The second game in my Resident Evil marathon. I played Leon's campaign, and then "second run" with Claire. All in all an excellent, excellent game! I was very pleased with this one. It definitely leans into action more than survival horror, but it still manages to maintain a wonderfully messed-up zombie apocalyptic atmosphere all throughout. The graphics are fantastic, and the sound is just as on-point.
And, I gotta say, this game actually made me fear zombies a bit, for the first time ever. I've always found zombies kind of "meh" in the world of horror, but the REmake 2 zombies are freaky damn buggers. You can shoot one in the face several times, and they still might lumber over to you. Or you might shoot one enough that it falls down, limp and lifeless... only for it to walk upright again a half-minute later (or perhaps a half-hour later, when you revisit that room). One nifty thing you can do in this is shoot off a zombie's leg, forcing it to the ground... but it can still drag itself around with its arms, and reach out and grab you in tight spaces you've got to pass through, and scream bloody murder every time you return to that room. It's all rather ingenious of Capcom -- the player will want to shoot zombies' legs in order to deal with the threats and save on bullets -- but incapacitating the zombies does not get rid of them for good. You'll still have to worry about them (at least a little), and you'll still have to hear their garbled groans all throughout your playthrough.
The second ingenious thing about this game is just how well the map layouts were designed. Pretty much every time I picked up a new item, I either knew right away or had a pretty good idea of what the item was for and where I would need to use it. So even though I was checking my map quite regularly, I was still always on the move, and pretty much always felt like I knew what I needed to be working on next. I can see the criticism that the game "holds your hand" too much in that regard, but after struggling through REmake 1 extremely slowly, the clarity of what tasks I had to do and what rooms I still needed to search was so very appreciated. It felt good to continually be making progress, and to be able to solve all the puzzles without ever consulting a guide.
The third really smart thing Capcom did for REmake 2 was the inclusion of Mr. X. This huge lumbering trenchcoat "tyrant" zombie man is what elevates this from a great 4/5 game to a top-notch 5/5 one, and is what keeps the game from being too action-focused by creating a strong sense of dread throughout your playthrough. REmake 2 gets some "Clock Tower" love, in that as you make your way through the game you'll come across a powerful enemy who you simply can't kill. You can rain a lot of precious bullets onto him to force him to lay low for a limited time -- but most of the time you're just going to want to run for your life. Because damn, this guy is imposing! You can hear his heavy stomping boots all throughout the building. Is he coming downstairs? Approaching from the next hall over? You open a door, and BOOM, he's right there, knocking your lights out.
Speaking of monsters, I have to give a shoutout to the monster design in general for this game. There are creatures other than zombies to deal with (as typical of Resident Evil), and this entry has some fantastically grotesque ones to deal with. I especially loved a recurring enemy (essentially a series of boss battles throughout the game) who takes on some increasingly hideous and distorted form each time you come across him. It's great stuff, horror fans will really get a kick out of this guy.
My criticisms for the game are few and far between (e.g. I'm not going to pretend the story is amazing or anything, lol -- and was there ever a point to all the blue herbs?). So if you've got a PS4, Xbox One, or powerful-enough PC, and you like action horror games at all, this is a must-play.
