Resident Evil 2 Review

Resident Evil 2 takes those other ‘HD’ remakes and remasters and shows them how it’s done. By remaking the game from the ground up, it tingles all those nostalgia senses whilst mostly feeling fresh and relevant at the same time. Bravo, Capcom!

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Once you’ve completed the game, there’s a few tough achievements to grind out and some bonus modes – getting 100% will take some commitment but the game is still pretty good value regardless.

Presentation:

RE2 has been remade using the engine that powered the most recent Resident Evil game, RE7. Despite the move from 1st person to 3rd person, the game looks fantastic. The game has some fantastic, atmospheric lighting effects, and I’ve never seen such fantastic looking gore in a game. There’s a moment early on where you see some pretty gruesome violence, with a body basically being chopped in two across the waist, and the level of detail is disgusting, disturbing and enthralling at the same time – everything is wet and pulsating and gross. The zombies also look top-notch, although you will start to notice that there are limited character models by the mid-point of the game.

The original score has been replaced (although you can listen in via the deluxe version) with a far more minimalistic version, with very little music outside of cut-scenes. Whilst this sounds cheap, it’s done with the fantastic (native Atmos) audio presentation in mind. The sound effects and zombie moans are all amazing, and the game does wonders at building tension and fear through effective use of sound all through the game. I have knocked a half point off though because there’s no cheesy “Resiiideeeeent Eeeeeeeeeeeeviiiiilllll” voice when you hit start on the game menu. Boo.

 

Conclusion:

Resident Evil 2 is a colossal success for Capcom, and I’m sure will open the doors for further remakes from their back-catalogue. It proves that the best way to re-release your games is to take an existing engine and rebuild – the graphics blow away what could have been done with any kind of remaster, the gameplay is superior to the RE1 remake, and it feels fresher and more relevant with the quality of life improvements. This is really smart development work from Capcom, and their approach and effort should be commended.

I can think of no better way of rewarding this than thoroughly recommending that you go out and buy this outstanding remake.

Good

  • Move to 3rd person
  • Graphics
  • Quality of life improvements

Bad

  • Story is fairly dated
  • Some odd changes to the game
9.1

Amazing

Story - 8
Graphics - 9.5
Sound - 9.5
Gameplay - 9.5
Value - 9
Editor - Reviewer GamerKnights

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