Let me preface this by saying that I don’t like giving games 5 stars unless I believe they’re genuinely flawless or exemplary. A game really has to wrestle and claw its way to 5 stars.
Let me also preface this by saying that I didn’t even love Resident Evil 1. I played the remake on PC to dip my toes into “the world of survival horror,” and I enjoyed it fine. It didn’t blow me away. I’ve outlined my experience with survival horror as a genre in my Signalis review previously – and I liked Signalis too! – but my impressions were also colored by the fact that I was still earning my stripes, so to speak. I was still trying to “understand” survival horror.
With Resident Evil 2, I feel like I not only “understand” survival horror now, but I’ve also been endowed with the Goddess Athena’s gift of divine wisdom or something. I don’t know what the hell they were doing at Capcom in 1998 but I firmly believe that Shinji Mikami and Hideki Kamiya both obtained forbidden knowledge and decided to channel that knowledge into crafting a survival horror masterclass. If I was a university professor teaching survival horror game design, I would tell my students to pick up Resident Evil 2 and play both Leon and Claire’s A/B routes. That’s it. No written assignments or anything. Just finish the game.
The obtuse, puzzle-heavy labyrinth of the first game’s iconic Spencer Mansion is condensed into the sequel’s Police Station. This is one of RE2’s many examples of less being more. Whereas RE1 had a lot of backtracking, even well into its latter half, once you’re finished with the Police Station, that’s it – the chess plug puzzle (or the painting puzzle) is the only thing standing between players and the latter half of the game, which is then a mostly linear rollercoaster from there until the finish line.
Resident Evil 2 is a lot like Sonic the Hedgehog in that you can’t fully appreciate the game after one simple playthrough, and the game reinforces this in two ways: most obvious are the two protagonists, as well as their respective A/B routes; additionally, the “ranking system” which encourages players to save less, heal less, and be quick about it.
I thought that having two characters in the first Resident Evil wasn’t groundbreaking. I mean, if you want more Resident Evil, sure, there you go; Jill and Chris’ stories aren’t awfully dissimilar. Personally, I didn’t feel like finishing Chris’ story after Jill’s enriched my experience at all – it was just the same game, again, but with less inventory space, and a few key differences in puzzles and story beats. The A/B routes work much better in Resident Evil 2, as they complement each other and are sufficiently short as well. Specifically, the B route for both characters boasts much beefier bosses, new enemy locations, and even Mr. X (he’s intimidating at first, but once you learn his behavior, he’s just a fun lil set piece).
After your first A/B run, I strongly encourage another A/B run (LeonA/ClaireB or vice versa). My second A/B run was also when I started trying for rankings, and that’s when it got really fun. Experiencing the different variations in story beats and encounters made each route unique and engaging in their own ways. Really though, the ranking system does what any good ranking system should do (imo), and pushes players towards the most interesting and rewarding playstyles. The game wants players to play conservatively, but it also wants players to take risks. Once players understand the general sequence of events, that’s when they’re able to predict, plan ahead, and be bold in their decision making. That’s when interesting play emerges.
It’s also remarkable in how economic its levels are, the sewers are like maybe five or ten minutes (not counting cutscenes) as long as you’re not backtracking; there’s maybe like an hour between when you fight the second boss and the final boss. Surprisingly, it also never feels like it’s sprinting towards the finish line, either.
So tightly-packed with razor sharp survival horror game design that it’s basically the genre’s Super Mario Bros. 3 for all I care. Maybe it didn’t write the book on survival horror, and maybe it wasn’t the first worth reading – but it was the first one I read that I not only loved, but one that left me with a deeper appreciation for the works I’d read already.
Let me also preface this by saying that I didn’t even love Resident Evil 1. I played the remake on PC to dip my toes into “the world of survival horror,” and I enjoyed it fine. It didn’t blow me away. I’ve outlined my experience with survival horror as a genre in my Signalis review previously – and I liked Signalis too! – but my impressions were also colored by the fact that I was still earning my stripes, so to speak. I was still trying to “understand” survival horror.
With Resident Evil 2, I feel like I not only “understand” survival horror now, but I’ve also been endowed with the Goddess Athena’s gift of divine wisdom or something. I don’t know what the hell they were doing at Capcom in 1998 but I firmly believe that Shinji Mikami and Hideki Kamiya both obtained forbidden knowledge and decided to channel that knowledge into crafting a survival horror masterclass. If I was a university professor teaching survival horror game design, I would tell my students to pick up Resident Evil 2 and play both Leon and Claire’s A/B routes. That’s it. No written assignments or anything. Just finish the game.
The obtuse, puzzle-heavy labyrinth of the first game’s iconic Spencer Mansion is condensed into the sequel’s Police Station. This is one of RE2’s many examples of less being more. Whereas RE1 had a lot of backtracking, even well into its latter half, once you’re finished with the Police Station, that’s it – the chess plug puzzle (or the painting puzzle) is the only thing standing between players and the latter half of the game, which is then a mostly linear rollercoaster from there until the finish line.
Resident Evil 2 is a lot like Sonic the Hedgehog in that you can’t fully appreciate the game after one simple playthrough, and the game reinforces this in two ways: most obvious are the two protagonists, as well as their respective A/B routes; additionally, the “ranking system” which encourages players to save less, heal less, and be quick about it.
I thought that having two characters in the first Resident Evil wasn’t groundbreaking. I mean, if you want more Resident Evil, sure, there you go; Jill and Chris’ stories aren’t awfully dissimilar. Personally, I didn’t feel like finishing Chris’ story after Jill’s enriched my experience at all – it was just the same game, again, but with less inventory space, and a few key differences in puzzles and story beats. The A/B routes work much better in Resident Evil 2, as they complement each other and are sufficiently short as well. Specifically, the B route for both characters boasts much beefier bosses, new enemy locations, and even Mr. X (he’s intimidating at first, but once you learn his behavior, he’s just a fun lil set piece).
After your first A/B run, I strongly encourage another A/B run (LeonA/ClaireB or vice versa). My second A/B run was also when I started trying for rankings, and that’s when it got really fun. Experiencing the different variations in story beats and encounters made each route unique and engaging in their own ways. Really though, the ranking system does what any good ranking system should do (imo), and pushes players towards the most interesting and rewarding playstyles. The game wants players to play conservatively, but it also wants players to take risks. Once players understand the general sequence of events, that’s when they’re able to predict, plan ahead, and be bold in their decision making. That’s when interesting play emerges.
It’s also remarkable in how economic its levels are, the sewers are like maybe five or ten minutes (not counting cutscenes) as long as you’re not backtracking; there’s maybe like an hour between when you fight the second boss and the final boss. Surprisingly, it also never feels like it’s sprinting towards the finish line, either.
So tightly-packed with razor sharp survival horror game design that it’s basically the genre’s Super Mario Bros. 3 for all I care. Maybe it didn’t write the book on survival horror, and maybe it wasn’t the first worth reading – but it was the first one I read that I not only loved, but one that left me with a deeper appreciation for the works I’d read already.