8 / 10. A jumpy jaunt through Raccoon City in a creepy, welcome remake with amazing cinematic graphics and fluid gameplay

Resident Evil 2 is a remake of the 1998 original survival horror game, developed and published by Capcom.

Set in 1998, two months after events of the original Resident Evil game, you play as either Leon S. Kennedy, a police officer, or Claire Redfield, a college student looking for her brother, Chris. They are trapped in Raccoon City during the zombie outbreak caused by the T-virus release, created by Umbrella Corporation. Matters are complicated by the new G-virus, which creates even more deadly human hybrid bioweapons. Fun.

The game incorporates many original elements. You traverse the city solving cryptic puzzles, fighting zombies and other mutated monstrosities, with limited ammunition. You can only save the game in typewriter rooms you find along the way, and only if you have collected ink ribbons. The limited save points and ammo create a tense, tactical element, and fight or flight decisions have consequences.

I thoroughly enjoyed this jumpy jaunt through Raccoon City, the updated remake was a welcome one.

The cinematic scenes throughout were amazing. The Police Station segments were by far the most nerve-wracking; windows smashing, zombies grabbing you, the constant storms and rain, etc.

Once the Tyrant showed up, his ominous footsteps made me anxious as I couldn’t tell exactly where he was. This was effective, but got annoying quickly. I learnt the hard way that shooting him did nothing, leaving me with reduced ammo and health for later boss battles. Whilst playing as Claire - I also missed the sub machine gun : (

Once outside the Police Station in the sewers, tunnels, and the lab, the game lost some of the tense atmosphere and didn’t have the same creepiness, but the puzzles were good, the gameplay was fluid.

I completed my first playthrough as Claire, then my second as Leon. There were some differences in Leon and Claire’s storylines that merge on occasion, but I’d have welcomed more differences to make it a newer experience.

The bosses were much easier on the second playthrough with Leon – due to the shotgun.

The additional modes were a lot of fun, those skinny white zombies were creepy and formidable opponents.