"Good Partner idea, inventory system not a good idea."

Now I had a lot of high hopes for this game when I saw preview screenshots for it. I mean when it came out and I actually played it, I was a little creeped out by the graphics and in the opening scene, that violin and the music in certain areas I actually liked. I'm not saying that I liked all of the music it is just certain parts just struck me as being good and enjoyable and that I might want to put it on my iPod. Especially the end credits theme. Although I thought that the Queen Leech Final Form music was kinda cheesy. Cheesy as in not fitting the fight quite right. Now the remake's music fit the game perfectly, this one, kinda had some downfalls in some areas. The graphics were really well done, pushing the Cube to it's limits. The graphical value of this game might have even surpassed the remake. It's the intricate details, the rust detail on old doors, the water dripping from pipes, and all kinds of other good details. Even the character models and enemy models look wonderful. The Queen Leech looks disturbingly life like. At times the image is almost burnt into your mind and you can not get it out of your head. Also I felt sorry for the bad guy in this game because of what was done to him. I am not going to reveal what. You are going to have to find that out for yourself. Let me just say that to him it was a kind of injustice that was not expected from the two people that he trusted the most with his life. Then what happened the Queen Leech, that he was experimenting on, went inside him and healed him because the Queen had the T-Virus with in it. It is kinda interesting when you think about it. At least I thought that it was. One other thing that I should mention is that the zombies are a lot slower this time. I mean slower than the normal ones in the remake, but in this game they swarm kinda like the ganados would in Resident Evil 4. That is what gave me a hard time as well, the zombies swarming around me.

The new inventory system is a rehash back to where rifle type weapons and items take up two inventory spaces which can be quite hard to carry a lot of items considering that they got rid of all the item boxes in this game. I did not like the system originally in Resident Evil 2. It ticked me off that a big flamethrower could take up two inventory spaces. It could not have been bigger than the one in the remake. It probably weighed the same too. This made it really difficult if you did not pick up the side pack in Resident Evil two in the storage room in the RPD basement. I mean in Zero, the grenade launcher takes up two inventory spaces now. It looks like the top can be unfolded to make a butt for the launcher. Too bad you do not get to use it. I would've liked that. Don't get me wrong I loved the weapons but I did not like the fact that they made all the rifle like weapons and items like the hookshot take up two inventory spaces and add on that each character only has six inventory slots. Which can make certain areas very difficult if you have to haul a lot of items.

The enemies are a whole new breed except for the zombies, hunters and crows. There are no Crimson Heads which I can understand that they took out for this game considering that there are a lot of areas that expand over the Arklay Mountains. First it was the train, then it was the Training Facility for Umbrella Trainees, then it's the disposal plant where in the coming months of Zero taking place, Birkin gets his own lab there, then it goes to disposal plant of some sort and let me just say that the ending of the game is not what you initially think at first. Although it does add some replay by adding a mini-game called Leech Hunter. It's purpose is to serve as a unlockable station for a majority of the unlockables. The Rocket Launcher looks sort of like the one in the remake but the design differs slightly. It is still the same style, rifle style. Which is good because then you can aim in practically all directions. It still has that big recoil that the one in the remake had. Thing is though this one, when you blast a zombie with a rocket, instead of blowing half of the body or just knocking it down like in the remake, you get to have the pleasure of seeing the head being blown off and you hear that sound of a blown up head. It is just so satisfying sometimes because I like to get the infinite weapon and reap vengeance on the enemies that were giving me a hard time in the main game. So in a way, using a infinite powerful weapon like that infinite rocket launcher, gives me the satisfaction of getting my vengeance on everyone in the game. Now in this game there is a Sub Machine Gun that can be unlocked by beating the game in a certain amount of time. Same as the infinite rocket launcher but the rocket launcher can be a lot tougher to unlock because of you having to haul a lot of ammo around and a lot of items. Some of the infinite weapons that can be earned on Leech Hunter do come in handy. Heck, I unlocked the Rocket Launcher with a Infinite Hunting Gun, Infinite Custom Handgun, Magnum Revolver, and the SMG with the extra clip prize unlocked from Leech Hunter. Which is very helpful considering that you did not get a Rank A for Leech Hunter. To this day, I still can not get 100 Leech Charms!. The Charm placement is so bloody random that you can not get a good solid strategy on how exactly to get one hundred of those leech charms. The highest that I have gotten in 99. I always miss one for some odd reason. Thing is though, after you get a certain total amount, some of the places start to repopulate with enemies which is not good because you can only carry 10 leech charms per item slot, and there is fifty blue and fifty green, Rebecca can only pick up green and Billy can only pick up blue and they only have six item slots which leaves one slot open for a handgun loaded with one full clip. That is the toughest part in my view anyway.

Speaking of special weapons, there is a magnum that looks kinda like Barry's. You can get it in the Leech Hunter mini-game by getting a Rank B or higher. That means getting higher than 90 Leech Charms in the mini-game. It's really difficult to get all 100 because you have to search every single inch of the Training Facility cause that is where the mini-game itself takes place in and add to the fact that there are these new enemies called Humanoid Leeches. Which are a huge group of leeches who use their mimetic trait to copy the forms of old men. When they sense a victim near, they transform to combat form, and start to attack your character or characters, they are best put out with fire weapons like the incendiary grenades and Molotov Cocktails, yup you heard me right, there are actually Molotov Cocktails in the game. This is a pretty interesting weapon considering that it has not been in a Resident Evil game before. It's only short comings is that the throw radius is a little short and if you try to nail a Humanoid Leech form far away with this weapon, you will inevitably fail if you do that and you will leave yourself open for a attack. Also it has a slow recovery so use it wisely.

Well anyway overall this is a good game but the partner system sounded like a good idea but it was sort of pulled off. It doesn't get a full 10 because of this and the fact that you cannot use the C Stick for 180 turning.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/05