Resident Evil 2 Review (Henry)
I recommend this game only because is a good tribute of the older version of the iconic Resident Evil 2.
I played the original Resident Evil 2 back in the 2000's and that game was astonishing, not only for the survival horror part, but the plot, story, script, puzzles, resourse managment, among other stuff, were taken very serious and they delivered a product with such high quality. Even the old CGI still looks good on these days and the art direction which, at least for me, still looks better than the remake.
Now, talking about the Resident Evil 2 Remake. The graphics are top notch, the remake of the police station looks insane and the recreation of some areas are incredible (for example the laboratories, where you can see that they did a good research of how should look and which equipments should be in it) . The combat system is way more efficient than before (Third person shooter like RE4), the inventory is way bigger, the sound of the game, how they made the new Ada, Leon, Claire (I prefer the old one) and other characters is simply incredible; another good thing is the mods that you can find of this game... and hey, that's all. The rest is not that good.
SPOILER ALERT ON THIS PART:
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Notes:
* This review is a comparison between both versions, reviewing what I like and what I despite.
* I watched recently some gameplays of the old RE2 to refresh my memories about this.
* The points of interest are only to make a direct comparison between both versions and not to tell you, for example, a summary of the story or any other aspect.
The Story
The story used to be very rich in dialogs and it did a very good job making the background for the game on the old version. Every character was very distinctive, the game was very explicit with the "Umbrella's incident", there was a lot of mistery behind everything, but also like they were very open to tell you what was happening there. It was understandable how the characters get attached and how they become friendly. Even the bad guys are way more developed compared to the 2019 version. So for the remake, the omitted a lot of details and dialogs from the original and they focused more on the action or the survival instead. Back then, the story used to be coherent after you play both scenarios but on this one... the worst part for me, is that there is a Mr.X that dies quickly on Claire's campaign and one on Leon's campaign that is very persistent and dies at the end. It's like Leon and Claire were in 2 separated police stations with 2 Mr.X each one. It doesn't have any sense at all. It feels like they made this game in a rush... I won't give more details about this but that is just one part of the issues of this game related to the story. Old RE2 feels more for mature audience than this one.
Mr.X on the Police Station
Having in mind that the story has big flaws, especially how the Mr.X is involved on this, I'll talk about his appearance in this game. This enemy is awesome and is lurking the police station to kill any witness, which is basiclly you. The player must find a way out to avoid conflict with this enemy. The sound of him is creepy and builds tension. It's very funny having him trying to kill you. Thing is that it seems that they focused too much on that and they made a lot of mistakes on other parts. How they made this enemy was a nice touch.
Absense of main characters gore
Goodbye to the gore on this game. I'm not gonna lie, there is a lot of gore on the zombies, characters on the story like the journalist or the police man on the gate, blood everywhere, but... they never rip appart Leon or Claire. Lickers can't decapitate the main characters like the old version and it feels like a child game. No more gore like Resident Evil 4 where the player can watch Leon die in brutal ways... What is happened with the explicit gore?? If I want to play a game without gore I would be playing other stuff.
Second Scenarios
If you are new to RE2 then you must know that the game consist on 4 different campaigns. If you start with Leon, second scenario is Claire and if you start with Claire, second scenario is Leon. Second scenarios were made to fill the holes on the plot when the other character is helping you through the story on the main campaign, so at the end, it would make more sense of how the situation developed from 2 different points of view. The remake version, instead of making it more complex or way more developed, delivers a campaign where each scenario seems to be separated from the other survivor's perspective, which was supposed to be helping you on some areas. Items can't be shared by storing it on the inventory box like the old version. Second scenario used to be where Mr.X make his appereance on the police station, so only one survivor used to witness him. Now both see him on the story but apparently there is a Mr.X that dies at the end and a Mr.X that dies on an elevator (sorry for repeating this but is very dissapointing).
Dark Areas
Capcom with the RE Engine made a good job with the shadow casting, lighting, shaders, ambient occlusion, reflections and other effects that makes the experience more real and more believable on every part of the game. The visuals of this game was not only achieved by the Capcom's RE Engine, there were more companies and software involved (you can see it on the credits). So, yeah they basiclly show us a new whole set with dark areas where you can use the flashlight and it looks fantastic and creepy, but in my opinion was like "hey why they made so many dark areas? I hope they don't think that this actually scares people". Like half of the areas that you visit on the game are now set with no lights or are darker in order that the character make use of the flashlight. If the intention was to create more tension or an atmosphere that scares players then they failed because is not necesary. One of the best examples of it is Alien Isolation, complete full of light corridors but you are always scared to run or to do any kind of noise. The old RE2 used to show illuminated areas that were even more scarier than the ones of this game. In my opinion, they had more options with this engine but they don't make advantage of that and they just come up with making the game darker.
I was expecting a game way more bigger, more explanations to everything, even more areas to explore or to get confused, more puzzles. On 2017 Capcom stated that they wouldn't be using the same voice actors of the old RE2 for the remake and also said that they would be including a lot of new dialogs... Didn't happen. That's why I say, I recommend this game because is a good tribute.
The final question would be: Capcom, if you have no space restrictions compared to the old times to create a masterpiece, why don't you make a good extended and more explanatory version of a game? instead of making it shorter or more appropiate for the audience. If you want to make a game for a new audience, then create something new. A new horror IP would be a good idea for starters...
I would recommend you to play the old version before this one which is way better. Despite that, you will enjoy this game.