Resident Evil 2 (2019) [XSX] critique

“X gon’ give it to ya, &£%$ waiting for you to get it on your own, X gon’ deliver to ya!” – DMX

Once upon a time, in a pre-pandemic world, a fresh-faced writer here on The Pixels (previously The Well-Red Mage) penned a review for Capcom’s 1998 survival horror masterpiece, Resident Evil 2.

That idealistic rookie was me, dear reader, and a lot has happened since those heady days. Some new consoles came out, people got very cross about which brand is better and this website had a rather sexy rebrand, among other things. Oh and Capcom released a Resident Evil 3 remake (reviewed it) and, before that, a remake of that lovely 1998 game that I mentioned.

Somehow, much like an Umbrella Corporation employee hiding the evidence of yet another outbreak, a review for this game slipped this website by! So it’s time to right some wrongs, uncover some truths and sink our manky teeth into the Resident Evil 2 remake, that came out back in 2019, a full 21 years after its inspiration! I had this one on the PS4 originally but will be talking about the Xbox Series X version here, as this is the version I played most recently.

Capcom originally planned to remake Resident Evil 2 back at the start of the new millennium in 2002, but ultimately had to can the project due to the series’ original producer Shinji Mikami putting his foot down over losing resources from the Resident Evil 4 dev team. So the remake sat on the slab for 13 years until, in 2015, the project was picked up once again, rising like a big old zombie.

The game utilises Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine and draws on lessons learned from the oft-maligned Resident Evil 6 to deliver the optimal experience. But did this remake of Resident Evil 2 do all it could to deliver the goods? Did it deserve the awards it won? Or is it yet more Umbrella lies?

Let’s find out…

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 10/10

Back in 1998, Resident Evil 2 looked fantastic! The pre-rendered backgrounds were full of detail, the shambling horrors were suitably gross-looking and the weapons and items all looked great. Play that game back now, however, and it all looks like, well, a blocky 32-bit title from yesteryear.

Imagine if you could reach through the void of time and space, grab those graphics and pull them into the modern era, replacing polygonal character models for super smooth, HD ones and binning off those pre-renders for fully 3D environments with fancy lighting, particle effects and lots of lovely gore and grime. Imagining that? Good. Because that’s exactly what the remake has done!

Right from the first moment, when we see a truck driver’s weirdly highly detailed burger, this game never stops being a treat for the eyes. Environments are rammed with detail, be they the rain-slicked ruins of downtown Raccoon City, the disgusting sewers, the once sterile/now gore-splattered Umbrella laboratories and, of course, the original’s most iconic locale, the Raccoon City Police Department. While all locations in Resident Evil 2 come off really well in the remake, the latter is and always will be the place most survival horror fans remember.

While the remake has changed up and streamlined the layout, the aesthetic does hark back to the original. The main hall is vast, trashed and littered with open supply crates and used first aid items, roller shutters block several routes and the giant fountain centrepiece is still there too, all looking suitably ruined from the battle the RCPD attempted to fight against the zombie hordes. It’s a real rush to explore locales that are burned into your mind from over 20 years ago, redone in a modern setting. The Licker corridor, the STARS office, the sewers, the NEST, all of them are represented in new, grimly beautiful ways.

Stepping once more into this awful world are the original protagonists, Leon S Kennedy the rookie cop and Claire Redfield, brother to infamous boulder-abusing franchise legend Chris and full-time college student. Both characters wowed me when I first saw them, they look stunning in the RE Engine. With expressive faces, amazing motion capture and detailed models, they are some of the best I’ve seen in recent years. The supporting cast also looks really, really good. Ada Wong, Marvin Branagh, Sherry Birkin and her parents, Chief Irons – all have been very well cast, animated and modelled.

It doesn’t stop there either, for each character’s wardrobe has had a 21^st Century update too. Claire is wearing clothing more befitting of somebody who rode into hell on the back of a Harley, Sherry is no longer inexplicably dressed like a sailor and Leon actually arrives in town in his own clothing and gets his iconic riot gear once at the RCPD – because wearing that for your first day is definitely a bit weird. Even Ada is dressed a bit more sensibly, which is saying something!

Also looking great are the monsters of Raccoon City. Zombies look gross across the board – bloated, covered in fluids and disfigured, while remaining pretty varied to boot, it’s much better than the four or five blocky lads and lasses you’d be bumping into in the original game, that’s for sure. Also benefitting from 20-plus years of graphical advancement are the Licker monsters, whose glistening exposed musculature is enough to send chills down your spine, the undead dogs, G-Mutants and, of course, the Big Bads of the game, Mr X and William Birkin.

So we have amazing, environments, characters and enemy models, what else needs to be said about the visuals here? Only that it’s all lit gorgeously, covered in detailed particles and the models for other things in the world, like items and guns, all also look highly detailed and weighty. Watching Leon swing that massive Lighting Hawk magnum around makes my arms ache and the satisfying fiery blast from Claire’s grenade launcher never ceases to give a feeling of cathartic goodness as it cooks another Licker! Much like with the Arkham series of games, Claire and Leon’s clothing also gets dirtier and more ragged as events unfold, which helps to sell the immersion of this game, because nobody is getting out of a zombie apocalypse with their shoes shiny!

Even Resident Evil 2’s inventory looks good, lifted and adapted from the one we encountered in Resident Evil 7. It remains slick and minimalistic looking, while also showing off full 3D models of items you pick up – a fact that might just save your life down the line!

As with Resident Evil 7, the RE Engine delivers a grotesquely beautiful experience. The environment is highly detailed, the creatures that stalk it suitably terrifying and everything is covered in the grossest layer of grime and offal you’ll see this side of a public bathroom – it really is horrortastic!

Audio: 10/10

So, it doesn’t sound horrible so far, right? Well, the audio for this game sure does – in a good way! Just like with its late ’90s ancestor, Resident Evil 2 is committed to creating a thick and immersive atmosphere. The corridors of the RPD clatter and shuffle with the sounds of unseen nasties, zombies moan from around corners and beyond doorways and  rainstorm batters against the remaining windows, Capcom has truly managed to make this world sound alive (or mostly alive!)

Every location in this game has a rich soundscape to go with it and this is underpinned by a minimalistic, creeping score much like the one experienced in the original. Overall it’s pretty damned good at enhancing the mood when it does show up, the nice relaxing save room music is as welcome as ever, for example, and the more urgent piece as you attempt to escape the exploding NEST at the end does a fantastic job of chivvying you along too. If you’re talented enough to get to the Tofu portion of the game then you can also enjoy a very epic rock soundtrack too! My only personal gripe is that the RPD main hall theme isn’t around anymore, that song is a shot of pure nostalgia to me and oh-so creepy!

One thing that the original Resident Evil 2 is not so fondly remembered for is its hokey voice acting. While it was a bit of a step up from Resident Evil, it did still suck pretty badly – how we used to laugh at Leon and Kendo’s run-in during the prologue, for example, or Marvin Branagh’s strange scripting (there was an incident… involving zombies!) But this time things are different, Capcom has pulled out all the stops to provide top-drawer vocal talent to go along with the visuals and boy do they deliver! Particular credit must go to Nick Apostolides and Stephanie Panisello as Leon and Claire, but the whole cast delivers an amazing result between them.

While the original version of this game was top-end for 1998, the issue of voice acting may be the exception, the 2019 return brings the bear the difference twenty-odd years in advancement makes is plain to hear!

Gameplay: 10/10

SO Resident Evil 2 looks and sounds amazing, and that is great news! But how does it play compared to the original?

Well, the first thing fans of the 90s adventure will notice here is that two pretty major hallmarks of PlayStation-era Resi are missing – tank controls and fixed camera angles. Video games have come a long way since the year that Google was founded and these two elements of video gaming have been consigned to the Museum of Ancient Video Game Stuff in the meantime (probably not a real place).

Instead what we have with the 2019 remake is a tight, over-the-shoulder third-person experience built on the RE Engine. Locations are, for the most part, one big sprawl with very minimal loading times (some are hidden behind elevator rides and the like). True to the 1998 version is the inventory, which is carried on from Resident Evil 7 in much the same fashion. Expect to be juggling items in and out of Leon and Claire’s pockets ad popping your spare items into storage chests for safekeeping (all of which are linked by some strange, interdimensional gateway that ensures that the key you stored back in the RPD main hall can be retrieved from an identical box on the third floor). With this in effect, loot management acts as something of a puzzle in and of itself and adds an extra element of planning to your attempt to escape Raccoon City.

Speaking of puzzles, Resident Evil 2 has also kept up its dear old dad’s tradition of putting a few in your way, though it’s taken some of the ridiculousness out of it for a modern audience. I used to wonder just how the poor cops used to get into certain rooms, considering the series of outlandish puzzles they had to solve to do so. I’m not saying that the remake does away with it entirely – the trash compactor in the sewer is still powered by a weird chess-piece puzzle thing, and the access passage to the boilers under the RPD still need you to solve three puzzles (poor maintenance staff) and good luck trying to synthesise a sample of the bloody G Virus antidote down in the NEST!

Going between puzzles you’ll be seeing plenty of enemies too. The classic zombie is not just the first danger you’ll encounter, it’s also the most common. They come in all shapes, sizes and levels of decay (hi there, Hi-Vis Guy and Overalls Man) and can soak up a good few bullets unless you get lucky and pop one’s melon with a well-aimed shot, though this isn’t always guaranteed. You can also thin the herd by shooting out their legs, forcing them to crawl along the ground or, if you’re particularly nimble, just avoid them altogether and save your ammunition.

Joining the zombies are the other famous baddies from the 1998 outing. The skinless, eyeless licker can crawl on walls and ceilings and hits very hard but is also as blind as a bat, so if you walk really slowly you can skirt around them altogether. Also, gunning for the survivors are the lumpen, lethal G Monsters that lurk in the sewers, zombie dogs and, in Leon’s case, a bloody massive mutant crocodile that’s sure to get your pulse pounding when you meet it. But all of these pale in comparison to what is perhaps Resident Evil 2’s most infamous enemy – Mr X!

Mr X is an Umbrella bio-weapon, the same kind of Tyrant mutant that Chris and Jill blew into chunks at the end of the first game, except this time he has a nice outfit instead of being a big naked bloke he’s dressed just like a 1930s noir detective for some reason and you can shoot off his hat if you like! Joining him in the top 1% of this game’s baddies is the creature formally known as Doctor William Birkin, who isn’t looking too handy when you first meet him and certainly doesn’t get any better each time afterwards, as the G Virus he injected directly into his veins mutates him out of control over time. These meetings with Birkin are arena-baed boss fights much like in the 1998 version, and you’ll need everything you have to get through them alive!

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the original game’s post-story content also makes an appearance here. Once all Leon and Claire content is completed you will be able to tackle two additional gauntlets. One features the sole survivor of the mercenary team sent to secure the G Virus, codename Hunk, and the other features a sentient lump of tofu with a knife. Yes, you heard. These games are hard as nails, and you’ll need to draw upon all of your skills to make it out in one piece.

Capcom has taken the survival and puzzle elements from the first go-round of Resident Evil 2 and modernised it successfully for a new era – mental exercises, inventory management and flight or fight survival combat all go together to create a glorious product.

Narrative: 9/10

The Resident Evil series has never exactly been one for original or out-there storytelling but, for the most part, it never really needed to either. If you prefer your horror more psychological and sinister there’s always Silent Hill, after all. But I like my survival horror to be campy and pulp, and that is exactly what is delivered here.

If you have played the 1998 outing (or read my review, ahem) then you’ll be familiar with the broad strokes here, though a few details have been changed subtly, mostly to the story’s benefit. The first thing to mention here is that there are technically a few stories entwined into the events of this game, and this depends on whether you play as Leon or Claire. As in the original, both have an A scenario, completing this unlocks a B scenario for the opposite player. So one timeline is made of Leon A and Claire B, and the other story vice versa. As both characters meet different people and explore slightly different locales this does create some cool replay value.

No matter who you play as, your first stop on the way into Raccoon City will be at a creepy gas station, where poor Claire is attacked by the undead. Claire is riding into town to find her brother, super-cop, future boulder puncher and hero of the first game Chris Redfield. She’s saved from the dead by a rookie cop on his way into the city, one Leon Kennedy, and the two head for the police station at the centre of the city. Though the car crashes on the way in, our two heroes make it to the station separately, and here is where the real game begins.

A huge chunk of Resident Evil 2 is set inside the RPD, where we meet surviving police officer Marvin Branagh (whose dialogue is so much better this time around!) Marvin explains that the building is on its last legs, the undead roam the halls and Leon’s new colleagues are slain to a man – the best thing to do is find a way to open the secret passage to the boiler room under the building and use the passages beyond to escape. It is after this that the stories truly begin to diverge. Leon runs into a mysterious FBI agent called Ada Wong (before that character jumped the shark) and becomes embroiled in a mission to find a secret laboratory under the city. Claire runs into a young girl called Sherry and, much like Ripley and Newt in Aliens, becomes something of a mother figure to her as she tries to get her out of town in one piece, all the while being hunted by a particularly hideous Dr Birkin.

Both stories work well, though in my opinion Claire’s was slightly more enjoyable, she seems like less of a naïve mook than Leon, and her attachment to Sherry is very heartwarming to watch play out as they try to survive. Each story also shares some key moments that were also integral to the 90s version too. We get to see both parties deal with the horror that is Mr X as well as the story behind the tragic Birkin family and the events that led to the reckless Umbrella corporation accidentally releasing a deadly virus onto the population of an entire city.

Even Hunk and Tofu have a bit of a story too, and as a fan of those tough-as-nails bonus games in the original version, it’s pretty thrilling to hear Hunk and his handlers speak at last!

I won’t go into too much detail, as Resident Evil 2 has much to discover still, but suffice it to say I enjoyed a modern retelling of Leon and Claire’s story.

Challenge: 8/10

Though I’ve seen people finish the original Resident Evil 2 in literally a couple of hours (absolute legends), this has never been my skill level. I played that game very cautiously, preferring to put down as many enemies as I could to minimize the risk of stumbling into a blocky old undead boy. Twenty-odd years later and I play the remake exactly the same way. I move forward slowly and methodically, checking every shadow and blind corner for trouble and checking every single thing for hidden items such as ammunition or healing herbs.

Difficulty in this game differs depending on play style. I’ve seen people dance around zombies, shuffle past Lickers and solve puzzles like machines, but more cautious (alright, wimpy) players like me may find it more taxing. I’m far too clumsy to waltz with the dead and tend to shoot wide under pressure – no change there from 1998, and so I find the game quite taxing. I also struggled with some of the boss battles along the way too, the second fight against Birkin took me bloody ages at first as I found myself unable to time my movements and kept being mauled to death by the ugly sucker!

Things get even tougher in the B scenarios too, zombies hit harder, ammunition is even more scarce and it seems that nobody wants to die (in some cases again). This pushes you more toward the dodge-the-zombie playstyle, so naturally, I struggled here. By the time I got to Hunk and Tofu’s missions I was pulling my hair out, though the challenge never felt unfair, it just forced me to re-evaluate my play style. This took ages and pushed me away from the game for a while, but I got there eventually. I still prefer shooting them though.

Resident Evil 2 can get pretty tough, pretty quickly and, toward the end of its journey, can seem quite unfair to those with a certain playstyle. But persevere and you’ll get a lot out of it. You can also buy a machine gun with infinite ammo as DLC, which makes things far more casual!

Replayability: 8/10

As stated earlier in the review, Resident Evil 2 not only has two campaigns for each character but also two bonus missions that can be unlocked as well. These aren’t even DLC, more a reward for a job well done, just like in the original game! While you can blast through a single campaign in a couple of hours with enough experience, having several of them does pump in that content and keeps things relatively varied throughout.

Another thing to consider is the unlockables accessible from the main menu. By completing certain challenges throughout the campaigns you can access a ton of concept art, movies and hi-res character models that are a real treat for any fan of the venerable franchise’s second outing. There’s nothing cooler than finally unlocking that statue of Hunk looking like a badass or Birkin looking like something you’d find at the bottom of the ocean!

The only thing stopping this score from being a 10 is that stretches of the A and B scenarios are exactly the same from one to the other. While there are enough differences to make it worthwhile it just means that some portions of the B scenario can be a bit… overly familiar.

Themes: 10/10

While Resident Evil 2 doesn’t feature the most original story of all time it does deliver on its overarching themes pretty well, both in story and gameplay. As with its 90s predecessor, this game uses its gameplay systems to put across a strong sense of futility and being up against insurmountable odds, even if we as players know that this isn’t the case it is still easy to get sucked into feeling that way. Unless you’re the world’s luckiest crack shot you’ll never have enough bullets to take down every enemy you encounter on your adventure and you’ll be running and dodging a lot to avoid the zombies and other horrors. Healing items are also rare enough that you won’t want to be munching through them by taking risks.

Narratively we can see a couple of different themes, one for each character. Leon’s journey is about proving himself – he became a police officer to uphold the law and ensure justice is served so when he meets Ada, he sees her mission to expose Umbrella as the source of the outbreak as just that, making a mega-corporation pay for their hubris and arrogance. Leon is also a loyal SOB, something we get to explore as we discover more about the agent’s shifting loyalties and how he is forced to re-evaluate his situation.

Claire’s theme is a mirror of what Ripley, Sigourney Weaver’s character in the 1986 sci-fi classic Aliens has to go through. She arrives to find her brother Chris but finds her mission altered once she finds young Sherry Birkin hiding in the bowels of the RPD. She saves the kid from the monster that was formerly her father and the rest of the game becomes about getting her out of Raccoon City in one piece. It’s genuinely heartwarming to see this mother/daughter relationship grow between these two characters and makes Claire’s the strongest of the stories narratively.

Personal: 10/10

Before 2017’s Resident Evil 7, I had all but had enough of the aging franchise. I was no fan of 4’s departure from what made the PS1 trilogy great and the next two instalments just drove that further home for me as the series became more and more a homogenised action game lump of a thing, the horror increasingly watered-down each time. 7 was a refreshing return to form for me, a real homage to the original game despite its first-person viewpoint, so when Capcom teased a remake of 2 in the same engine, with the same, production values? Oh, I was hyped!

And, best of all, they delivered! The remake of Resident Evil 2 is gorgeous, sounds great and plays tightly and efficiently, all while retaining the elements from the 1998 original that made it great. And they kept the extra unlockable missions in too!

If you enjoy horror gaming and somehow have slept on this game, get it rectified, before Mr X comes around our house and makes you!

Aggregated Score: 9.4

Some call him Winst0lf, others the Bizzaro Mage, and some people just call him Craig. Whatever you wish to call him, he’s a writer, reviewer and podcaster, all while somehow maintaining a day job. Maybe one day he won’t have to… one day…