Oh dear God they've done it again.......and i'm scared (Resident Evil 2 (PC))

Member Name: Moominpapa

Product:	Resident Evil 2 (PC)
Date:	24/12/00 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Storyline, FMVs, gameplay, and the mindless violence

Disadvantages: Backdrop graphics can look a bit tacky

The original Resident Evil had me running around the house at night with plastic guns shouting ‘Who goes there!’ whenever I heard a floorboard creak and almost killing my brother. Well he shouldn’t moan about things in the dark. For all I knew he was a walking corpse on the hunt for my severely deranged brain. Then, when I completed the game things calmed down, my sleep patterns returned to normal and, gradually, my family started talking to me again. Then what happened, they released a sequel!!!

The story

If you remember, in the original, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine escaped a zombie-infested mansion on the outskirts of Racoon City. Resident Evil 2 is set a month or so later. Chris and Jill’s stories were never believed, because Umbrella swept all evidence of the disaster under the carpet. Then zombies began appearing in town and slowly, the whole town became infested with them. The Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield showed up. Leon is a new member of the S.T.A.R.S unit, as were Chris and Jill, and Claire is Chris’ sister who’s shown up to see her big brother. Claire and Leon meet, but are separated and so venture into the fear-filled streets of the town. The plot is, once again, extremely well structured, and draws in anyone who plays it.

Gameplay

Not much has changed with the basic gameplay, and the few things that have are for the best. In Resident Evil there was no way of telling when your character is severely buggered and you had to enter the menu every so often to check. In Resident Evil 2, the character changes the way in which they walk depending on their physical status, so it starts with a slight limp and the holding of one arm and ultimately ends with full on slow foot-dragging. This can make it harder to escape from the undead, but adds to the realism massively. Once again, as I did in my review of Resident Evil, I have to recommend the PC version rather than the Playstation ve
rsion, as the control system is far superior and the graphics a hugely advanced.

Unfortunately, Resident Evil 2 is not as scary as the first, although it does have many moments which make you jump and just hit the keyboard with pure shock. The locations a really enthralling, but not quite as eerie as the mansion, and as in the original, you start in basic buildings and end up in scientific ‘factory’ places. I would like to make it clear though, that although Resident Evil is slightly superior to its sequel, all of the games are part of a series and so they are all great and if you own one I recommend you buy the rest.

Graphics

The Resident Evil games have a unique blend of 3D animation and 2D backdrops, which although they sound a bit crap, these could be said to be the essence of the horror within the games. The 3D character models are fantastic and move with a smoothness only ever seen before in John Smith’s Extra Smooth. Don’t play any Resident Evil game, however, for the graphics, as it is the gameplay, especially the rush to find the ammo (which is usually in short supply), which makes them so great.

The new FMVs feature computer animated characters in the series’ second outing, rather than the ‘real-life’ animation of the original’s, and are always action-packed, especially the opening and closing ones.

If you liked the first one and don’t own this game yet. What the hell have you being doing in the two years it’s been out, get out and buy it now! Now I tell you!!!!!

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