We live in an age dedicated purely to nostalgia, and now it seems almost redundant to say this. What is often not said, however, is that sometimes nostalgia brings positive results, sometimes negative ones. For this reason, the return of a video game dated 1998 has caused a sensation since its inception (like the fan remake from the boys of Invader Studios), arriving on the shelves and immediately dictating the law with 3 million copies sold in a short time. The question is: Resident Evil 2 Is it simple nostalgia, or something more?
An instruction manual for remakes
The thing that immediately strikes the eye barely Resident Evil 2 is placed in the console, it is the mastery that the team of Capcom has had in balancing new elements with old gameplay dynamics, bringing in the final product something suitable for both longtime fans and first-time players. In case you didn't know, Resident Evil 2 is set in Raccoon City, and sees two characters venture towards safety: the first is Leon Kennedy, historical character (also seen in the fourth and sixth chapters) struggling with his first day in the police of Raccoon City, and Claire Redfield, sister of the protagonist of the first title (and also present in Code: Veronica, in the fifth and sixth), arrived in town to look for her brother.
The remake of Resident Evil 2 brings back the dynamics of the "double disc" seen in the release on PlayStation in '98, but adapting them to the blu-ray format: the single disc will therefore contain two separate and parallel adventures, which can be played in any order and which, despite making Leon and Claire travel the same sections of the map in the same time frame, some dynamics and puzzles will change to make the experience new. Among the various contents are the challenges in completing certain objectives (and unlocking bonuses), but also the campaigns dedicated to Hunk and Tofu (special contents that will add challenge to escape, as well as new gameplay sessions).
In terms of gameplay, the title takes full advantage of Resident Evil 4, despite looking at the improvements that the saga has had over time (and correcting choices made previously on other chapters): we therefore find the view over the right shoulder with a dynamic camera, the possibility of aiming and walking at the same time, and the gunpowder ammo creation feature. Resident Evil 2 also brings a new dynamic linked to the much hated windows: you can in fact, through the wooden planks that you will find around, close them and prevent other zombies from entering through that passage.
There is no Resident Evil 2 without puzzles, and here too Capcom has pleased everyone: the sessions of "look for the medallions" or "place the pins" are back, naturally varying some dynamics such as to avoid the feeling of already seen and reduce everything to a welcome dejavù. Even the game maps, despite maintaining the same atmosphere, have been adapted and changed, adding some new sections and varying others. The sum of the authorial choices however, it did not only determine positive factors: the "zombie park" in the game has been reduced, avoiding some historical BOWs like the Moth, the Zombie Crows and the Spiders, historical enemies for those who chewed the Resident Evil titles in the 90s and 2000s. The choice probably lies in a simplification of the game, in an era where variety has left room for combinable dynamics, thus leading to seek a smaller difference between enemies, but favoring, however, an application in various sauces than those present.
Another protagonist of the game is the difficulty: you can in fact choose it between Assisted, Standard e Hardcore. If the first will lead you to have an assisted aim, reduced zombie vitality and self-healing health, the Standard one introduces "old-fashioned" dynamics such as cures related only to Medical and Plant Sprays, manual aim (but you can also choose to set it assisted) and a very high zombie vitality. The real highlight, however, is dedicated to the nostalgic and comes with the Hardcore mode, which in addition to further increasing the vitality of the enemies, brings back the famous tapes for the typewriter, thus proposing a historical dynamic of the saga and limiting the rescues.
Raccoon City, year 2019
Technically speaking, the game boasts many advantages: the graphics engine RE Engine allows you to manage enemies with dismemberments, damage in real time and a photorealism capable of adding depth to the acting of the characters. Special effects (such as film grain) are ready in case you want to add a pinch of "film style" to the game, although sometimes it spoils the image a bit by blurring important areas (we always talk about movies and not games). The title runs at 60 frames per second on all consoles, despite the greater power of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X allow for less dips. Even though the base console versions struggle on graphical details with minor glitches here and there, the graphics engine (and its tools) complete the magic. bringing to the screen the best Resident Evil ever in terms of graphics.
Il sonoro again to be important, if not vital: enemies like the Tyrant (or if you prefer Mr. X) will be recognizable through their footsteps, while the noises made by the various zombies scattered on the map will make your every single move vital. In this way, the noises even beyond the doors will also become important, to avoid you from horrible and bloody ends.
The fear of origins
We recently experienced a sort of decline of the survival / horror genre: the dozens of content dedicated to zombies, those horror with powerless protagonists and an increasingly push towards the jump scare had reduced the genre to the bone, making titles that perish they still remembered their foundations, in favor of something more immediate and mostly based only on making you scream. Resident Evil 2 - and its success so far - highlighted how the old survival / horror dynamics are still current and frighteningly terrifying, like the scarcity of ammunition combined with an attack power capable of making you face the enemy (avoiding to remove fight or flight from the equation) or that very Romerian atmosphere. The level of anxiety that Resident Evil 2 is capable of generating - at the levels of the original game - is a mixture of new techniques (low light, dynamic front camera) combined with old axioms that, properly modernized, bringing the horror not to a new level, but at least to a new modern language that is understandable to the present generation.
Conclusion A: the neophyte
If you have not yet approached Resident Evil, or if the oldest title in the saga you have tried is the fourth chapter, then Resident Evil 2 will allow you to find a world that is more than 20 years old, but with the energy of a boy, capable of presenting gameplay mechanics that unfortunately are increasingly rare today. The adventures of Leon and Claire, despite not being the first title released in the series, represent the other side of the coin (made up of Chris and Jill, historical protagonists), and manage to add depth and thickness to a title that from the very first moment he has always depicted common heroes capable of great acts of courage, and not just scared and unarmed citizens.
Conclusion B: the fan
Resident Evil 2 is the fusion of everything you could possibly want: the classic story that you have been wanting to relive for the past 20 years, combined with modern gameplay. The latter, however, does not forget the roots, but is in its own way a brave remake enough and tied to the past as needed. Birkin (and little family), Mr. X, are back, along with historical enemies like the Lickers or the plant zombies. The game sessions will be a pleasant dejavù, leading you to discover how something can be the same as the original (setting, weapons, story) and at the same time different (puzzles, acting).
