Resident Evil 2

"It's scary, and a technical marvel, but is it any good?"

I haven't seen a game that shows when it starts up- ''This game contains excessive violence and gore'' before. It's not lying either. Zombie gnawing on your leg? Why not just stamp on it's head? You can turn the blood colour green if you want. Or even blue if you hate royals. You can change the violence to high, medium or low. If you're a wuss. Of course, gore doesn't make the game.

The story. It's a bit better than yuor average zombie movie, but not much. Instead of something magical (the Necronomicon from Evil Dead) making the zombies, a man made virus is the culprit. In Resident Evil 1 (which'll unfortunatly never be seem of the N64), the insidious Umbrella corp. tested it's new T-Virus, a virus which turns humans into bio-weapons in a desolate mansion on the outskirts of Racoon City. The S.T.A.R.S team from Racoon City suceeded in destroying the mansion, but were Umbrella finished? Of course they weren't.
Somehow the T-Virus has gotten loose in Racoon city, and newcomers in town, Raccoon Police Dept. rookie Leon Kennedy and Biker Claire Redfield will find out soon enough. Split up by a gas truck smashing into their car, they make their way to the RPD station.

The game has 3D characters on top of beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, and they control well in first person controls. The original PSX controls rotate and run are a pile of pants compared to this. Also, this game has all the pre-rendered FMV in it, and is on a 512mb cart. Two CDs worth of PSX game on one N64 cart?
The gameplay is a mix of blast the zombie and find the key/bit of machine. It is always very eiree, you never are completely safe, and this game is very scary. Okay, it's not going to keep you awake, give you nightmares or make you wet your pants, it just makes you jump. For example, you search a room, find a item, and after you pick it up, a barely human licker smashes into the room without warning. Yipe. The only reason it happens is to scare you, you can quickly escape from the room.
You only have a limited number of spaces in your inventory, and you have to store items in the item box, which you can access only in certain rooms. It can be annoying at times, but it's there, and I can see why. The saving is a bit of a problem. You need to find a typewriter and a ribbon to save. There are plenty of ribbons, but saving should be a right, not a privilage. Still, it's not a big problem.

The graphics are goregous (with the expansion pack, it has no option not to use it if it's in, so I don't know about without it), the tonnes of prerendered backgrounds are very detailed, and the characters are great. it's a shame you can't get a real close look at some creatures, such as the skinless Lickers, as they are very detailed. Some effects though, such as steam and large amounts of blood spurting from bodies (small bits look fine) leave a bit to be desired. the pre-rendered cut-scenes aren't perfect in this conversion, but as the N64 has never done FMV before, they are fantastic.
Most of the game is set in the police station, but moves on to the sewers, the factory and umbrella's lab. Considering the lack of actual locations, the backdrops are pretty varied.

The sound is pretty good, but there isn't much of it, the zombies moan and groan, the Lickers breathe heavily etc, making pretty spooky situations. There is loads of speech, although the voice acting isn't the greatest, but again, a massive acheivment for the N64. There is very little music, often there is silence, and when there is some, it's barely noticable. It adds atmosphere when fighting zombies though.

This game will take you, ooh, 5 hours to finish Leon's quest. Then there is Claire's, which is very similar. Then each of these characters has a B mission, in which they work at the the same time as the other character. This is quite different. This game will last you a while, but once it's done, it's done. There are secrets to get, for speed play and stuff.

This game is great, and worth a buy if you only have an N64. If you have a PSX, you may want to save a bit of money and buy that. The first person controls however, really improve the whole experience. It would have scored more if it was longer, but it's a great game and deserves a place in your collection now. just don't play if you have a weak heart.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/15/00, Updated 02/15/00