I haven't played many games that have put me on edge as much as this one did. After RE7, this is definitely the second scariest RE game imo. I love the overall vibe and story of the earlier RE games as in 0,1,3 and Code Veronica where its a grounded story about a bioweapon virus that goes to shit. All the mystery/conspiracy and the survival horror elements commonly found in these earlier titles are very much present in this one too. I haven't played the original but this remake was a great experience blind. It kind of made me dislike RE3 (which I played prior) a little because I didn't realize how similar the areas where to this, the police station, sewers and Umbrella HQ, are all areas I visited in both, although they're not exactly the same, there are many reused rooms. This along with the Nemesis which mimics Mr. X in this game, but Mr. X is on a whole other level of scary. Hearing his footsteps would always traumatize me and I had a few moments where I would tiptoe out of a room making sure my footsteps can't be heard, then with a quick turn around the corner we would come face to face. This leaves much more of a shock over the scripted scenes in RE3 where you always knew where the Nemesis was.

The dialogue is a bit cringe at times, and feels like it was written by Japanese who base their dialogue off cheesy 80s American action movies. It can be pretty cliché or there's lines that are completely out of place, like when Ada blows up a vent and says "Like candy from a baby", this is a laughably weird time to say such a thing and I don't even think makes sense in that context.

The graphics and atmosphere are top notch, and the game focuses heavy on psychological horror rather than jump scares even though there were some of those at times.

Something I didn't like was the A-B story mechanic. I originally played as Leon, then when beating the game, I'm given the option to play Claire's side which was advertised to show what happens with her while you were playing with Leon, completing both A and B stories also unlocks the true ending . I decided to go ahead and do the Claire B story to find that its the exact same game only you're playing as Claire. Puzzles are identical, the solution locations are slightly altered, enemy placement is also slightly changed as if that does anything, rooms and areas also the same. Bosses are also the same, so as Leon I would walk on a grate that collapses, fight a boss, kill it, then in Claire's story which happens around the same time, the grate is magically fixed, it breaks again when I walk on it and then I fight the same boss which Leon has made dead. I ended up quitting the B story about a quarter in because I found it to be a waste of time. From what I've heard, there are some bigger changes later on like a new orphanage area, if that's worth it to you then it could be worth the playthrough but I just ain't that guy.

Apparently in the original this duo story is very well done where different things actually happen, actions also impact the other character playthrough so I might check that out in the future, kinda sucks they didn't do that here.

I've pretty much played every RE game at this point other than 6 which I'm not sure I will ever finish due to how bad it is, but I can confidently say this game is def up there as one of the best in the series and up there for horror games in general.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐒𝟓 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞:

This is a masterpiece, loved every bits of it, played Claire A and Leon B scenarios (loved the story) and they compliment each other, the horror, jumpscares, combat and survival are S+.

A great representation of what a remake should be and even motivated me to go play the original Resident Evil 2,