Resident Evil 2

aka: Biohazard 2, RE 2
Moby ID: 955
PlayStation Specs
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Description official descriptions

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.

Spellings

  • バイオハザード 2 - Japanese spelling
  • 惡靈古堡2 - Chinese spelling (traditional)
  • 生化危机2 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation version)

33 People (23 developers, 10 thanks) · View all

Planning
Scenario
Graphics
Motion Design
Software Engineer
Scenario Program
Enemy Program
Sound
Sound Design
CG Movie
Team Producer
Director
Manual
Translation
Creative Services
Marketing Manager
Manual Design
Packaging Design
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 93% (based on 31 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 136 ratings with 8 reviews)

How dare this abomination carry the name of its father!

The Good
It's the sequel to Resident Evil.

You get to fight Umbrella some more.

You're no longer stuck inside of a mansion.

New weapons?

I heard it's better than the ones that came after it.

The Bad
Yeah, I sure didn't write much in "The Good", did I? Now, actually, I could have written a lot more, but I'm comparing this game to the original, not as a game itself. The gameplay hasn't changed at all from the original, which might be good or bad. Probably bad, considering it could have been improved. Everything about the two games is basically the same...except for the single most important parts! The story and atmosphere!

Resident Evil 1 is my all-time favorite horror game to a console system. Why? Because it reinvented the entire "oh no we're trapped in a scary house and there are zombies everywhere!" genre. It actually had a STORY to back it up! People weren't coming back from the dead - they were infected with a disease! Umbrella was playing God and they fucked up! That was a great story, and the first time I'd ever seen a game like this that didn't feel like one giant cliche. And the atmosphere was incredible. The dark cello music playing somewhere off in the background, the sounds of something rustling outside the window, that eerie "unngghhhh" from a pained half-dead zombie scientist as he lingers toward you...it was great. It wasn't a puzzle-action game, it was a survivor game with puzzle and action elements.

When I beat the game, I had heard there was a sequel being worked on, so I immediately looked up all information I could about the game. It was a game I HAD to play. What I found, from various sources (mostly somewhat reliable, like video game magazines) was that Resident Evil 2 was going to take the series to a whole new level, having an entire town become infected and terrorized by the disease and the zombies. It promised us that you would be able to travel around an entire city this time, not being stuck inside a single mansion. Would having such open areas ruin the horrifying atmosphere of the game? Certainly not! Not if the same guys who made Resident Evil 1 worked on Resident Evil 2...no, they would even make it scarier than the first!

Well...I don't know everything. Maybe the team who made Resident Evil 1 left or something, because instead of getting the greatest game ever, a worthy sequel, heck, even a fun game, I got the biggest disappointment of my console playing life. This was not Resident Evil 2...this couldn't be.

Well, it was.

See, what I was promised was a game in which I would be able to travel around an entire city. Imagine that, being able to see all the damage the virus had done, all the infection, the destruction...the atmosphere! But, instead of being able to go anywhere around the town, you basically just go from Point A to Point B to Point C to the police station, which eventually leads you to some underground laboratory, in which you spend the rest of the game in.

City? What city? You mean that short street, alleyway and park in the beginning of the game? Pfft.

Well, it was almost refreshing by now. I mean, you're back in close-quarters, so things should be scary again, right? No, not even close. It just falls flat every single place you go. You know, I don't even remember the storyline of the second game. Why? Because I just didn't care. I held on to that hope, that loosening grasp for the glory that was in the first game, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it. I had to face the facts: this was a bad game.

Like I said, I don't remember much of the story. I know it had very little, if anything to do with the events of the first game, which made it all the less exciting. It didn't really matter...it was all about killing zombies and hurting Umbrella. It was not about surviving and escaping. It was about killing and blood and guts. I've seen that before. Many times.

Did I mention how scared I was from playing the first game? It took me over a month of almost nonstop playing because it was so frightening to play. Know how long it took me to beat the second? One night. I must have played for...four hours, tops. That's it. I had it on the default difficulty, but it only took about four hours. Maybe longer...maybe shorter. I just know I beat it long before the sun came up.

The Bottom Line
Do yourself a great favor. Buy Resident Evil 1 (the remake for Gamecube is very good, I hear), play through it, and be very, very happy. And then just walk away from this series, because it's downhill (on a very steep hill) after that.

PlayStation · by kbmb (415) · 2003

The sequel that blew the original out of the water...

The Good
If there was one game I would herald as Capcom's ultimate success in the action/puzzle genre, Resident Evil 2 would rise clearly above all the rest. The game, by far the best in the series, creates an atmoshpere truly terrifying - possibly rivalled only by Konami's Silent Hill series. High points of the game include Crows breaking through glass windows without warning Zombies bursting through boarded up windows Lickers dropping from ceilings and leaping from seemingly nowhere And of course, our friend the Tyrant-103 - crashing through walls, hoisting himself up on to balconies, and smashing up cameras...all in the name of pulse-quickening good fun!

What appealed to me about RE2 was the fine line between Shoot-em-all and Puzzler. Different keys and combinations, block pushing - it is easy to see where the Dino Crisis puzzles were expanded from. However, torrents of zombies, mutated dogs and biological abominations keep the action fast-paced, maintaining the fine balance of brute force and wit required for complete fufilment.

RE2 boasts a diverse range of weaponry, including Shotguns, Grenade Launchers, Flamethrowers, and even a RocketLauncher! The available arsenal makes for controlled mayhem, without turning RE2 into a Shoot-em-up. Also clever was the way zombies rect to different weapons - the Magnum will burst heads right open, whilst a Grenade launcher will destroy the head and shoulders, and a well timed Shotgun blast can remove the torsos from a group of zombies - which will then begin to crawl along the floor to attack you!

Finally, the other fantastic selling point of Resi 2 is the storyline. Complete the game once as one character, and then play as the other - in a totally different game. The "2nd Scenario" involves your other character playing through the game again, but with several significant changes, including placement of key items, extra bosses and a different (REAL) ending.

The Bad
There's probably something, but I can't think what.

The Bottom Line
One of the best games CapCom has ever produced - maybe even ever will. If you don't have it, get it.

PlayStation · by Gaz Whyte (5) · 2004

A less-than-okay game

The Good
It's nice in the way RE1 was nice, it's similar to Alone in the Dark :-)

The Bad
At every aspect RE1 was bad RE2 is worse. The storyline is... well, beyond horrible. It's impossible to describe in words how much I hate the storyline, it seems to be contain every cliche possible. I'd personally like to rank this game series as one of the games with worst storyline list (although I think Final Fantasy barely beats it). The voice acting is still bad, though not as horrible as the prequel. The puzzles have actually become more simple and boring. It can now be better called an action game since basically all you do is fighting and fighting. And the combat is far more dull this time, in the prequel you actually had a challenge since ammo and health was scarce. In this game you can happily walk forward blasting everything in sight with no worries.

The Bottom Line
If you force me... I'll perhaps say that the game is enjoyable to play through once. It's a short experience, and there's some good points, the game still sort of has that AitD feeling and... er... yeah, it's got nice music too. Those weirdos who enjoyed the prequel a lot will probably enjoy this game as well, but everyone else should just look in another direction, or if you're totally bored borrow the game from a friend complete it in a few hours and toss it away.

PlayStation · by Kate Jones (416) · 2001

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
are the controls as bad as people are saying game lover Dec 30, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Resident Evil 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

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. According to publisher Capcom, Resident Evil 2 has sold 4.96 million copies worldwide since its initial release (as of June 30, 2016).

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • March 1997 (Issue 92) - PlayStation Game of the Year runner-up* Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #34 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Retro Gamer
    • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #97 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by AxelStone, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer78, [Pseudo_Intellectual](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,49363/), [Sycada](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,7060/), [woods01](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,5217/) and [Xoleras](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,42761/)

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

PlayStation 3, PSP, PS Vita added by Charly2.0. PlayStation added by Matthew Bailey.

Additional contributors: Alan Chan, Matthew Bailey, Kartanym, Unicorn Lynx, Felix, tarmo888, Foxhack, Alaka, DreinIX, —-, Paulus18950, Cantillon, CalaisianMindthief, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added March 4, 2000. Last modified February 22, 2024.