First announced way back in 2015, Capcom's Resident Evil 2 remake is finally approaching its January 25 release date. Despite its imminent arrival, new details about the highly anticipated survival horror revival continue to trickle in.
Website Bloody Disgusting has translated parts of a post from fansite Biohazard France, which collected all the details which have come from sites as varied as IGN Japan, 4Gamer, and Dengeki, among others.
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Resident Evil 2 has a huge legacy to live up to; the original Resident Evil is regarded as a horror classic, but the 1998 sequel is what really turned the series into a universally-beloved soap opera, with a bigger story, more action, and greater production values. To this day, it's still considered by many to be the best Resident Evil game, if not one of the greatest games of all time, and expectations are high for this remake to reinvent the original sequel without losing what made it great in the first place.
Everything We Learned About Resident Evil 2
As mentioned before, Resident Evil 2 was announced in 2015, and many fans were anticipating the game to be released in 2018. It makes sense, since it would be a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the game first coming out, as well as the setting of the whole Raccoon City chapter of the saga, which is set in 1998. Initially, this was the plan, but the decision was made to push RE2 to 2019. We've seen so many games rushed out the door to meet an arbitrary release date, only to be crippled by bugs and glitches. It's refreshing to see a game willing to forego an easy marketing trick in an effort to make sure the game is as good as it deserves to be.
Despite the over-the-shoulder camera, RE2 is not an action game like Resident Evil 4, 5, or 6. The action is much slower, more methodical, and clearly an evolution of the new status quo put forward by Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Zombies are durable bullet sponges, and it's often better for Claire and Leon to avoid them than to try and take down every enemy they encounter. However, the Auto Aim option allows players to lock on to enemy weak points, echoing the combat style of the original games, as well as a more accessible, less skill-based option for those who are interested in that sort of thing.
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Longtime purists of the classic RE style were hopeful that RE2 would employ the fixed camera angles and tank controls of the first generation of RE games. Others were expecting RE2 to be a first-person title like RE7, with an optional VR mode. Capcom tested both of these gameplay/camera types, but ultimately settled on a third-person camera, mixed with the slower pace of the classics and the intimate horror sensibilities of RE7. It's a fair middle ground, but the old-school die-hards will inevitably complain about the lack of fixed cameras until the end of time.
It's been known that the game will feature two scenarios: one for Claire and one for Leon. Unlike the original, the game won't change depending on which scenario the player chooses first, which allows both scenarios to contain more unique elements and be crafted around each character, and there will be a final ending scene which will only be available after completing both stories. While Capcom have been coy on bonus features, the article states the publisher "knew that HUNK & Tofu were needed in the remake." Agent HUNK is featured in the canon bonus scenario, The 4th Survivor, while Tofu, a sentient chunk of bean curd in a beret, is the star of an infamously difficult – and obviously non-canon – scenario.
Resident Evil 2 is shaping up to be one of the biggest games of 2019, and January 25 can't arrive soon enough. Claire and Leon's harrowing odyssey through the zombie-infested ruins of Raccoon City is one of the most terrifying and entertaining scenarios in video game history, and, if all goes well, the adventure will feel as fresh and new as it did back in 1998.