If nothing else, I aim to be honest in my reviews so let me get this out of the way: if you're looking for a nice balanced review unmarred by nostalgia and needless gushing, you might want to just keep scrolling. As the title indicates, this is one of my top favorite games period, quite likely in the top 3. It also happens to be a remake of one of my other long-time favorite games, so it's a double-whammy. I don't keep records of this kind of thing, but I am quite certain this is the game I've beaten more times than any other after hundreds of hours across PS4/PS5 and PC versions. In fact, I am writing this review because I did a playthrough of it early this year, but when I sat down to start this review, I decided to do a victory lap of Leon A/Claire B just to gather some new screenshots to include.

One of my favorite things about this game, especially as a successful remake of one of my favorites, is that it has become such a cultural phenomenon. When it came out, social media was full of clips and screenshots of this game, many featuring Mr. X or various mods, and you can still find people talking about it today with new mods coming out on the regular. The modding community has really fallen in love with this game (and many other RE engine titles). I've included screenshots from my most recent playthrough, showcasing several mods, all of which I'll include links and brief descriptions for at the bottom of this review to spread the love and recognition of this awesome community. I, for what I think are obvious reasons, did not use any of the more "adult" mods for this screenshot-gathering playthrough, but in case you are somehow unaware, there are plenty of those available, should that be of interest to you (I won't tell!).

Further, the influence of this game has been huge. It's a little early to see if Resident Evil 4 Remake will have a similar legacy given its outstanding reception, but it's so cool to see numerous games (ie Dead Space Remake, Alan Wake 2, Silent Hill 2 Remake) cite this game specifically as the style of Survival Horror or remake they're going for. Despite being now 4 years old, I don't think we're done seeing this game's influence either, especially as just recently, this title took first place as the best-selling Resident Evil title, a prestigious achievement in a very large series with several highly-lauded entries. While it's far from the only well-received remake, this title is often cited as proof that remakes needn't be lazy cash grabs no one actually wants in lieu of a new game, a reputation the trend was starting to get when it came out and that still haunts it to a lesser extent today.

In my opinion, this influence and reception is completely warranted. They really nailed the classic Survival Horror gameplay in this game while still having a very modern feel that never feels outdated. The gameplay is smooth and responsive, aligned in some ways with the action-based direction Resident Evil has since taken, but with a very grounded feel in both tone and gameplay that call back to the much more horror-focused original. Thus, while it's been said many times, this game puts on a clinic for how to do a remake. The design walks the line between re-creation and recognition (almost) flawlessly. Familiar locations are easily recognizable, but look quite amazing in the RE engine. The plot and characters match the same familiar beats, despite the shift in tone. And surprisingly, while the gameplay is in some ways entirely different, the mechanics are still very close to the original. It's not a shooter where you just shoot enemies and they drop ammo to shoot more enemies with. There's a limited amount of resources on the map and a set number of enemies and challenges that will require strategizing and making tough decisions that always leave you on edge. The game is also appropriately challenging. Even playing it as much as I have, I still die from time to time if I pick it up after not playing through it in a while. Further, the incorporation of Mr. X as a persistent pursuer throughout your time in the RPD is an often-discussed high point of the game that helps to add enjoyable complexity, while also being quite imposing and upping the fright factor just when you're starting to think you've gotten navigating the RPD "safely" down.

As a remake, it seems inevitable that we compare RE2 Remake to the game it is remaking. While I think it does an outstanding job of remaking the original, it does so not by merely improving the original, but by employing a number of shifts from the core game. One minor change is that they moved some dates around in the timeline, which while not significant, seems really unnecessary as it's literally just a matter of days, seemingly just to annoy lore enthusiasts demanding some consistency with the original trilogy's canon. The shift in gameplay is the most obvious difference with the third-person over-the-shoulder style that's become mainstream. While I love the original fixed-cam style, this is a great implementation of over-the-shoulder gameplay that in no way detracts from the gritty Survival Horror style. There are also a few minor shifts in the routing and progression—especially in the sewers and lab—though most of the RPD layout is intact with some additions, especially those seeking greater logic in the layouts (ie the original RPD famously apparently lacked bathrooms and the main hall's only method of accessing the second floor was...a drop-down ladder(??)). More controversially, the remake dispensed with the zapping system of the original (a bit more on this below). Lastly, this remake established a new tone for these re-creations of the early Resident Evil games, seeking a more "grounded" tone. This is achieved in part by the fact things just look and sound so much better, but the cutscenes and story have a far more cinematic feel that is striking and distinct while still managing to have some of the silliness the series on the whole is known for. All this contributes to making the narrative and horror feel more visceral than emergent.

Because I have a hard time ignoring caveats even for my favorite games, there are just a few things I'd like to see different in the game. The end lab sequence often makes such lists with the claim that it's lazily thrown together. I personally feel this criticism is often a little overblown and it's not that bad, but I do think more could've been done with it for sure. I also feel like they should've done more to incorporate a zapping system like the original had. There are some differences in the routing of the A/B games for sure, but nothing in A affects B at all, which is a shame as even a touch of it would've been cool. I feel this is especially a missed opportunity when viewing this in the context of a remake of an iconic game, since the zapping system is one of the key things the original was known for. But I don't think I really have anything else to complain about. It's a short list!

The look and feel of this game has a lot to do with its impact on the gaming community and its role in the modern revival of Survival Horror. The RE engine just looks awesome and sells so well all the important elements contributing to this game's premise: the grounded tone portrayed by semi-realism, a great shadowy look that provides a creepy atmosphere without obscuring evocative environments, and character models that are able to move in a way that looks natural without interfering with smooth and fluid gameplay. The RE engine was first showcased in Resident Evil 7 and worked wonders there, but I feel like this game's environments are where it was really able to shine. This goes for all of the RE engine games, but I just really like looking at this game—with or without mods—all the more so because, as noted above, the aesthetic style helps reinforce the tonal shift of these remakes even more than the story beats and portrayal.

I could continue to rant for days, but I think that hits on all of the main things I have to say, despite skipping over many aspects of the game that I quite adore. I have lots of thoughts on the recent string of remakes, especially as they seek to replace and/or supplement their originals, enough thoughts I could easily fill a much longer essay. But I can say that one clear aim of these games is to offer an approachable experience to people who never played the original so they can get at least some idea of the series origins through a far more modernized experience. As much as it's a shame to me that the original Resident Evil 2 is not easily playable today outside of emulators, I think this game definitely achieves fantastically its double purpose of being a callback to a series classic for long-time fans, while also being an awesome entry point for people new to the series.

Mod List

(all links are to Nexus Mods and credits go by the uploader's username on Nexus)

1. Very Angry Claire by FluffyQuack - Makes Claire swear audibly far more and much more loudly. I wouldn't use on a first playthrough as it can be a bit immersion-breaking, but it is pretty damn hilarious; I highly recommend!
2. Very Angry Leon by FluffyQuack - Same but for Leon.
3. Catboy Leon by flopityflips - You know you want to.
4. RE2 Remake - Remade - Reshade - Ray-traced by MANgamez - A reshade that replaces the grayish filter and ups the saturation to make colors really pop. Probably over-saturated for many people's tastes and some parts look a little weird especially when there's bright lights, but I actually really like the look of it and don't feel like it's overdone.
5. You Suck Leon by Snipzu - Replaces the "Welcome Leon" sign in the RPD with a "You Suck Leon" sign because I'm juvenile.
6. Claire with Glasses by DigitalZky - She looks good with glasses!
7. Darkside Chronicles Claire by XxCRAZYPOTATOxX- Gives Claire the outfit she wears in Darkside Chronicles. Outfit mods can be a little clippy or out of place texture-wise, but this one mostly looks quite good and I've always loved this outfit re-design for Claire.
8. Full Remaster by johnpanicoh3h - Admittedly I generally have a hard time telling the difference with texture remasters without a side-by-side comparison unless it's really significant. I'm not sure how much this one does but it is one I tried for the above screenshots so still including it.

My other Resident Evil reviews:

• Resident Evil (1996) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 2 (1998) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 (1999) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor 2 – Code Veronica - ★★
• Resident Evil Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 VR - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 Remake - ★★★★★

I recently finished playing through this with my best friend, and I have to say it was extraordinary. Granted neither of us ever played the original, but this remaster still felt really fresh without exhausting any of the tropes that we'd come to expect from RE games.

Playing the game twice (through Leon and Claire's perspectives) was a bold decision! I didn't think I'd like to revisit the same areas with different characters, but their different access to items and locked doors proved really interesting. I really enjoyed each of their stories, and the characters they met along the way.

The difficulty of this game was just right. On normal difficulty, ammo and healing items were just scarce enough to always make us cautious. Some encounters were pretty punishing, and if it took us 13 bullets to kill a zombie my friend and I would just look at each other and then reload the save file without saying a word. The pressure of the enemies was just enough to keep us on edge (especially when the Tyrant, Mr X was nearby!), and the jumpscares were perfectly timed. The cruellest moment came in the Second Playthrough when the game broke it's previously established rule of "Typewriters are safe zones where no zombie can enter", and all of a sudden the main safe zone of the previous game was full of enemies.

As for the DLC, I watched playthroughs of them on YouTube because, frankly, when my friend didn't want to play them with me I didn't have the courage to complete them myself. This game was scary as hell, and it didn't help that we usually played it late at night in the dark while the wind rattled the windows and the branches of the tree outside scraped the roof.

Highly recommended, 9/10.

As you can see from my text updates this was a slow burn for me. At no point in the entire experience was I actually scared and right up until the very last area on a hardcore B run I found it a little on the easy side, but as a thoughtful shooter with light resource management elements I loved it. While I think it's a great game I found it to be slightly below average for the series standard for me. But that speaks more to how high the standard is than how "bad" this game is. I love that it made zombies an actual threat again...I really didn't care for what it did to the other enemies though. Previously each type of enemy was a risk vs reward on taking them down or not...this new structure means there is a clearly and easily recognizable way to handle each enemy outside of zombies and dogs (which still retain that risk reward idea). Run in circles around Mr.X, don't run at all around lickers, shoot plant guys with fire.

Is it a good game? Well 4 run throughs and a 4 star from me give a resounding yes! It's even better than I thought it would be. But is it a LEGENDARY game...one I will replay countless times like many of the top tier Resis? Time will tell for sure but I don't feel any real desire to get an S ranking. Part of that may just be my tight schedule but part of it has me feeling like I've really seen all I need to for now. It's a great transition for action game junkies who want to get into survival horror, but it didn't quite scratch that itch that was left in the wake of the Resi 1 Remake.

If you enjoyed this and want to ease into more survival horrory resi's I recommend checking out Resi Revelaitons 1 and then if you feel up to it, Remake (which is the gold standard for all survival horror)

Resident Evil is a franchise that has both intrigued and intimidated me. It is iconic and historically important, yet I have found the limited saves, tank controls and inventory management in a setting filled with terrifying monsters to be incredibly off-putting.

Playing this on assisted mode is probably blasphemous, and it absolutely dilutes the tension, but I am just happy it gave me the chance to dive in and experience what really is an incredible little game. The first half of Claire’s campaign is especially good. The way it turns the police department into an intricate multi-level maze was classic game design at its best. I also loved the goofy-ass museum explanation to help explain why there are statue puzzles. It is so well-designed and unashamedly gamelike – a labyrinth of monsters and mysteries.

Claire, as a character, isn’t especially interesting, but succeeds as a classic action-hero type. She is defined by her actions and how she reacts to the situation around her. She’s brave, determined and caring – all of this culminating in a climax where I did an actual fist pump because of what a total badass she was.

I am definitely now interested in picking up other RE titles (especially 7), and will dip in again at a later date to play through Leon’s campaign. Honestly, the only thing that is stopping me from playing it right now is the thought of having to see Mr. X again. That big dopey looking bastard scares the crap out of me.

This is one of the first modern AAA games I've played in quite a while, and go figure it would be Resident Evil, since I love the PS1 games so much. I'm not necessarily allergic to playing newer AAA games or anything, but I find many of the compromises and budget decisions they make to not necessarily be in the best interest of game design. This isn't always the case; it just tends to be. Sure enough, my suspicions were wrong after putting off actually playing it for years. It's really good, and I would say faithful enough to the original game while making those modern compromises for people who can't get into how the old games work.

The first thing I'll say is that it pretty much recaptures the sense of horror perfectly, and innovates in its own ways to make it stand out as its own title separate from RE2. You have finer control of your character, so the zombies take far more to actually go down. I was playing on standard, and the ammo felt appropriately scarce, and the zombies appropriately nerve wracking even when just dealing with one of them. What I also loved was Mr. X, and how he's far more menacing, persistent, nerve wracking, and made me scream and whimper when I felt I was hitting my stride only for him to block my path and deck me so hard I fly across the room. It really made that feeling of mastery after clearing most of the police station be humbled, and it was an enhancement for the flow of the game.

For the sake of it being a modern game with cinematic elements, hype moments and aura, etc etc, they cut some of the nitty gritty of the police station I felt should've been left in. It also had more scripted events and more zones blocked out as a result, so it felt like a much less complete experience exploring the whole place. There also isn't much interactivity between what Claire does and what Leon does. Worse is, they take out quite a lot of their team up moments and working camaraderie with each other, and I found it quite disappointing, even if both of them are still turning on the charm. Claire and Leon are really hard to not like.

I really love Sherry. I also really love her plot that mostly develops and has most of its substance in the late PD segments and early sewer segments, tying in more deeply with her parents, getting infected, shedding light on her role in the plot, navigating much of the sewers. It streamlines and cuts far too much of Sherry to where there just isn't enough impact regarding her parents. You can hardly give less of a fuck about William in this game. And worse, the entire segment of the sewers is butchered and turned into a complete unfun slog meant to waste all of your time and ammo, finishing off with a terrible boss fight, William 2 (on Claire A). They didn't even have spiders in it.

It picks back up in the lab and finale, and again here it streamlines some things and has far less of a likelihood for you to fuck up the self destruct sequence like you could in the original. I think this is actually a great way to rework the lab segment, because it actually was a horrific amount of time sensitive backtracking and a boat load of bullshit, as much as I adore it. I just think the newer generations maybe are just better off only sweating that countdown during the final William fights, which completely made up for the awful sewer fight. But one huge nitpick I have for the lab here is, WHY after I disperse the herbicide do MORE of the plant zombies show up? You should be defoliating. Hey but, it's not like it was a slog or anything, I had tons of acid rounds to spare.

Another thing here is they changed and developed on the police chief and added a whole new segment with Sherry where he kidnaps her and takes her out to this orphanage. Straight up, this little girl is like John McClane, and I love her to death. Spray acid in his face, girl. Steal his keys. Also, they really make Irons a disgusting and horrific fuck, I have to say it really made my skin crawl. His taxidermy diary where he refers to a woman he'd previously kidnapped, then to see that woman again as Sherry. Lost my composure at a few moments. It is very sick to think about how many people I'd talked to in my life, who had a certain outward attitude as Irons, thinking about what they could do or what they're hiding, it has a sort of lasting horror that I carried with me when the game was over.

Last major thing I want to touch on is the weapons and inventory, map, items, etc. I really do love the map here, it feels as refined as Claire and Leon's new player controllers. It feels really good to use the weapons, but the actual stopping power of these things, their usefulness, I feel like it could use some tweaking. Acid rounds should not take two hits to kill a regular mook. Why would I be saving all my gunpowder for these if they're not even that good. Also, the special revolver ammo is a far cry from what you got in the PS1 era. Last, the knife is pretty dreadful with its limited durability in the base game. Leon's shotgun and handguns feel a whole lot more satisfying overall I think, and the minigun rules. Spark shot seems bugged and doesn't work half the time this time around for some reason.

Overall, I think this is a really great game. If someone wants to play this, power to them. But if someone wants to treat this as a replacement for the original, I would caution them to reconsider, because it's an entirely different thing, from the story to the gameplay to the approach to level design. The moments with Mr. X and lickers and zombie swarms, Irons, Martin, Sherry and Ada, it all just feels so good, so charming, so well executed that I can't hate it. But I do hate the sewers so that's why the score isn't higher! Sorry I don't have anything deep to say this time, it is a remake of a game I already wrote more extensively about after all.

Ironically, my plan was to play Resident Evil 2 Remake right after finishing Resident Evil 2 on the Dreamcast. Then, as usual… I got distracted. One thing I have to admit straight away: real-time graphics from 2019 look better than CGI from 1999.

Calling this game a “remake” is almost misleading. It’s really its own interpretation—sharing core characters and locations, but reworking nearly everything else. Leon and Claire meet differently at the gas station, entire sections of the police station are newly explorable, and the game adopts Resident Evil 4-style controls: over-the-shoulder camera, precise aiming, fast reloads, autosaves, and no typewriter ribbons unless you explicitly enable them.

One of the few classic elements that survived is the very limited inventory. You still only get eight slots, regardless of whether you’re carrying a tiny key or a massive bundle of wooden planks. The difference is that inventory upgrades are now spread throughout the game instead of being a single expansion.

Enemy rules have changed significantly. In the classic games, I often traded health for ammo—letting a zombie bite me if I knew I’d only pass that hallway once. That strategy no longer works. Zombies are much faster to grab you, and a couple of bites can easily kill you. Knives now function like The Last of Us shivs: they let you escape grabs, but only a few times before breaking.

Lickers finally behave the way their design always suggested. They were always eyeless, but now they’re actually blind, responding primarily to sound. It’s a subtle but very welcome change.

I also liked the approach to Leon’s pistol upgrades. Instead of a single burst-fire upgrade like in the original, you first find an extended magazine and later a stock, making progression feel more grounded.

I made things harder for myself early on by taking a wrong turn, missing the shotgun key, and running low on ammo and healing items before I could correct the mistake. Resource pressure is handled very well in this remake.

A small but impressive detail is how Leon carries his weapons. Since he only has three guns, they’re always physically rendered: a shotgun on his back, one pistol in his holster, and another in hand. The only thing not rendered is the oversized stock, likely to avoid clipping issues—even in cutscenes.

When I replayed the original years ago, I was surprised to remember that Leon never actually encounters the Tyrant. In the remake, he faces both Birkin and Mr. X, clearly making full use of the new stalking mechanics. Fighting Mr. X feels mostly pointless, though—it just burns ammo without much payoff.

The giant alligator in the sewers is fairly standard by modern standards, but it still made me smile.

After Leon rescues Ada and falls unconscious, we briefly play as her. Her segment feels inspired by Batman: Arkham, letting her see cables and connections through walls. It’s not overly annoying, but I was still glad when it ended.

Once you obtain the upgraded Magnum, combat becomes much more predictable. Before that, it’s hard to tell how many bullets a zombie will take; with the Magnum, the answer is usually “one.”

The plant zombies were an interesting addition. They sound suspiciously like The Last of Us mushroom enemies and behave similarly to enemies from Resident Evil 4: you have to target weak spots and burn them, or they’ll get back up—just like in Resident Evil 0.

Both the final Birkin fight and Mr. X encounter were excellent—easily among the most enjoyable boss fights in the series. My only issue is clarity: it’s not always obvious whether damage output matters or if you’re purely meant to hit weak points. It feels like the latter, since careful aiming can get the job done even with basic weapons.

A major story change involves the virus sample. In the original, Leon throws it away after Ada’s “death.” In the remake, he drops it while trying to save her from falling. Given how the story was structured, I half-expected the B scenario to be cut—but it’s still there, so next up was Claire B.

Claire’s weapon setup is… confusing. She has two revolvers: one with ammo you can find but not craft, and another where the opposite is true. Later, it turns out she actually has three pistols, with the third being an automatic handgun with an extended magazine. The second revolver doubling as a Magnum makes very little sense logically, but it’s still a fun idea.

Lickers gave me a lot of trouble with Leon unless I had the Magnum. With Claire, a single grenade from her launcher solves the problem instantly.

Police Chief Irons is introduced very differently. Instead of killing his infected daughter to prevent her from turning, he kidnaps Sherry, which explains how she loses her pendant. We also get a playable Sherry segment in the orphanage—a classic stealth sequence.

It embarrassingly took me a long time to realize that many enemies function like Dead Space necromorphs. Sometimes it’s far more effective to dismember them than to aim for headshots.

I also eventually understood the ammo logic: just like grenades, you can only find one type of special ammo and craft the other. It’s consistent, but not immediately obvious.

In the original, Sherry’s pendant contained the vaccine itself. In the remake, it’s merely a key to access the vaccine. Another notable change is that while Mr. X originally pursued Leon and Birkin pursued Claire separately, the remake adds a scene where Birkin literally tears Mr. X apart while trying to kill Sherry.

Before the penultimate Birkin fight, Claire is suddenly handed a minigun. There’s no explanation for this—especially odd since it used to be a New Game+ bonus—and Claire doesn’t even react to it.

The final train battle is far more dramatic thanks to modern technology and dynamic camera work. Still, it’s amusing in a very Resident Evil way: Claire unloads dozens of Magnum rounds into the monster’s eye, but it only explodes after she pokes it with a sharp stick.

Common tropes, I guess—but highly enjoyable ones.

The remake for the second Resident Evil entry in the PlayStation 1 platform is a masterful reimagining of the original 1998 classic. Rebuilding the game from the ground up with modern visuals and mechanics. The RE Engine delivers a stunningly atmospheric Raccoon City Police Station, where dynamic lighting and sound design heighten the tension around every corner. This engine is definitely a standout since it has incredible visuals, without sacrificing a lot in the performance regard, even being used on other titles that are not particularly similar to this one, displaying how flexible it can be.

Gameplay shifts to an over-the-shoulder perspective, replacing the fixed cameras of the original while preserving the sense of dread through scarce resources and deliberate combat. Every encounter with zombies feels dangerous, forcing players to carefully decide when to fight and when to flee. Capcom learned a lot when it comes to doing remakes, not to mention mixing different elements from other titles such as the classic RE4 from PlayStation 2, at least when it comes to the minute details of implementations and QOL features.

The remake strikes a perfect balance between honoring its roots and feeling new. While faithful to the original story and structure, it introduces fresh mechanics, redesigned environments, and a cinematic presentation that makes the experience gripping for both veterans and newcomers. I played and replayed RE2 in the PlayStation 1 a lot and this remake is really on a whole different level, similar to the GameCube's RE1 Remake, which is familiar enough while not sacrificing innovation. One of the standouts to me is the counter-knife mechanic, which is a limited resource that can save you from being heavily hurt while grabbed by a zombie.

And believe me, it'll happen a lot, and they take an insane amount of damage out of you, so not a walk in the park when compared to the original title. Some minor drawbacks include uneven pacing in character interludes and slight inconsistencies in how Leon and Claire’s campaigns overlap. However, these issues don’t overshadow the overall quality. Resident Evil 2 Remake is both a respectful tribute and a modern survival-horror benchmark, often regarded as one of the best remakes in gaming. There is zero to no excuse to skip this one, and it doesn't matter if you played the original or not, this is a must-play for the ones that like Survival Horror even if by a very little margin.

I think this was the best game I could have played after the original Resident Evil 4, as this game basically represents the other side of this franchise at its very best. As discussed in the RE4 review, that game kickstarted the action side of the franchise, and eventually after some of them not exactly working out so great (RE6 supposedly from what I hear….) RE made a jump back to horror with RE7, and the remake to RE2, which gets us to our destination. While RE4 was campy, bright (relatively speaking) and kinda silly honestly while still keeping with the horror and gothic setting, RE2R is the other side of the RE spectrum, being far more grungy, dark, foreboding, and in some places genuinely scary! (which never happened to me in RE4, I’ll be honest).

This is one of the first “newer” games I’ve gotten to play since getting a real PC (which has been incredible) and even being from 2019, the atmosphere and general graphics style of this game is immaculate, even 6 years later. I’ve heard most believe the first segment in the police station is the best the game has to offer in terms of content, including scares and cohesion, and I’m heavily inclined to agree. Speaking more broadly over the entire game, I never played the original, nor was I familiar with much of what the remake had to offer with a vast majority of the content. For example, the scares and other things people likely were familiar with from the OG, I had never seen before, which let me have a fantastic blind experience. I got to see why exactly this game is heralded as an outstanding achievement in the world of horror gaming, and I almost wish I had waited till October to dig in haha.

The main contrast between RE2R and RE4 is the goal of the gameplay itself. RE4 lets you shoot everything, acting almost as an arcade shoot-’em-up in the way that it encourages you to engage in combat with enemies. RE2R, on the other hand, has the opposite goal in mind, rather urging the player to only fight when necessary, and to use various tools, movement, and your own quick thinking to avoid combat in the first place. Making the switch in mindset was a little strange to get used to, but felt very natural only after a little while into the game. If I had to use a metaphor, RE4 is a summer blockbuster in comparison to RE2R being a classic horror movie, and while both are still very “Resident Evil” in nature, they are very different all at the same time. Getting to experience both back to back was quite interesting, and if they at all seem interesting to you, I would urge you, reader, to try both, and maybe see if you prefer one over the other! (There’s plenty of debate to go around on which is objectively better, I would advise for your sanity to stay out of that can of worms)

I almost don’t want to talk specifics about these things in case you, the reader, are also unfamiliar as I was. If you ever had any interest in the franchise for its spookiness and being a pioneer of the horror genre much like Silent Hill, or even a more recent example like Amnesia, this is THE game to start with in my opinion (this is based on only playing 2 of them in total so far, but that’s besides the point).

Oh man, what to say about this game? I have a weakness for third-person adventure games, and this is a fantastic entry into that genre. I've played most of the Resident Evil games and this might be one of the best in the series, in my opinion. A remake of the old PS One RE:2, this game is more reimagining than direct port, but it does a good job of including all the core elements from the original title. Set in Raccoon City, shortly after the outbreak, you follow the adventures of Claire Redfield and/or Leon Kennedy, who each have their own motivations for getting first to the Raccoon City Police Station and then getting out alive. Of course, it wouldn't be a Resident Evil game without the trademark assets that provide a classic RE feel. The set pieces are littered with puzzles, most of middling difficulty. As usual, the character's storage space is once more at a premium, and items you want to keep will inevitably be left behind. Both ammunition and health-related items are moderately scarce, but I can't say I ever truly felt stressed for a resupply. Micromanaging your resources is still an important element, but avoiding reckless behavior will ensure you have everything you need to the end of the game.

The Positives

The game has a lot of good qualities that make it an enjoyable experience. The first thing that stands out is the excellent quality of the visuals. The character models, animations and cut scenes are all top-notch. The set pieces are detailed and painted in elegant shades of grim, providing an immersive backdrop to the story. I loved opening doors and stepping through to reveal new rooms for the first time. It's almost like one of those games where you build the map as you go, flipping over tiles as you step through a door. Everything from lighting to reflections, to the way your character's feet splashed in the areas with standing water just sucked me into the setting.

Secondly, the game controls and mechanics. The characters were easy to control, navigated around most obstacles cleanly, and never left me feeling like I was "hung up". Combat was nothing terribly special, but it was your standard affair of pointing the reticle and pulling the trigger. Basic, but perfectly serviceable. Oddly enough, I found the inventory system to be quite good. I don't know why but something about the way you gathered, moved, and sorted items in the inventory just felt right. Probably doesn't make any sense, but there it is.

The story was not new, but the voice acting, the high-quality cutscenes, and the polished emotions of the characters drew me in and kept me connected to the unfolding tale. Honestly, after playing both RE2 and some of the newer Tomb Raider games, I could almost see some parallels in the way the characters were narrated, how they reacted, and what they did to impact the world around them. Maybe some of that is a generic formula for a diehard female lead in a video game? I don't know, but I really appreciate the time I spent with these games.

The Negatives

Honestly, my only really big complaint is the length of the game. The story was quite short, but not really unexpected considering the source material it was based on and the general length of most horror games in the late '90s.

Final Thoughts

You don't need to play the original Resident Evil 2 in order to enjoy the Remake. In fact, you don't need to play any other Resident Evil game to enjoy this Remake. Part of a series, but this title stands on its own merit. I thoroughly enjoyed all the game had to offer and if I wasn't so busy chipping away at my backlog, I'd certainly be up for a replay. if you like Resident Evil content, and you only want to play a game or two, this one should probably be on that short list of choices.

Yes, Claire. Thank you.

My Resident Evil Reviews:

• Resident Evil 0
• Resident Evil 1 - Remake
• Resident Evil 2 - Remake
• Resident Evil 3 - Remake