Author Topic: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!  (Read 5386 times)

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Offline ShyGuy

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Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« on: February 04, 2019, 08:01:39 PM »
Tried this yesterday and played about 4 hours. Wow, wow wow! This feels like Resident Evil 4 more than any other RE game since 2005. Managing resources feels so good! My only minor quibble is some of the gore in the cut scenes was a bit too gratuitous.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2019, 09:15:16 PM »
As I've mentioned elsewhere ( http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=41624.msg945774#msg945774 ), I have mixed feelings on the remake. It adds some good stuff, like the gunpowder system and general atmosphere, and it takes away some good stuff like narrative coherency; unique bosses; a good Claire Voice Actor; and the best soundtrack in the entire series.
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Offline ThePerm

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2019, 10:37:58 PM »
The games with Leon are usually good.
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2019, 01:35:01 AM »
More points.

I really like the new map system. Showing rooms that still have secrets as red is great.
The knives breaking down so quickly is stupid
I like the boarding up of the windows.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2019, 02:08:03 AM »
Went back to RE2 & finally did Claire A. Had a pretty good idea where to go and what to do this time, and look at what I caught!  ;D

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Offline MagicCow64

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2019, 09:47:00 PM »
I think I'm about four hours in (got stupidly stumped for awhile because I didn't turn the page on the escape sketch), and while I really liked the game at first, I'm kind of souring rapidly.

The initial stretch through the police station I thought was the best combination of "modern" third-person shooting and OG Resident Evil yet. I very much liked the focus on the physicality of the zombies and how space works, and how lickers are genuine fucking problems. It makes me wish they'd taken it further with some kind of micro-parkour system that would let you scramble over desks and counters to get away from zombies. Similarly, I'm fine with the zombies being spongey, but they should be more destructible, with shots taking chunks out of them and debilitating them until the brain goes.

But anyway, I got out of the main police station, and they just drop the Birkin fight on you with no lead-up, and it's instantly goofy RE hulk with mutant eyeball weakpoint number XX chasing you around steam pipes, and Leon makes wisecracks. Really blows up the careful construction and atmosphere of the beginning hours. And then shortly after Mr. X does his preview in the jail block, which is similarly kind of goofy and out of nowhere.

I disagree about the gratuitous gore, though, it's great, and a return to the horror shock elements of the earlier games that got totally lost in Post-4 gooberdom.

Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2019, 10:02:26 PM »
Yeah, the fight with old Mister Eyeball Shoulder felt like it came out of nowhere.



Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2019, 11:15:32 PM »
I hate speed-running games so much, and this game has 3 trophies associated with speed-running, technically 4 if you count beating 4th Survivor since you either speed-run that mode or you die.

I've done several more playthroughs since I got my 1st S Rank with Claire the other night, earning the trophies for beating the game without using the item box, beating it without healing, and beating it using less than 14,000 footsteps. I still have to beat Leon's Campaign with an S Rank & beat 4th Survivor, and I'll finally be able to take my time again on my Hardcore playthroughs.

On a side note, I highly recommend watching "a" playthrough by this particular speed-runner I've been following on Youtube the last few days. The dude is OCD as hell and (frankly) incredibly boring to watch, but he's managed to beat the game in 55 minutes.  If you want to speed-run the game for the unlocks, I highly recommend watching this just to get an idea for how you can efficiently get through certain situations without wasting a great deal of ammo. You'd be amazed how many enemies you can get around by just clipping through them while they're getting up or opening doors. It also gives you a good idea what the ideal route through the game would look like.


The one caveat I have to give is that he is cheating a little bit by circumstance. He's playing on PC with the framerate boosted to 120 FPS, which apparently makes weapons like the knife ridiculously powerful. He just knifes that 1st Birkin boss to death in about 10 seconds. I've done that on console as well, but only on Assisted mode when I was doing my footstep/no-box/no-heal runs. However, you can do a lot of damage in the early fight with just the knife.

Also, there's something important you should know about Lickers: They can ONLY hear you if you fire a gun, bump into them, or run. No matter what sound they make, if you don't do any of those 3 things, you can just normally walk around them. You don't even have to slow walk, just normal walk.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2019, 08:11:10 AM »
Finally cleared 4th Survivor & S-ranked Leon's standard campaign, so I'm effectively done with the time-based trophies. The time & save-based requirements for S & S+ on Hardcore are just too ridiculous, so I'm not going to try for them on my Hardcore runs.

On a side note, the game's receiving free story DLC on 2/15/19, although it's not clear if we're receiving all 3 of the mini-campaigns announced (Kendo, Mayor's Daughter, Umbrella agent) or just one.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2019, 12:20:30 PM »
So...Ghost Survivors came out yesterday, and I can't say I care for it. I was hoping for 3 mini-stories akin to normal RE2 gameplay with some tweaks. Instead, all 3 of the main Ghost Survivor scenarios (there is a 4th that's special) are basically akin to the 4th Survivor mode. You run down a gauntlet of enemies, and you try to manage your supplies on the fly to reach the end point.

Each of the 3 main scenarios has a new zombie type: Kendo's has zombies that poison you when they attack as well as emitting a burst of poison when you kill them. The Runaway's has instantly-regenerating zombies that only go down under heavy fire from power weapons. The Umbrella Agent's has zombies wearing pieces of armor over random body parts so you strategize differently depending on the exposed areas.

Ghost Survivors does have 2 things that differentiate it from 4th Survivor, though, and I wish these were more random: scattered throughout the stages are these gumball stations, from which you can select 1 item before the station locks down. There are also zombies in the environment wearing backpacks, required to take down if you're playing Runaway (they're always carrying a key you need to unlock a gate in that scenario) but option elsewhere that have 3 items you can take.

My issue with this mode that that all 3 scenarios are murder gauntlets unless you're playing on Training, one of only 2 difficulty modes. It's just too extreme. Imagine if the only difficulty modes in the main game were Assisted and Hardcore, and you'd have a good idea what the difficulty spike is here. I've only managed to beat The Runaway without using Training difficulty, which is the "easiest" of the 3 scenarios.

This just isn't what I wanted. Capcom was also talking about these scenarios being randomized for replayability, but I've seen nothing of the sort. The same stations & backpack zombies have the same items every time, and it's the same enemies in the same locations in the same order.

On a side note, there are now free costumes out on PSN for Leon & Claire's original PS1 outfits.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2019, 03:39:59 PM by broodwars »
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2019, 05:39:07 PM »
So is the story based on the RE Survivor spin off games?

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2019, 05:55:00 PM »
 :-X
So is the story based on the RE Survivor spin off games?

No. What little story there is surrounds 3 characters from the main game & one implied.

One scenario has the Kendo gunship owner running through the sewers to "GET TO DA CHOPPA!" The next has The Mayor's Daughter running from the orphanage to the jail cells to rescue her true love (yes, really). The 3rd has you playing as an Umbrella soldier trying to escape the labs with a sample of the G Virus. The last is a horde mode challenge where you play as the gas station sheriff fending off waves of zombies.

The gag is that these are all "what if?" scenarios for characters who died in the main game.
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Offline MagicCow64

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2019, 08:25:21 PM »
So I finished the game last night, and overall feel strangely cold about it.

I thought it took a big quality dip when you hit the lower levels of the police station, but then it bounced back again when you return to the main floors and have to deal with Mr. X. The first 45 minutes or so of that was pretty heart pounding, especially as I had left zombies and lickers all over the place.

But then you hit the sewers, which feels like an unnecessary reprisal of the game design before the game design is repeated yet again in the final lab area. I would much rather they cut down the length of the game and focused more on making the two characters have differentiated runs (from what I've read, it isn't really worth it doing the second scenario if you're not in love with the game).

But yeah, this is an issue with all of these games to an extent, but by the time I got to the last third all the tension was gone and it felt like I was going through the motions. The game looks good, but most of the post-station environments are kind of dialed down and unremarkable. I still thinkjthe Birkin stuff doesn't really jibe with the how the game first unspools, and I feel like there needed to be some more developed hook to the gameplay keep the tension up in the face of the third person perspective and precise shooting (and the Mr. X element, while initially cool,  becomes sort of trivial once you figure out how restricted he is). By the end, it kind of feels like an amalgam of old school RE, RE 4-6, and the revelations games, but not nailing it like RE1 Remake nailed the old style or RE4 nailed the more action-oriented games. Put another way, it kind of feels like a Revelations game with a much better budget and less linearity.

Offline Adrock

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2019, 10:11:42 PM »
There’s a mod that plays “X Gon Give It To Ya” by DMX whenever Mr. X shows up. It was my favorite thing I saw today.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2019, 12:45:35 AM »
I...did it. =_=

Never...again...



Getting the S+ Rank on Hardcore with Claire grants you access to an infinite gattling gun & infinite machine gun. Doing it with Leon gives you the Infinite Rocket Launcher.

Just to recap, to get an S+ Rank, you have to...

1. Beat the game on Hardcore...
2. Without saving more than 3 times...
3. While not using a single infinite weapon outside of the knife (which you'll never use on Hardcore because you don't have the space. There are only 3 inventory expansions in the game on Hardcore, and you only have time to get 2 of them.

Yeah...that brought back some memories of beating Dead Space 2 on Hardcore, but at least I didn't have the speed run that.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #15 on: February 19, 2019, 09:15:44 PM »
Well, got my Platinum (#177), easily one of the Top 4 hardest Platinums in the Resident Evil series, in my estimation. I have to admit, it was quite cathartic shredding every damn thing in the game with that infinite minigun.  ;D



Revelations 1's Platinum is probably harder due to you having to 100% Raid Mode, plus so many parts of the game being total bullshit. Don't know for sure. I hate that game, so I never bothered.  Revelations 2's Platinum is DEFINITELY harder because you not only have to beat the game on Hard, but also on Countdown & Invisible Enemy modes. Resident Evil Zero's trophy list is pretty damn similar to RE 2's, but Zero is also legendarily unforgiving and beating THAT on hard is even harder than 2's hardcore mode.

On a side note, the best weapon against the lickers is the knife, oddly enough. If they're on the ground, it stun-locks them, and it's silent so it won't draw any other lickers.

Unless Capcom adds any more content to RE2, that'll probably be it for me for a long time. I wasn't the biggest fan when I first completed it, but after running through it so many times since and getting a much better sense of the tight, clockwork nature of the level & encounter design, I quite like it. I still have such a soft spot for the original version of RE2, but I'm interested to see if Capcom can now redeem RE3 by remaking it.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #16 on: February 23, 2019, 12:21:10 AM »
In the aftermath of finishing RE2, nothing's really clicking with me, so I thought..."what the hell? Might as well get that S+ Rank on Leon's Hardcore campaign & unlock the infinite rocket launcher."

Which I have now done.



I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. :P



I also managed to beat another Ghost Survivor scenario (No Time to Mourn). Still trying to work out how you beat the last two.
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Offline Adrock

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #17 on: February 23, 2019, 01:03:12 AM »
Wait, nothing clicked with you so you just decided to play the game again and get an S+ rank? Most people are like “Oh, what the hell? I’ll eat one more cookie.” You’re just devouring games...

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #18 on: February 23, 2019, 01:08:33 AM »
Wait, nothing clicked with you so you just decided to play the game again and get an S+ rank? Most people are like “Oh, what the hell? I’ll eat one more cookie.” You’re just devouring games...

What can I say? I'm in a horror game mood, there's nothing interesting coming out on any console until late March at best, and Kingdom Hearts 3 is not a very good game. I'll probably replay Dead Space 2 next since I recently finished a replay of the 1st game.

I just haven't seen a rhythm in a survival horror game like the RE2 remake in quite some time, and I have a feeling we won't see another for quite some time as well.
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Offline evyn

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #19 on: February 25, 2019, 03:57:08 AM »
I'm loving the noir feel.

Offline MagicCow64

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #20 on: February 25, 2019, 08:16:54 PM »
So despite what I said before, out of boredom, I did the second run with Claire, and finished the game again in about 4 hours.

Firstly, I was kind of impressed with how they remixed the police station despite not having much genuinely new content. The non-nonchalant early Mr. X drop was especially cool, and overall I felt much more scrambly and pressured, rushing through ****, leaning on defense items, giving up on routes (who needs the machine gun, anyway), and just trying to stay viable through an ad hoc "optimized run". I think I enjoyed this sequence the most of any part of the two runs.

But then the second half of the game happens. The Sherry bit is definitely more conceptually interesting than the dumb Ada Prime sequence from Leon's run, but it's very short, and plunks you back into the shitty sewer, which plays out mostly the same. As does the lab. Both felt like especial slogs the second time around. The train elevator Birkin fight was better than the Mr. X fight for Leon, but the "true ending" train bit was super brief and lame, which maybe it was in the first place, but I found it very anti-climactic this time around.

If I were in charge, I would have either had completely different paths to the lab for Leon and Claire, or axed the sewer altogether and made the lab a more in-depth second location (more like the Arctic in Code Veronica) that could've had a much better remixed B run.

-It's super dumb that they recycle the Mr. X lifts up the helicopter thing in the second run. Like, how much budget would it have taken to do a different bit?

-Maybe the spark shot is good in some context, but it sucks to use and takes some of the fun out of the late stage Claire run.

-I was happy not to do the jail block stuff again, but the Claire run is really missing some similarly tense equivalent.

-Overall I'd put this above the Revelations games, 0, 5, 6, and 7, but don't think it quite makes it over the line in the way it initially seems to promise. A 3make doesn't seem like a particularly interesting prospect.
 

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2019, 08:32:15 PM »
The Spark Shot is good against the G-Adults in the Sewers since I think the lightning bolt from a full charge bypasses the armor over the eye. It's also a superb weapon in Ghost Survivor since it's a guaranteed kill against both armored and poison zombies from a far distance. If you have multiple zombies clustered together, it also stuns them (though the lightning bolt still only hits the main target). I suspect it would be a good weapon against Ivy and Lickers since it's a guaranteed stun & knock-down, particularly since a grab from an Ivy is a one-hit kill unless you have a sub-weapon handy.

Unfortunately, since a single flame round from Claire's grenade launcher is enough to neutralize a G Adult long enough to get around them, it's still a very limited weapon.

Honestly, I think it's intended purpose is as a lock & delay tactic since it's pretty much the best space-clearing weapon in the game for normal enemies. You lock an enemy (or more if there's a mob) in place for a few seconds while you're charging the lightning bolt, which allows you to either get around them or put some space between you and them to ready a different weapon.

Still, if you think that weapon's useless, you should have seen its original RE2 version. It was her counterpart to the combat shotgun that Leon gets, and it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

I'm already on the record of not liking the huge amount of recycled content between the A & B scenarios. It's just simply lazy, not to mention nonsensical since the plots don't link together in any logical way.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2019, 08:50:20 PM by broodwars »
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Offline ShyGuy

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2019, 10:49:58 PM »
I think we know what's Broodwar's game of the year is going to be.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #23 on: February 25, 2019, 11:10:25 PM »
I think we know what's Broodwar's game of the year is going to be.

I hope not. That means it's all downhill from here. -_-
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Offline MagicCow64

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #24 on: February 26, 2019, 08:17:06 PM »
Wow, I didn't even remember that Claire had an electro gun in the original game.

And yeah, the A/B stuff is kind of bizarre. Obviously there were budget constraints on this game that prevented more fleshed out alternate scenarios, but at the same time they decided to drop a bunch of resources into the expanded sewer that I doubt anyone considered a highlight. And even with that, like, just have the helicopter already moved when Claire gets to the station. Don't have the window break in the interrogation room during the second run instead of the first. Have the police van smashed into the wall in the parking garage, blocking off the jail block. Have the catwalk already partially collapsed for the first Birkin fight. Have the B run have to call back the train from the lab. Have the B run find an alternate route to the basement because the medallions are already in place.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #25 on: February 26, 2019, 08:22:43 PM »
Someone on my Twitter feed speculated something I find likely about the A & B scenarios: Capcom was very open in interviews near the start of the game's development that there wouldn't be separate Claire & Leon scenarios. There would be one campaign featuring all the characters, and that would be it.

Somewhere along the way, the devs changed their minds and went back to the original A-B system. However, by that point, it was too late to make unique scenarios for both characters & link the campaigns together properly.

Considering how the 2 campaigns only kinda-sorta link together in odd & un-emphasized ways and make no logical narrative sense together, I find that explanation very likely.

Unrelated to that, though, there's kind of 2 plot holes in the remake related to Mr. X that's really strange considering they WERE addressed in the original game and they both involve objects falling from the sky: in the original version of RE2, you witness the helicopter crash in the B Scenario. You see a police officer calling a helicopter down, but he gets jumped by zombies & accidentally shoots the helicopter pilot, causing the crash. In the remake, this never gets explained. The Helicopter just crashes for no apparent reason.

Likewise, the original game also shows Mr. X's arrival in the B scenario: there's an Umbrella helicopter that's carrying a series of cylinders containing Mr. Xs. It drops one into the police station, and there he is. If you play RE3, you can even find the corpses of the OTHER Mr. Xs that Helicopter was carrying in the city. However, in the remake, he just shows up. He has no introduction whatsoever.

Those 2 scenes missing, to me, is more indicative of budget cuts then anything else.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2019, 08:28:44 PM by broodwars »
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Resident Evil... 2... Remake!
« Reply #26 on: April 09, 2019, 12:40:00 AM »
Hey, if you're a games journalist, and therefore incapable of anything approaching skill or competence with video games, Capcom has a deal for you! $5 to unlock all the bonus content, costumes, & weapons in the Resident Evil 2 remake!  :rolleyes:

https://www.destructoid.com/resident-evil-2-is-selling-a-shortcut-to-unlock-rewards-549456.phtml

I unlocked all that crap legitimately, which as we've established was no easy task. $5 is letting the games journalists off easy, IMO.

In all seriousness, the RE2 remake is really lacking when it comes to unlocks. Difficulty of unlocking the special weapons aside, $5 feels like an awful lot for very little reward.
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