The survival horror genre gained second wind at the end of January with the release of Resident Evil 2 (RE2), a current-generation remake of the 1998 classic.
The first time I played the original was when it launched and, to this day, it is considered one of the best survival horror games out there. When Capcom announced that they were working on a remake of RE2, I couldn’t help but get excited about it. However, I was worried they wouldn’t do the original justice. I’ve played through the game a couple of times, and this is how it compares to the 1998 original.
Graphics
Let’s start with the most obvious. The graphics of the remake are, naturally, a thousand times better than the original—the characters looking like real people, not walking blocks. Better graphics make the experience a lot more terrifying, with the zombie models looking like real flesh-eating monsters, their body parts tearing off from bullet damage. The Raccoon Police Station has also seen a huge bump in fidelity. This time, the developers decided to make the environment look a lot darker, but with the combination of well-placed lighting, it creates the perfect atmosphere to make the player feel a sense of fear and dread.
Camera Angle
Returning players will notice straight away that the camera angles have changed. In the original, the camera was fixed, only showing the player what the developers wanted them to see. The remake has a more modern, over-the shoulder-camera, in line with recent Resident Evil games. It also allows the player to move the camera 360°, making it easier to spot certain objects and take in the detailed environment.
Audio
In the 1998 version, the voice acting was terrible and cheesy—it sounded like the voice actor was reading a script translated on Google from Japanese to English. But as graphics improved, so did the voice acting. The characters in the remake sound like real people in a real situation. Likewise, the soundtrack has a more modern touch. However, if you bought the special edition of the game, you also have the option to keep the original soundtrack. Nostalgia for those who need it.
Gameplay
The game feels smooth, and the modernised controls mean it’s easy to handle the characters. Combat is as intense as ever, with even the casual zombie requiring quite a few shots to take down. That means knowing when to pick your fights. Do you waste precious ammo on this one zombie, clearing the way for the next time you come back? Or, do you try to escape, saving your ammo but running the risk of encountering that same zombie later on? This kind of resource management is huge in RE2. In the original, each door had a loading screen time, due to the console not being powerful enough to load all the rooms at once. This made it easy to avoid enemies, since you could just run into the next room and they wouldn’t follow. The remake likes to keep you on your toes, as those loading screens are gone. This means that if you try to pull the same trick, the enemies will just follow you to the next room and turn you into a snack.
Story
No spoilers: the story is the same as the original, but with enough tweaks here and there to make it feel fresh. Some moments are familiar, but it always felt like a brand-new game to me. There are more characters who have been added to flesh it out, and the dual protagonists interact with each other a bit more than they did in the original, giving them a more believable sense of camaraderie. There is also a new area in the remake—the orphanage—which will catch veteran players off-guard. The story is divided between two scenarios, meaning that everything you do in scenario A will affect scenario B. If you decide to take all the ammo or health items in your first playthrough, you won’t have them on your second. This makes the remake good for strategy and replayability.
Should you buy the remake if you played the original? Absolutely, I say. Did the developers do the original justice? 100%. I normally say that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but Capcom proved me wrong and did a brilliant job with Resident Evil 2, improving on a classic across the board.
For the final verdict, I’m giving Resident Evil 2 Remake a 9/10.
