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Resident Evil 2 Review: X gon give it to ya

gaijinkaiju

Lord Inquisitor
Sanctuary legend
Sanctuary contributor
Messages
612
So i brought it about a year ago to play during the lock-down but instead of playing it, it just sat on my shelf for a year.
Until now that is.
And I thought it was alright. There wasn't really much I disliked about it to be honest, but at the same time I don't have any major desire to replay it anytime soon. It was pretty light on the shooting, which I wasn't expecting, but I guess that's what I get for using the movies as a yardstick, and instead had more of a focus on puzzle solving and exploration, which was fine because some of the puzzles where kinda fun and some of the locations were interesting to explore
At-least the first time.
The game has two different stories, but they functionally play the same. Both start in the police station and need you to find medallions, both next go to the sewers and both end in the umbrella facility. The only real differences were the fact the certain items were in different places and the puzzles had different solutions on your second play-through. The problem with that, is that doing the same puzzles in the same place but with different solutions get's repetitive quickly. The biggest differences between the two stories are the weapons available to you as-well as a mission where you play as a side character. In Leon's play-through you'll play as Ada in the sewers On Claire's' you'll play as Sherry in the orphanage, which was a much welcomed location because I really hated the sewers, which where my least favorite place, partly because the main puzzle was tedious and partly because it wasn't that visually interesting of a location. Admittedly the police station was also pretty tedious by the end, but it was more visually interesting and the same can be said for the umbrella facility.

There's not really much to say about the combat because it was pretty light on it. Ammo wasn't scarce, but you also weren't going to be blasting your way through everything in your path. It is possible to craft ammo, but you're not going to be able to craft all the ammo types for your guns, so you're still going to want to make you're shots count especially since the zombies have a habit of getting back up again, which does it get a little annoying. You're supposed to shoot them in the head to prevent them getting back up again, but sometimes the head doesn't explode so it's not obvious if they'll get back up again, and sometimes you'll shoot them in the head while they're on the ground and they'll get up as if nothing happened. I get that they're zombies, but it was just a little annoying. There's also zombie dogs, which are more or less the same but dogs
Aside from zombies, there's also Lickers which were few and far between. You're supposed to sneak past them, but I didn't try this on my first play-through and after deciding that they took too many shots, I just ran past them. On my second play-through though, I did try sneak pasting them and it works, but they follow you and it's definitely unsettling hearing them behind you.
The sewers are home to G-virus mutants, and honestly, after the first encounter they're alot less intimidating. Especially on Claire's play-through, when you can just hit them with the grenade launcher.
And the labs are home to plant mutants. Honestly they're kinda interesting visually, but game-play wise they're just bland. You're supposed to set them on fire to kill them, otherwise like the zombies they'll just keep coming back, but when you have a flamethrower they're not even the least bit threatening.
Lastly you've got Mr. X. Unkillable, persistent and annoying. Once he shows up, he'll follow you indefinitely unless you can deal enough damage to stagger him, then he'll leave you alone for a little bit but he'll get back up and come after you again. And honestly, it's just kinda annoying. He doesn't move super fast so you can just run loops to keep him at a distance while you do what you need to do. The most intimidating thing about him is that you can hear him above or below you which can be kinda spooky at first, but also help give away his location. That being said, he hits like a truck so you want to avoid that.

The game has an alternate ending, the true ending as it were, that requires you to beat both stories to unlock, so that's really the biggest reason to complete both characters stories. There's also an extra game mode, called 'The Ghost Survivors' which focuses on some minor characters that show up in each characters respective storyline, but as of writing, I haven't played through them yet so I can't say if they're any good or not.

Aside from the overall repetitive nature of the puzzles and locations, I'd say it was an enjoyable experience albeit one I'm not in any major hurry to replay, but still a pretty good game.
7.5/10
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,285
Great review! You should try RE4 next.

As for me, generally speaking, I never saw the appeal of the RE games, although they can have some cool stuff in them.
 

gaijinkaiju

Lord Inquisitor
Sanctuary legend
Sanctuary contributor
Messages
612
As for me, generally speaking, I never saw the appeal of the RE games, although they can have some cool stuff in them.
Personally, I was a fan of the movies and my interest eventually moved to the games too. Wouldn't be till Operation: Raccoon City came out till I played one though
 

Houseman

Zealot
Sanctuary legend
Messages
1,068
I like the campy ridiculousness of 4, 5, and 6. Some of my best gaming memories because I played the latter 2 co-op.
 
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