B scenario. But as a compromise it's at least an interesting one, even if the B scenario still mostly plays out the same just with different cut scenes.

I do like how enemies don't respawn after killing them. I understand and do like the crimson zombies from the RE remake. I understand that they want the game to still have pressure and horror with the sheer amount of backtracking, but given resource limitations, I liked having the choice to sacrifice resources to make a hallway/room safe. The game does shake this up with certain events triggering new monster to spawn (a good thing), but in general I do like being able to make that choice. There is a ton of backtracking in this game, but the level design is still great. You are often given shortcuts and multiple paths through the environment that open up over time.

Like with RE 1, once you get to the third act of the game, it basically becomes a full action game. You still have to manage resources, but the game expects you to engage with combat.

Another decision they made (which was part of RE 1), that is honestly pretty brilliant, is the decision to make saving a limited resource. They give you plenty of save slots, but I did find myself pushing further to not unnecessarily use a save state. It's subtle but elevates the risk. By the end I had 3 ribbon inks left.

In general, this is a great sequel. It does everything bigger. The plot is interesting (I wouldn't say brilliant. Umbrella is cartoonishly evil and doesn't make sense, but it's still a fun cheesy action movie vibe) and it is more of what made RE 1 great, but with its own tone.

I do agree with people saying that this is a better game overall than Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The story is interesting, the fact that you have two scenarios that can be played with both Leon and Claire.

However, for me, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was the first Resident Evil. I've had a bunch of nightmares when I was a kid thanks to this game, and I find it more frightening.

I would gladly replay this game as well.

This Capcom title is a survival horror classic that built upon its predecessor’s foundation with greater ambition and polish, using a new setting, a zombie-infested Raccoon City, it follows Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield through two interwoven campaigns. The game impressed with its cinematic presentation, atmospheric pre-rendered backgrounds, and intense resource management. Its "Zapping System", allowing two different story perspectives, added strong replay value. Despite stiff tank controls and fixed camera angles, Resident Evil 2 remains a defining entry in the genre and one of the PlayStation’s finest horror experiences.

It builds up on everything that the first title did correctly, and tries to implement new ideas, such as more playable characters, on both of the already two playable campaigns, that while lasting for a short time, have a very unique gameplay mechanic and is important for the development of the main plot. This was the first RE title which introduced the "Nemesis" mechanic, which was improved on later titles, and is a perfect fit for what Capcom was trying to make, especially what they were trying to make the player feel, which is the complete opposite of being at ease. A classic must-play for the PlayStation platform, and for survival-horror fans in general.

The sequel also refined the pacing and structure of exploration, balancing puzzle-solving with bursts of sudden, nerve-wracking combat. The main map you can explore stands out as one of the most memorable locations in horror gaming, cleverly designed to loop back as new keys and tools are acquired. Enemy variety was expanded with the Lickers and other grotesque bio-organic weapons, each demanding different strategies and reinforcing the constant tension. Combined with a haunting OST and sharp sound design, the game masterfully sustains a feeling of dread from beginning to end.

Technically, this game pushed the original PlayStation very far, delivering detailed character models and dramatic cutscenes that heightened its cinematic ambitions. Both MCs are more than just playable avatars, their stories give emotional weight to the catastrophe unfolding around them. While modern players may find the controls dated, the deliberate movement and limited saves actually amplify the survival aspect. Even for today's standards, this title remains a landmark title that not only defined its era but helped shape the survival horror genre for years to come.

**Update: 2/11/2026 **

Been replaying all the old RE games in preparation for Requiem. RE 2 is a game I somewhat departed from the fan base consensus on. I found it pretty underwhelming on my first try, the police station, sewer, and lab just look kind of bleak and grey compared to the richness of both 1 and 3.

On replay, I still feel fairly similar; but I also have another complaint now - the game is too dang easy. It just dumps health items, ink ribbons, and bullets on you like candy. So it is quite hard to feel the intended “survival horror” experience.

That said, the exploration in the police station is well done. I do think the remake is a much better game overall, pretty much realizing what the original could have been. I am a complete die hard fan for the classic tank control style - it is my favorite genre - but even I can admit the remake is the better game.

It would still be in my top 7 of the series though, an important game historically and I don’t HATE it. It’s just not a favorite.

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I’ve played every RE title besides the original trilogy. RE 1 remake was my intro (besides RE 4 years ago), and I fell in love with the classic survival horror style. I’ve played many indies that emulate it, silent hill 1-3, code Veronica. But 2 just felt a bit middle of the road for me.

I played the seamless hd mod, that enhances the backgrounds. I enjoy the game a lot, but I prefer a bit more horror to the atmosphere, which this really doesn’t have. It’s bright and fairly plain.

I enjoy the puzzles, exploration, it’s all solid. The whole A and B scenario thing doesn’t really work for me, it’s just too much of the same. But I had fun and I appreciate its importance for the genre.

A 1998 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The player controls rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield, who must escape Raccoon City after its citizens are transformed into zombies by a biological weapon two months after the events of the original Resident Evil. The gameplay focuses on exploration, puzzles, and combat.

I owned this game originally back in 1998, but I was still a young kid and thought it was scary. Plus the tank controls were hard. And as an adult, they still take some getting used to.

If you can manage the tank controls, the game holds up decently. The voice acting is not that great and the graphics have not aged well, but the game world is carefully crafted and the puzzles are engaging. There are plenty of scary moments. Exploring Raccoon City police department is tense and satisfying.

If you're used to running and gunning, there will be an adjustment period. The game is scarce on ammo pickups, encouraging the player to avoid encounters whenever possible and conserve ammo.

There is a bit of replayability if you do the A & B scenarios for each character, totaling 4 playthroughs. The true ending for the game can only be seen when completing the alternate B scenario.

I so badly want to learn how to love this series. I tried RE1 remake a few years back and couldn't get into it, just started playing this a couple of days ago and am having a similar issue. In other words: I'm bad at the game. Maybe it's because I'm trying to get used to tank controls still? I know that you're not supposed to kill every enemy you see, but there are situations where I feel like that's the only option, and then I'm stuck walking around trying to find ammo in every location and it just takes forever.

Is it worth switching the control scheme to non-tank controls or should I just bite the bullet and be bad for a while? Maybe I'll just replay the beginning until I find myself on a good run and go from there.

This is one of my all-time favorite games. I loved it growing up and it's always been high on my list of favorite games in the Resident Evil series, even if it's one I haven't revisited much since. This year, I decided to finally give the impressive Seamless HD Project a try and wanted to share some thoughts on my initial and most recent experience with this beloved title.

Note: I'm not sure how to treat spoilers for a 1998 game that has been competently remade with both versions being widely played. I will try to add spoiler tags for some of the things that might be spoilery if you've never played this version, but won't worry about things obvious to anyone with even a cultural osmosis knowledge of Resident Evil. If you think you might play this game and never have, even if you've played the remake, I recommend not revealing the spoiler text below.

As a quick shout out, the Seamless HD project did amazing work on this. The original release looked great for its time and the fact its textures don't look too bad even today is a testament to its outstanding aesthetics. All of the screenshots I'm including are from that version (though note, those from cutscenes aren't really as touched up as I understand it), but I highly recommend following the link I inserted above to their site and clicking through the slider-enabled comparison shots to see how much better they got this game looking. True, some of the overly-defined edges do look a little awkward at times without the pixelation covering up some vague points, but on the whole, I found the new look really awesome considering it's just a fan-made touch-up of the existing PC version.

One of the best things about Resident Evil 2 is just how much of a step up with was from Resident Evil (1996). I loved that first game. I played it soon after it came out (even though, at like 9, I probably was much too young for it) as one of the first games I played on Playstation 1 and it scared the hell out of me equally as much as it pulled me into its maze-like corridors. But famously, Resident Evil 2 cleaned up so much from the first game and made it bigger, better, and even more intense. While certainly not an action game, this entry moved Resident Evil just a touch more in the direction of something more cinematically in-motion than the often sluggish horror of the first game. There are more monsters, more weapons, bigger maps, better overall design, a bigger story, and so much more that demonstrate how to make a sequel of any game really pop, and it all moves at a very engaging pace.

One of the most impressive things about this title, even today, is the zapping system. This is where I'll employ spoiler tags as some of the discovery here is part of the fun (and the remake did this pretty differently so it may be news to newcomers). Full disclosure, I've never honestly been sure why it's called a "zapping system," but this is the system in which your decisions in your first playthrough (your A game) as one character will affect things in your second playthrough (your B game) as the other character. For instance, one such key decision is when you access the armory, you can choose to take either a sub-machine gun, or an inventory-expanding side pack. Both are exceptionally valuable but your character will only take one, opting to leave the other one for the other character you're not playing as. When you play your B route, whatever item you left in A will be your only option since it was the only thing left behind. This A-affects-B setup gives the appearance that your separate playthroughs are actually occurring simultaneously, rather than being fully independent stories. One of my favorite aspects of this A/B game system that I still think back fondly to today is that you only encounter Mr. X in your B game playthrough and would have no idea he's in the game until you start it thinking you know what you're in for only to suddenly encounter this gargantuan imposing figure lumbering towards you. Admittedly, otherwise the zapping system isn't perfect by any means. There's definitely substantial overlap in the playthroughs that makes it not completely align, and truthfully, making it completely make sense for fully independent but consistent scenarios would've probably limited the game tremendously in its routing to at least make it quite different, if not much worse. But the effort is noticeable and still works very well.

Piggy-backing on the zapping system, one trend in gaming since these older titles that I very much understand from a development perspective—but kind of resent—is the tendency to frontload development attention. Developers have a strong incentive to make an exciting beginning and middle of a game but when, by definition, the end of a game is going to be the least-experienced part, it is often the most rushed and slapped together segment, ending games on kind of an awkward low note. The tendency to put in significant content that gamers won't even see unless they finish the entire game once is just not something you see much anymore. At most, we get a new difficulty or mode that may be a fun new challenge, but isn't as interesting as something that would've required more development to make really fresh and intriguing and serve as a proper reward. This is no more obvious than comparing the zapping system to the remake of this game, which more or less dispensed with it almost entirely, likely in the interest of costs and simplification. As much as I love the implementation of Mr. X in the remake and find it no surprise they had him present from the get-go, a part of me would've loved to see the reactions from people starting B game thinking they know everything to expect only to run into that wall of a monster they'd never seen before—other than that, of course, these days it would be spoiled online within hours of release. Again, I think this shift has very reasonable motives that make some sense, but it is something I do love to see in at least some older games like this one where the tendency was less prevalent.

Somewhat controversially, I actually really like the story in this game. The voice acting is top notch hilariously awkward. And the story is often somewhat nonsensical if not overly simplistic with cartoonishly evil corporations that heavy-handedly criticize sociopathic corporate greed. But, weirdly, perhaps because I was so young when I first immersed myself in these games, I really appreciated this simplicity. I found it enthralling learning about not just the sci-fi virology and terrifying bioweapons, but also the shadowy symbiosis between government corruption (especially in the police) and corporate money. It's actually kind of funny that these very much M-rated games broke down a relatively socially complex interplay in a way that my rather young mind who barely understood these social structures could comprehend quite easily. Much of this is achieved by hand-waving and suspension of disbelief that weirdly contribute to a sort of real nightmare irrationality to the story that enhances the discomfort of these games.

But this approachability is also because the games have a surprising focus on straight-forward and enjoyable characters, good and bad. The villains, while often over-the-top or one-dimension, are clear and distinct with internal conflicts that are easy to follow. The heroes are altruistic normal people: a rookie cop so far untainted by his department-to-be's rampant corruption and politics, and a college student who picked the worst day to check in on her brother. But at every turn they look to help other people survive this awful night, despite being constantly threatened and scared out of their minds (though yes, these early games could've made the main characters a lot less ridiculously stoic when acting out fear). Claire especially has always been one of my favorite video game characters despite the fact that she's frankly a quite simple character in most respects. The game's treatment of story and character is all rather straight-forward and overly simplistic, with a touch of visceral Survival Horror feel that makes it approachable but, in my opinion, still much more than just a shallow B-horror flick.

I won't go too much into the gameplay specifics as I've ranted a lot already and they're fairly well-known. But everything that I love about old school fixed camera Survival Horror is done exceptionally here. There's a wealth of inventory management, balancing scarce resources with keys and items needed for a slew of item puzzles. There's a fairly large and thoroughly varied map full of distinct and evocative set pieces, many of which you can examine for flavor text that supports the environmental storytelling without ever getting in the way. A number of boss fights act more as puzzles in saving the right resources than a test of your quick reflexes. There are classic bizarre and unrealistic puzzles with clever solutions (though one or two more challenging ones wouldn't be unwelcome) that would baffle anyone who found them in a public building of all places. Even if I feel the games up to Resident Evil 0 were all quite solid, I've always felt this one was done just a bit better, a bit tighter.

So I come to the End Boss of this review (see what I did there?): does the game hold up today? Honestly, yes and no. Much of what I loved about it was still very much there. The nostalgia factor was through the roof, which I pretty much expected given my history with this title. The HD touch-up also made the revisit all the more fresh and pleasant. I didn't really feel let down to a significant degree and on balance I would say yeah, it holds up. My only caveat is that it didn't hold up quite as well as I'd hoped. For one, the game was far shorter and easier than I remembered. This is unsurprisingly true of most any game I beat at 10 years old, but it was a bigger difference than I expected. I barely died at all and found little trouble managing resources. This is partially because even 20 years later, I know the game decently well and recent remake experience is more relevant than you might think. But the game is pretty short even by this genre's standards at the time, which was not part of my memories of the game. Each of my playthroughs were around 3-4 hours long and while I went slightly faster than I might normally since I played them on stream with a friend, I was still very much taking my time, reading all notes, looking for hidden items, examining the environments, etc. This is not so bad considering part of the experience is that you should definitely play both A and B games, but still, I was expecting at least 5 or 6 hours from each and was a little surprised there wasn't much more to it. But while this dampened my nostalgic opinion of the game slightly, I still very much enjoyed revisiting it and any disappointment was not significant.

This remains one of my favorite games. I have a hard time guessing at how it would be to play it today for the first time, whether you've played more of the series or not. But for me, my initial time in the creepy halls of the RPD with Leon and Claire have always been cherished—if frightening—memories. Replaying it in 2023 is all the more interesting as revisiting a classic influential game brings to mind lots of issues regarding how games have changed, how they've taken or improved from our library of older titles, and how there is an appeal to both. But most especially, despite how much I love a lot of modern games, this was a potent reminder of how much I miss some things.

My other Resident Evil reviews:

• Resident Evil (1996) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 (1999) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor 2 – Code Veronica - ★★
• Resident Evil Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 2 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 VR - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 Remake - ★★★★★

After Resident Evil (1996) was a huge success, a sequel was unavoidable, and just two years after its release, Resident Evil 2 hit the shelves.

I played the DualShock Version, which adds the vibration function, analog control of the Dualshock controller, and a mini-game that you unlock after beating the main story with both characters, which is a nice addition if you don't have enough Resident Evil 2 in your life. However, you don't miss anything important if you play the vanilla version, so don't worry about what edition is better.

Now, regarding the game, as soon as you start playing you will notice that the graphics and gameplay are a lot better than in the first game. The sensation of walking, attacking, and avoiding zombies is much smoother and satisfactory, and I was shocked at how much they improved everything in just two years and the same console. In my opinion, you need to play both games not just to understand the story and references, but to appreciate the effort the staff put to make the sequel bigger and better in every aspect.

Another thing you will notice quickly is the bigger focus on action. Explosions, cool moves, and action sequences are more common than in the first part, but that doesn't mean the horror elements are forgotten. There are many occasions when you are walking in an empty room and suddenly an enemy jumps from a window and attacks you, just like the first encounter with the Cerberus in the previous game, and to be honest, they managed to scare me more than once, which made my experience more special and tense than I was expecting.

The creepy factor is also expanded with the new enemies, such as the Licker and the Ivy, which have terrifying designs and movements that are more erratic and violent than anything you find in the first game, so finding them in a room will activate your fight or flight response instantly, especially when you haven't saved in a long time.

However, the police station that serves as the main setting isn't as eerie as the Spencer Mansion, and I found it a little less interesting to traverse. But that doesn't mean it's boring, as it has lots of elements that make it unlike any police station you can think of. The statue at the center, the huge library, the puzzles that involve gems and plugs in the shape of chess pieces, and the characters you meet in both routes are just a percentage of the weird and surrealist aspects that makes Resident Evil such an entertaining and original world to explore, it's just that the Spencer Mansion is so iconic that it's hard to surpass it.

On a related note, both routes have way more differences than Jill and Chris in RE1. While most of the experience is the same, Leon and Claire have exclusive rooms, story beats, and characters. For example, Claire never meets Ada, and Leon never meets Chief Irons, so you need to play both scenarios to get the whole experience and unlock the final boss, which is an obvious update to the previous game. The only downside is that there are only two endings instead of six and the little variations that depended on talking to characters or exploring specific rooms at a certain point are gone, but I would say it was a fair trade-off.

In conclusion, Resident Evil 2 is the best example of a perfect sequel that improves in every aspect of the previous entry while keeping the essence, and if you liked RE1 you'll definitely love this one.

My walkthrough for Extreme Battle 3 that I wrote to help me beat it:

Starting off in the monitor room, try the nearby door. There could be zombies or dog boss. I skipped this area entirely but it might be worth restarting and trying until you can get some supplies without taking damage. The zombies are not worth dealing with but the boss can be avoided. Pistol ammo in the weapon locker room and maybe more at the end of the lab, with minimal damage from the little spiders. The moth room has big spiders and maybe shotgun ammo but it is tough to get without taking damage. Go to the MO disk terminal room and walk out to get the zombies attention. Retreat back into the hall and kill the 2 fast zombies, then go back to the monitor room to reset. Now go back and lure the zombie whose ass is right near the camera towards the left of the screen, then run around to the right. Run past the next zombie too, but the 1 in the narrow corridor will have to be knocked down. At the top of the plant room there can be 1 to 3 zombies very close. Best thing is immediately run for the exit. The next room is packed thick with zombies and 3 or 4 will need to be killed, then leave to reset the room. Now you can easily get to the exit. The 2 optional rooms still beyond the zombies have plants and giant spiders for a chance at ammo or pistol parts; it might be worth it but around 3 zombies will need to be killed. Don't kill the spiders or plants, though if the room has 2 plants just turn around and leave. The reactor room has dogs or zombies. The dogs are easily killed and it may be worth using the knife on 1 or 2 of them. 3 or 4 zombies will have to be killed to make it safe enough to reset and run past. The 2 zombies leading towards the blue can be ran past for optional loot. The blue hall can have zombies or lickers. The lickers can be ran past using the vaccine room as a staging point. If zombies, 3 have to be killed to reach the vaccine room, then more to reach the other rooms to the point where the rewards are not worth the cost. The vaccine room can have ammo on the stretcher near the door; snatch it and get out. The fingerprint locked room has health and 1 or 2 plants. If only 1 it can be lured into the open area and ran past, if 2 then 1 will have to be killed or kill both to be safe. The frozen room has pistol ammo and some random laying zombies. You may be able to simply walk past them or you may need to kill a path. There is not enough room to use the knife so you have to consider whether the reward is worth it. 1 prone zombie will be alert and crawling; he most likely needs to be killed but the walker can be avoided.

The elevator room can have zombies or dogs. If zombies you can run straight to the safe room for healing, then try to get to the train for easy knife kills. It may be necessary to knock 1 down on the way. This is where I used the 1 save. Next head up the elevator for important side loot. The zombies in the hall can be ran past by sticking to the right side of the screen. Grab the red herbs in the safe room, then go to the power room for the smg; kill the 1st dark licker then leave the room to reset and sneak past the other 2 being sure to only walk and not get too close. Use the character's head turning to tell when it is safe to move out and follow them or be on the opposite side when they pass by you. Then go down the other route for dogs and possible ammo. On the way back through the hall the first zombie can be tricky; you have to bait him to the left side of the screen then run behind him on the right, or knock him down to be safe. End the stage at the train.

At the factory go down into the tunnel, which can have a tyrant to mow down with smg, or zombies, and maybe ammo in the dead end. The next tunnel could have another tyrant or dogs, and possibly ammo. Run past the crows to take the sky tram. Once outside snipe the plant and run out into the open area. By now the other plant should be there and easy to run past. There is sometimes a green herb in the narrow corridor then to the sewer with dogs. You are safe on the elevated platform so snipe the dogs; wait for them to get on screen then shoot down. Climb down to lure them if necessary. Head to the left for maybe some ammo or shotgun parts. Instead of going further for the rpg, continue on to loot both safe rooms. The next sewer has zombies or dogs while the lift hallway has lickers. Check the safe rooms and storage rooms below each for supplies, killing the zombies to be safe. Now backtrack to the gator hall and carefully avoid the zombies. The 90 degree turn half way in is a risk due to the camera angles, so kill 1 or 2 zombies there. The garbage room has dogs at close range and you really need the rapid fire of the smg to deal with them. Then kill the plant at the top to score the rocket launcher and end the stage by going to the police station basement and carefully walking past the prone zombies.

Now at Hunk's start, kill the dogs or zombies, then run past the plants to get to the safe room. Now is the time to prepare for a long journey; make sure to take the rocket launcher, maybe a blue herb and 1 free space. Run past the spiders to get to the kennel, then run past the lickers. The hall outside might have the 1st boss; blast him with 3 rockets then go back in the kennel to despawn the little parasites so you can safely check the jail for a bomb (zombies inside). Parking has the dog boss so run for it. 2 tyrants to rocket in the next hall. The power room has healing. The armory is not worth visiting because it has dark lickers. The morgue may have pistol ammo easily accessible but you may have to kill 1 crawler to be safe. The far exit leads to a safe room and red herb but there are crows and tiny spiders to get past. Kill the crows to be safe. Go upstairs to kill dogs or crows and kill 2 plants in the room by the stairs for maybe another bomb. Kill the dogs in the ceiling fan room, which is easy because they have trouble path finding through the doorways. Loot and go outside to the stairs and crow hallway, kill the lickers or zombies in the helicopter room and gain access to the secretary safe room. Then go to the chief's office and into the treasure box room for another possible bomb, killing zombies, dogs and lickers on the way. Do not go down the elevator.

Back in the helicopter room, the red jewel puzzle room may not be worth checking; last time it had dogs that were difficult to deal with for only pistol ammo. Now go back to crow hallway and kill the 2 plants to get to the roof where you need to be quick to kill zombies before getting bit. Go downstairs and use the wide open area to run past the dog boss and check the start of the B scenario for a possible bomb (dogs or zombies there). Go all the way back to the secretary and exit into the main hall balcony; run from the tyrant. Might as well rocket the other guarding the library (6 rockets used now) then go down the ladder to the main lobby. Loot then clear the safe room of dogs or zombies. The next hall has always had a dog boss and you do not want to try to get past that in such a narrow corridor. Go to the library for pistol ammo then to the 3rd floor to kill a plant and check for a bomb. Go back down to the lobby and clear the dogs from the black cop room; this is another awkward angles room so use smg. Kill 1 giant spider in the locker room then the 3 lickers in the next hall to gain access to the healing in the dark room. Go to the boarded up hallway for zombies or dogs and a possible bomb location in the conference room, then go upstairs to the statue puzzle and deal with those dogs or zombies. The stars office is another bomb location. Avoid the hallway leading to the library because it has 3 dark lickers. If you are unfortunate enough not to have found all the bombs yet there is only 1 place left to go. From the lobby take the side door to the lounge just outside the ceiling fan room. The dog boss is there and this is not a wide open area to get past him. This will likely require healing. Get to the fire puzzle room, kill the plant and grab the bomb from near the cog painting, then run out to win.

Played dual shock version on PSP, type C controls with auto aim. I meant to start as Clare but saw no option to change. This was because each character used a different disk and I messed up the conversion of the file to only have 1 disk.

Beat Leon A with E rank in 7 hrs. I restarted my first attempt because I was down to danger health after the gun store; had to get used to the controls again. This game was much harder than I remembered, with not enough ammo and health in the beginning. I avoided some zombies that did not need to be killed and killed as many as I could with the knife. I did not like knife combat; it took too long and has a big margin for error due to awkward camera angles. Several times I saved just before a group of zombies and scummed several tries until I killed them without taking damage. It was not worth using the knife unless in fine condition because of the loss in backpedding speed from being hurt. I did get stuck briefly because I did not realize I could light a fire in the fireplace to get a gem. Checked a walkthrough for that rather than re explore every room. I put the power cord on the wrong shutters and had to kill those zombies. I took both the machine gun and side pack, leaving nothing for Clare, but never even used that gun. I ran out of handgun ammo at the lab, ending with about 50 magnum, 40 shotgun, 16% flamethrower and 2 full healing items. I had 1 death against 2 lickers; I was in caution waiting to get into danger before healing but the 2 bastards hit me at the same time. When I beat the final boss I was not sure if I had won or died, because he leaped at me taking a magnum shot point blank, and the cutscene animation looked like he ate Leon. But no I won. Then I realized I had converted the game into psp format incorrectly and had no way to switch disks to play as Clare. Learned how to do it properly but lost my save, so I used infinite ammo cheat to rush through Leon A in 2 hrs. Then rushed Clare B in 2 hrs 31 minutes to unlock Hunk and extreme battle mode.

Hunk was frustrating and insanely difficult. There was no way I beat that back in the day. I failed repeatedly until I turned infinite ammo on, and still took several attempts to complete. Then another dozen or so attempts to beat it legit. A walkthrough I read expected too high a skill level with very precise movements, so I had to figure out the way that works for me. The very first female zombie had to be killed with pistol. Then kill or knock down the guy on the bridge, then shotgun to the head for the last 2. The next room was easy to run past everything in an S pattern. Run past the spiders in the sewer. I could not get past the kennel without taking multiple hits so I settled on using the magnum bang bang to kill 2 dogs, them 1 pistol shot to stun the last then exit. Auto aim could mess up when enemies were in multiple directions, so I turned it off for the next room; walk forward and shotgun the crawling zombies then headshot the next 2 quickly before the on fire ones catch up. Dodging the dogs in the parking garage was not hard by swerving back and forth, then ignore crows. Kill the next 3 dogs with handgun. In the ceiling fan room run past the 1st zombie, shotgun headshot the next 2 and run for the exit but pistol knock down another guy if he blocks the way (another walkthrough I read afterwards said it is better to go left as only 1 zombie has to be shot gunned.) Next room immediately head shotgun the closest then turn around and go back to the previous room to reset them. Turn auto aim off and shotgun the 3 blocking the door. Wait to see where the spider goes then run past. Kill 1st licker with magnum, 2nd with pistol shot followed by magnum (a tactic I learned on my infinite ammo run) and either magnum the 3rd or go zone out of the room to reset him then sneak past. Wait for the 1st plant then snipe with pistol. Go to where that plant came from and keep hitting aim until it points towards the next plant; 3 magnum shots then finish off with pistol. Next room immediately run to the right to the far end then down a plant with 4 magnum shots, switch to the other for 3 magnum shots then finish with pistol. Go up the stairs and the tyrant is easy to run past in the open bit. Turn off auto aim for the crawling zombies and kill them with pistol in a straight line; 2 can be left alive. Sneak past the 1st dark licker then bolt for the exit once the screen changes and he becomes alterted. With luck the 2nd licker will miss but it is likely to take a hit. Snipe the next 2 plants with pistol then to the most difficult room; hold down aim, mash the shoot button and use healing beforehand if not fine. One time I actually managed to shoot first without being grabbed and easily cleared this room. Every other time I got chain grabbed by 2 or 3 zombies. Shoot that shotgun like crazy, pause to heal then run for the exit (that walkthrough I read later said to move forward to avoid that initial zombie). Same deal for next room, be ready to shoot that shotgun immediately, then turn off auto aim and shoot the 3 zombies blocking the exit. The first time I managed to make it past those 2 brutal rooms I was in danger with no ammo; I got past the tyrant but he turned and punched me in the back. The time I won I came to the tyrant in fine with 7 shotgun shells and 30 pistol ammo. I likely could have killed him but took the hit and ran past, finishing in caution in just under 10 minutes. The problem with Hunk mode was the terrible enemy placement, often only giving a split second to react properly, or take damage. With the limited healing and ammo there is no way to get through blind on first attempt, rather it is the kind of thing designed to be iteratively mastered.

Beat extreme battle 1 as Leon. Took a few tries to get the beginning done without losing too much. No sense in killing zombies with the knife when there was more than 1, but I liked shooting them with the handgun until they fell down then finish off with the knife. I especially took advantage of elevated places to easily kill zombies. I killed most enemies, only skipping a few. Dogs were either easy or caused me a lot of damage. In narrow corridors they were easy enough to kill with knife or handgun. In open spaces I was better off using shotgun or magnum. I stealthed past a dark licker to score a smg, and barely made it to a rocket launcher; dogs in the garbage dump blocked the exit as I tried to run past and then I got poisoned and down to danger from a plant. Backtracking to an item box to get healing was not an option so I pushed forward and barely scraped my way to the next safe room. I used all 5 ink ribbons before finishing the sewer but I had a ton of supplies and owned the entire police station. There were a couple close calls and I ended up having to go everywhere to find all the bombs. Took 3 hrs 6 min and I ended with approx 9 rockets, 100% smg, 50 magnum ammo, 70 shotgun ammo (with upgrade parts), 100 handgun ammo, 2 full healing and a lot of blue herbs.

Extreme battle 2 as Leon took slightly less time and was easier since I knew what to do; the randomness was not as varied as I thought. I did the same plan; harvest the starting level while killing some but not all enemies, then beeline for the entrance to knife the zombies from the train car then save. Harvest everything else then go to the factory for 2nd save. I needed that smg to kill the tyrants in the tunnels. The sewer was not hard and my last save was just after where Hunk starts. I beat the entire police station without trouble but used much more ammo. I used up all the rockets, smg and magnum ammo, finishing with around a dozen shotgun shells and 60 pistol ammo.

Extreme battle 3 was extremely difficult. I gave up playing as Leon and Chris, instead going for Ada and her smg. I had to abandon almost every side room and bee line for the exit, where I saved after slaughtering the dogs. Why couldn't it have been zombies to easily kill from the train? Then I did the elevator for supplies, mowing down 1 dark licker and sneaking past the other 2 for that much needed smg. I cleared all of the sewers and made it to the police station basement where I found the first boss. Shot 2 rockets at him and he still didn't die, so I ran away. Probably should have finished him because the jail cell is a possible bomb location. Then the giant dog form boss was in the parking lot but it was not hard to run past. Rocket the tyrants, get much needed herbs from the power room then off to the 1st floor to secure access to a safe item box. Dog boss was in the lounge outside the double blue doors; wtf. Used the item box and went into the boarded up hallway. I listened to see what enemies were there when suddenly the dog boss charged and I was dead in like 2 seconds before I could even turn around and use the door. Nooooooooo! Ok from now on preemptively turn around to face the door until I know for sure what is in the room. How is it even fair to have bosses in a small narrow areas when you normally fight them in an somewhat open arena?

Beat Clare A with rank D in 4.5 hrs. It was not difficult but I died before reaching the police station by messing up avoiding zombies, and had few other close calls with zombies. Oh right she has much less health than Leon. I avoided more enemies than Leon A but still killed most. I killed a few easy zombies with knife, but most were killed with pistol or crossbow. I often knifed them when they fell down and knifed if they survived 1 crossbow shot. I used up all my pistol, crossbow and sparkgun ammo. I tried out the sparkgun on different enemies to get a good feel for how effective it was. It had poor range and rate of fire but staggered with each shot: 2 shots to kill a zombie, 3 to 4 to kill a plant or dark licker. It as too slow for fighting multiple plants or lickers and I would have been better off using the grenade launcher and switching to spark when the enemies got close. I used the machine gun for the final boss. It wrecked his biped form, but the quadruped form was much more difficult than as Leon. I tried to stay at range and snipe but got hit a lot and needed 2 full heals. Used a couple flame shots to get him around corners too. By the end I had almost 50 explosive ammo, around 15 each of acid and flame, 40% smg left, and around 6 full healing items.

Beat Leon B with rank C in 4 hrs 50 min. I skipped killing more enemies this time, sneaking past lickers and knifing zombies whenever possible. I ran from the 1st tyrant even though I had enough ammo to kill him. All the rest I killed with magnum, except the last one who I killed with smg. I took to carrying around all my weapons with only ammo for the pistol. I discovered a great way to kill dark lickers; get some range and fire a pistol shot to make him stand up, then fire a 3 round burst, then switch to shotgun to finish him off as he approached. By the end I had 50 magnum ammo, 90 shotgun ammo, 80% smg, 100 pistol ammo, 12% flamethrower (only used for plants and the moth) and 14 full healing items. I overall preferred this storyline, except for the part where the tyrant fell into the molten metal; it just a better scene with Clare and Sherry.

Beat Extreme battle 3 as Chris with infinite ammo cheat and his rocket launcher. That was hard enough and it was a good thing I used the only save just before the police station because I insta died from a little parasite from the 1st boss. I tried to kill a dog boss by leaving the room after each rocket, but he was not dead after 10 so I guess enemy health restores. Thus victory seemed to be about planning the route carefully so as to avoid the dog bosses as much as possible, and efficiently killing everything else. I then tried several more times to beat it legit as Ada. There was very little margin of error given how easily Ada could die, and it was absolutely ridiculous to be expected to play the whole thing with only 1 save. One time I even died to crows, going from fine health to dead in 2 hits. Wtf. From then on I killed the crows. I finally beat it in 2hrs 50 min but it was close due to mistakes and taking damage several times. I got hit by the dog bosses every time, but I was in good shape with only 1 bomb location left; the fire puzzle room which required getting past a dog boss in a narrow corridor. That was hard and I had to use 2 full healing items. I got charged, trapped, and picked up and swung around before finally getting past. By then I only had 2 green herbs left and used them in the final room as I took a few hits from those plants. I should have taken the rocket launcher to use the last shot. So I ended with no healing, poisoned but high health, 40% and 8% smgs, about 70 crossbow ammo, and 60 pistol ammo.

This is the best old school Resident Evil game. It improved upon the atmosphere, tension and horror of the original, and introduced some of the elements of the later games without going overboard (like being chased by the tyrant and having a companion). It also had an impressive amount of replayability with 4 scenarios and 2 bonus modes. Though it still had the annoying tank controls, inventory management and backtracking, the whole package combined to be much more than the sum of its parts. I do wish there was a way to use up all that ammo you will have by the end of the game. Something like a much more difficult new game +, or going into extreme battle mode with the supplies from a completed campaign and not finding more.

9.2/10

A great and brillant sequel that elevated everything present on the original title while delivering an ambitious and interconnected plot (that affects the gameplay and the events of the plot) thanks to its A/B scenario structure for both protagonists (that even the 2019 remake FAILED miserably to replicate).

Only complaint: too easy, giving you lots of ammos by the end of the game and the enemies not that tough to bring down (BUT, on the PC and Dreamcast versions there's the Hard or Nightmare difficulty, that makes the game tough as nails)

Played through the main story on the dreamcast and really liked the A side but the B side felt repetitive. Also got very sick of having to run through the mansion to a save box just to get a key or something.

3.5/5 for me, I'd give it a 4 if keys and similar items didn't take up inventory space. Backtracking is not good game design, in my opinion.

Got a little sick of it so I'm putting it down for Panzer Dragoon before going back and playing the extra content.

Claire B Casual run:

Rank C

7:09:36

15 saves

Man this run was an absolute slog...key items sometimes shining and sometimes not lead to lots of me wandering around the "linear" sections. I've now beaten this game 4 times and every time I do it slides down my rankings...I'm going to give leon A claire B one more go on my new psp vita to see if that or replaying multiple times improves the experience but as much as I know this is a fan favorite this game is sitting second from last of all my Resi games and I'm worried this last playthrough will place it at dead last. Here is hoping the new format will encourage more interesting or enjoyable experiences.

Finished both Claire A and Leon B! I had no idea the game was so different when you did the B/2nd Scenario, it was practically a different game. Playing this now as an adult for the first time it's really cool to see how fast-paced it can actually be when you get good at dodging enemies; when I was a kid this thing was nothing but anxiety and rooms full of fumbling evasions. Leon B seemed significantly harder than Claire A, which was a welcome change as I thought Claire's campaign was probably one of the easiest examples of an RE game I had played. Still, it was super fun to sprint through precincts and sewers and labs either as Leon or Claire, or as a little kid or a secret spy. Any situation you find yourself in in RE2, the game is equipped to present you with something fun or challenging, Remember to humbly consider how different a time the 90s were for action and drama plots in video games and the worst thing this game's dialogue and cut scenes will inflict you with is just a case of rolling-eyes.

Can't wait for the remake.