Resident Evil 2 Remake - Welcome to Raccoon City
Resident Evil 2 was the first game in the series I ever played. I still remember renting it from Blockbuster and popping the cartridge in my N64. I had no idea what it was about and how to play it. I messed around with it for a while, but after dying incessantly I decided to get some help. Over the course of the weekend, I relied heavily on the GameFAQs to beat the game before returning it (it was the late fees the big BB killed you with). I only played the Chris Redfield version and was later told completing one perspective is not enough to consider the game beaten. Around this time I decided I did not care for people gatekeeping how I played video games (it’s the mentality that has saved me lots of time and frustration over the course of twenty years).
That cheeseburger is really not appetizing
I would later learn the significance of the Resident Evil Series, and how it shaped the survival horror genre. The memes that became staples of not just of gaming culture but our popular culture. Resident Evil transcended the video games when the series came to the silver screen. For a big chunk of Resident Evil fans, the names Claire, Jill and Rebekah don’t hold as much significance as Alice. For most of us ‘that dog scene” refers to dogs jumping through the windows of the mansion. There are others for whom the phrase invokes Mila Jovovich delivering a roundhouse kick to the jaw of a mutated dog. But all of us can agree Umbrella is the most hateable of all corporations and Resident evil would be nothing if not for badass female protagonists.
I started the series with RE: Zero which I did not dislike as much as most people. I think this was mostly due to the fact I had not played RE. If I had come to Resident Evil Zero after RE, I could see myself being annoyed by the drop items everywhere mechanic. Last year I played the remaster of the original RE and came away impressed. I have already written about my experience with that one. RE 2: REmake came out in 2019 and took the gaming community by storm. Instead of playing the original RE 2 on an emulator, I decided to play this one. I still have not ruled out playing the N64 version yet, but that will have to be after the remake.
I’m going to start with Claire’s story this time
This is a modern survival horror, closer to RE 7 than RE 2. The tank controls and fixed camera angles are all gone. I can not remember how the voice acting was in the original, but it is worthy of any AAA game here. The game is one of the prettiest I have seen. It still retains the storage box and typewriter from the original. Although it does not require an ink tape to save the game itself.
We start with a shot of what looks like a rotting face, only for the camera to reveal it as a cheeseburger. A lone 18 wheeler drives into a rain soaked night while the driver listens to someone on the radio trying to convince others of his encounter with a zombie. The sleep deprived driver accidentally runs into a woman standing in the middle of the dark road. He stops to check on her but can not find a pulse. As he turns in anguish, the players see the dead woman get up in the background.
I am immediately in the fight and flight mode. Being alone at night where the visibility is compromised is a trope used effectively in the introduction of the first Resident Evil as well. It is just as effective here. The fact that I knew what was going to happen did nothing to diminish the tension the game was trying to create. As the game started, I knew I would have to play this in small doses just the way I did with the first one.
Fire looks gorgeous!
Game proper starts as we see a young woman in a red jacket riding into the night. These people really need to start travelling more during the day. The visibility is better, the driver is not tired, and most of the zombies stay out of the way. She pulls up to a gas station to make a phone call. This is Claire Redfield doing her best impression of Jennifer Lawrence. After making the phone call, Claire realizes the whole place is deserted, but there is an abandoned police car outside. She hears noises coming from inside the gas station and decides to investigate. If only she had gotten gas, turned around and went home.
The lights are turned out, because why wouldn’t they be. As she rounds the corner, Claire sees the injured clerk who only points to the back. Armed with a flashlight and a gun, Ms. Redfield makes her way to the back office. A cop is trying to hold down a struggling man. She distracts him for long enough for the man to break free and take a big bite out of the cop’s neck. Claire is starting to get an inkling of what kind of trouble she has gotten herself into. The clerk has locked the door with Claire inside. Good thing she has a gun. The zombie takes a few shots before he decides to bite the ground.
Claire is doing her best J. Law impression
Claire runs towards the back to grab a key and open the office door. The front of the store is now full of zombies. Claire makes a run for the door, only to find a man breaking through with a gun pointed in her face. He tells her to get down and shoots the zombie looming behind her. There are too many zombies to fight our way through, but the cop car is still there. They both get in and make their escape.
Now that zombies have been left behind, it is time for proper introductions. Claire’s full name is Claire Redfield, a name that will be familiar to those who have played the first RE. Chris Redfield was part of the team that was stranded at the Spencer Mansion. He made his escape with Jill Valentine. Claire has no idea where Chris has gone off to, so she is making her way to the Racoon City to find him. Leon Kennedy is also a cop. He heard about the zombie outbreak and is also trying to make his way to the RC police station to find out what is going on. Clearly the police station is the safest place with all the zombie riots going on outside. Right?
The whole city is in shambles. If it was me, I would have taken one look at the way the city was and turned the car right around. Our heroes miss yet another chance to avoid a long dangerous night full of zombie bites. There are citywide announcements urging the people to make their way to the police station where there is safety and food. Leon comes to a stop with the road blocked off by damaged cars. They are going to have to make a run for it. Before they can prep themselves. Our nameless 18 wheeler driver friend starts barreling towards them. Predictably he has been bitten and driving straight towards them. He swerves at the last possible second, but the car still blows up, with our heroes barely making out alive.
The graphics have been impressive to begin with, but this scene left me breathless. The way light of fire bounces off of the wet asphalt is amazing no matter how many times I look at it. The rain and water effects are truly remarkable here. The realistic graphics add to the discomfort. It is one thing to see the violence in blocky 32 bits of Playstation (or the 64 bits of N64), but to experience the blood and gore in high graphical fidelity is downright nauseating. I mean it as a compliment when I say the first few minutes of gameplay made my stomach churn. This will take a lot longer to finish than I originally anticipated.
12-20-2020
Sir you have full blown cataracts.
