As I was wrapping up my dissertation, I saw the Resident Evil 2 remake on sale. I’d never played a horror game in my life and I’m not really a fan of horror as a genre. But I had watched a lot of gameplay from the Resident Evil series and I was ready to give it a go, apparently. So I picked it up as a “you submitted your dissertation” present to myself and played about 45 minutes of it before avoiding it for months. But in August, I picked it back up again and completed the story, and now I’d like to talk about it.
Resident Evil 2 (2019) is a remake of the 1998 game of the same name and you have the opportunity to play as both Leon and Claire as they make their way through a monster infested Racoon City. Whilst each character’s story differs in significant ways regarding the plot, the events occur almost in parallel – they pass through the same areas of the city, have to solve the same puzzles and (up until a point) fight the same monsters. When you open up the game for the first time, you’re asked whether you want to play as Leon S. Kennedy or Claire Redfield (for my first play through, I chose Leon’s story). After completing that story, you’ll unlock the other character’s “2nd run” – so I was able to see what Claire was doing, whilst I had been running around the city as Leon. You’re only able to see the “true ending” if you complete both stories in a 1st+2nd run format.
Out of the two stories, I found Claire’s more compelling. The characters you stumble across are more interesting (and in one case, disturbing and disgusting) and I felt I definitely knew why Claire was putting herself in the danger she was. I think the key difference between Claire and Leon’s stories is the scale of the problems they are faced with. Claire’s story focuses much more on family relations throughout – the reason she’s in Racoon City in the first place is to locate her brother who she hasn’t heard from; whereas Leon’s story focuses much more on the potential widespread implications regarding the dealings of the Umbrella Corporation. Maybe I enjoyed the fact that Claire’s story felt a little more personal. Generally speaking both plots which play out are compelling – enough to make me carry on playing through the spookier sections of the game.
As I’ve said I’m not a fan of horror. I don’t often find myself drawn to a horror novel or film. It doesn’t take a lot to make me jump but Resident Evil 2 does a wonderful job at balancing the aforementioned story elements and the spookiness of the setting. The game is primarily split into three locations – Racoon City Police Department, The Sewers and Umbrella’s NEST. You spend a lot of your time in the RCDP and for me, it was easily the scariest of the locations. Many of the corridors are dark with the occasional flickering lightbulb. There are times where there are zombies or other monsters in the corridor and you simply don’t have the required defence items to get past them. There are locked doors which require bolt cutters or keys which you won’t get until later in the game. If you don’t board up windows more zombies to smash their way into the building. What tops this all off is the Tyrant known to many as Mr X. I am not a fan of Mr X and for me, he was easily the most terrifying part of the game. If you are unaware of who this delightful creature is, he stalks you through the police station but never moves quicker than a speed walk. He is relentless and the only thing I find mildly amusing about him is the fact he wears a fedora. At the time of writing I have played Claire’s story twice (as a first and second run) and I’m currently about half way through playing Leon’s story a second time and still I’m hiding in safe rooms peeking out to watch the Tyrant walk up a flight of stairs so I can safely move down the corridor in the opposite direction. Did I mention you can hear his footsteps as he searches the RCPD for you? You can hear his thundering footsteps as he searches for you. He is authentically terrifying and I love to hate his entire deal.
taken from Resident Evil 2 (2019) IMDB page
Now, it feels strange to refer to a zombie horror game as beautiful, but the world in Resident Evil 2 is stunning. I genuinely didn’t know that gore could look so good? In the RE engine, objects look disgustingly moist or wonderfully crisp when they need to be, and the lighting works extremely well too. As mentioned before, the RCPD has dark rooms and corridors, often filled with clutter; there were a number of times in my first play through where I just didn’t think to look behind the door and a zombie (or other monster) would lurch at me from the darkness. Additionally the sound design in Resident Evil 2 is something to be admired. Many of the moments where I actually felt on edge were when I heard a zombie gargling but didn’t know where it was or the Tyrant and his damn footsteps down the corridor – at one point I was playing this game with a puppy in the room who similarly didn’t like the zombie noises. In the sections in the RCPD I knew I could just down the volume down a little bit but then I wouldn’t be able to work out where the Tyrant was – I was genuinely equally scared of the audio being turned down as I was it being turned up.
But overall, Resident Evil 2 was an utter joy to play by the end of my playthroughs. There was something wonderfully satisfying about staring at the map in a safe room and whispering to myself “if I wait for Mr X to walk down that corridor and then I go upstairs and through the shower room I can quickly get back to room x,y and z before he catches up with me” and then listening for the footsteps to get quieter so I could make a run for it. By the time I got around to playing the Leon B/2nd scenario (after playing Leon A, Claire B and then Claire A) I didn’t really need to think twice about where I needed to go and what items I was going to need. I’m definitely keen to play more in this franchise with the Resident Evil 3 (2020 remake) high on my wishlist and I don’t think this is going to be the last I’ll see of Resident Evil 2.
jemima is writing 