Endless horror
Capcom revolutionized the Survival Horror game genre with its stunning Resident Evil. As logic dictates in these cases, Capcom therefore decided to immediately create a sequel to be able to take advantage of the wave of success of its great game. So it was that at the Tokyo Game Show in 1996, the first public presentation of Resident Evil 2 took place. Instead of taking on a B-Movie atmosphere as in RE, where a handful of characters were found without their knowledge in a house full of horrors, with RE2 it was thought to bring horror into everyday life. So now to be at the mercy of the monsters born from the horrid experiments of Umbrella, the pharmaceutical industry responsible for the creation of the infamous T-Virus, which transformed living beings of all kinds into something truly monstrous, this time is the city of Raccoon City, the same one to which the special STARS police force from the first episode belonged.
In order not to fall into banality, re-proposing the same protagonists, Capcom introduced two new protagonists: Leon S. Kennedy, a police officer who was to take up service in Raccoon City, and Elza Walker, a student passionate about motorcycles. But the birth of Resident Evil 2 is one of the most complex possible.
Although the game was planned to be made available in early March 1997, as development progressed, the production staff, including director Shinji Mikami, were not fully convinced of the form the game was taking. Thus it was that Capcom canceled the version of Resident Evil 2 that was being completed to rebuild the game from scratch.
To begin with, the staff changed shape. Hadeki Kamiya assumed the role of director of the game in place of Shinji Mikami, while the latter "limited" himself to becoming its producer.
To better curate the story, the writer Noboru Sugimura was hired who, together with Yoshiki Okamoto (the one who directly hired Sugimura) wrote the stories of all the Resident Evils since before the fourth episode.
First of all we started by changing the female protagonist: Elza Walker was set aside to make room for Claire Redfield, sister of Chris, protagonist of the first Resident Evil; in this way, therefore, an interweaving of plot with the protagonists of the first Resident Evil emerges. The various endings of the first RE in fact, although they had a "happy ending", did not officially end the story that came to be created with the many mysteries in the villa of horrors of Umbrella. All this however took a lot of time to produce the game and in the meantime Capcom released an improved version of the first Resident Evil under the name of Resident Evil: Director's Cut, which also contained a demo of Resident Evil 2.
Resident Evil 2 finally saw the light of publication in January 1998 and was an acclaimed success, so much so that, until May 2006, the PSX version remains the best-selling Resident Evil ever with almost 6 million copies.
The city of horrors
A great thing about Resident Evil was the stunning graphics. In the first chapter of the series, use was made of pre-rendered backgrounds, inside which the characters and monsters moved, built entirely in 3D graphics. Also in Resident Evil 2 this aspect has been maintained and obviously everything has been improved.
Let's point out one thing though: if you are used to PS2-like console graphics, you won't have to turn your nose up: RE2's graphics are the best there was at the time and certainly surpassed all games that had come out before it. Having made this small clarification, let's move on to the game: at the beginning, albeit briefly, you will move through the streets of Raccon City and everything is rendered with great skill; in fact it will seem to walk in a typical American provincial town that you see in the show (complete with a basketball court behind an alley).
As you progress through the game, you will visit and explore certain locations that is you will no longer go around the streets but you will have to explore the inside of some buildings and especially the police station.
Although it seems that the pattern of the first game is repeated (ie being locked in a certain place), you will be pleasantly surprised. In fact, the programmers, in addition to inserting normal rooms such as a reception or an interrogation room, have also inserted "unrealistic" rooms, in the sense that, were it not for the famous riddles of the series, they would seem really useless and / or out of place. , both for their graphic content and for their layout in the general plan of the location. I think many will wonder what is the use of a library like those found inside castles. The answer is generally for the puzzles, but the real reason is also to create a special atmosphere: goal certainly achieved. I say this because I myself have often stopped to admire the various details of the game such as the blood shed everywhere, the disorder caused by possible attacks and all such things that make the game look like a good horror movie. But I wonder if the more attentive to detail will be able to find a very small detail missing from the layout of the buildings of the game. What am I talking about? It is up to you to find out.
Let's move on to describe what moves inside the magnificent pre-rendered world of RE2. Under your control will be Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Leon is dressed like a police cadet and is well defined, so much so that you can read the words STARS and RPD on his uniform. while Claire looks like a real biker with jacket and shorts. During the adventure then you will find other characters that some more and some less, will be rendered with equal care. But obviously the highlight of this type of games are the opponents you have to kill. So it will be that you will have to face myriads of zombies, which are covered in blood, with tattered clothes and similar details, but not only: this time they will present themselves in greater variations than the previous episode. In fact, you will meet police zombies, ordinary citizens and girls dressed in such a way as to question their chaste purity, finally arriving towards the end of the game where you can analyze them in more detail.
But the zombies represent only the "normality" of the game's monsters: you will meet other abominations such as spiders and genetically mutated plants, but without a doubt, the golden palm definitely goes to the "licker", a true icon of the game's monsters, both for the terror it inspires and both for its very original design (together with a couple of his cronies who will be seen more rarely).
Nothing to say, it seems to move inside a film. And speaking of films, it must be mentioned that both the introduction of the game and various important parts, are made through high quality CG footage, a feature that Capcom will maintain in almost all of its most successful games.
GHWOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH (Cit. Zombie)
From a great game like Resident Evil 2, perfection in every technical area is expected. The same is true for the sound sector in fact. The music of Resident Evil in fact, have the special and necessary quality of marrying perfectly with the game's settings. They are not exceptional music from a technical point of view, but they go hand in hand with the development of the game and thus adapting to the gloomy atmosphere of which the game is full.
The music will therefore always accompany you, sometimes with high tones and other times with low tones, and each track perfectly portrays the location you are in and what you are doing.
The sound effects are also well done. The cries of the zombies you meet will be heard perfectly even when you cannot correctly identify their position, the same applies to the steps of the dogs or the heavy breathing of the lickers.
Both the music and the sound effects will keep you on your toes ... rest assured that you will often have multiple concatenated heart attacks, so it is strongly advised to make a will to the faint of heart if they are going to play Resident Evil 2. It's strange but true, silence also plays its part… if on the one hand music keeps you "company", when silence falls then you will enter a state of agitation as you will not know what to expect. A zombie behind the door? A monster ready to attack you around the corner? Or will there be only a simple and safe corridor to cross safely? This and more in Resident Evil 2.
Another happy note of the game is the voice acting of the characters: in addition to Leon and Claire, who are exactly as you would expect them in case you talk to them, you will meet various people who are excellently voiced.
Excellent work from Capcom.
Umbrella! I'll get you!
What made the first Resident Evil great was not the splendid technical sector, but the plot. Resident Evil witnessed the events of the STARS team, which had to investigate some mysterious murders that took place near a villa in the woods of Raccoon City. This building was soon discovered to be a den of horrors such as zombies and other similar abominations created by the experiments of the Umbrella Corporation. The monsters of the villa were nothing more than the result of such experiments on a bacteriological weapon called T-Virus. The game ended with one of the many endings in which the survivors of the STARS blew up the mansion. In Resident Evil 2, however, a different approach was used.
In September 1998, the city is already fully in the hands of zombies. No one has entered it and no one knows about the zombies because the town of Raccoon City is small and isolated. After the events of the mansion, no one believed the surviving STARS members about the zombies and so now the city is in total chaos.
On an ordinary night, a young cadet policeman named Leon S. Kennedy, aboard his jeep, arrives in Raccoon City. While driving into the night you can see how eerie everything is and the city itself abandoned. At a certain point he stops because he notices a body lying in the middle of the road; after getting out of the car, he approaches him to understand what happened. As he scans the body, zombies appear out of nowhere and have seen their new prey in Leon. At the same time that Leon entered the city. a girl named Claire Redfield, sister of Chris, protagonist of the first game, enters the city aboard a motorcycle. He stops at a bar to look for information but finds no one there. At one point he notices a very strange man who is eating something. Turning to him with fear, he discovers with horror that his dinner is a waitress. The strange man (who by now you will have realized that he is a zombie) gets up to attack Claire but she runs away through a secondary exit. Meanwhile Leon has noticed that he is surrounded by zombies and despite various warnings and after having shot him with the gun, he is forced to flee away in an alley behind a bar when suddenly a door opens… it's Claire! Leon saves her by firing a well-placed shot in the head at the zombie behind her, after which they both flee using a police car lying abandoned in the middle of the road. Leon decides to go to the police station thinking that once there they will be safe, when suddenly a zombie comes out of the back seat trying to bite Leon and Claire! This causes the cars to lose control, causing a collision with a signal pole and giving the attacking zombie the power of flight. Not even time to recover, as Leon and Claire are forced to flee in opposite directions from the car as a truck is about to crash into them
and thus causing a huge explosion. Leon and Claire then find themselves separated by the flames but manage to agree on the fact that they will meet again as soon as possible at the police station.
Two protagonists, two stories, one goal: to survive! The story of RE2 is fantastic as it expands even more the many mysteries that came with the first RE. You will become aware of many plots and many intrigues of power that it will really seem to live inside a movie. Unlike the first RE, however, where with a few elements it was possible to create a perfect B-Movie atmosphere, in RE2 all this is partially maintained, as the game takes on more of an action movie imprint. To confirm this thesis, not only the various implications of the plot will take care of it, but there will also be the many references to famous Hollywood films such as Alien and Terminator. If all this isn't brilliant, then I don't know what else it could be. One of the best stories ever.
Shotgun or Grenade Launcher?
Going hand in hand with the magnificent storyline, the gameplay also stands at high levels. The game is contained on two CDs, one for Leon and the other for Claire. This is because the game has been divided into two scenarios: Scenario A and Scenario B, each complementary to the other. So if you start the game with Leon. you will complete her Scenario A. Once you finish this, you will automatically unlock Claire's Scenario B, with which you can relive Claire's actions while you were using Leon. The speech also applies to the contrary of course, that is, after Claire's Scenario A, you can play with Leon's B. The differences between the two scenarios consist mainly in the difficulty and intertwining of the plot. The mysteries that will seemingly remain unsolved in Leon's Scenario A, for example, will be revealed with Claire's B.
This greatly increases the longevity of the game, since you will have to complete four scenarios to see the game in its total integrity. In addition, you can also test yourself by finishing the four scenarios in the two game modes: “Easy” and “Normal”. In the easy mode, which would then be the normal one, you will start with a good supply of bullets, as well as find more of them in the game. In the “normal” mode, however, not only will you find a lot less ammo, but the monsters will also be harder to kill. To mention the fact that in the normal mode, right away, you can unlock a pleasant "graphic" secret, although it is strongly recommended to wait to finish the game at least once, since to unlock it, you will have to complicate your life a little to get it .
In addition to the scenarios, even the paraphernalia that the characters will come into possession of will vary. Leon will modify a few basic weapons, making them more and more powerful, while Claire instead will come into possession of more or less extravagant weapons such as an electric taser and a crossbow. Needless to say, you will need them all to be able to face the new and terrifying monsters you will encounter, such as the Lickers and others even stranger (crocodrile, do U need it?).
In addition to testing your skirmish skills, you'll also need to work your brain to solve the various puzzles you'll find in the game (although they are less complicated than Resident Evil 1's).
Usually it will be a matter of finding objects to then insert into some special mechanism located elsewhere. These items will take up space in the menu; usually you can carry a maximum of 8 items, including weapons and ammo, so you will need to be able to manage the space of the menu well. To help you, however, there will be the special boxes, where you can deposit all the objects you find, and then be able to take them back at a later time.
For the rest you will find documents that will reveal various details, you will interact with various characters to continue in the game (in certain parts you will also abandon the role of the protagonists to use the secondary characters) and everything will flow so smoothly that you will finish the game and immediately you will want to restart it.
There are so many things to do and Resident Evil 2 is happy to play. Perhaps the only flaw that affects the goodness of the game is the control system, which at the beginning is a bit difficult, but nothing particularly relevant.
The game, in addition to having a high longevity due to the four scenarios, also allows you to unlock various bonuses at the end of the adventure. In fact, every time you finish a scenario, you will be awarded a score mainly based on the time it took to finish the game. The best among you who will be able to get the maximum score in each scenario, will thus be able to play other scenarios having secret characters as protagonists, thus being able to discover further details on the plot of the game.
Last words
If you still don't understand, Resident Evil 2 is a masterpiece. Nothing more and nothing less. It has had enormous success with audiences and critics and is still one of the best games for PSX. If you are a lover of the genre, YOU HAVE TO play with it. The same applies to all the others. There are no technical defects and the game is very addicting.
Don't be fooled by age, as Resident Evil 2 quietly makes several younger games eat the dust.
