Resident Evil 2 Remake is the return of the genre-defining masterpiece revamped from scratch. This time, you will relive the thrilling adventures of Leon and Claire through the streets and buildings of Raccoon City, struggling for your lives in more profound, unpredictable, and frightening environments. Besides, some major gameplay mechanics have changed, giving this remake a refreshing taste of zombie flesh, just the way you like it.

Plot

As a viral outbreak turns the citizens of Raccoon City into zombies and other monstrous creatures, rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield attempt to survive, find out what happened, and pursue their personal goals. Unfortunately, the whole city has turned into a chaotic place, goods are rare, and monsters in the dark are legions as time goes on.

Gameplay

New camera system: Unlike the original title, which used fixed camera angles and tank controls, carrying fear as you could not entirely scene each room, Resident Evil 2 Remake now features over-the-shoulder third-person shooter camera gameplay similar to Resident Evil 4. It completely changes the perception you have of all the different places and allows you to discover all the facilities with more immersiveness.
Save system: Unless you decide to play on Hardcore difficulty, you can now save your progression as often as you want inside safe rooms. On Hardcore, you will need to collect ink ribbons and wisely use them as there is a finite number of them, making the whole experience really different.
Narrative: The whole game has been entirely revamped to offer a deeper and more coherent, and immersive experience.
Combats: You will experience much more realistic fights as zombies are brought to life with improved realistic gore effects. Besides, they now react in real-time when they take damage, so you should make sure to use your bullets wisely. All the enemies look more terrific, but that's nothing compared to the Bio-Organic Weapon that Umbrella will send you.

Choose your hero: You can play either the rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy on his first day or the college student Claire Redfield who searches for her brother amidst this apocalyptic epidemic.
Explore: Make sure to inspect and explore all the rooms and the different places, you will find many items such as gunpowder, herbs, or more that can be later used to craft ammunition and healing items. Also, some items can give you access to extra places. Throughout your adventure, you will have to carefully manage your inventory, as space is limited
Guns: Even though both Claire and Leon will start with handguns at the beginning of this journey, you will be able to find new weapons and customize them to improve their performances.
Extra content: You can get access to additional content and mini-games aside from the campaign, like The 4th Survivor (unlocked after completing both scenarios while getting an A rank on one of them), The Tofu Survivor (The 4th Survivor must have been completed once), or The Ghost Survivor (a free DLC with three new stories, based on three characters previously encountered in the main storyline: gun shop owner Robert Kendo, the mayor's daughter Katherine Warren and the soldier Ghost).

Graphics and sound

Thanks to Capcom's proprietary RE Engine, the whole game's graphics and sound parts have been completely reworked to offer a beautifully frightening piece of art. Indeed, as it takes advantage of modern lighting techniques, high-quality textures, state-of-the-art animations, and gorgeous particle management, all the environments carry that unique Resident Evil 2 taste of terror, horror, and mystery. Also, the voices of the main characters really manage to get you completely immersed in this deadly satisfying experience.

Duration and game modes

Resident Evil 2 (Remake) offers a thrilling single-player experience through a campaign mode of about 8-9h. But if you want to explore everything it offers, you are likely to enjoy it for about 30 hours. Several difficulty levels are available, including Assisted, Standard, and Hardcore:

Assisted: In Assisted mode, the character will gradually regain health up to the "Caution" level. Aim Assist is enabled by default, yet it can be disabled from the settings menu. Auto-saving is also included in this mode.
Standard: In the Standard mode, most enemy hits will push the player to go into "Caution" status, except for certain powerful attacks from higher-tier enemies such as the Tyrant and William Birkin. This mode also includes an auto-save feature.
Hardcore: In Hardcore mode, only certain enemies like Zombie Dogs and Tyrant can bring the player to "Caution" with one hit. All other enemies will take the player to the "Danger" level, potentially leading to instant death if multiple enemies are nearby. Unlike other game modes, there is no auto-save feature, and the player must use a Typewriter with an Ink Ribbon to save their progress.

What do the reviews say?

Resident Evil 2 (Remake) is a must-play, and both the press and players agree on that. It has a Metacritic score of 91/100, a user score of 9.0/10, and it has been rated Overwhelmingly Positive by over 80.000 players on Steam. Seriously, finish reading this article and try it.

"It's not just a loving restoration but a temple built on newly solid foundations, with emotional beats that genuinely resonate. It sets a new bar for what a video game remake can be, masterfully marrying nostalgia with modernity without quite being a slave to one or the other. And so barely a month into 2019, we have our first front-running contender for Game of the Year." (FANDOM)