Over 20 years ago, I played my first Resident Evil game, and my first major 3D console horror game, (of course I had played some spooky NES and computer titles much earlier), and that was Resident Evil 2. This game was definitely a game changer for me, and one of the first times I remember truly being frightened by a video game.
20 years later, as an adult, I greatly enjoyed playing the remake. They did a fantastic job with the graphics of course (something Capcom has always been an industry leader on), and the mechanics were excellent (advancing on what was achieved with Resident Evil 7), but they also did a really good job both paying homage to the original and subverting expectations with twists and turns for those who had played it.
What stood out for me above all else, however, was the sound design, something I hadn’t ever truly appreciated as much before until the dramatic increase in quality with uncompressed audio that we saw in the HD era.
For me, the regular, shambling zombies in the Resident Evil games had never been much of a source of fear. Usually, it’s the more menacing creatures that freak me out, but in the Resident Evil 2 Remake, the sound design was so phenomenal that those regular ol’ zombies scared the piss out of me. I couldn’t stand dealing with them, especially in the library. But the Umbrella labs cafeteria was the worst. I panicked having to enter that room.
Of course, there’s also… Tyrant (Mr. X)!
While Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 is scorched into my psyche as the scariest RE monster of all time, for some reason, I can’t remember Tyrant in RE2. I don’t think I appreciated challenging myself with harder game modes back then, so it’s possible he didn’t appear or appear as much on the easiest setting?
Whatever the case, I love these singular, nearly unstoppable killers (similar to Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers) that appear throughout the RE games. Previous to RE7, which had the Swamp Man in a DLC, it had been a while since there was this kind of sentient, stalking monster in an RE game.
The RE2 Remake DLC wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. Rather than making them more story-based, with checkpoints, they’re all basically just time trials, which I’ve never been a huge fan of in the series. That’s quite alright though, because they did such a great job with the core game, which is so much more than just a remake.
I’m very much looking forward to playing Resident Evil 3 Remake.
Videos of My Journey Through the Game
Snaps of My Journey Through the Game
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