Resident Evil 2

My first hour in Raccoon City's RPD had me rationing handgun bullets against a zombie that would not stay down, listening to something heavy trudging overhead, and genuinely reconsidering whether to open the next door. That feeling never really lets up. Capcom's 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 takes the skeleton of the beloved 1998 original and rebuilds it around an over-the-shoulder camera, creating something that sits in a very specific sweet spot: it has the resource scarcity and puzzle-box exploration of old-school survival horror, but the tactile, physical feedback of a modern third-person action game. The result is that almost every decision carries weight. You play as either Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop arriving on his first day of work, or Claire Redfield, who is looking for her brother in the worst city to visit in 1998. Their campaigns share the same Raccoon City Police Department setting but branch into different supporting characters, sub-areas, and weapons, which makes a second playthrough feel like a genuine reason to return rather than a chore. The RPD itself is the real star: a semi-open interconnected building where locked doors gradually yield to collected tools and keycards, earlier rooms stay dangerous on return visits, and the limited inventory grid forces constant triage between ammunition, herbs, and key items. Ammo crafting, borrowed from the wider series, lets you combine gunpowder into rounds for your specific loadout, so there is always a small optimisation loop running in the background even when you are just trying to survive. The thing most players talk about is Mr. X, and for good reason. Unlike the scripted appearances of the original game, the Tyrant in the remake actively patrols the police station, follows you through doors, and cannot be killed, only briefly staggered. In a game that rewards slow, methodical movement, a relentless pursuer who reacts to footsteps completely changes the calculus of every room you enter. The Lickers, blind but acutely sensitive to sound, create a different kind of dread in the later sections. Both enemy types push you to think spatially rather than just tactically. The difficulty options are worth noting: lower settings add autosave and remove the ink ribbon save limit, which makes the game accessible to players who have never touched a Resident Evil before, while Hardcore mode is there for veterans who want the pressure cranked all the way up. If the game has a genuine weakness, it is the second-run scenarios. Playing through the events again from the other character's perspective is structurally smart, but in practice the second run is shorter and less developed, with some players feeling that it undercuts the sense of a fully parallel story. A minority of long-time fans also find that Ada Wong's characterisation in the remake feels thinner than the original, losing some of the chemistry that made her dynamic with Leon memorable. These are real criticisms, not dismissals. The game also leans very hard into high-fidelity gore, so if visceral body horror is not your genre, the RE Engine's forensic detail will not charm you. For everyone else, this is one of the more complete single-player experiences Capcom has produced. The audio design alone justifies playing with good headphones: the ambient rain, distant groans, and the particular sound of size-fourteen shoes on concrete do more work for the atmosphere than most horror games manage with jump scares. A first run sits somewhere between eight and thirteen hours depending on difficulty and exploration pace, and the second character playthrough adds meaningful time on top of that. The 4th Survivor and Tofu Survivor bonus modes give completionists something extra to chase after the credits roll.

Alex · Scout Team

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