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Resident Evil 2 was originally going to have a character called Eliza, a 19yr old motorbike expert instead of Claire but the whole thing was scrapped and rebuilt from scratch to create the masterpiece that was RE2.

"Queen of the Resident Evil world. The best."

Resident Evil 2.

When I even think the name of this game, I feel electric jolts and I'm there again... Trapped in that gloomy barricaded police station in Raccoon City. I'm outnumbered and stalked by hordes of flesh-eating zombies who never tire, never sleep and never feel pain. I'm weary and terrified, but I summon up every shard of strength I have and rage onwards, shooting off zombie heads, evading the Lickers with their deadly and disgusting 6-foot tongues, fleeing from a remorseless unkillable giant known as Mr.X, and trying to save a lonely little girl named Sherry from her monstrous family - and I'm talking monstrous literally here!

Why do I put myself through this experience time and time again? BECAUSE I LOVE IT!!! Like thousands of other fans, I thrill to the bloody as bright red paint adventure of Resident Evil 2 (RE2). This game was my eye-opening introduction to the Resident Evil (RE) world, which at the time consisted of just the two games. And RE2 was also one of the very first games I bought for the Playstation. In that respect it had a doubly incredible impact on me. To this day it remains the RE title that continues to define the series for me and just be 'the best'. It's an ace in the horror department, an ace with the most memorable story and such wonderful characters as Claire Redfield, and it's got enormous replayability: A choice of 2 main characters who play 2 intersecting scenarios, playable incidental characters, bonus unlockable weapons, and a torturously exacting bonus game in the form of Hunk's Mission.

Seeing S.T.A.R.S.

RE1 saw the S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) investigating a mansion on the fringes of Raccoon city. The mansion turned out to be a nightmare seething with zombies and mutants created by the nutso Umbrella Corporation. The monsters promptly snacked the S.T.A.R.S. down to a handful of survivors.

When RE2 kicks off, the zombie epidemic is spreading into the city as our two new heroes arrive on the scene. This is Leon Kennedy's first day on the job with the Raccoon City Police Department (unlucky bastard!). He's young, keen and dashing in his blue uniform, but with some roguish too-long Japanesey shards of hair that I don't think any real uniformed officer would be allowed.

Our second protagonist, and my favourite realistic gaming character IN HISTORY! - is the wondrous Claire Redfield. She's just rolled into town on her bike looking for her brother Chris, a member of S.T.A.R.S. They say she's wild, but I find her relentlessly sensible, as well as forthright and very warm. She's sporting a red biker jacket, some biker boots, cut-off shorts and a smart ponytail.

In the first of many stunning FMVs, the pair meet in a diner, try to escape by car, and are finally thrown from their exploding vehicle when it is rammed by a wayward truck. The two heroes are now separated by a raging fire and agree to meet at the police station. This moment is surely one of the most crystalline visualisations of 'a fork in the story' ever! You have chosen to play as Leon or Claire, one side of the inferno or the other, and to launch the story one way or the other...

''Fighting foes is not the only way
to survive this horror.''

RE2 thrillingly tosses you right in at the deep end. A streetful of zombies is closing in for the kill and you need to get the hell out of there! They shamble with different ghoulish motions and are decorated with different wounds. The city backdrop is picked out in a gorgeous pre-rendered style halfway between photorealism and the expressions of the scenic artist. The overall graphical and atmospheric effect is immediately awesome. But if you stand around admiring all that now you are going to become zombie brunch. And boy, how I remember my first shocked attempts at playing this game. I just stood there plugging bullets into the advancing zombies until I was overwhelmed, had my jugular torn open and fell to the ground in a raw heap, after which blood-drenched lettering soared out over an isolation of my still-being-cannibalised body:

YOU DIED.

I was thrilled but also stumped. 'This is impossible!'

It had never previously occurred to me in a game where I came equipped with a gun and ammo to not use them at all, but to just duck and weave. To evade my enemies. I have no score, it's my life on the line here! Thus the seeds of the Survival Horror mentality were planted in my mind.

The RE control scheme is a relative one. Left and right rotate your character, forward moves them in the direction they're facing. This goes hand-in-hand with the static backdrops. Run towards a margin of the screen and the view will cut to a new camera perspective of the area you're entering. It could be a very different angle, hence you need to be able to rely on the fact that if you keep jamming forward on the controller, you will indeed keep running in a straight line.

You will also by now have admired the fluid and extremely human motions of your protagonist. Leon and Claire will automatically turn their heads to consider new people, objects or threats. Stand still and you can check out the subtle motions of their breathing. Later on you will experience sickness in your gut as they succumb to wounds, clutch their stomachs and limp painfully away from danger. They will shove or kick at zombies when they're being attacked, and such fine details as their wonderfully varied footsteps and screams and grunts complete the effect. Your character IS you! Your character's human grace and presence is so well established that you will feel an unprecedented empathy for them. Which makes it even worse for you when you're being torn apart onscreen.

A pretty relentless gauntlet of zombies must be negotiated to even reach the police station, the central locale for RE2. As you dash through the desolate nighttime streets, up and down fire escapes and around abandoned vehicles, zombies lunge at you from the shadows. A dread howling wind fills the soundtrack, as do distant moans and shuffles of the undead. A subtle and dismal soundtrack plays in the further background. You truly experience the apocalyptic sense that you are the only person alive here. Once again, I wonder why I want to experience such feelings, but I really do.

R.P.D.

Ahhhhh, The Raccoon Police Department! Despite the fact that I've died a thousand awful deaths here, I've come to think of this phenomenal building as a second home. Its sophisticated architecture and myriad details are presented in the most stunning graphics the Playstation ever offered. Flawless pre-rendered scenery reveals everything - a scuffed linoleum floor, office material spilling from a desk, beaten lockers, barricaded doors, a lushly carpeted hallway, an office with stuffed animals glaring balefully from the walls, the grain of a wooden doorframe, a blackboard and photos in a deserted briefing room. For this console I believe it never gets any better than the survival horror style, and RE2 is one of its highest achievements.

In exploring the R.P.D. you will find piles of diaries and notes regarding what is going on, left by those who worked here. You'll read these and start to wonder,

What was police chief Irons hiding that terrified his secretary?

What's in the safe that was moved from one side of the building to the other?

What's down that hidden passage to the underground?

What's with all those statues and paintings!?

Each diary contains a swift but complete tale. There are so many! The richness of story in RE2 is through the roof. A whole world of characters past and present is evoked, and you will read of many last stands which will send chills down your spine.

Dawn of the Dead

ZOMBIES. The most persistent threat to your life, and the police station is teeming with them. Collectively, they are some of the most brilliantly expressive creations of a videogame ever, which is ironic considering they're not even alive.

The absolutely blank eyes. The nasty wounds they bear. The way they will sway and moan idly in a room until they detect movement, then reach out and lurch unknowingly towards you by instinct. They will bump into walls, furniture and each other, or mill in a corner. They're both deeply scary and pitiable. But make no mistake, if a group overcomes you, they will tear you apart. I never tire of the amazing subtleties of motion and action that make the zombies seem so REAL!

Fighting the undead is tough and highly strategic. There is rarely such a thing as an easy fight in RE2, or in any RE game for that matter. A single mistake in timing or judgement can leave you open to major damage, and you have to watch your ammo. These rigorous elements have always been a great attraction for hardcore gamers. But if you're no virtuoso, don't worry - you can warm up on a selectable Easy mode.

R1 whips out your selected weapon, then you squeeze X to start shooting, using the pad to adjust your aim - left or right, up or down. Several pistol hits will stun a zombie, another couple might knock it to the floor. If you try to dash past a floored but wounded zombie, odds are it will seize your ankle and have a snack. Difficulty increases exponentially when you have to deal with multiple zombies at once (which is most of the time). It requires a deft combination of grace, evasive movement and judicious use of weaponry to prevail. And when things get really hairy, it's time to break out the nastier weapons!

As Leon you can find and enjoy using the shotgun. Blow multiple zombies RIGHT the hell away from you with a single shell at close range. You can aim downwards for a kneecapping festival, or aim upwards at heads and watch them explode in a blood shower. The body will keep on groping about for a moment before it realises the head is gone! The visceral details and physics of combat never cease to amaze. Try slamming a zombie point-blank through the stomach with the shotgun. The legs will crumple but the top half will keep on coming, dragging itself disgustingly along the floor! With the Magnum you can start removing zombie heads at 20 paces, but watch out for that kick.

Claire has more variety but potentially less gory fun with her grenade launcher. Find and plug in different kinds of ammo - grenade, flame and acid rounds. And if you're feeling inspired, try such freakier weapons as the bow-gun or the electrocuting 'Spark Shot'. A gatling gun and rocket launcher can be unlocked for both characters. And powerful regular weapons can be found in the game, such as a flamethrower or submachine gun, though picking up the latter will impact negatively on your final rank if you complete the game.

Speaking of completion, you can unlock a whole new mission called 'The 4th Survivor', in which you play a meataxe Umbrella agent (boo hiss!) named Hunk. There's no exploration or puzzles, just a gobsmacking onslaught of monsters with off-the-charts difficulty. It's a totally striking complement to the regular game.

''Will you mix the herbs?''

Considering the mauling you face in said regular game, it's lucky that the police station is also crammed with everything that helped you out in RE1: The famous mixable Raccoon City healing herbs, First Aid Sprays, inventory boxes, and typewriters with which you can save your game. You can only carry 6 items about your person, but you can store and retrieve surplus from the 'magic' boxes scattered around the game. It's still a pain when you realise you'll need to trek back to the nearest box before you can pick up that shiny new crank, but it's also strategic, and a respectable part of the game.

Initially you will be doing a lot of key-finding and backtracking to unlock doors. The navigational challenge is truly elegant and in league with many of the puzzles you will face. You have to use numerous tools, find a use for gems and mysterious stones, push statues around and figure out how to clear a wrecked helicopter from a corridor. The atmosphere becomes starker and the puzzles more eclectic as you descend to the sewers and the cavernous underground facility. Running around alone in this bleak maze of technology miles underground is unnerving, to say the least. And the tension between keeping your eye out for solutions and bracing yourself for the next surprise monster attack as you explore keeps you on the edge of your seat for the whole journey.

Indeed, there are 100 classic shock moments in RE2 that will make you fly into the air. Shattering windows, monsters leaping out of the dark, arms smashing through a wall to grab you... Even after you've experienced them the first time, with the multiple scenarios you will rarely remember which surprises go with which game. Which makes them worse!

What's worse than a zombie, hides in a police station and also wants to kill you?

Well, plenty of things actually, courtesy of Umbrella's T-virus. Like the Lickers. Take a muscular humanoid figure, remove the skin, add a 6-foot razor of a tongue and talons and you're approximating these horrors. You can hear their claws scraping the floor as they shuffle around ahead of you, and their absolutely revolting exhalations... 'Eahhhhhhhhh!' Lickers will do things that scare the **** out of you, like smashing suddenly through one-way mirrors.

There are also mutant rabid dogs, and giant spiders whose hairy legs can be heard (and FELT with a good stereo system) drumming against the sewer walls. And in the second scenario, you frequently have to outrun or stun a dread bio-weapon known as Mr.X, or the Tyrant. This trench-coated giant will hammer you into the floor like a nail with his bare hands if you don't fight your way out. An unpleasant/ hysterical death which the game generously shows you.

The horror factor of your enemies and of the game in general increases steadily as you get further in, hitting its peak in the underground facilities. Mutant plants will suck on you with acid. An enormous column of festering mutated vegetation runs through the centre of the research facility. Moth pupae squirm on a computer keyboard where webs and cocoons drip off the walls. And William Birkin, the guy who's infected with the G-Virus... MY GOD!!!! Each time you encounter him as a boss in this game, he transforms some more. An eyeball grows out of his arm, extra heads and limbs push out of his torso. Ultimately he becomes a huge slithering wall of flesh and teeth. For anatomical horror, the imagination in RE2 slays everything, including its own RE siblings.

Claire A - Leon B

RE2 uses a highly innovative 'dual scenario/dual character' storyline system which both confuses and thrills players of all ages. Depending on whom you're playing and which one of the two scenarios (A or B), you will face different threats, situations and puzzles throughout the game. There's a core progression that's consistent for each scenario, and Leon and Claire work cooperatively towards their goals. So if you're playing Claire, you will benefit from things Leon does out of sight and vice versa. 2 characters times 2 scenarios = a total of 4 interwoven game experiences that combine to tell a story from every perspective.

Leon finds help in his story in the form of a very 'cold' operative named Ada Wong, who's always dashing off for mysterious reasons. Claire becomes involved with a 12 year-old girl she finds hiding in the police station named Sherry Birkin, whose parents have disappeared. Other characters include a jaded reporter who's locked himself in the cells to hide from monsters, and the 'I'm so evil it's just grand to be alive!' police chief Brian Irons.

I think the voice acting throughout RE2 is a standout, and a million miles away from the hysterical dialogue of RE1. Highest praise goes to Alyson Court who brings Claire to life. I make this comment not simply because I'm smitten with Claire - I really feel this is one of the most engaging voice performances for any game character ever, and that she raised the standard of the whole game with her contribution. Leon is pretty good, though he can rarely stray from being gruff. A lot of people deride the extreme performance for Chief Irons, yet I think it goes hand-in-hand with his dialogue. He is both chilling and funny as he offers such loopy comments as: 'And to think taxidermy used to be my hobby.'

''My parents never really spent much time with me.''

A lot of gamers find that little Sherry Birkin gets on their nerves, what with her sailor suit and the way you might have to backtrack to collect her when she's following you. But the Claire-Sherry story is for me the most powerful one in RE2. I find it really moving! Sherry is an only child who confesses her loneliness in several sad scenes, and Claire becomes a mother figure. I love the way Sherry touchingly watches Claire's every movement. As for Sherry's real parents, the game's horror take on neglecting your daughter is that the parents are literally monstrous... Yes, her father is now a mutating beast! And he's trying to infect his daughter Alien-style with mutant embryos because of their genetic connection!! SICK!!!

RE2 sticks horror to families and individuals. It's the most confronting and involving set of themes Capcom ever pulled out of the bag - just another reason why I think RE2 will always be tough for them to match in any future RE games. Especially if they persist in their boring movement towards bigger, more 'global' RE. The claustrophobic, close-knit stories and situations of the first 2 games are far more powerful and interesting to me.

What's really cool is that you get to play Sherry or Ada briefly when they must help their respective protagonists. And what a joy of contrast we have here! Sherry who toddles along and has no weapons, and Ada who sprints and shoots faster than any other character in the game. Yet both must negotiate the same area and vicious dogs. Fantastic design.

Listen:

Rarely outright melodic, the RE2 score provides one of the most memorable walls of atmosphere ever. Deep brooding synth, muted strings and shimmering piano figures stalk about creating the threatening majority of the soundtrack. On the city streets it's mournful. Inside the police station it's dismal and frightening. Look, the RE2 police station theme is really my favourite horror game theme in the universe. Just a few instantly memorable piano notes trickle down over a dread bass. Usually I wince or feel chills!

In the research lab, there's a rawer analogue feel in the synths to reflect our descent into this more alien world. The lab theme has been known to instantly depress gamers. But when the game wants to snap you out of all of these trance states because a 10-foot carnivorous mutant has just leaped at you from an elevator carriage, it has no compunctions about blasting you suddenly with the full orchestra. Your senses will be shocked, you'll travel several feet vertically and you'll love it.

On the contrary, the wistful results screen music may bring a tear to your eye.

''You once again stepped into
the world of survival horror.''

Resident Evil 2. It's my favourite RE game. It's my favourite horror game, and very probably my favourite game period. It's a masterpiece of dynamics. It's one of those cases of chemistry so powerful that probably no-one could have predicted its total effect.

The beautiful and horrible atmosphere, the memorable characters, the disturbing familial themes which surpass those of all the other RE games. The ultra-rigorous combat gaming and mortality-crunching gore. Engaging puzzles and exploration. The classic sense of place created with the police station. The chilling music. Dozens of classic 'shock' moments on top of slower constant dread that seeps into your bones. Incredibly imaginative monsters and the introduction to the series of the 'expressive' zombies. Enormous replayability with juicy, hard-to-get rewards, and also the dazzling cumulative effect of telling one story through four intersecting and yet different perspectives.

All of these elements come together to create the unforgettable world of Resident Evil 2. I'm not kidding here, this game changed my life! I hold it up there with my favourite films, music and novels as great art.

-- Resident Evil 2 -- 10/10 --

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/01, Updated 04/16/01