Resident Evil 2 on PS1

Resident Evil 2is, as the name suggests, Capcom‘s sequel to 1996’s superlative Resident Evil which was released in the UKlast year, both of which are released by Virgin Interactive.

In the first game, the S.T.A.R.S. members Chris Redfield and Jill Valentinebattled to find out what lurked behind the cause of the zombie-infested townof Raccoon City. It seemed the task was complete when they eradicated thedeadly T-Virus.

Things couldn’t be further from the truth though as the Umbrella Corporationhave manufactured the G-Virus and those caught up in the diseased city thistime round are Chris’ sister Claire and Leon, a cop on his first day in thejob patrolling the town.

In the opening FMV sequence, fate pulls them together and then tears them apart.When you play this sequel, you won’t be playing one scenario but four: first gothrough the game as Leon and then as Clare. Then you’ll play each characteragain, but things will be even harder.

Like the first game, you’ll need to solve puzzles, find keys, combinations andspecial weapons, not to mention trying to stay alive as fear lurks aroundevery corner. Also, at certain points in the game you’ll take on the guise oftwo other characters mentioned later in the review – Ada and Sherry.

Characters

Leon

Leon is an idealistic rookie cop. He has quickly become disenchanted with thevery system he is trained to uphold as he learns the harsh realities of thereal world. He is somewhat reckless and brash, and certainly not as naive ashis outward demeanor would have the casual observer believe. Leon is highlyqualified for his job and his sense of humor makes him a very likeable officerdespite his rowdy attitude.

Claire

Claire is a light-hearted and articulate modern women. Her intelligence andoptimism combine to make her both worldly and keenly aware of her surroundings.While Claire is a bit of a tomboy at times, she is very attractive and retainsvery feminine qualities. Her demeanor softens considerably when she deals withchildren. She can also be described as somewhat of a wild girl. Both extrovertedand self-confident, she is typically the first person to try things many otherswould not. With her strong opinions on most issues, she can come across as quitesarcastic.

Ada

Ada is a very professional woman, highly skilled and intelligent. However, shealso can come across as very condescending with her tendency to talk down tothose she deems “inferior” to herself. This is most evident in her tone of voicewhen addressing others. She is a Chinese-American who is engaged to be marriedin the near future.

Sherry

The daughter of William Birkin, Sherry is a bit insecure yet very intelligentfor her age of 12. She is very shy and when she speaks she always sounds a bitunsure of herself like a lost little girl. Her father, William Birkin is abrilliant scientist working for the Umbrella Corporation.

Game Options

Key ConfigurationThere are three predefined key configurations with which to play the game,although there are only slight variations between them. SoundBasic options are available here: Volume levels for both sound effects andbackground music, plus a stereo/mono toggle. Monitor AdjustThis option places colour bars on the screen allowing you to obtain the correctbrightness setting. ResetReset the game: a yes/no toggle. Load GameLoad a previously saved game. As with the first game, you can only save yourposition after finding the various ink ribbons scattered about the town andbuildings and then using them at the typewriters. New GameWhen starting a new game you’re given the option of “Normal” or “Easy”.The former gives you just a clip full of bullets to begin with, whereas thelatter begins with 138. In addition, you get a knife and a lighter.

Hints and Tips

N.B. I didn’t write any of the following cheats, so can’t vouch for them if theydon’t work.

Kill the Camera

Take the east exit out of the basement, and go to the area with two dogs and amanhole in it. Stand with your back to the manhole, walk forward from themanhole until the camera changes angles, then face the camera and fire with theShotgun. You may have to tweak the aim a bit, but check it out!

Safe Combination

To open the safe use 2236 as the Code

Brad Vickers (Special Key)

Begin the game on normal difficulty on the 1st scenario. Play through from thebeginning without picking up any items. When you reach the gate before theR.P.D., take the stairs to your left. You will encounter a special zombie wearcamouflage pants and an orange vest. Say hi to Brad Vickers who you might recallas the pilot of the chopper that airlifted Chris and Jill out of R.E.1. He’s noordinary zombie. He’s super powered and takes far more hits than any otherzombie. You can try to kill him now with your limited Handgun ammo (not nearlyenough shots to kill him) and your knife (uhh, good luck) but a better idea isto pass him and head into the R.P.D. and grab a shotgun and come back for him(once you’ve made him appear you can go grab any items you want, he’ll still bethere waiting for you) You can kill him with one shotgun blow to the head. Orwait till he’s facing you and slowly move backwards. He’ll take a lunge at youand end up at your feet. This only take up 1/8 of your health but you can killhim with one simple boot smash. Search his corpse and you’ll find the specialkey (you can only fight Brad Vickers in the 2nd scenario if you encountered himin the first and you can still pick up items along the way)

Special Costumes

Once you’ve obtained the special key from Brad, as described above, take the keyto the 1st F west wing save room that also has the darkroom attached. You willfind a locker there. Use the special key and Voila! With Leon you get choice oftwo new costumes. Plus you’ll get the awesome ability to fire the handgunone-handed which is twice as fast as usual. Claire gets only one new costume butalso gains the Colt S.A.A. gun. This weapon will give you a real taste of thewild west, as Claire fires it gunslinger style, holding the pistol from the hipand fanning the hammer with her palm. Not only does this look awesome, but shepumps out bullets at more than twice the rate of the normal handgun. But it onlyholds six shots(but reloads ultra fast)(Note: If you change clothes in the first scenario, that character will still bewearing the new outfit in the others 2nd scenario.)

Infinite Weapons

Infinite weapons are a special reward for skilled R.E.2 players. If you beat the1st scenario with an A or B ranking in under 2 hours, you get an InfiniteRocket Launcher. In the 2nd scenario there are two possibilities. If you simplybeat the 2nd mission with an A or B ranking in under 3 hours, you get theInfinite Submachine gun. If you beat the 2nd mission with an A or B rankingin under 2 hours you get an Infinite Rocket Launcher, Submachine gun,AND the awesome Gatling gun!

1-hit Gator Kill

Here’s a secret trick to kill the Gator boss. When he starts advancing on you.You’ll notice a yellow light on the left wall. Search it and a canister willfall to the ground. When the gator chomps down on the gas canister, shoot thecanister and the gator will explode into bloody chunks!

Reserve Power Control

To activate reserve power, enter the sequence: Up, Down, Up, Up, Down.

The 4th Survivor

The fourth survivor is a bonus game mode that features anotherplayable character named “Hunk.” Hunk is one of the soldiers whotried to take the G-virus from William, as seen during the midgameCG FMV. Hunk’s mission is to get from the sewer to the secondfloor of the police station. It is a battle mode of sorts, with nopuzzles to solve or items to pick up. To open up this mode, beatthe second scenario for either of the two characters in under twoand a half hours, using fewer than twelve saves.

Tofu

Tofu is yet another playable character… well sort of. He’s actually agiant piece of tofu, who plays the same scenario as Hunk but isarmed with only a knife. To open up Tofu, you must play through thegame three consecutive times. Play through a first scenario, thenits corresponding second scenario, then the other character’s firstscenario and its corresponding second scenario, then finally thefirst and second scenario all over again. If you can finish each oneof the six scenarios in under three hours, with fewer than twelvesaves in each one, and without using any of the unlimited weaponsmentioned below, he’s all yours.

Ranking System

To get a ranking of :

Note that your rank will be lowered by one grade if you use any specialweapons or if you saved more than 12 times.

Graphics, Sound and Playability

Most people who’ve played the first will know what to expect in terms ofgraphics. Crisp, clear and colourful with excellent interaction between yourselfand the characters than inhabit the city. Not to mention those you’ll comeacross who mutate into something even more evil.

Sound is also first-rate. The menacing background music, the pistol-shootingfollowed by the sound of each spent cartridge hitting the floor, the groan ofthe zombies as they come at you, or slump to the floor. Plus, the squelchingsound of several zombies sucking your blood as they pin you to the floor…

The gameplay is also very good. The controls take a little getting used toalthough if you’ve played the first game then you shouldn’t have any problemswith this game. The whole game plays slightly slower in the PAL version thanthe NTSC version, also with some black bars at the top and bottom of the screen,but this is to be expected with most PAL games. It doesn’t make too much of adifference though and is only probably noticeable if you’ve played the NTSCversion.

Overall

Overall, if you’ve played the original and liked that, then you’ll be eagerfor some more and this certainly doesn’t disappoint, especially as you haveto play out four scenarios.

If I could make two alterations, the first is when you go through a door.Every time you go through you get the ‘opening door’ sequence, which can bequite annoying if you need to go through a lot of doors to get somewhere andyou know that there’s no more zombies left in that room. Therefore I feel youshould only get the ‘opening door’ graphic the first time you go through.The other alteration is that a spare pair of underpants should be included withthe game as this and its prequel are the only ones I’ve played in which you canbe genuinely scared of what’s around the corner…particularly if it’s late atnight.

If you’re after some more info on Virgin Interactive’s games, you can checkout their official Website atwww.vie.co.uk

Also, check out Capcom’s site at www.capcom.comGRAPHICS : *****SOUND EFFECTS : *****PLAYABILITY: ****ORIGINALITY : ****ENJOYMENT : *****———————–OVERALL : *****

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.