Description
Even though Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine were able to destroy the Umbrella corporation's undead monsters in the original
Resident Evil, Umbrella's experiments with the T-virus continued unhindered. Claire Redfield, the younger sister of Chris, and Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop on his first day of the job, arrive in the sleepy midwestern town of Raccoon City only to find the city in flaming ruins due to the inhabitants having been transformed into mindless flesh-eating freaks. Although Claire and Leon team up, they are soon separated and trapped inside the city by a car crash. Seeking refuge within the Raccoon City police station, each character must find a way to escape from the nightmare while solving the mystery of what happened to Raccoon City.
Besides the zombie population (which is much more diverse than the original, including teenage girl zombies, maniac cop zombies, and even melting naked zombies), Claire and Leon will also have to deal with a variety of freakish mutants including giant poisonous spiders, walking venus-fly-traps, and speedy wall-crawling Lickers. Each character will also be pursued by one seemingly unstoppable foe: a horrific and constantly evolving man-monster known as the "G-Type" (Leon's Scenario) , or a taciturn but inhumanly powerful Umbrella agent who is nonetheless saddled with the rather quaint name of Mr. X (Claire's Scenario).
Like the previous game in the series,
Resident Evil 2 is a 3D action-adventure using three-dimensional polygon characters over two-dimensional pre-rendered backgrounds, with the action viewed through a variety of cinematic fixed camera angles in each room. Just like the original
Resident Evil, players can choose to play as one of two possible characters. Each character goes through the same initial scenario, but with differences in the type of weaponry they find and the people they meet along the way. Leon will team up with a mysterious woman calling herself Ada Wong, while Claire will find herself charged with protecting a little girl named Sherry Birkin.
Unlike the original
Resident Evil, beating the game for the first time unlocks a second scenario to be played with the character you didn't choose, with new locations, maps, enemies, a longer and more climactic ending. Your actions in the first scenario can also affect the outcome of certain events in the second scenario. Additionally ammo and healing items are more plentiful than in the original game, although you still aren't given enough bullets to kill every enemy you meet.
Note: for the Windows release of
Resident Evil 2 see
this entry.
Alternate Titles
- "生化危机2" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
- "惡靈古堡2" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
- "RE 2" -- Common abbreviation
- "Biohazard 2" -- Japanese name
- "バイオハザード 2" -- Japanese spelling
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The Press Says
| The Video Game Critic |
Oct 25, 2004 |
A |
100 |
| GamePro (US) |
Apr 21, 2006 |
5 out of 5 |
100 |
| Super Play |
Apr, 1998 |
96 out of 100 |
96 |
| Gaming Target |
May 08, 2002 |
9.6 out of 10 |
96 |
| PGNx Media |
Oct 05, 2002 |
9.5 out of 10 |
95 |
| Quebec Gamers |
Nov 11, 2011 |
9.5 out of 10 |
95 |
| IGN |
Jan 21, 1998 |
9.3 out of 10 |
93 |
| Digital Press - Classic Video Games |
Oct 07, 2005 |
9 out of 10 |
90 |
| GameSpot |
Jan 28, 1998 |
8.9 out of 10 |
89 |
| Retrogaming.it |
Mar 14, 2008 |
8 out of 10 |
80 |
Forums
Trivia
Book
A book adaptation of this game was published in 1999, the third in Pocket Books'
Resident Evil series, written by S.D. Perry and entitled City of the Dead.
Contest
The PlayStation release of this orginally advertised "Win a role in the movie!". That was in 1998, the movie was released in 2002 after a complete re-write. It is unknown if the winner of the contest could or did claim the price.
Development
Resident Evil 2 was almost a very different game. The original version of the game had a similar premise but almost the entire game looked totally different. The police station was very modern looking, other weapons were included and Claire was absent from the game, instead there was a motorcycle riding girl named Elza. This early version, which has become known as
Resident Evil 1.5, was apparently about 70% complete but was completely scrapped because it was apparently too similar to the original and wasn't a significant enhancement over it.
Game Boy Advance version
A port of
Resident Evil 2 for the Game Boy Advance was in development by
Raylight Studios, but never got past the tech demo stage. See the related links section for a link to footage of this demo.
German index
On April 30, 1998,
Resident Evil 2 was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here:
BPjS/BPjM indexed games.
German version
In the German version, the blood was coloured grey or green. The death sequence was removed.
Nemesis
References
- 'Redrum' is painted on a wall in blood in the police station.
- As Claire Redfield drives the motorcycle on the highway, the sign saying "Welcome to Raccoon City" has the words "Raccoon City" typed in a Gamefan font, the title font used by the cancelled magazine company Gamefan.
- Leon crashes the police car next to the Arukas Tailor. "Arukas" spelled backwards is "Sakura", a character in another Capcom game, Street Fighter Alpha 2.
Resident Evil 0
In a B game, a report can be found in Rebecca's desk that details the events of
Resident Evil Zero (2002).
Sales
The US release of
Resident Evil 2 in 1998 broke industry records by selling more than 380,000 units in its debut weekend and grossing more than $19 million dollars.
Awards
- Game Informer
- August 2001 (Issue #100) - #34 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
Information also contributed by
AxelStone,
MegaMegaMan,
PCGamer78,
Pseudo_Intellectual,
Sycada,
woods01 and
XolerasThis entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by
Matthew Bailey (1147) on Apr 04, 2001.
