Hiya!

I still can’t believe that I’m still playing Resident Evil 2: REmake. I’ve already finished the main campaign, with both Leon Kennendy and Claire Redfield’s Scenario A and B. Usually, that’s enough for me; I beat the story and I’d move on to the next game in my queue. But I just can’t quit Resident Evil 2: REmake yet as I’m just having so much fun replaying the main campaign and improving how fast I can go through the story. I’ll probably never be a speedrunner because, let’s face it, I’m just not that good. However, I still have a blast playing through it. I’ve played it so often that I even picked up a few tricks myself since I first started.

I played it so much that I should be able to give a very comprehensive review of the game… but I won’t. Resident Evil 2: REmake has already garnered enough praise so just giving it a very positive review seems useless.

So, instead, I’ll be going at it at a different angle. As much as I enjoyed my time in Raccoon City, there are still a lot of stuff that I’m super annoyed with. With that, let’s go through three things I really liked and really disliked about Capcom’s Resident Evil 2: REmake.

Oh, I guess I’ll put up the SPOILER ALERT here since I’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty of some points of the story.

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I really liked… Claire Redfield’s Scenario A story

Maybe I’m kind of biased on this point because I picked Claire Redfield during my first playthrough, but I really liked her Scenario A story over Leon Kennedy’s story. I played through both campaigns a couple of times but I just feel Claire has a much better story arc overall. This all has to do with her supporting cast and how they work into the overall story when compared to Leon’s story.

In the game, Claire runs into Sherry Birkin, a seemingly innocuous little girl, while trying to escape the Raccoon City Police Department. It turns out that she’s the daughter of Annette and William Birkin, Umbrella scientists and the creators of the G-Virus. Claire runs afoul of the mutated William (who is looking for his daughter), Annette (who is also looking for her daughter but gives up on her as she’s infected) and Chief Irons (who’s looking for Sherry as well as she has the pendant that will unlock the only viable version of the G-virus).

In Leon’s campaign, he runs into Ada Wong, an “FBI agent” who is looking for Annette Birkin. He also runs into the mutated Birkin but, basically, he just appears because he’s a mindless monster. Annette Birkin shows up as well but you’re never really told what happening and how she’s wrapped up in the story. Leon’s story is perfectly functional but just lacking the human element of Claire’s story.

But I really disliked… both Scenario B stories

I’m sorry but both Leon and Claire’s Scenario B stories are lame. Well, calling them lame is kind of wrong. Rather, it’s more appropriate to call them redundant. The Scenario B stories are redundant because they’re literally just the Scenario A stories!

They do make some subtle changes to the gameplay as you start in a different part of the Raccoon City Police Station and some of the puzzles and items have been moved around. But the story is just Scenario A. What’s worse, it adds a lot of plotholes! Why is Mr. X still alive and chasing Leon in the NEST laboratory when he was torn in half by the mutated William Birkin? Why did Annette come back to life when she already died trying to save Claire?

I did some research and it turns out the original Resident Evil 2 had something called the Zapping system, wherein some actions you do in Scenario A affects Scenario B. This doesn’t happen with the REmake. I guess this is one aspect where the original trumps the REmake.

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I really liked… that you can sneak past Lickers

I’m okay tackling hordes of zombies. Zombie does are more annoying that frightening. I find avoiding Mr. X a cakewalk. I have no problem facing off against the plant zombie things. The bosses can be tough but nothing that you can’t manage. The only thing I really fear in Resident Evil 2: REmake are the Lickers! Even after playing through the game several times, I still am deathly afraid of Lickers!

Lickers are fast and can get you from the ceiling where you least expect it like some kind of mutated Spider-Man who wants brains for lunch. They have super sharp claws that can wipe out your health very quickly. Unlike its zombie brethren, you can’t injure them by going for their limbs, which is an oversight by Capcom, in my opinion. To me, Lickers are the worse creatures in the game.

Fortunately, you don’t need to fight them at all. Lickers are blind and only detect your presence with their heightened hearing. If you run, they’ll hear your footsteps and pounce on you. But, if you creep around and walk, you can actually go around them, if you’re lucky!

This is what I usually do when encountering a Licker. Basically, I memorized where the Lickers are and, as I enter the area, start walking with the hopes of not alerting the monsters to my presence and try to sneak past them.

But I really disliked… how it’s almost impossible to get around them

Have you noticed that I said that I’ll “try to” instead of just say I’ll “sneak past them” straight away? Well, that’s because I always “try” but I’m not always successful! I’d say my success rate is around 50% because of the locations of the Lickers in the game!

Despite being blind as bats, Lickers can sort of feel your presence when you get close enough to them. They’ll start slowly stalking towards you in a slow, unnerving pace and, if you touch them, they’ll go ballistic and wail on you with their claws! Once they do start attacking, they’ll maintain a bead on you, even if you begin tippytoeing again to try to lose them!

It would honestly be a cakewalk to get past them if they didn’t camp all throughout the narrow hallways of the Raccoon City Police Station! I can easily past them in more open spaces, like the kennel. But those are few and far between. Lickers are more common in the cramped walkways, making it impossible to get around them unless they’re on the ceiling. If they aren’t, I’ll just leave the area and try my luck later.

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I really liked… all the extra modes that comes for free

Capcom has taken a lot of flak for trying to squeeze as much money as they can from their customers via DLC packs. But I think they did something special with Resident Evil 2: REmake as it does come with a smattering of stuff that you don’t have to pay for.

Once you beat the game with both Scenarios, you unlock a couple of costumes for both Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, which is a homage to their outfits from the original game. You also unlock the 4th Survivor, which is a very quick campaign wherein you control Umbrella operative Hunk as he tries to escape from the sewers. It’s short but very action-packed as you’re goal is to just escape; no need to explore!

When you beat that, you unlock the Tofu Survivor, where you control… a block of tofu as you try to escape from the sewers. It’s basically Hunk’s campaign minus all the weapons. Capcom also released a whole bunch of free stuff with the Ghost Survivors pack. You play through several imaginary scenarios as you try to, once again, escape Raccoon City.

But I really disliked… how unforgiving and tough the 4th Survivor is

I do like that the 4th Survivor is free. I really do. I just hate how I’ll probably never finish it! It’s just too difficult for me! I can get through the main story fine because I can craft more ammo and create lots of healing items and take my time. But that’s not the goal of the 4th Survivor! Hunk’s is doomed once I get to the roof! I just run out of healing items by the time I reach the second floor of the police station and I’m in desperate need of bullets and sub-weapons by then!

I really want to try out the Tofu Survivor but I can never get Hunk to survive long enough to make it through the 4th Survivor. I get so discouraged even at the start as that blasted female zombie will grab me unless I use up a shotgun shell. Then I get so frustrated in the bridge area with the zombie dogs as they’ll almost always do some combo attack that knocks Hunk into one of them and into the other! Even by the parking lot, more than half my healing items are gone and I just know I won’t survive long enough to make it to the end!

The sad thing is, the walkthrough videos make it look so easy! It’s either I’m just not skilled enough or I’m super unlucky but it’s probably both. I guess Hunk’s corpse is stuck in the bottom of the sewer in my copy of Resident Evil 2: REmake forever.

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Byee!

What are your favorite and least favorite things about the new Resident Evil 2 game? Let me know in the comments section below!