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"Doesn't quite live up to the original - but still manages to be enjoyable"

Introduction

So, on a whim, I decided to buy this from my local videogame store after work one day. I went home and played it, and was a little surprised by how it differs from the original. It's certainly faithful in many ways, although like in so many series, the original is just too good to top.

Gameplay - 7/10

It's very similar to the method from the original, but in many ways different. One of the things that's definitely noticeable about later Resident Evil Games is that, whereas in the original, you would rarely be tackling more than one or two zombies at once, you will now often be taking on hordes of often five or more zombies, and quite reqularly too.

The game is somewhat more linear than the original, in that there isn't really a lot of backtracking. You make your way through the streets and into the police station, where you spend a large amount of the game searching for items, and killing zombies, and then you move on through the rest of the areas.

Controls are similar to the original, with you pressing forward to make your character walk forward, rather than walk towards the back of the screen, and there is one added annoyance - you have to press A every single time that you want to go up or down stairs; I genuinely got stuck and confused at the top of the police station stairs for about five minutes before it dawned on me. The characters you use are Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, but you do occasionally play as Ada Wong and Sherry Birkin. The latter gives an extra challenge, since - being 12 years old - she cannot defend herself at all (she has no weapons).

The monsters that you face don't seem quite as varied as in the original - there are the traditional zombies and dogs, and also giant spiders - and a few new enemies; "lickers", and plant creatures. Bosses are occasionally great, although some get repetitive throughout the game. You will be constantly fighting a man (if he can be called that after the first few fights) called William Birkin, and a variety of more random enemies, which range from ridiculously easy (the moth boss, for example) to quite hard unless you know how (the alligator boss can actually trap you in a corner unless you know the really cool way to kill him).

The game itself actually consists of two separate sections - the A game and the B game - and you can choose to play the first part as either Claire or Leon, giving two versions of both, which are slightly different in their own unique ways. Both take place simultaneously to one another. At first, I found the "B" game to be a bit of a letdown, as a lot of the time all you are doing is repeating things you did in the "A" game (I kept wondering who exactly was running around the place locking doors the other character had already opened). However, the game would not be complete without the second game, and as an added challenge, a monster known only as "Mr. X" shows up. This guy behaves like the Terminator, and stalks you through the game mercilessly.

The scare factor from the previous game is also present, although there aren't quite as many scares, aside from a few moments where zombies grab you through windows, the first licker attack, and a certain incident in the "B" game that will make you realise that even when there are no windows or doors around, you're still not safe.

When both stories are completed, there is another final boss fight to do, although - as with many Resident Evil games, this is rather too easy to beat.

With regard to unlockables, there are a few secrets, such as a secret mode that you can unlock, but as with most Resident Evil games, unlocking it is something for complete experts only.

Story - 8/10

It's not a patch on the original, but it's saved by the fact that the bad guys seem to be more three dimensional than usual - including William Birkin, who actually seems to be an incredibly tragic character, who injects himself with the virus he created, and his wife. Ada Wong is the most intriguing character, simply because she's very ambiguous.

The only connection between this and the original is the fact that Claire is the sister of Chris Redfield from the original. No Chris, no Jill, no Rebecca, no Wesker - but still the noticeable presence of Umbrella. Claire is searching for Chris, while Leon is a rookie cop on his first day - but he has a nasty surprise when all his colleagues get turned into zombies. The story is mainly about their attempts to escape from William Birkin and the other monsters. The presence of Mr. X, who appears out of a crashing helicopter - isn't exactly explained - just that he's there, and he's after Claire and Leon, but it makes for a cool story, anyway.

Graphics - 8/10

Unlike the remake of the first Resident Evil, the graphics here are pretty much the same as they were in the original Resident Evil 2, so you'll have to be prepared for the fact that they don't seem to be quite up to the usual standard of the Gamecube. Some of the on-screen messages can be distracting, but that's more down to bad grammar than anything else (one of the messages I read was: "You got the Marvin's report").

However, the best bit about the graphics is William Birkin himself. Just watching his transformations seems almost as painful as they clearly are, as each time he becomes less and less human. After the first few transformations, you can see that his original face now resides on his chest, having been discarded by his body in favour of a monstrous face (yeah, yeah - human faces are SO out of fashion!) When you face him the final time, you'll have a hard time believing he ever was human. Certianly the freakist thing I've EVER seen in a Resident Evil game.

Sound - 5/10

Not great, apart from the normal "roars" from zombies and other monsters, and not a lot of music to speak of. The voice acting is generally nice, though - despite Sherry Birkin's annoying voice (she genuinely sounds like Amy Rose from the Sonic series).

Play Time/Replay Value - 6/10

Out of all the Resident Evils, this one was the fastest that I actually completed, and it does seem a little short - possibly because in some places you will be storming through the "B" game, which is not a lot harder than the "A" game. There are some extras you can access, but you will need to play a near perfect game in order to actually achieve this. The game is worth playing again to see both versions of the "A" and "B" games.

Final Verdict

Well, I'd say buy since I'm such a Resident Evil addict and I had to get them all to complete my collection. It's not the best in the series by any means, but it will certainly keep you entertained for a while.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/05