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Review: This makes port number 1,296.
Resident Evil 2 is a port of the PC version of the wildly successful PlayStation game, which has sold thousands of copies, "inspired" legions of clones, and, as we are discussing a Capcom game here, has been released, slightly reworked, and re-released for every system underneath the uncaring sun. RE2, RE2 Dual Shock, RE2 64, RE2 PC, and now, RE2 DC. No word yet on a Jaguar or Mega Drive port; all of this, I'm sure, comes next year.
The Dreamcast version has the PC RE2's image gallery and the Extreme Battle Game, a sort of proto-Mercenaries bonus mission, making this, in Capcom style, Super Resident Evil 2 Turbo. If you've been waiting on a purchase of RE2 until they finally figured out which console to grace with its complete version, this is it... until the remade RE2 comes out on Gamecube in 2003. (Resident Evil 2 Alpha?)
For all none of you who haven't read all about RE2, the game is set two months after Resident Evil. The survivors of the mansion disaster, finding no one who would believe their story of zombies and murder in Raccoon Forest, have vanished. What they fought followed them home, however, and now Raccoon City itself is overrun with the walking dead.
Into this mess, unsuspectingly, come Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Leon is a rookie police officer, driving into town for his first day on the job; Claire is Chris Redfield's sister, wondering where her brother's gone to, ignorant that he was one of the survivors of the mansion incident. Once they find out what's going on, it's up to you, as them, to find a way for them to survive the dangers of what used to be Raccoon City.
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There's one game that'll forever stand out as the apex of horror on the PlayStation, and that's... Silent Hill. Never mind. However, Resident Evil 2 is, I'd argue, the best game in the RE series, and this is the best version of the best game in the RE series. Until Capcom makes this version obsolete in about two years, this is twenty dollars well spent for the Dreamcast owner who's into horror games. The controls feel clunkier than ever, the graphics are warmed-over three-year-old PlayStation polys which are barely better than stick figures, the voice acting's only okay, and Sherry Birkin is one of the most annoying characters in video game history, but this is still one of the paramount horror experiences on any console, and the game which started the "survival horror" explosion. For a piece of gaming history, twenty bucks isn't all that expensive.
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