Reviews
[Review] ‘Resident Evil 2’ is the Perfect Remake of a Survival Horror Classic
A long-awaited remake of a survival horror classic shuffles into view, was it worth the wait? See what we think in our Resident Evil 2 review.
Resident Evil is widely considered the granddaddy of the survival horror genre but it wasn’t until Capcom released a sequel in 1998 that it went from breakout hit to worldwide phenomenon. With 3D gaming still very much in its infancy, Resident Evil 2 touched down at the perfect time, combining traditional action and adventure with a grotesque level of gore rarely seen before.
Since then, it’s fair to say that the franchise has had its ups and downs. For every solid sequel or spin-off, there have been some major missteps as well as games that only existed to keep the brand name alive in between those meatier mainline installments.
Although seen as the weakest entry in the series, Resident Evil 6 still sold over 8.7 million copies, becoming Capcom’s third best-selling game. However, critics were beginning to tire of Capcom attempts at making the franchise more action orientated, becoming more and more of a flashy blockbuster showpiece with little consideration of what made those original game such stand-out classics.
Resident Evil 7 was certainly a turning point and although it had pitfalls of its own, Capcom was able to put its flagship franchise back on track, reanimating that familiar Resi formula we fell in love with all those years ago. If those lessons hadn’t be learned, we dread to think how Resident Evil 2 might have turned out.
Thankfully, this is the remake that Capcom had promised its fans: a deftly crafted tribute to the 1998 sequel, built from the ground up with just the right amount of modernization. The way it has gone about recreating a genre-defining masterpiece is incredibly faithful and while certain parts of the game have been rejigged to better suit the needs and expectations of modern gamers, nothing here has been desecrated or painted over just for the sake of it.
A huge part of Resident Evil 2’s success was its setting. We’ll always have a soft spot for the Spencer Mansion though there’s something about Raccoon City – seeing its urban sprawl overrun and descend into chaos – that has always been more evocative. Even when Capcom immediately went for a double dip with Resident Evil 3 Nemesis, the city still felt incredibly fresh, large swathes of its urban expanse yet to be explored.
With that said, much of your time with Resident Evil 2 is spent in the Raccoon City police station – arguably one of the most iconic buildings in video game history. It’s an ingeniously constructed example of level design, a maze-like puzzle box that loops back on itself as you unlock doors, and unearth hidden passageways.
What works so well about this remake is how Capcom quite clearly fought the temptation to give the original game a complete do-over. Having to decipher cryptic clues, spending prolonged periods scavenging for key items, and backtracking across the map can be just as frustrating as it was back in 1998. While these moments could easily have been ripped out or streamlined, Capcom kept those bits in, only smoothing over some of the game’s roughest, most archaic edges. As a result, Resident Evil 2 retains that same quality that it did more than two decades ago.
The core foundation is still in place but those changes the developers have made are extremely welcome and essential in propelling the game into the present day and still make it relevant.
The most notable change, of course, is the complete visual overhaul. Here we see Capcom flexing the same “RE Engine” tech that powered its last installment in the series. Character models are more lifelike than ever thanks to vast improvements in facial animation, especially when it comes to Leon, Claire, Ada, and the game’s small cluster of key supporting characters.
The enemies you come up against have also been reimagined in splendid, horrific detail. Zombies twitch and shamble, quickening their pace when in close proximity. The way they react to being shot is a tiny technical marvel that perfectly mimics the nineties original. Hitting your target square-on will cause them to stumble while aiming for arms and legs will cause them grossly slough away.
You’ll be surprised at the number of headshots it takes to put down a zombie for good. Even then, as you come back to revisit areas you’ve previously cleared, they’ll often be repopulated. Another nice little touch this remake adds is by having zombies try and barge their way into the police station, forcing players to board up windows or instead face even more enemies.
This all serves a purpose, enshrining the remake as a proper survival horror game and not just some zombie-filled shooting gallery. The team at Capcom are akin to evil geniuses in the way they constantly try to manipulate players, creating scenarios where you really have to stop and think about conserving items and ammunition. You’ll soon learn that outrunning zombies, or firing off a glancing shot, is actually more effective than trying to permanently eliminate them.
Even the most carefully laid plans can end up going awry as you fall into traps and eat into your reserves. There are also intermittent boss to be wary of too, but even if you’re completely unprepared for them, Resident Evil 2 spews up *just* enough items to scrape through. It’s a game that genuinely revels in the stress and unease it burdens the player with, ready to twist that knife at the most inconvenient of moments. Nothing about this is new, however – that’s exactly how those original games in the series were built.
Luckily, these tough spots are no longer compounded by some of Resi 2’s outdated design tropes. Much like the series’ most recent installments, players are treated to an over-the-shoulder view, being able to move and shoot at the same time, tank controls be damned. This also means that fixed camera angles are gone too – a casualty only the most zealous of purists will lament.
One modernization you may not notice at first is the removal of loading screens. Those tense door-opening sequences Resi became known for certainly have a fear-inducing nostalgia factor though being able to seamlessly explore the RCPD station and surrounding areas without interruption is a huge time saver.
There are some extra nuggets of content hidden away here and there, though expect Resident Evil 2 to clock in at a similar runtime compared to the 1998 original. A single playthrough should last six to eight hours though can be done in less. Meanwhile, those who want to wring every morsel from the game may take twice as long with multiple runs needed to uncover its numerous endings. Being able to play as either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield naturally adds some of the replayability from the original game, offering two different, albeit overlapping, perspectives of the same main story.
Resident Evil 2 – while not a perfect game – is the perfect remake. Capcom has lovingly rebirthed a horror icon here, preserving that core DNA without infecting it through needless add-ons or alterations. There are certain aspects that will definitely grate and feel weirdly archaic though these are clearly an intentional part of Capcom’s grand design. Whether you’ve been waiting all these years to revisit Raccoon City or happen to be a curious first-timer, Resident Evil 2 is an essential must-have slice of video game horror, kicking off 2019 in style.
Resident Evil 2 review code provided for PS4 by the publisher.
Resident Evil 2 is out January 25 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
There’s a layer of the mythic in everything Cynthia Pelayo writes, whether she’s charting the little-known history of her home city of Chicago or digging deep into the pool of shared stories that’s served humanity since ancient times. Regardless of subject matter or narrative, Pelayo reads like a writer constantly in search of the threads of legend and myth that bind us all together and keep us awake at night.
It Came From Neverland, Pelayo’s latest novel, takes that search and applies it to one of the most famous children’s stories ever conceived, J.M. Barrie’s beloved and oft-adapted tale of the Boy Who Never Grew Up. But this is not just a Peter Pan retelling, or a Peter Pan meta-sequel. Through gorgeous prose, finely drawn characters, and an iron grip on the themes that drive the story, Pelayo crafts It Came From Neverland into one of the year’s must-read genre novels, both a horrifying spin on Peter Pan and a luminous dark fantasy about the search for salvation in a cold, brutal world.
In Pelayo’s version of events, Wendy Darling and her brothers John and Michael really did travel to Neverland when they were children, drawn there by a charismatic and irresistible figure called Peter Pan. But this Neverland is far from the Disney version, and after fighting to survive in that ageless place, the children made their way home and shut Peter Pan out of their lives, refusing to so much as utter his name, lest he find them again.
Flash forward to 1914, where Wendy’s working as a schoolteacher at Marigold House, a London orphanage growing increasingly crowded amid the outbreak of World War I. By day, she teaches and volunteers at a local hospital, reading to the war wounded, and by night, she remembers to check every window latch and keep an eye on every shadow. But lately those shadows seem to behave strangely again. Crows caw all around her. And worst of all, children are disappearing again. Peter Pan is back, and faced with memories of how no one believed her the first time, Wendy prepares to face him one more time.
This is a remarkably well-suited atmosphere for moments of classic, chill-inducing terror, and Pelayo wastes no time weaving a world in which every bird call, every stray thought from the mouth of a child, could be evidence that this monstrous Peter Pan is near. Wendy lives a haunted existence, and as the chaos of war grips London, old fears grip her while new ones fight for position. If you come to this novel looking for something like Stephen King’s IT by way of J.M. Barrie, you’re going to get it, through flashbacks and dark lore and wonderfully well-timed scares, but Pelayo’s not done.
This version of Wendy Darling, through whom we see most of the narrative, cares for children in adulthood because she did not receive the care she needed herself as a child in the aftermath of a traumatic experience. She considers it her duty to listen to them, to protect them, to understand them in a world that still views them not as human beings, but as potential locked up in tiny bodies.
Setting the book in 1914, when young men across Europe were signing up to go and die in a war they didn’t quite understand, underscores this beautifully. Children are grist for the mill in the world of It Came From Neverland, their eager spirits waiting to be crushed by a machine of war and empire and capitalism that will not relent even if an armistice eventually arrives. It’s a wider, more existential layer of horror than the storybook monster, which gets us to open the book in the first place, but the real brilliance at work here is how Pelayo ties it all together.
At the core of all of this, the beating, icy heart of It Came From Neverland‘s horror and its search for meaning amid the narratives of war, children’s fiction, collective memory, and more, Pelayo is most interested in what it really means to never grow up. It means retaining a sense of play, yes, but it also means a refusal to move on, to embrace not just the responsibilities of aging, but the moral burdens of it.
Peter Pan is a monster not because he likes to play, but because he does not consider consequences, mortality, or even the needs and desires of others. The same is true of the leaders of Europe sending young men off to die in a war, and the same is true of leaders now, playing dice with human lives amid the rise and fall of the stock market. To never grow up is to lose something essential about being human, and Pelayo depicts that loss as both existentially terrifying and heartbreaking. That terror and heartbreak drive the novel, but Wendy’s efforts to escape that terror and to mend her broken heart make it fly.
It Came From Neverland is available June 9 wherever books are sold.
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