'Resident Evil 2 (2019)' is a ground-up remake of the 1998 game of the same name. It brings itself into the modern day with excellent visuals, a third-person perspective and an acute focus on survival horror. I haven't played the original, so I'll simply review this title on its own terms. The game follows two characters, a police rookie named Leon and a college student named Claire, as they head to Raccoon City just as a zombie outbreak occurs. The pair start and end their journeys together, but the majority of the time they're on their own. There are, essentially, four campaigns, two of which follow Leon and two of which follow Claire. When you finish your first run with one character, a slightly different run unlocks for the second. This features a truncated opening, alternate puzzle solutions, differing item and enemy placement, an extra boss enemy and, of course, an earlier appearance of Mr. X, the hulking monstrosity that chases you for large segments of the game. Annoyingly, the two campaigns directly contradict one another at key points; if they were to both be occurring simultaneously as intended, there'd need to be multiple versions of certain characters, bosses and, even, locations. With a little fine-tuning, the first and second runs could have lined up perfectly for a satisfying overall experience. As is, they act more as what-if scenarios and the canonical narrative is somewhat unclear. This isn't a huge issue, though. Though they share similar structures and locations, the minutia of their plots are distinct and complement the characters they feature. You can suspend your disbelief enough for each campaign to be enjoyable in its own right. Even if the dialogue is ever-so-slightly generic, the performances are good and the graphics are absolutely stellar. The characters are realistic, the environment is detailed and the lighting is atmospheric. The animation is also amazing, featuring a variety of elements that might have been overlooked in a lesser title. As a whole, the thing is one of the best looking games in recent years. The gameplay focuses on exploration, puzzle solving and resource management. It's a highly engaging loop. Zombies don't go down in one headshot; sometimes they take fifteen. That's why it may just be best to kneecap them and run right past, though they'll then be a problem later. If they do grab you, they take a huge chunk off your health. Make no mistake, this isn't an action game. You move fairly slowly and even a basic shambling ghoul can be the death of you. There's never quite as much ammo as you'd like and you'll have to wrangle your inventory in order to make the most out of what you can find. The labyrinthine layout of the levels forces you to consider exactly what you're doing and when, using a sort of 'adventure game' logic that requires you to use items from elsewhere in the environment to progress. If you know what you're doing, you can beat the game in under two hours. That takes some practice, though, and your first playthroughs will likely take you a lot longer. There's a great sense of escalation as the enemies get tougher and the story's sense of urgency increases. The police station is suspenseful, the sewers are claustrophobic and the NEST is ominous. Though things do get more linear in the game's back half, the thing still remains as tense and exciting as ever. Its bosses are intimidating and well-designed, even if they occasionally seem like 'bullet sponges'. Overall, this is a fantastic game. It's highly replayable, too, as you'll likely be tempted to go for an 'S rank' or to beat the game on 'hardcore' - or, perhaps, do both at the same time. It's one of the best games of recent years and it's a stand-out in the survival horror genre. It's brilliant. 9/10
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