2019-03-01_PC_Gamer

Shoot a leg off and they keep coming,

dragging themselves along the floor,

reaching at you with pale, clawing

hands. Turn a corner, and as the

beam of your flashlight catches their

glassy white eyes they screech and

trudge towards you,

arms outstretched, jaws

slung with glistening

blood. They don’t

sprint or explode or

sprout thrashing

parasites like they do in

newerResident Evil

games: they just moan

and lurch and grab, and

there’s something enjoyably back-to-

basics about that: a feeling that

echoes through every dark,

claustrophobic hallway of this

confident remake.

After the subversiveResident

Evil 7, with its grimy Southern Gothic

aesthetic and intimate first-person

horror, Resident Evil 2 is a return to a

more familiar style of game. It’s a

remake, but it’s never a slave to the

source material, adding or cleverly

remixing enough elements to make it

feel brand new. You can still play as

two characters – Leon S. Kennedy

and Claire Redfield – and a few fan

favourite bosses and locations have

been recreated. But even moments of

fan service are given some kind of

twist or fresh angle, which is,

honestly, not what I

expected from this

remake at all.

The grand,

imposing Raccoon City

Police Department was

always a great setting,

but the shift to three

dimensions makes it

magnificent. While the

original game relied on fixed camera

angles and the distant moan of

unseen zombies to build fear, the

remake uses light, shadow and layout

to get under your skin. Some parts of

the station have been plunged into

darkness, forcing you to pick through

the gloom with a flashlight. The

building itself is a labyrinth of blind

corners, shadowy recesses and

warren-like corridors, creating a

constant feeling of apprehension.

The station is essentially a giant

box of puzzles, and an absence of

objective markers or other such

hand-holding means you have to

draft a mental map of the building as

you make your way through it. At

first most of the building is locked up

tight, or obstacles such as the burning

wreck of a crashed helicopter block

the way forward. But as you explore

you find items that let you delve

deeper, and slowly but surely the

maze of halls, offices, atriums and

stairwells starts to feel familiar. I also

like how dead zombies stay put, even

after reloading a save, as I’d often use

their corpses as a kind of macabre

breadcrumb trail.

But navigating the station and

deciphering its riddles and puzzles is

only half the battle. The zombies, as

much fun as they are to fight, can

take a hell of a beating. Their health

seems to be randomised, meaning

that you can empty ten bullets into

one and it’ll keep crawling after you,

while another will be put down

permanently by just a few shots. This

makes them unpredictable and

tenacious, as zombies should be. But

it also teaches you a hard lesson that

every bullet in this remake is

precious, and if you can slip past an

enemy rather than killing it, you

probably should.

HUNTED DOWN

Then there’s the Tyrant, a hulking

great mutant in a trench coat for

whom gunfire is little more than a

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A quality remake of a

PlayStation favourite.

EXPECT TO PAY

£45

DEVELOPER

Capcom

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

Core i5-6600K,

GTX 1080, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

http://www.residentevil2.com

It’s a remake,

but it’s never a

slave to

the source

material

O

ne of the most remarkable things about this Resident Evil 2

remake is that it makes zombies – the slow, shambling,

groaning kind – exciting again. The undead in this game are

incredible, horrible things: shuffling lumps of bloody meat

who batter down doors, tumble through broken windows

and lunge hungrily from the shadows. They’re physical and clumsy and an

absolute joy to kill – if you have the ammo to spare.

UNDEAD KING

RESIDENT EVIL 2, a remake of the PlayStation classic, is a masterclass

in making an old game feel fresh again. By Andy Kelly

FLASHBACKThe police station, then and now

JANUARY 21,

1998

The prerendered

640x480

backgrounds of the

original game

aren’t hideous, but

the original RPD

main hall lacks a

little atmosphere.

JANUARY 25,

2019

The new version,

on the other hand,

benefits from

modern lighting

(and being 3D, of

course), and is

much scarier as

aresult.

Resident Evil 2

REVIEW