Beat Resident Evil 2 yesterday with Leon B, got rank B, took 4 hours. Got me some sub machine gun unlocked in the process. I should be starting Nemesis later today, and I can't wait because I love the game and this time I don't have to worry about beating it too fast because it's my friend's copy.
Overall review of RE2:
+ Excellent, excellent story. It is entirely simplistic, but what it makes up for simplicity is an amazing sense of atmosphere, dread, amazing moments, and fun characters. I completely sympathize with the antagonists (aside from Mr. X of course) in RE2. The Birkin's just wanted to continue their research, and if it were not for Umbrella what happened in Raccoon City wouldn't have happened. Seeing Birkin transform from his more human Tyrant form to more traditional Tyrant form, and finally into fucking LAVOS from Chrono Trigger was awesome.
Sympathizing for a villain in a horror game, or story period, is a rarity for me. And it is because of this simplicity that RE2's story shines. You constantly wonder about intentions; Ada's intentions, Anette Birkin's intentions, why the fuck is Mr. X chasing me?! Although the story isn't full of absolute mind fuck worth moments like Silent Hill, and I'll be first to admit the story ain't that deep in a SH or Jacob's Ladder sorta way, the story is still full to the brim with memorable moments. Mr. X; the giant Croc, Ada slapping Anetta in the face and pushing her off a platform, fucking Ben, the last quarter of the game entirely including Ada shooting Mr. X in the FACE.
+ The dual scenario concept is pulled off extremely well, aside from the first half of the game, which is full of doing the same puzzles as you did in Scenario A, which makes no sense.
+ This is survival horror to its fullest. I truly felt like I was trying my hardest to survive, especially at the end of Leon B in the lab. For some reason, that was friggin hard. There were a bunch of enemies that were easy as well with Claire because she had the bazooka, but with Leon my weapons barely made a dent and I had to go out of my way to use special weapons, which I was planning on using on the final boss. I had no more shotgun ammo, handgun is pretty much useless at that point in the game, and using my Submachine Gun and Flamethrower or Magnum would spell bad news for me later in the game.
I kept dying on Mr. X in the room with Leon, until I could evade him soundly. But I only brought herbs and a magnum because I didn't see a point in bringing too many weapons when all I did was dodge him and use the rocket launcher. By the time I got to Birkin's final form, I had exhausted all of my rocket launcher ammo, and I just had my trusty magnum with only a few bullets. I didn't think I'd be able to kill him with that, but I somehow did. The pay off was worth it.
+ Amazing music and atmosphere. RE2 completely outclasses the original in this regard, well, except music.
+ Insane incentives to replay. I like challenging myself. One of the perquisites to get an S rank is to not use any First Aid Sprays. So I didn't use any as Leon. I tried my best not to use many special weapons as well. I ended up with a B rank, I think, because I didn't beat it under 3 hours but I did well for a first time. I want to get an S rank with both characters someday to get the Gatling Gun. On top of this, like RE4, there's are extra modes after beating the game. Extra Battle mode is fun as hell, btw. I wonder what you get if you beat it. It's really tough too.
- Sherry is the one big negative for me. Stupid kid.
- I didn't like doing some puzzles all over again in B scenario. It ruined any belivability for me. For example, in the police station, you have to get those red jewels...AGAIN. Claire already put that crap in, so why do it again? There are far too many moment in RE2 where you're repeating what you did in Scenario A. There should have been more unique moments. Thankfully, there are times when the puzzle solving connect both scenarios. In order to get the last Chess Plug, you have to wait for Claire to explode the door to the chief's office and then go and get it. This complaint seems moot because it's really only present in the Police Station. Once into the sewers, factory, and lab their scenarios are vastly different, which was great.
As for ranking..even though I really enjoyed RE2, I still like RE1 and RE4 more. Maybe this will change as I play it more.
