Resident Evil 2 (PS1) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
314A playthrough of Capcom's 1998 survival horror game for the Sony PlayStation, Resident Evil 2.
Played through Claire's campaign on the normal difficulty level, finishing with an A rank.
While the original Resident Evil didn't invent the idea of "3D survival horror" - that title most likely goes to Infogrames' Alone in the Dark - Resident Evil was the game that codified the elements that would become genre staples for the decades following its release. It was a wildly successful game and its far-reaching influence can still be seen and felt today in games.
Resident Evil 2, released two years later, took everything that worked in Resident Evil and refined, polished, and reworked these elements to a sparkly, gore-encrusted shine. Critics and gamers alike loved it, and it went on to become one of the best-selling games of its generation. While both RE 1 and 2 are widely regarded as classics, RE2 improved on the original in every imaginable way.
The graphics saw a big boost in quality, with improved 3D character models, more varied and better looking backdrops, and a larger cast of undead foes that made the game both classier and scarier, and the voice acting is significantly better... though there still are some hilariously corny and melodramatic lines, nothing here comes close to the ridiculousness of the first game's dialogue. The FMVs that appear at key moments also do a fantastic job of keeping up the suspense with their plasticky 90s sheen.
Some of these set pieces are fantastic, too - I mean, how awesome is the "fight" against the ginormous alligator in the sewers? And how gross was the end to that fight? I love it!
The controls are pretty much the same, but the auto-aim feature was a massive boon. No longer was it necessary to die again and again because you couldn't turn around quickly enough! Boss fights are far more fun this time around as a direct result of this.
What really made me appreciated this one, though, was the story. It was far more fleshed out than the original's was, and it offered four semi-unique campaigns across the double-disc set. I always loved scrounging around for documents and diaries lying around to fill in the gaps in the story, and the story's larger scope lends it a different, but still highly effective, feeling of tension and dread that constantly ramps up as your progress further and further.
It's difficult to actually come up with anything negative to say about it.
Except for Sherry. I really hate Sherry. The gator should've eaten her so I didn't have to keep going back for her whenever she would decide that crying was preferable to surviving.
With Capcom's brand new remake coming out tomorrow, I thought that I'd take the opportunity to upload this as a fun look back, and as a way to reflect on just how far games have come in the past 21 years.
And since the Claire A/Leon B stories are considered to be the canonical events in the larger Resident Evil picture, I figured I'd go with Claire's campaign for the playthrough.
Hope you all enjoy it!
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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