Resident Evil 2

Written by Jonathan Nicklas  on June 22, 2000

Review: More fun than getting the G-Virus yourself

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Finally, the Nintendo 64 console finally gets their first taste of survival horror, and RE2 looks very impressive. RE2 is 512MB, which means it covers one whole N64 cartridge. Capcom, with somewhat of a new founded relationship with Nintendo, as finally brought their famous Resident Evil series to the big N.

The visuals in Resident Evil 2 are some of the best ever seen on the N64. The environments are so beautifully detailed, and the lighting effects are just marvelous. The atmosphere of RE2 is the way it should be... you all alone, with zombies chasing you... it's just perfect. Capcom also did a very good job supporting the Expansion Pak for high-resolution visuals. Also they did an excellent job creating all the effects of the zombies, the blooding dripping, and all the FMV scenes... it's just so overwhelming. The character's appearances are very detailed, and not too polygonal. The movements of the characters look realistic, and the zombies act like they do in movies. Nice, appealing, slick visuals.

RE2's controls are very difficult to maneuver. First off, you have to turn a direction, and move to that direction by pressing up. Don't understand, ah? Well this control configuration prevents RE2 to being a faster paced game, which may be a good thing to fit the horrifying mood. Although after time, you will get used to them. No other control configurations are to be found either. To shoot, you have to hold the R shift to hold up you gun, and press Z to fire. In time, you will slowly understand the controls.

Some of the great audio in RE2 just practically puts every other N64 title to shame. The quantity of speech in RE2 shows what Capcom can accomplish with a cartridge. The speech of Leon and Claire [the main characters] sounds very dynamic and realistic. You will interact with many other characters, friends or enemies, and they will all have their own voices. The zombies and other creatures moan and faint, which all adds up the realism. There are also other quiet but frightening tunes, which may scare the younger audience. Other sound effects of you weapons, etc. present you with no problems at all.

Was I satisfied? Of course. The storyline of RE2 for Leon and Claire are both different, and brilliantly plotted. All the secrets of RE2 take time to find, and there are very interesting ways of finding them. RE2 is slow paced, mostly due to the controls as I said before, and sometimes shooting zombies etc. can be difficult because of the perspective you see Leon or Claire. Many of the items you find are very mysterious, but will have later use to you as you get further in the game. You will also acquire a bunch of different guns as well.

The FMV scenes on RE2 look very impressive for cartridge format, and still and don't look too bad either compared to PSX's RE2. The translation from PSX's RE2 to N64's RE2 was very well done by Capcom. Overall, RE2 is satisfies all.

As for the replay, Resident Evil 2 lives up to a decent replay value. After completing the game, items will be relocated in different areas so completing it again may not be that simple. There are also 2 quests to complete, one of Leon, and the other of Claire. RE2 overall is standard in length, and will take the average video gamer about 2-3 weeks to complete.