Fans of the “Resident Evil” series can rejoice after the recent release of the remake of the second game in the series.
“Resident Evil 2” takes you back to the beginning of the outbreak. The player can take on the role of either rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy or civilian Claire Redfield. Both of them are notable characters later on in the series, and “Resident Evil 2” shows how the two got involved with the outbreak.
Leon is introduced as a new recruit who has shown up for his first day on the job. After the events of the second game, Leon goes on to be a government agent and stars in “Resident Evil 4” and “Resident Evil 6.”
Conversely, the player can also take on the role of Claire Redfield, a civilian survivor who teams up with Leon during the Raccoon City incident.
Sister of Chris Redfield, Claire was a nondescript character at the time of the outbreak, but quickly earned her keep as the game progressed.
Though she never stars in her own game, Claire plays a vital part in “Resident Evil 2,” “Resident Evil: Code Veronica” and “Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles” as well as appearing in the live action movies.
Starting with Leon’s storyline in the remake, I was immediately blown away by the graphics. The game originally debuted in 1998 and the graphics were subpar to say the least. For the time, they were pretty great, but looking back, everything was so clunky.
Playing the game now, you can actually see individual strands of hair on the characters. The attention to detail is beyond amazing in this game, and you can see all the care that went into redesigning this beloved game.
Leon’s storyline was fun to play, and I remained invested the whole time. There was a good selection of weapons for him, and they all had their own merits depending on the enemy.
My biggest complaint with him is the main antagonist, Tyrant. I understand he’s the villain and he’s going to just keep showing up, but he was relentless. It was battle after battle after battle with him and it got a little grating. Otherwise, Leon’s story was great to play.
My biggest beef with the game, however, is with Claire. For starters, the developers completely revamped her character design and she’s practically unrecognizable.
In the original game and in “Darkside Chronicles,” Claire had distinct, chiseled features. Capcom opted for more of a baby faced design which makes her look like she’s about 12. They also did away with her iconic red hair. Even the live action movies got her hair right, and they pretty much messed up everything.
Another major complaint of the game is continuity errors. Leon and Claire meet outside the Police Department and from there go their separate ways.
However, playing Claire’s story, you go through basically the exact same scenarios as Leon. The puzzles are the exact same, the solutions just change and you have to kill characters that were already killed by Leon.
Maybe they don’t count as continuity errors because it would all depend on whose story you play first, but it makes the plot much less compelling. I did all of this as Leon, why would I want to do it all over again as Claire for the same result?
It makes the game boring. And you’re telling me this whole time Claire is wandering through the precinct, she never crosses paths with Leon? Yeah, right.
Furthermore, Claire seems to have been given the crappier guns of the two campaigns. She may be just a college student, but she’s rambling through a police precinct and still can’t find a decent gun.
Her Ruger made me want to throw my controller. The reload speed is ridiculous, and it has such little firing power, you had to get off at least two shots before doing any real damage.
Despite my major complaints with Claire’s campaign, I loved the remake overall. The graphics were beautiful, and the game was still a lot of fun to play. Any fan of the “Resident Evil” series will be tickled to play this game and it was mostly worth the hype. I would give it a solid 8/10.
Emilee Brewer
Reporter