Scary (Specatator) Game Review with James Paradie: Resident Evil 2 - Leon's Story

Welcome to another Scary Game Review with your brave watcher, Scared Sheetless. Again, we explore the world of Resident Evil. If you haven't seen my Resident Evil one review, check it out here! Now we go to the 1998 Capcom release of Resident Evil 2. It was released for the PlayStation and later for different consoles. It was well received, which is great. But do I think it holds a scary, disembodied candle going down a dark hallway to it's predecessor? Read the review to find out. 

Also, the way I do my reviews is a little more different than how others may do theirs. I don't really go deep into the story. More what I do is give you a small synopsis and The Good, The Bad, and The Scary. I've also introduced a new section called Middle Ground. So you're not going to see a big whole review with the whole story. Just what I liked, didn't like, and what made the game scary. Sorry if it isn't what you're used to when looking at reviews, but I enjoy doing reviews this way. I'll give it a go and if I get complaints, I'll go back to doing more in-depth reviews. 

Synopsis: 

Its story takes place two months after the events of the first game, Resident Evil. It is set in Raccoon City, an American community whose residents have been transformed into zombies by the T-virus, a biological weapon developed by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. In their escape from the city, the two protagonists, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, encounter other survivors, and are confronted by William Birkin, the mutated creator of the even more powerful G-virus.

(From Wikipedia.org)

The Good:

-This game had a lot more exciting areas than the first game. From burning airplanes crashed into buildings, to the zombie filled streets of Raccoon City. Noted that this game did come out two years after the first, so they could do a little more.  

-This is embarrassing, I do have to admit. Years ago, I wanted to check out Resident Evil, more specifically Claire Redfield (the question as to why will make sense sense in the next Good thing). And it was an entire story on Claire. Well, when I watched the full playthough by HarshlyCritical, Claire was a very minor character. She only appeared a couple times and that's it. I was confused and trust me on this, guys, I spent forever trying to do my research as to why in the hell Claire's playthough wasn't on this. Finally, I actually searched on Google, "How the hell can you play as Claire on Resident Evil 2?" And it popped up. Apparently there are two discs to Resident Evil 2. Disc 1 has Leon's story and Disc 2 has Claire's story. I plan on doing a review of Claire's story in the future as a part 2 to this review. 

 

-This is more of a nerdy plus for me. Claire Redfield, who Leon bumps into quite a bit during his portion of the game, is voiced by the beautiful Alyson Court. She has numerous notable roles in voice acting, but the one that resonates the most with me is she voiced Lydia in the Beetlejuice cartoon. I can totally hear a little bit of her Lydia voice when she's Claire Redfield. She is also the only voice actor to stick with her role throughout the Resident Evil series.

-This one made me laugh, so I qualify it as good. During one cutscene in the beginning of the game, Leon and Claire are getting in a police car and driving down a road. A zombie is walking by and turns to them. This zombie makes the funniest "Huh?" of all time. I heard it and was like, "What?" and then rewound the video and had to laugh. Probably stupid putting this in here, because, I know, it's kind of irrelevant. But I just found it funny and wonder if it was trying to be scary or the creators were trying to be funny. If it was the latter, they succeeded! 

-Again, the music soundtrack for this game is really good. Much like the first one, the music for the particular scene or enemy makes sense. Kudos ... or bravo. Whatever works for you. 

Yes, only a couple things, but there are a few more perks to this in the Scary and Middle Ground sections. Don't call me a hater yet! 

The Bad: 

- Leon is a boring protagonist. The voice actor was REALLY forcing it until the point where it sounded too cheesy. At the beginning, he was decent, but later ... Yeesh. As a character, I couldn't care less about him, unlike Jill from the first game. Though I would say that he's not the worst. Trust me. I've seen plenty of indy games (and to a lesser extent "big" video games) to prove worse voice acting. So Leon isn't the worst. He could have been better if he didn't try to sound like the cookie-cutter bad ass, which sounds ridiculous. 

-Speaking of voice acting, don't get me wrong, not everyone was bad. There were some good ones, like Claire or Ada Wong (most of the time) for example. But there was one cringe worthy part, it was the dying cop at the beginning of the game when Leon first gets into the R.P.D. Leon, or the guy who voices him, don't worry. This dude was worse. You're a million times better than him! 

-Some of the zombie sounds were ... bad. Just bad. The moaning noises is just odd and not in a good way either. 

-God, was some of the scenes corny. Some were decent, but most made me cringe. Like the scene with Ada and Leon when Annette shoots Ada and she goes over the rail. Leon grabs a hold of her and he does the whole, "You have so much to live for," schtick. Come on, dude. She left you for dead a couple times and yet, puppy love? I get it, in a higher resolution maybe she's hot, but still! Left. You. For. Dead. No romance. And then before Ada let's go and falls to her death, she pulls the whole, "I was hoping we'd escape together." It was mind-boggling. I mean, I'd still save her, but I'm not going to trust her. That was one of the more cornier cut scenes. Some were decent though, but most were pretty ... interesting. But this was pretty typical back then. I understand ... you didn't have a whole lot to work with back then, so you made due. But seeing this now, fifteen years after it's release, it's laughable ... in a bad way. 

-Yes, yes, I know. This game was made in 1998, but I couldn't help but feel a little freaked out that the character models looked like mannequins (more so in cut scenes than anything). 

Middle Ground:

-Zombie dogs don't have their RE1 appearance. They look more like normal Rotties with just a few cuts. Not scary. Though they do seem quicker than the last game.

-Maybe this game isn't as popular as RE1, but I think remastering it would do it some wonders. It does have that nostalgic feel, which is great, don't get me wrong. But a remastered edition would be interesting to see how it would look. *Update: During the edit of this review, it came to my attention that there is some leaked photos online about a possible Resident Evil 2 HD version coming out in September 2015. However, according to an April 2014 article by GameSpot, a Producer of RE said in an interview back in 2012 that he would do it only if it had enough fan support. So, there you go.

The Scary: 

-Zombies coming through the door loading screens is a nice, scary touch.

-The bosses were not big versions of actual animals (except for the giant crocodile), which was my biggest peeve for the first game. They were also strange and more horror like.  

-Speaking of bosses, the final boss, a mutated version of G-virus creator, William Birkin, was a big improvement from the first games Tyrant boss. He actually lasted more than a few shots. 

Conclusion: 

In comparison to RE1, Resident Evil 2 shines in some areas, but really falls back when it comes to cut scenes and voice acting. There are some improvements, such as areas and monsters. I'm happy I watched it though and can see why some people really like this even if it seemed like I bitched about it a lot. But for right now, Resident Evil 1 is still the champ. This doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to watching another Resident Evil walkthrough, because I am! Bring it on!