Resident Evil 2 review by Tyson
Overall
Buy
One would think that a game like Resident Evil 2 wouldn't be possible on the Nintendo 64 yet Capcom has shown that it can do the impossible on the Nintendo 64. I would recommend anyone with a Nintendo 64 to pick up this game for their console.
Gameplay
Resident Evil 2 continues with the story from the previous game. Umbrella's T-virus has now been let loose on the town of Raccoon City and it is turning its citizens into zombies. We play as either Claire Redfield or Leon S. Kennedy who are stuck in the city and trying to get out. What I liked about the story is this A and B scenario that you can play with each character. Beating the A scenario with one character will unlock the B for the other. I liked how each of these scenarios have their own story elements and how the B scenario even adds in a new powerful enemy called Mr. X. Much like in the first Resident Evil there is a lot of story information that you will find from various documents scattered throughout the game and I found it neat to be able to read up on all this extra information.
While Resident Evil 2 is centered around Raccoon City you don't really get to explore much of the city. Most of the game takes place in the Raccoon City Police Station but there are other areas like a sewer system and a laboratory. Exploring the games environment work just like the previous game. You go from room to room picking up items like keys or various other puzzle objects that are used to unlock more rooms and areas to explore. Puzzle still use the same mechanics from the first game. You will push objects around or collect items to use them in another room to solve some kind of puzzle. Even though I never got to fully explore Raccoon City I still had a lot of fun exploring the games environment.
One area where Resident Evil 2 really kicks it up a notch is with the zombies. There are a lot more zombies on screen then in the first game. You will get into rooms with a good 5 or 6 zombies in them. The higher zombie count also make this game more difficult then the first game and this creates some weird difficulty spikes in the game that I didn't like. Resident Evil 2 also brings in more powerful enemies called Lickers very early in the game. I definitely found this game more challenging than the first game. Thankfully fighting the zombies and other enemies works well. You get a good selection of weapons such as a pistol, shotgun, or stuff like a bazooka. Like in the previous Resident Evil game you can't move while attacking. This adds to the challenge as now you need to make sure you are in a spot that wont get you surrounded by the undead horde while attacking them.
If there is one area where Resident Evil 2 doesn't improve on it's with the games inventory system. It still uses a block like system where every item takes up its own block. This means that a key will take up as much inventory space as your shotgun or a handful of pistol ammo. Thankfully many items can be combined together to free up inventory space. But still it does suck to have to back track to a previous save room because you picked up an extra piece of ammunition and no longer have any free inventory spaces to pick up this puzzle item you just come across.
Control
I liked how this version let you use either the analog stick or the directional pad to control your character. I found the directional pad to work the best for me. The rest of the buttons on the controller will let you interact with objects, go into the inventory menu, or attack enemies. I would of liked to have fully customized controls but instead you can only choose from a few preset options.
Graphics
Honestly I am amazed at what Capcom was able to pull off with this port. The game has all the cinematics from the PlayStation version although in a lower quality. Some graphics are also improved from the PlayStation version as well. Character models look cleaner and a bit better for example. Sadly not all of the graphics in the game are all that great. The door textures used in the loading screens are very blurry which wasn't an issue on the PlayStation version.
Sound
The audio in is game is amazing. While it isn't the same quality of the PlayStation version it still works well. I didn't notice any audio track missing in this version compared to the PlayStation version. Also there is tons of spoken dialog like in the PlayStation version and I also didn't notice any missing spoken dialog segments as well.