You have an over-the-shoulder camera and can peek around to make sure the coast is clear. Turning a corner in Resident Evil 4 is no big deal. And while the camera in Resident Evil 2 can sometimes be inconvenient, it also does a lot to increase the feelings of claustrophobia and suspense. Fear doesn’t come from being able to see everything that’s around you. My problem with this criticism is that obscuring your view is kind of the point. The cameras in Resident Evil 2 often get in the way of the player seeing everything around them. When you’re fighting zombies you want to be able to see what’s going on. It should be mentioned, of course, that a lot of people hated these camera angles and, if we’re being fair, I can understand why. The entire game is, likewise, put together with these oppressive fixed camera angles that work wonders to imbue every setting with the visual flair of a horror film. It then couples this already disturbing imagery with these slow, ominous bits of soundtrack that never fail to give me chills. The whole building is littered with the remains of failed defenses and attempts to push back the invading zombies. My favorite section of the game, for instance, is the police station at the game’s beginning. The environments, the camera angles, the sound, the music they all work together to create this wonderful aura of nearly constant tension. This is easily one of the creepiest games you’re ever going to play. You’ll rarely go more than half an hour without the plot advancing at least a little bit and the script mercifully avoids delivering any “master of unlocking” moments of dialogue.Īs solid as its story is, however, Resident Evil 2‘s real achievement has more to do with its ambiance than its narrative. All in all, it’s a decent (if simple) story that’s well written and paced almost perfectly. The game follows their efforts to discover what happened to the city and find a way to escape it before they too join the ranks of the shuffling dead. Stumbling into this mess are rookie police officer Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield both of whom arrive in town on the same night and briefly meet before being separated. Taking place in the fictional American town of Raccoon City, the game opens in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak fomented by the nefarious Umbrella Corporation. That being said, it still holds up incredibly well and, even after fifteen years, had the power to raise the hairs on the back of my neck and leave my heart racing. There are elements of it that time hasn’t been especially kind to. Is it quite the game that impressed me so wholly back in 1999? No. Revisiting Resident Evil 2, in turn, is probably one of the biggest joys I’ve had since this column first began. It was an idea that I fell in love with almost immediately and, even today, I have an especial affinity for titles that pull off that feeling of being an insignificant speck in a larger, lethal world. #RESIDENT EVIL 2 PS1 SKIN#They were flesh and blood human beings holding onto their lives by the skin of their teeth. They weren’t walking forces of nature defeating the evils of the world and righting wrongs. Resident Evil 2, comparatively, drops you into the shoes of characters who are clearly out of their depth. I was always a secret agent or some warrior of destiny pre-ordained to take down some world threatening baddie. Most every other game I’d experienced prior to that had put me in the shoes of someone exceptional. Resident Evil 2 was like nothing I’d played before. It was an act of console loyalty that inadvertently led me to what would become one of my favorite games of all time. So when an N64 port of Resident Evil 2 was announced complete with all of the game’s FMVs, I jumped on it like it was a never-ending cup of milk with a built in Oreo dispenser. One of the biggest talking points the PlayStation crowd had back then was the fact that its console could do full-motion videos while the N64’s cartridges generally couldn’t muster the storage space for them. When I first bought it, I was a huge Nintendo fan and an eager warrior for the Nintendo 64 in its late-90s battle against the (clearly inferior) Sony PlayStation. Resident Evil 2 was probably one of the biggest surprises I’ve ever had as a gamer. Note: While I first played this on N64, the version I played for this review was the PS1 original. Scary on multiple levels, it combines a chilling atmosphere with a solid story and tense action to create an unforgettable horror experience. Resident Evil 2 is the greatest thing to ever come out of Capcom’s famous zombie franchise.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |