Been playing through the Resident Evil 2 remake this weekend, largely so I can catch up on the Resident Evil Retrospective feature I started doing over on Rice Digital.
I've been struck by quite how much I like Resident Evil 2 remake — it really does demonstrate how to do one of these remakes right. It's revamped and modernised just enough to make it palatable to a modern audience, but remains recognisable enough in style to keep fans of the original happy. And there's enough brand new stuff in there that even those who played the original to death can enjoy it as a new game.
Basically, they've gone, "this was a good game in 1998, what if it was a good game now?" and then completely rebuilt it from scratch. Best of all, they've managed to do so without falling into the pitfalls that many other modern triple-A titles do: there's no unnecessary RPG-style mechanics; there's no obnoxious upselling of DLC (though I believe there are some costumes available) and the generous swathes of bonus content feels authentically "retro".
It's also nice to play a game that is short, too — it took me just shy of 8 hours for my Leon playthrough, which is a bit longer than the original Resident Evil 2, but still easily digestible, and I suspect my Claire playthrough will probably go quicker. At no point did the game feel like it was padding itself out for the sake of things; it felt like it was always moving forwards, but provided plenty of opportunity for exploration and discovery along the way.
In short, if you haven't tried the Resident Evil 2 remake as yet and you enjoyed the original — hell, even if you didn't enjoy the original but are fond of the series — then Resident Evil 2 remake is definitely worth your time. More on Rice Digital on the subject this week!
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