Resident Evil 2 Retrospective

The Resident Evil franchise has gone through many changes over the past 24 years. Some of them were considered a great step forward, others were greeted with resounding negativity. For all the reboots the series has taken, many fans always fall back on to the same old statement:

“Resident Evil 2 was the best though, right?”

That statement was always an inevitability when discussing the Resident Evil series. After all the twists the franchise has taken, the fanbase's opinion on Resident Evil 2 is still spoken as gospel to a lot of people. The question is why? Despite the reimagining of the franchise, how does Resident Evil 2 still stand head and shoulders above them all?

Resident Evil 2 wasn’t my first exposure to the franchise. It wasn’t even second or third. The GameCube’s version of Resident Evil 4 was my first experience of the series – a far cry from its roots in Raccoon City. As we came into the modern era, the PlayStation Store would allow us to delve into the PlayStation’s acclaimed past. Into Resident Evil’s past. The PS3’s ‘PSone Classics’ store would give me my first encounter with Resident Evil 2.

As a side note; I had acquainted myself with other Resident Evil games going into this. Owning a GameCube got me access to the remake of the original game, Zero, and Code Veronica X. I didn’t go into Resident Evil 2 completely blind to the game’s classic style.

It was different. That was obvious quite early on. Even booting it up now just gives off a vibe that games rarely do anymore. The superbly 90’s menu noises. The dark voice declaring the game title as you press start. It was startling how intimidating an intro screen for a game can be. You hardly come across such atmospheric title screens anymore. It’s possible that I’ve become desensitised to it over the years but booting up a classic Resident Evil after all these years sent a familiar tingle up my spine.

Has Resident Evil 2 held up well over the years? It’s impossible to give an accurate answer. The game shows its age, as you would expect from any late 90’s title. With last year's excellent remake, I would point anyone new to the series in that game’s direction instead of this one.

For us old-timers though, Resident Evil 2 has a distinct charm that hasn’t faltered over the years. It is endearing from the get-go and just oozes character for the entire playthrough. In large part, this is thanks to the characters. The way Claire and Sherry bond, the foundation being built for Leon and Ada’s never-ending romance story. The protagonists aren’t just likable, but they complement each other better than they do in any other Resident Evil game. Leon and Claire benefit from being ‘ordinary’. Their relatability really makes the player will them over the line in Raccoon City’s post-apocalyptic war. They feel like survivors.

Even the villains are given more character than we usually see in other Resident Evil titles. Brian Irons is a despicable person. Within the realm of realism, he is possibly the most detestable character the franchise has seen. Mr. X is an unnerving mountain of a man-mutant. His colourless design really sets him apart from the exaggerated designs of other tyrants. William Birkin, the game's main antagonist (outside of Umbrella) brings so much needed personality to the bland monsters we usually blow to pieces. It’s one of the few times the series has put a personality to the beast. If you go on to include his links to Sherry, Annette, and the G-Virus, Resident Evil 2 ends up with an antagonist that gives a payoff. You’re not just stopping another Umbrella monster, but one of the minds behind the monster that is Umbrella.

As with the original, Resident Evil 2 focuses on the ‘static camera’ style of gameplay. This is where we see the first real leap in quality between the first and second games. The camera placements in RE2 take the atmosphere beyond that of the first game. The wide-spanning shots of the burning city, low angled shots to make the enemies seem larger to the player’s distant figure. Capcom’s camera placement did a masterful job of announcing the scale of Raccoon City to the player. You felt dwarfed. You felt endangered. Hearing zombies or other mutated oddities from around corners drilled home the terror factor. The game controlled what you could see, and you were constantly at its mercy.

The static camera style remains divisive to this day. The ‘purists’ love it and consider the style a key element of the genre. Others have complaints about not being able to see effectively and the controls feeling uncomfortable – but some argue that is the point of the style. Having played through it again, I must agree that the design choices really make Resident Evil 2. The static camera takes you from being a tiny speck in a massive city to these winding, claustrophobic corridors. That is something you cannot replicate in an over the shoulder shooter. With that being said, the tank controls are dated. That is indefensible. Clunky and slow, it didn’t feel good to me when I played it 10 years ago and it still doesn’t feel good now.

When I first played Resident Evil 2, it was fantastic, yet dated. Despite playing it a decade after it was released, you could still sense there was a magic about it. With all that time having passed, it was still obvious I was playing something timeless. Revisiting it years later still gives me the same feeling of awe as my first experience. The whole series has since become very divisive years after its original release. From static cameras, over the shoulder shooters up to the more modern first-person fright fests. Resident Evil has been changed more times than a newborn baby. Despite all those changes, Resident Evil 2 remains the series’ magnum opus.