Resident Evil 2 (1998)

Beat on Normal as Claire and then Leon. This was way back in the 90s. It was my cousin's game and I can't remember if it was playstation or N64. It was my first experience with the series and survival horror in general. I used to stay up late playing this with the lights off and some of the scares are still vivid 20 years later. The time when crows bust through the window, the time when I unexpectedly fell through the floor and the general concept of fighting dogs in a basement. Loved this game. Absolute masterpiece. I do vaguely recall playing as the Umbrella soldier but can't recall if I beat that campaign.

So I finished once again Resident Evil 2 on PlayStation (using the PS3 digital version). It's still awesome. I found out this new mode : Arrange Mode. Not sure what it does but it's like a super easy mode with beefy weapons waiting in the safe and tons of medic sprays. I was more interested revisiting the story and dive back in the late 90's graphics with the cheesy storytelling :). It still delivers a blast and has aged well in my opinion. The game is still short like 3 hours 30 minutes of gameplay on my first runthrough and I enjoyed every minute of it ! Really, go back and check this one, it's delicious !

Another brilliant Resident Evil game. I went into this classic after having played the GameCube REmake of the first game, therefore I heavily believed that I would be disappointed by the drop in quality. However, as someone who really cares more about gameplay and enjoyment rather than graphics, I was pleasantly surprised by this game. For a PS1 game, this game has an astounding amount of atmosphere, and I did actually find myself scared at multiple moments (mainly from the very loud window smashing sound effect). I played all 4 playthroughs (Claire A and B, Leon A and B), and each time I loved to marvel at the great soundtrack, level design and atmosphere, surprisingly beautiful backdrops and camera angles, and gruesome enemy design. This game definitely deserves the "classic" title, and, whilst I haven't played the remake, it should definitely not be missed for the newer, more mainstream versions. It still holds up as a great piece of proper survival horror.

I played this game for the first time in 2012 on my psp, and I must admit that I didn't remember anything, except for the croc and the magic mirror licker. I don't even remember if I enjoyed the game back then. Since I already played it before, and I have quite an extensive backlog, I decided to have a go with the arrange mode. That was the best decision ever. Of course, it makes the game super easy, but it is extra fun to blow up everything with the rocket launcher. I started with Leon A and it was ok, a little bland for my taste, but ok. It still has more depth to the story than the first game and the characters were well developed. Then I played Claire B, and holly cow, that was amazing. Even with my rocket launcher, I got scared so many times, and the jump scares were on point. I can't imagine how good this game must have been when it came out for the first time. I loved the character and story development on this one. One thing that has always bothered me in these old games is the item management, having to go back and forth to an item box because you left the key item in the other side of the building. That's annoying, but I understand it is common practice in these games. Well, now I'm ready to play the remake!

Played another big chunk and I am feeling that railroading hard. The corridors are so thin and so tightly packed with zombies that I never feel like I have a choice between shooting or dodging. I feel a lot less like I'm slipping back and forth through a complex mansion with moment to moment choices and more like I'm on a theme park ride that doesn't go very fast. It's not...bad it's just I think it might hold up not as well as 1 did. The police station is just inherently less interesting to traverse I think and that hinders the experience a lot.

Going through this again and more thoroughly now. It's nice and relaxing like all old Survival Horror games are. I like the pacing better than 1 so far but it feels a little less involved than I want it too. The lack of meaningful choices is felt and I'm not sure the better pacing makes up for it yet. I feel a lot more railroaded but the atmosphere is a lot more detailed and I love that.

Resident Evil 2 is one of the greatest sequels ever made from the original playstation area. It essentially does everything the first game did but on a much bigger scale and with a much higher variation to locations and a whole new line up of special enemy types. The voice acting has gone from poor dubbing to soap opera levels, so still extremely bad but in an enjoyable and alluring way. This is an amazing game and it would be foolish to say that it's anything besides an amazing game. So keeping it short and sweet- Resident Evil 2 is an amazing game that any survival horror fan should play, and any collector of ps1 games should definitely pick this game up.