I've been playing Resident evil 2 for a minute and this game has got me wondering how in the hell I'm gonna make it to the end. Which is the same feeling that Claire and Leon have. So Capcom have already done something right.
This post is spoiler free, because I am is struggling to make it through the first couple of hours of this game. Plus, this is more about my inability to stay alive than details on the game itself.
I'mma just say this now. Resident evil 2 is difficult. I had long accepted and come to terms with the fact that I had gotten worse at video games as I've gotten older; because I play them less, some of them have steep learning curves and all manner of mechanics 'n' buttons to remember that I just have less patience for than I did when I was 11 years old. I'm lazy. But even so, Resident evil 2 is difficult.
Within the first 5 minutes of this game as Claire, I almost died. Before the damn title screen. Before I even met Leon. My first zombie encounter. Almost dead. No ammo by the end of it because 2 of my shots missed and the remaining 3 did absolutely nothing to this undead piece of shit.
Almost dying. Actually dying and being grabbed by zombies happens to me often. Based on this, I created a mood board which sums up my Resident evil 2 experience thus far.
This game is difficult. But it's everything you would expect from a survival horror game. Even though Capcom have given us definitions of it before, they continue to keep redefining and refining it. Just when we thought that Capcom had given us the most survival horror-est entries with some of their previous games, they pull this out of the bag and go 'GOTCHA BITCH!'
I have played the original Resident evil 2. Many, many times. I am very familiar with its story, its locations and what it throws at you. None of this means a damn thing when playing this remake. At least not from my limited experience of playing it. The familiarity of having once walked through the halls of Raccoon city police station over 10 years ago is not comforting, because it all feels so new. Very early on, this game makes it clear that not everything is going to be how you remember it. That Licker is not going to drop down from the ceiling in that same hallway. Some of the things that happened in Scenario B, might just happen in Scenario A. For somebody having played RE2 before, there's a lot of tricks and switcheroos that Capcom pull do to subvert and change what you expect, which gives this game a whole new layer of tension. As a returning gamer, you're wondering when THAT thing that occurred in the original game is going to happen. And as a newbie to the game, you're just in a constant state of wondering when anything is going to happen and how.
Resident evil 2 is tense and borderline stressful. The game throws a lot at you at the start and is pretty unforgiving. From the get go you'' realise that you need to manage your inventory smartly. You'll find that it's a waste of ammo and time trying to kill every zombie. You'll find it's really worthwhile using those boards you keep picking up to barricade those windows. You should probably use that map often, even if you never opened a map a day in your life in a previous RE game.
Resident evil 2's police station feels a lot more open than it did before, even when you only have one key and a bunch of doors are still locked, it feels very open. Lots of rooms connect and intertwine, which is handy, because it means you can make use of shortcuts when backtracking to avoid certain areas. But the game also sadistically forces you through certain areas and rooms, even if there's a shortcut. Because, guess what bitch? There may just be an item there that you couldn't get before. But it's usually because your ideal route is crowded with zombies because you figured that you didn't need to border up that window in the hallway. All made worse by the fact that in many instances you have little chance or opportunity to really scan rooms and observe things that you know you need to, because zombies. Because Lickers. Because some dude in a trench coat chasing you. Reprieve is not something that Resident evil 2 offers often. Save rooms are only so safe, because once you open that door, you're back in the shit. Time doesn't freeze. Enemies don't stop. If you barely escaped making it into a safe room, then you'll barely escape it. Because that son of a bitch will be right there waiting for you as soon as you open the door.
I've actually held off playing this game for most of today. Not because I'm scared. But because I'm anxious about fucking myself over so badly that I end up at a point in this game where I have no ammo, no green herbs, no first aid sprays and I've either gotta restart or jump back to an earlier save. Something of which happened to me twice when playing Code: Veronica, which is a large part of why I despise that game. Despite only playing RE2 for a couple of hours, I have 12 different save files. And to think...even when I make it all the way to the end, I still have to do it with Leon. I deliberately chose Claire first, because her game was harder in the original due to her getting a shitty crossbow and some useless ass electric gun bullshit, instead of the shotgun with the attachment which just kills everything in one shot. Although it probably isn't quite this easy this time around. One can hope.
Ugh. I'll keep you posted.