After their magnum opus that was Resident Evil 1, Capcom were not going to sit on their heels. Coming out just two years after the first in 1998, Resident Evil 2 sought to have everything the original had and much, much more. It connected its two character’s stories in far more meaningful ways, increased the size of each player's inventory (and their respectives arsenals) and had more cinematic and explosive moments to show the player.
And boy did it do well! It received universal critical acclaim, with everything from its graphical fidelity to its voice acting considered above and beyond the original. Many players consider this to be the best Resident Evil game to this day.
But in the wake of the 2019 remake, and a longform view of what eventually became of the franchise - is Resident Evil 2 really all that its cracked up to be? Do more zombies and more action automatically equal a better game? Does more inventory slots, disappearing corpses and a more linear cinematic progression bode well from a gameplay sense? How does Resident Evil 2 compare to its other offerings, and is it worth playing today?
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On this episode we discuss:
Story
Resident Evil 2 presents its story in a very interesting way - two overlapping but distinct perspectives in Leon and Claire. Does this experimental storytelling work, and how invested were we in its fundamentally B grade plot?
Level Design
Resident Evil 2s police station brings back most of what made the mansion so incredible, with its distinct spaces and looping level design. How does it compare to the original, and how enjoyable is it when you move away from the Police Station
Survival
Resident Evil 2 takes away the need to burn corpses, gives you more ammo and gives you more inventory slots. What impact does this have on the tension of survival, and how different is the focus on tactical exploration?
We answer these questions and many more on the 123rd episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!
Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K
Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another
Resident Evil 2 OST: Masami Ueda, Shusaku Uchiyama, Syun Nishigaki
Which Resident Evil game is truly the best? What were your experiences like playing the original games back in the day? Are there any other survival horror games that come close to this franchise? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!
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