When I was a kid, this family on my block got me blacklisted from borrowing games. My father had to go over to their house to demand our game back since they seem to be taking their sweet time returning it. What does this have to do with Resident Evil 2? Well, that's how I got introduced to it silly.I grew up going to a Catholic elementary school from kindergarten to eighth grade, and Resident Evil seemed like a hard sell to my parents. This was a stupid assumption since at the age of five my father took me to see Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, which was a Nightmare on Elm Street movie that had a 3D sequence. I also got a copy of Mortal Kombat 2 for one of my birthdays within the seven to ten age range. Clearly, my parents didn’t feel they needed to shield me from things that supposedly would make me snap. Despite all this, my first experience with survival horror would have to be in the secret.
The tale starts with borrowing a copy of Resident Evil: Director’s Cut from a fellow classmate one faithful Friday. Clearly, my father would be aware that he did not buy this game for me. Since our PlayStation was situated in the family room, I had to wait until people were sleeping to play. Around midnight, my father retired to bed. Like a ninja, I sneaked away to my book bag and took out the game. Let’s stop and visualize for a moment here. It had to be around 1998, and I was 10 or 11, playing Resident Evil: Director’s Cut for the first time...in the middle of the night. Needless to say that the part with the hall with the dogs jumping through the windows unannounced probably made me want to crap myself.
Again, you are probably asking yourself what this has to do with Resident Evil 2, which is a good question. With this version of Resident Evil: Director’s Cut there was a demo disc for RE2. At some point over the weekend, I dabbled in this game. No great stories can be brought forth regarding my first play of the game, but it must have left an impression because I became a maniac for these types of games. My earlier review of Silent Hill and seeing Freddy movies when I was five should give you the impression that I love, love, love all things horror. Even the first dog I got last year was dubbed Freddy, after the best horror villain ever, and let me tell you that this puppy can be quite the nightmare at times.
First off, Resident Evil 2 is a bit grander in scheme than its predecessors. There tends to be a lot more to explore in this game; or at the very least more to see. We start our adventure as either Claire or Leon in a decimated Raccoon City. It is easy to see that there is very little that could be done to help return this metropolis to its former glory. Cars are on fire, zombies roam, and bodies lay decaying in the streets. It’s complete carnage. From the starting point you need to make it to the police station. Once there, you have to solve puzzles at a police station. This particular police station seems to get a ton of funding to finance the ridiculous puzzles that are in place to ensure no one finds out what is truly going on there.
Why is it that during a zombie apocalypse there are more gun stores than Starbucks?
There is no need to go into any more detail regarding “all the places that you will go” -- how very Dr. Suess of me. The things I enjoy about this game more than the environment are the protagonists Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Both are a kind of everyday people, although Leon is a rookie cop and it’s his first day. I don’t think he’ll be too worried about making new friends. Claire is trying to find her brother Chris, who was a character from the first game. There are the supporting characters of: Ada Wong, a woman mentioned in the first game, and Sherry Birkin, a little girl separated from her researcher parents.
What has always shined for me in this entry in the Resident Evil series is the story. Granted, 12 years ago when this game was new, the story was top notch. My recent play through ensures that this story is still up to snuff, but the voice acting is pretty laughable. That’s what gives it its charm; the B-movie like presentation of it all. Also, the replay value of the game is very high because both Leon and Claire have an A/B scenario. There are a total of four scenarios to plow through. Each story plays similarly, but there will be different areas that were not accessible before. If your only concern is to play the game once (technically twice, one scenario for each character), I do believe the confirmed order is “Claire A/Leon B”.
What is interesting to note is that the original game was different and had a few changes before it became the Resident Evil 2 that we know. Claire was a motorcyclist called Eliza, and the police station was more of a run-of-the-mill police station and not the unrealistically funded museum it ended up being. Some new characters were introduced and some characters were bigger impacts on the story. For example, Marvin, the black cop that both Claire and Leon both encounter for a brief moment before zombing (like vamping for vampires, zombing for becoming a zombie) out. The game is reported to be as far as 80% complete before being reworked from the beginning. No official explanation was every given but Google Resident Evil 1.5 to find a bunch of info on it. It’s really interesting.
It is a little-known fact that Robert Pattinson's first role was playing Edward Cullum playing the role of a zombie in RE2.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Resident Evil 2 is often overlooked. People tend to favor Resident Evil 3: Nemesis probably due to the character of Nemesis. He’s kind of cool, but he is a lot like Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2.They are both interesting and frightening, but definitely overrated. Without a doubt, Pyramid Head is more foreboding and is a glimpse into something deeper trying to be conveyed. The groundwork for Nemesis was laid down in RE2 whenever you play the characters' B scenario. Mr. X doesn’t pursue as hard as Nemesis, but he is quite intimidating. There is little to his story other than he was sent to get a sample of the G-Virus.
One thing that takes some time to get used to is the clunky controls. When I first booted this up about a week ago, I died and did so often. I chalked it up to most likely playing the game on easy way back in the day and the normal difficulty was maybe too hard for me. Instead of changing difficulties, I soon discovered my struggles were due to the controls. They are without a doubt some of the worst controls. I put them on the same level with early Tomb Raider games, and they could be currently likened to, but are surpassed by, even the recently released Heavy Rain.
While replaying Resident Evil 2, I was really transported back to my childhood, but it is kind of sad to see what the Resident Evil series has become today. Clearly, the game needed a change as the controls made no one happy and all, but to see them reduced to an action-heavy game makes me long to the older, better days. Sure, trying to walk down a hallway was a chore, but it was a fun and scary chore. Now, they aren’t even about zombies anymore. Not like the games gave me nightmares, but there is very little scary elements implemented into them anymore. If I were to play Resident Evil: Director’s Cut right now, I wouldn’t be able to handle the Hunters. They freak my geek out. being a kid. Most adults have a book or movie to take them back to days gone by, but not me. I have zombie-killing and nightmare-invading child killers to do that for me.
Image Credit: vinagreasesino.com, nacionarcade.net, www.bakane.net
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