Resident Evil 2 is the second chapter in the survival horror series. It begins as Raccoon City continues to endure an onslaught of terror and fear as a mysterious, flesh-eating virus spreads into the town that turns everyone it infects into zombies. RE2 introduces Leon Kennedy, a Raccoon City rookie policeman, and Claire Redfield, a tough heroine in search of her brother. Players can control either Leon or Claire as they explore the entire Raccoon City locale with its huge 3D environments, and swarms of terrifying creatures of the undead. -- GamePro
Reviews / previews
Capcoms Resident Evil 2 Platinum is a faithful port
from the Sony PlayStation, but the game carries over
a ton of console weirdness that may weaken its
appeal when placed beside similar PC titles.
As the story begins, zombies spawned by Umbrella
Inc., an evil biochemical company, are overrunning the
hapless burg of
Raccoon City.
Chris Redfield,
the hero of the
first Resident
Evil, has gone
missing along
with the rest of
his police
comrades.
Arriving in Raccoon City in the nick of time, Chriss
sister Claire and a rookie cop named Leon must get
to the bottom of this crisis and put a stop to
Umbrellas sinister plot.
You can play the game as either Claire or Leon, with
each character taking a slightly different path through
the game. Or you can undertake a mini-adventure
(locked in the PSX version) against randomly placed
enemies in the Extreme Battle mode, in which you
can also play as Chris Redfield or Ada Wong.
For those of you unfamiliar with this series, its best
described as an action-adventure hybrid. The games
third-person action is somewhat reminiscent of Tomb
Raider, though the backdrops are all 2D, so your
movements are limited much as they are in Grim
Fandango and Blade Runner. There are 10 locations
in all, including the streets of Raccoon City, the
multi-story police station, and the Umbrella labs.
The character models and zombies all look great with
a decent 3D card installed. Voodoo2 and RIVA TNT
cards make the game look especially nice. Software
rendering will work in a pinch, but even a PII 450 chugged through some
scenes without 3D hardware help. However, the 2D backgrounds range from
bland to ugly regardless of your setup.
Throughout the game, youll fight your way past a host of zombies and other
scary creatures using a variety of weapons ranging from a simple 9 mm to a
rocket launcher. Mowing down wave after wave of lumbering zombies can be
quite a rushespecially with the Gatling chaingun.
Youll run into numerous locked doors and an array of other relatively tame
puzzles that are just tough enough to slow you down without becoming
frustrating.
Unfortunately, as in the port of the
original Resident Evil, youll also
have to get past the games many
design oddities. For starters, you
can only save the game when you
come across a typewriterand then
only when you have a typewriter
ribbon in your inventory. Many of the
puzzles require extensive
backtracking. You can carry only
six to eight items at a time and
must frequently return to the
designated storage boxes on each map. You cant even exchange items in
your inventory for those you find in your travels, and you cant drop items
unless youre at a storage box.
Other issues include the annoying delays whenever you open a door or climb
a flight of stairs. And the game
intermittently stopped accepting
keyboard input when I used that as my
primary controller on two different
systems. I eventually switched to a
gamepad.
So while the zombie-killing action and
the mildly challenging puzzles can be
quite a blast, the games many needless
gameplay limitations keep it from being
in the same class as a Heretic II or Tomb Raider III.-- Mike Ryan / GamePro
Got an opinion about Resident Evil 2 Platinum? Or maybe know a good cheat or strategy? Share it with the world!