For no apparent reason, this game has only gotten better for me over time. With comparisons to the other games in the series, this could be argued as the best in the PS1 collection and the more I felt it right next to nemesis did I think about how the route system was by far the most unique and best mechanic in the series.

It completely flips everything you already thought and knew with the routing and bosses. Yes, a lot more games do this sort of thing as their NG+ run or something but with RE's survival horror, does this make surprises startle you more and think on your feet about how to save bullets, how to progress with puzzles.

It doesn't have the issues that persisted with RE3 where enemies can be randomly swapped for harder or puzzles being 4 different answers that makes speedrunning much more annoying. Less RNG on that front would have made it much more fun in my eyes. RE2 never fell in that pitfall and for the best.

As I play PS1 RE1 now do I get how big of a jump it was at the time, the insane scope of the game with the locale's being double the size and the music being the best in the series. It completely redefines a lot of what I loved about RE1.

Resident Evil (2002) is the best experience for classic RE formula but this is damn close to it even after all this time.