Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Resident Evil 2 (2019) {PS4}: What's Old is New.

This one was one of those E3 megaton's that developers drop to bait older gamers like myself.  And while the fourth installment of this game is the one that is a lot of peoples favorites and probably (rightfully) the most important one of the series, the original version of this one is probably my favorite because my introduction to the series. 

Remakes like these are always a roll of the dice because its difficult to please everyone. Do you produce a new experience and risk having fanboys complain that everything is different? Or do you keep it faithful to the original and risk having people complain that its the same game they've already played. It's a fine line to walk, so let's see how Capcom did with.....

RESIDENT EVIL 2 (2019){PS4}

Resident Evil 2 takes place two months after the events of the original in 1998, where Raccoon City police S.T.A.R.S unit members Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Rebecca Chambers, and Barry Burton escaped the mansion outside of the city limits where Umbrella Pharmaceuticals had a secret facility to create the zombie producing bio-weapon, the G-virus. The mansion was destroyed but the it did not halt the outbreak of the virus.

It's Leon Kennedy's first day on the police force, and he's driving into Raccoon City to meet his new team and department. But on at a fuel fill-up just outside the city he notices the station to be surprisingly desolate. Investigating the gas station, he sees an attendant nursing a nasty wound and the man weakly points into the back. Another police officer is restraining a zombie, but as the officer tells Leon to stay back, the zombie lurches forward and kills him. Leon begins to work his way out of the station, but just before getting out the door, he covers the back of a young woman with a zombie encroaching behind her.

Her name is Claire Redfield, she is driving into Raccoon City in search of her older brother Chris. They decide to escape together and that heading to the police station would be a lot safer than staying out side. But they quickly learn that city is just overrun with these things as their car is quickly surrounded. They try to back out, but an injured truck driver tailing them is about to ram their car, forcing them to bail out. The resulting wreck and explosion separate the two, but they agree to meet up at the police station and get out of this mess.


Alright, I tend to find myself when it comes to remakes like this wanting to see the core tenets of what made the original good stay the same, but not delivering them in the exact same way, thus allowing us to have a new experience with the game, even if I know how the story might play out. The introduction of this version of the game provides a pretty excellent example of this. 

Right out of the gate the story managed to hit all the major points of the original one in a pretty faithful 1-to-1 recreation. There is some minor differences to how the events play out, but all the of the major beats are there, and they call back to the original animatics first meeting where Leon shoots over Claire's shoulder to cover her back. The dialog and delivery is different, but it doesn't feel alien. The objective is the same, but the starting map is not. Good start so far.

Credit where its due, Capcom has really been upping their game on the graphical front. After the the stellar looking Resident Evil 7: Biohazard the graphics are just pushed even further to where video games are literally just motion captured movie roles. Using mo-cap for both body motion and facial reactions, the characters are so lifelike its getting pretty difficult to distinguish if they are actual a real person or not. It's crazy, but we are getting closer and closer to producing CGI live action.

This burger looks so gross, but also delicious?

The character design is appropriately modernized as well. While the game is still set in 1998 (around when the original version came out) the clothing worn by the characters actually looks realistic and reasonable for the time. Hilariously, Leon and Claire's original outfits are unlockable and if you didn't think their old looks weren't stupid just wait till you seem them in realistic textures.

Resident Evil 2 does feel like this one borrows a number of elements from various different games in the series. The inventory system in this game is a blending of 2 and 7. It uses the familiar over the shoulder camera angle that made Resident Evil 4 famous, but I would say that it controls more like a traditional 3rd person shooter does like you would see in the less popular Resident Evil 6.  Fans just need to come to terms already: The tank controls are a thing of the past, and probably should have been since the advent of the analog control. I tried using them again in Resident Evil: Revelations and they were awful. It's a relic of a time when controls were D-pad directional.

They did a pretty good job with the map layout as well. It's core layout is almost exactly how I remember the original Resident Evil 2 but when you start to actually navigate around the map, you will find doors or stairs in different places. Major rooms right where they should be, but new or different rooms scattered around on the way there. For example if I said to go to the dark room, you would know to go right where the safe room at the bottom of the stairs is. But along the way, you would find a new weapons locker room that you will need to make several trips back to get all the contents of.

via Gfycat

More importantly, despite taking inspiration from the blueprint of the previous iteration, the game still manages to keeps it focuses tight and scary. Even though I have a general idea of where I want to move in the map, the surroundings are still unfamiliar and it does an excellent job of building tension from relentless enemies and jump scares. And boy is there tension, because zombies in this one don't feel like as harmless a threat as they used to be. They have much more sporadic movements, they can move much quicker on you, and worst of all they seem almost impossible to put down. I don't feel like I was every lacking in ammo, but trying to kill everything will certainly make it feel like it.

Cutscenes play out similar but differently as well. Most notably when Leon meets officer Marvin. Again like the main introduction it hits a lot of the same points but is completely different and new dialog. He mentions the party, at one point pulls his gun to get Leon to leave him. But this doesn't happen in the first and only scene he was in like in the original. A lot of these characters actually get a couple more scenes than I remember from the original. It's nice to see because any longtime fan of  this franchise knows that the lore of this one can get confusing.

via Gfycat

Additionally they also kept the "side" system you might remember from the old PS1 version. How it worked before was there was really no disc 1 or disc 2. If you started the game from the Leon or Claire disc you would start a new game with them as the primary lead. It affected how the game played a bit and how some of the items dropped. This more or less returns as you can choose who will lead off in the main story first, and who will follow in the supplemental chapter. So essentially each selection has 2 parts each.

Speaking of things that they kept, completing the game will also unlock the "4th Survivor" mode.  You may remember this as where you play as faceless umbrella operative Hunk with a set amount of equipment, and essentially need to run a gauntlet of all the baddies you encountered during the game to try to set the best possible time you can. Complete this, and you unlock the ridiculous Tofu mode, which is more or less the same thing, but the equipment changes. There are multiple versions of Tofu to unlock as well.

via Gfycat

And I can't believe I am saying this, but kudos to Capcom for the free DLC update. This is the store of thing I fully expected them to charge and additional 5 bucks a pop for but they released 3 additional mini chapters called the "Ghost Survivors" that give smaller but similar tight experiences with some of the smaller nobody characters from the game. They are a welcome edition and stretch my dollar with this game out a little more, which is nice because by credit roll I already had felt like I had gotten my money's worth already.

If I have any complaints about this one, there are very few of them or there are nitpicks at best. Like I said prior, the most baffling part of how the story is delivered is the fact that after Claire and Leon part ways for the first time, they basically don't talk to each other again from that point forward. There is one short scene in the early game, one scene in the late game, and then not again till the ending of the game. It's strange because I remember there being more interaction between the two of them in the PS1 version.

There is also a bit of inconsistency if you play both quests, both ways. Both G Berkin and the Tyrant appeared in the previous version of the game, but they were separated by who's quest you played. That way each character is resolved by another. But in this one, they are both in both quests. So while in one path one of them might be a difficult ending boss, in other they might be dispatched early and not relevant to the true ending. It's a weird way to deliver it. Not a huge issue, but it is noticeable.

via Gfycat

No bowgun in this installment of the game. Which is simultaneously disappointing and a relief, because if you played the old game its about as effectively damaging as trying to spit snot at a baddie through a drinking straw. Sure, it's become somewhat iconic to the game and the concept of zombie killing at this point in zombie culture, but ultimately I really don't mind that its gone.

Going through Hunk, Tofu, and trying to S+ rank is incredibly frustrating for me because I can't get the knack of properly side stepping zombies not matter how many speedruns I watch, but that's more of a "git gud" problem than it is a complaint about the actual game, but I will say the frustration in trying to do so was enough for me to put the game down and move on to something else.

via Gfycat

A number of people complained about how the character models looked for both Leon and Claire in this one but honestly, if they were to shoot a new (actual) Resident Evil 2 movie in the coming year, this is exactly the type of look Hollywood directors would cast for said role, it really feels like a complete modernization of the concept in every aspect.

I fizzled out pretty quickly on this one too after I played it. Which is strange because I was very excited to dive into this one. I powered through both variants of both campaigns, beat 4th survivor once, and after a few attempts at Tofu mode, that was it. I was kinda done with it. These modes don't seem to scratch my itch like the Mercenaries mode does, so I did find this one very easy to put down.

via Gfycat

But like I said, half of these barely register a complaint. The short and skinny of it is that if you are going to do a remake of an timeless old game that everyone loves? This is exactly how you to do it. There ARE ways to stay true to the original without changing the core of what it is. The graphics are new but familiar, the maps are the same but different, the monsters are acting the same but behave differently. It completely felt like I was playing Resident Evil 2 while still completely feeling like a brand new experience to me.

In the very early stages of my playing, I had said that the was the some possible game of the year potential out of this one. And I suppose technically this is still true, but I do have the tendency to get really excited with some early of the year games (see Tales of Berseria). It's entirely possible that it can be game of the year, but there is a LOT of games to look forward to this year. But even if its not, I can say with certainty that I felt Resident Evil 2 absolutely delivered on what it needed to be. It was a solid pick up, worth every bit of time I spent on it, and is a must have for 2019. Highly recommended.

Hey SquareEnix! Pay Attention!
This is how you need Final Fantasy 7 to go!


1 comment:

  1. Exactly the review I was looking for to decide on this purchase! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete