Reviewed by CL on 12/17/2004
I've always been a big fan of the Resident Evil series. I seem to like original games that seem to start a genre (i.e. Metal Gear Solid with the stealth/espionage genre). The original Resident Evil started the survival horror genre that is so wildly popular today and its sequel, Resident Evil 2 picks up right where the first one left off. Actually, it picks up just before the first game and is actually a prequel to the first game. It builds on the same basic gameplay elements and improves upon all of them in many different ways. At first glance, this game may seem to be a carbon copy of the first game, just with slightly different enemies and locations, but upon closer inspection, there is a lot more detail and features in this game that make it a better game in my opinion. When I say that its a better game, I mean that it is more enjoyable from a gameplay perspective. There is much more of an action feel to this game than with the first one. I'll concede that that the original Resident Evil was much scarier, but it wasn't as much fun to play (maybe because I would only play it in the daytime with all the lights on and my little brother watching). The second game definitely puts more emphasis on gameplay rather than scary moments. Don't get me wrong, this game has plenty of original scary moments and parts where you really think if you want to open that door or not, its just that you have a lot more fun playing while you're being scared out of your wits.
The game has another interesting aspect to it in the fact that you get to play through the story from two points of view. There are two characters to choose from (one on each disc) and you can play though the story with both characters. The cool thing is that the game is not the same for both characters. Both will meet different people, go different routes, and do different things, but both characters will serve to unravel a little bit more of the story behind Resident Evil 2. This adds for a good replay value since it effectively doubles the length of the game.
In conclusion, this is an excellent sequel to the original survival horror game. Although it may not be as scary as the original, it is a lot more fun to play and is definitely worth the investment as it is sure to become somewhat of a classic, or at least as much of a classic as a sequel can be.
