While Resident Evil may not technically be the first game to fit in the “survival horror” genre, it is responsible for the term being coined and would define what survival horror was moving forward. Being immensely popular, of course Resident Evil had a much anticipated sequel. Resident Evil 2 was released by Capcom for the PlayStation in early 1998 and later ported to a wide variety of platforms.
The development of Resident Evil 2 was started only a month after Resident Evil was released and involved most of the same people. I guess they knew they had a winner on their hands with the first game. However, after the sequel was two-thirds complete, it was scrapped and they started over. They felt it wasn’t good enough and its hard to argue against their decision as the final version was one of the most successful games of all time.
The actual game play of Resident Evil 2 wasn’t really much different than the original other than a few tweaks and improvements. Like the first, you must explore the city solving puzzles and fighting zombies. One of the more unique aspects is the save system. There are certain rooms that have typewriters that allow you to save the game, however, it requires that you find a limited number of typewriter ribbons hidden throughout the game. I guess you could describe it as a real-time 3D puzzle/adventure game featuring zombies. However, Resident Evil 2 ended up with a much more movie-like production with more elaborate backgrounds and cut scenes. Perhaps the biggest difference are the branching story lines. Resident Evil 2 has two playable characters, each with their own story. Additional scenarios can be unlocked for a total of four scenarios.
The plot picks up two months after the original game and most of the residents of Raccoon City have been turned into zombies. It features a new Raccoon City police officer it what is supposed to be his first day on the job and a college student trying to find her brother. Of course there are the zombies everybody as come to know and love, in addition to new monsters and evil Umbrella executives/mercenaries. Think COVID-19 if it had just got a little differently.
Resident Evil 2 was a massive success. It had very positive reviews everywhere it was reviewed. It had a huge advertising budget but also huge sales with over 6 million copies sold. It was ported to Windows, the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and GameCube. Except for arguably the Nintendo 64 version, none improve on the original PlayStation release. Since the release of Resident Evil 2 there have been well over a dozen sequels, spin-offs and remakes. Resident Evil 2 itself was remade in 2019 and release for the PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One with additional releases in 2022 for the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. If you have never played Resident Evil 2 then I think you should definitely check it out. Preferably the original version on the PlayStation. And if you never played the first one you should probably start there. I’m not really familiar enough with the remakes to know if they are suitable substitutes for the originals. However, playing the originals is always nice to see what the big deal was then.
All images above are from the PlayStation version of the game.
