Resident Evil 2

"Terrifying and suspenseful, challenging puzzles and an interesting story"

Resident Evil 2 takes place after the mansion was burnt down in Resident Evil 1. Claire Redfield, who is Chris Redfield's sister, has gone to look for her brother in Raccoon City. When she gets there, she finds that the town is deserted, and finds a cop, Leon. After a while, Claire and Leon are driving in a car, and a zombie appears in the back seat demanding food. Seeing Leon and Claire as the nearest possible objects to food, it attacks them. Leon slams on the breaks, and the zombie goes flying through the window. Suddenly, a lorry appears in the distance, smashing cars out of the way, and heading straight for Leon and Claire. They both jump out of the car at the same time, only in different directions. The car blows up, and Leon and Claire are trapped on separate sides of the wreckage. Their only hope is to meet in the police station.

Shortly after the FMV introduction, the player takes control. You are standing on a street, a fire is roaring behind you, and zombies are closing in from all sides. The graphics are so good, that it will probably shock you to realise that you are actually playing the game. As the zombies slowly but surely shuffle their way towards you, it is up to you to guide Clair/Leon past them. It is at this point, that you may realise the graphics to be slightly amazing. The way the characters in the game are animated is superb. The backgrounds and the actual locations are among some of the best graphics I have ever seen on the PlayStation. They are so detailed! Capcom have used a different style than most other games. There are perhaps 3-10 cameras positioned all over a room. When Claire/Leon moves out of range of one camera, then another camera will be active from a different location in the room. On the one hand this is good, because it allows the PlayStation to generate beautifully drawn and detailed locations. On the other hand, it's not so good, as you don't get the realistic impressions that you would get from some games, as the cameras are still and don't move at all. Another minor problem with the graphics is that they are extremely blocky on the characters. It looks like Claire is made up of blocks, and this also takes away from the realism of the game. Apart from these small problems, the graphics are superbly drawn and are very scary in some rooms.

The sound effects in Resident Evil 2 are particularly scary. The monsters have great sound. When a licker starts chasing after you, then you know it's time to run to the nearest door, throw the controller at the TV in fear, or quickly turn off the PlayStation. But why is the licker so scary? Well, it's not the actual licker that's scary. I mean, what's scary about a red blob with claws? What's really scary is the sound that it makes. As you enter a room with a licker, you can hear it breathing slowly, and when it knows that you are in the room with it, it will let out an extremely scary roar and will start scuttling after you in the most scary sounding way. It's not only the lickers that are scary. The zombies too, echo their moan, and then come shuffling after you with their arms outstretched. While the sounds are scary, the music definitely provides the most atmosphere to the whole game. As you are walking around the police station, and you hear a THOMP, like a door shutting. Has something entered the room? Is there something outside? And what's that strange noise? The music and sound effects in Resident Evil 2 seem like they were meant to create fear, and they do a very good job in doing just that.

After the extremely lengthy, and well made FMV introduction, you will be in control of the game. When you start the game, you are surrounded on all sides by zombies. Will you arm your handgun, or will you try and run for it? After escaping the clutches of the zombies, you will soon arrive at the police station. It is here that the main part of the game starts. As you progress around the police station and beyond, you will have to solve various puzzles in order to advance through the game. Most of the puzzles are logical, and are well thought of, but there are a few that stand out as being just too difficult. As you progress around the locations, you will be able to find different and more powerful guns such as the include the handgun, shotgun and rocket launcher. which There are many different kinds of monsters within the locations, some of which are extremely scary. The game is very scary, but is also fun as well. Trying to unlock new rooms and finding out new puzzles in the game is always fun. There has been a lot of effort put into this game, and it shows.

There are two CDs, with a different character to play on each CD. To start off with, you play scenario a. You can choose which scenario you want to play first, either Claire's or Chris's. After completing scenario a, you are given a rank, and are then allowed to progress onto scenario B. In scenario B, you go through the same locations, but with a different character. If you got an object with a character in scenario A, then in scenario B it would be gone. Completing both of the scenarios with both of the characters will take a very long time, as there are so many puzzles to solve, objects to pick up and monsters to run away from on the way. Should you manage to do especially well in the game, then you will be given a sub game called 4th survivor. This is your reward for getting through the game, and is a lot trickier than completing the main game. With a game this big, it's not surprising that it lasts a very long time. This game is huge, there is just so much to do, and it's just great fun! Overall, Resident Evil 2 has terrifying atmosphere throughout but is extremely entertaining to play.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/00, Updated 01/09/04