Resident Evil 2 Remake review: A brilliant, pant-soiling reimagining of the classic survival horror
The best pop-culture horror holds a mirror to our deepest psychological fears. And while Resident Evil 2 hit consoles in the relative peace and prosperity of 1998, its shuffling brand of OG zombies, jerking towards an unspecified apocalypse, driven not by a grand unified plan but a mindless, instinctual desire to see the world burn feels like the perfect reflection of these Trumpy, Brexity, climate-changey times.
This bottom-up reimagining of the decades-old classic is as much a sibling of last year’s Resident Evil 7 (or, indeed, the iconic Resident Evil 4) as it is the titular game. The action shifts from the gothic squalor of the Louisiana bayou back to the creepy grandeur of the Racoon City Police Department, but it once again casts you alone and unprepared into the near-darkness of an inscrutable, hostile pile of bricks and mortar.
Created in the same engine as Resi 7, developer Capcom recasts the static screens of the 1998 game in glorious 3D, making use of some of the most impressive lighting effects of this console generation. Most of the game is spent creeping through pitch-black corridors using your flashlight to illuminate a narrow pathway, aware that some unseen horror could burst from the shadows at any time.
The station itself hasn’t just been remade, it’s been totally reimagined, with new sections and fiendish twists on recognisable locales; 20-year-old muscle memory won’t get you far.
Things are made even more unpleasant by the massively expanded role of the Tyrant, a vast, unstoppable menace who stalks you through the game in much the same way Jack Baker did in Resi 7, wanting nothing more than to smush you into the ground for no reason whatsoever. A decent pair of headphones are highly recommended, not just for the heightened atmosphere, but for the ability to locate the direction of his ominous footsteps so you can run headlong in the opposite direction.
Often times, however, you have to figure out a way past him, because beneath the veneer of survival horror, Resi 2 has always been a puzzle game. You must find things to use on other things, crack codes, rearrange blocks. The police station is opened up piece-by-piece like a Chinese puzzle box, each new key or set of bolt cutters allowing you to move deeper into unknown territory. None of the puzzles are overly taxing, but having a bloke taking bites out of your shins while you’re doing it doesn’t help.
The tension comes not only from the constant threat of being horribly mauled, but the minute-to-minute decisions you’re forced to make. Resources are limited and every bullet ploughed into a squelchy zombie face is one you won’t be able to fire later. There’s also the issue of inventory management, a favourite Resident Evil pastime; you could pick up gunpowder to craft more ammunition, but it might come at the expense of carrying wooden boards used to patch up windows and stem the zombie invasion.
These decisions count most when you enter a boss fight – woe betide the gamer who’s used all their ammo on mall-cop zombies when one of the big boy bullet-sponges drops by.
Once you’ve played through the first campaign as either rookie policeman Leon or plucky student Claire, you can do it all over again with the other, or unlock a second scenario for each. These variations feature remixed puzzles, new enemy placement and tougher challenges, and while they’re not radically different, they will be catnip for completionists and are a welcome excuse to spend more time in this wonderful, awful place.
Because for all its pant-soiling horror, Resi 2 is great fun. Experienced players will revel in the nostalgia; being back in the RCPD feels like taking a trip back into your zombie-infested youth. Neophytes, meanwhile, will be terrified and shocked and appalled and frustrated and entranced by one of the greatest videogame locations ever dreamed up, remastered and repackaged to eke every ounce of power from modern gaming machines. Not even Brexit is this frightening.