Resident Evil 2

The Good
Resident Evil 2 took the best material from its predecessor, whipped up a fresh new story, and plugged it all in with some amazing new ideas. It works quite well, and if you liked the first one, the second one will knock your eyes out.

It's not entirely the same. The first game took place in a mansion in the woods... a much more claustrophobic setting. THIS one takes place all over the CITY, although much of the first half of the game is confined to the zombie-infested police station.

This game, like the first one, offers you the chance to play it as one of two different characters -- cop Leon or biker chick Claire -- which, in many ways, makes it two different games. Furthermore, once you've played once as Leon and then the second time as Claire, if you save the game, and then play again as Leon, you will find that the plot has developed some SUBSTANTIAL changes... which carry over into the second play as Claire... which basically means you're getting FOUR similar-but-different games here...

The Bad
The voice acting, again, is horrible. Odd puzzles that didn't seem too out of place in a weird mansion in the woods don't quite work, logically, in an urban police station. What's the deal with the secrets hidden inside statues? For that matter, how many statues do you normally find in an urban police station? Once again, make sure you have that gamepad peripheral handy to hook up to your PC. It's a Playstation port, and that means control problems...

The Bottom Line
Third-person survival horror zombie shootout in the apocalyptic streets of Raccoon City! Go to it!