I'm sure a lot of you, like myself, have been secretly wishing for a truly great follow-up to the amazing Resident Evil 4. Nothing since then has quite hit that level.

Resident Evil 5 - Actually I liked it, but it was definitely not on the level of 4. Especially late in the game when it devolves to a weirdly controlled shooter. When I think of it as a multiplayer side game it feels like a neat experiment. But it's no 4.

Resident Evil 6 - Never played but I heard it sucked.

Resident Evil Revelations - Pretty fun, but kind of inconsistent. Some brilliance at times (especially during Jill parts), some mediocreness at times (especially during non-Jill parts.)

Resident Evil 7 - I'm playing it right now, it's really awesome, but it's not really much like 4 at all. More like old style Resident Evil reenvisioned in 1st person.

Other Resident Evil games - ???

So now we have the Resident Evil 2 remake. Realistically... it probably won't be the truly great follow-up to the amazing Resident Evil 4 I keep hoping will exist someday, but it does look like it is drawing inspiration from 4, especially in the camera and controls. Even if they go all out with the remake it will probably still feel more like a new take on the old style Resident Evil, being that it is based on old style Resident Evil, maybe something that feels a bit like 7 but with the controls of 4? But hey, anything even close to 4 is a good thing in my book.

Anyway here is the gameplay trailer:


And a walkthrough of the entire demo (spoilers I guess?!)


Looks sickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

URL to share (right click and copy)

@TriforceBun Get it! It's a great game! I won't make a final judgment until I finish both Leon and Claire and do a bit of the extra stuff but at the moment I'd say only Resident Evil 4 tops it.

But yeah as X-pert says it is not a Resident Evil 4 style game really. It's basically an old Resident Evil style game modernized.

Bought it and started it! Good spooky fun so far.

You'd have to be insane not to like this game, especially if one appreciates old school game design.

@TriforceBun Awesome, enjoy!!



EDIT: Alright, I just beat The 4th Survivor. Woo hoo! That was pretty intense; I ended up doing it in 10 minutes, 42 seconds.

Geeeez, this game is intense. It's in the same category as the REmake back in the day as one of those games I have to take breaks from on occasion.

I've reached the big stalking trenchcoat guy, who's certainly complicated my paths through the police station (which were already pretty unsettling because of the Lickers, the zombies I left alive, and the occasional zombie that feels like gettin' up). The game throws a bunch of uncertainty at you at every turn so you never really feel safe. It definitely reminds me of a modern-day-style sequel to REmake, and the design is on-point. But man is it stressful!

@TriforceBun You're already almost as far as me, lol.

(I would play more but it's not the type of game Shirley likes to watch...)

To be honest I found Mr X the most scary when he was first introduced and I didn't understand how he operates. Now it's like basically as long as he doesn't corner me he's not that big of a deal, because he is actually kind of slow and you can always flash grenade him if need be. I'd rather be stuck in a room with him than a licker.

Don't get me wrong though, he still makes things tense as fuck. Especially when you ARE in a room without much space to maneuver and only one way out and you hear him stomping around outside of it. You always have to be thinking about him. Though again, worse comes to worse, flash grenade. I'm running low on them though.

I actually expected him to break through walls more but apparently outside of cutscenes and such there is really only one place he can do that... and he never did it there for me.

@TriforceBun lol, yep. Thankfully the game actually pauses when you look at your inventory/map, which is a huge relief. One thing I really thought was neat, is that (especially if you play with headphones), you can listen for Mr. X's footsteps, and are able to tell where exactly he is relative to your position/room, which can help you figure out what path to take in order to avoid him It's pretty neat stuff.

I think I'm pretty close to the end now, at the laboratory and just poisoned the greenhouse.

What's funny is that I think when I last posted, it was the most intense part of the game. Stuff was crawling all over the mansion, I was low on all supplies and I had little idea of what to do next. But now, I'm feeling pretty well-equipped and ready to take on the endgame. I suppose most REs are like that in the last sections.

All in all, this game has been a great time so far. I'd probably put it on par with the REmake, making it tied for my second-favorite in the series. I think it improves on a lot of RE7's (already a decent game) decisions and I haven't even tried Claire's path yet, much less the harder difficulty, etc. I do think the core fight-or-flight gameplay in games like this and REmake is a bit of a crap-shoot--sometimes I have no idea whether to shoot zombies or run, and making the wrong decisions can either leave you crippled for a good while, or result in halls and rooms full of foes. It's a little bit up to chance at times for my tastes. Also, the music is really, really subtle, and I kinda miss the atmospheric stuff in REmake and (to a lesser extent) RE4. Really helped give the locations a sense of place, and heighten the scares in some spots (and made the save rooms feel like a brief sigh of relief).

Looking forward to finishing it up! I'll probably play Claire's mission after a few months.

I beat Leon's mission. Really good game overall and looking forward to playing more!

BRING IT TO SWITCH, CAPCOM, YOU INSCRUTABLE BUTT-HOLES

@TriforceBun You're further than me!

I did play a few hours more last night though. Now I'm up to the NEST, which, don't spoil it for me, but I imagine must be pretty close to the end of Leon's story.

Gotta say, the Ada stuff in the sewers did not really do it for me, felt a bit too trial and error for me and I died more there than I did the entire rest of the game, so I was a bit down after my last session a few weeks ago, wondering if the police station would be the undeniable high point of 2 like the house is in 7, and if it would all be downhill from there. But the rest of the sewers redeemed that area, it's actually a pretty interesting way you have to progress and the gameplay was all pretty great. Introduced those new creatures too, and they are pretty darn intense, especially if, like me, you rarely have the ammo to take them head on.

Hmm, funny thing too, that room where you get the flamethrower and queen / king pieces after the long stretch of the new sewer monster thingys is probably a pretty easy room in general right? I mean, there is only a single zombie in it. But I got there with literally a single handgun bullet left and no other ammo (and definitely didn't want to backtrack since I left a few creatures alive in the previous room), so I could do nothing against a zombie. And the room is a bit of a puzzle with closing and opening gates, not too hard to figure out once you have some space to think but with a zombie following you around and no way to stop it and not a lot of room to maneuver, it is easy to panic and get cornered and hurt. So after getting attacked a few times I was like F it, lured him up the stairs and down the other stairs and WAYYYY out into the previous room... but I think the AI doesn't want him to actually leave his starting room, because it was super hard to get him to follow me out and I only made it happen by having him lunge at me RIGHT in the doorway. And then the door closed behind him but instead of continuing to follow me he immediately pounded the door open and went back (complete with the sound effects that accompany a zombie breaking through a door), except leaving the room I was in to smash into an empty room... never saw that happen before! Anyway, I had no choice but to run past him, get attacked, keep running and at least this time he stayed up near the top of the stairs while I did the puzzle although I kept hearing him the WHOLE TIME and was never quite sure where he was at any given moment so it was stressful.

Yeah, way more stress in that room that was probably intended, since just a few more bullets would have made short work of him.

Of course, once I got the flamethrower I got to finally take him on and watch him burn. So satisfying!

Finally picked up this game again after putting it down for like a month or so.

I put hard mode with the original soundtrack and it works waaaaay better than I expected! It's awesome hearing the original music and it still works great with the new visuals.

Hard mode feels like a good challenge as every enemy feels a lot scarier due to being much more dangerous. Zombies take a LOT of damage. You feel so lucky when you get a quick headshot now. I have yet to face any Lickers as I ran away from the 2 scripted ones so far. And I'm really not looking forward to some of the boss fights.

A part of me wishes the remake just kept the original music as is. I feel it works really well. Feels so good to have area music again. Music that continuously plays in a room or two, it gives that place so much more character.

Quiet videogames that lack persistent music is such a worrying trend.

I think I'm near the end of Leon A, just finished the east wing of the NEST, and the west wing is already at a dead end. Definitely a boss fight coming up soon.

It just occurred to me that I never got the Magnum. And I have 17 bullets for it! I'm pretty sure it was that gun in the office in the police station right? I probably can't go back and get it now can I? I haven't tried to leave the NEST, not sure if it is possible.

I'm hearing that Claire B isn't even that different from Leon A? I thought B was like a "harder" mode but it seems like it isn't really, more or less the same level of challenge and most of the same stuff with a bit different? I'll still play it but that would be disappointing if so.

What? Claire and Leon's games are pretty different, a game B would feel especially so. I mean generally it's the same game but there's definitely some remixed stuff, things are switched up a bit, and you have some parts which are entirely different.

Claire B would feel pretty different for sure. It's harder too.

Once you're at the Lab I don't think there's any turning back. It was in the STARS office.

You should have checked your map!

@carlosrox I knew it was there! I just, for some reason, thought I didn't have the right thing to unlock it because it needs a usb stick, which you need to inspect the badge for and it pops out of the top? I guess I need to inspect things more!

I even got the upgrade for the magnum which uses the badge without the usb trick, just not the magnum itself! I think that threw me off because I just assumed that was the only use for the badge, although I guess the fact that it (probably) doesn't have that red checkmark you see when an item is done being used should have clued me in to it still needing to be used again for something.

Honestly, if I knew it was the magnum I probably would have worked harder to make sure to get it, but I just saw its name, which does not have the word magnum in it, and for some reason thought it was just like a slightly better handgun or whatever.

Well, whatever. 95% of the time in Resident Evil games I don't use the magnum until the end boss and it makes the end boss way too easy anyway. I'll just need to fight a bit harder at the end this time.

It's good to hear that Claire B is worth it. I mean, I was going to play it anyway, but I keep hearing mixed accounts of how different / hard it is.

I know you knew it was there. I just meant you should have checked your map to make sure you had everything you needed before leaving. But I guess you thought you needed something you didn't have.

You gotta check every item duuuuuude! REmake should have taught you that! Even this game makes it rather obvious!


Did you find out on your own or did you look it up?

@Zero

This is great because it's pretty much exactly what happened to me. I wasted all my bullets foolishly thinking there was an actual end to those G-Adult Sewer Monsters or whatever immediately prior to the room, so the single zombie in what might be the game's most complicated puzzle was a real thorn in my side.

I ended up managing to lure him out myself, allowing me time to stumble through the puzzle. It made the finale when I cooked his goose with my new flamethrower all the more satisfying...!

Beat Claire on the 2nd Run too. All in all, a really solid 9/10 game for me. I wasn't as thrilled with the side modes because I don't think this game translates into action all that well, but I'd say it's overall a strong title on par with that other classic RE remake.

@carlosrox Well, I just assumed I would get the Magnum later in the game, so I kept moving forward. Only recently was I like hmm, I don't think there is much left here, I must have missed it and THEN it clicked that it was probably that gun I missed long ago. I just assumed the way to it was some convoluted thing involving some of those password lockboxes I never figured out so I kept moving forward, not realizing that I already had everything I needed.

But yeah I looked it up.

@TriforceBun TWINSIES.

Finished Leon A! I'm pretty happy with most everything that took place although I feel like the ending was a bit... easy? I guess that is the nature of games like this, I save as much stuff as possible so by the end I usually have more than I need (though I didn't have a whole lot of good ammo... except for the Magnum which I never picked up, heh... but I had a TON of health.) Birkin final form actually tried me a bit, but the escape / Mr. X battle were pretty easy. I guess I expected more hordes of zombies and such during the escape?! I mean yeah that wasn't true in the original but this is a remake, why not?! Actually after the final battle there are zombies blocking your way out and I was like oh yeah, shit is about to go down... still had a few rockets left, shot one and cleared out the zombies at the door in a single hit, ran into the next room ready to go nuts on the rest of them and... there was no rest of them, that was it?! What a waste of potential, I still had two rockets left!

I started Claire B as well, only got maybe a half hour in but yeah it is definitely a change! Actually I'm still kind of confused how all of this Leon A / B and Claire A / B stuff works. I was still under the impression that Leon and Claire have two very different A stories, and the B versions are just harder versions of the A with some extra stuff? So in my mind, for instance, Leon A and Leon B have more in common than Leon A and Claire A? But it seems the opposite? Claire B starts pretty late into the Leon A scenario so I was curious how Claire A works, skimmed through the first half hour or so, and it looks almost exactly like Leon A, which is very different than the first half hour of Claire B? I know there are some differences between the two A versions but it seems like regardless of who you pick, a lot is the same... whoever you pick explores the gas station, goes into the police station through the front door, meets Marvin, etc. whereas Claire B just starts in a different spot, you end up getting into the police station through the side door, Marvin is dead before you get there, etc.

Anyway yeah so it seems Claire B starts about an hour into Leon A's start (which makes no sense in some ways, since you meet at the gate like 5 minutes into Claire B, but from Leon's perspective there was an hour or so of work to get to that point, so... what was Claire doing that whole time?! She came right to the station!) And it is already a lot more intense than the start of Leon A... ran into a licker already, saw the video of Mr. X already, etc. Also the middle lobby area is already not a safe area, not to mention it has no save point or weapons box! Should be interesting. I have heard that it has less content than A for early stuff (seems like it just throws you into the mix faster) but there is more content than A later on.

I really, really want to see a full brand new game in this engine though. But they will probably do 3 remake first. Which I'd be down for. But do an original eventually!

Hmm, for some reason on Claire B, even when I have a knife equipped, it never lets me use it as a defensive item on a zombie? Or am I just getting unlucky? Does the option only work sometimes? Like maybe depending on how you are grabbed?

Anyway Claire B is definitely harder than Leon A, I'm pretty much always running around with little to no ammo! Though I was just reading about how some people use the knives on zombies that have been knocked down or are already on the ground and I'm like... duh? Why didn't I think of that?! Apparently the knife doesn't take much damage that way either, it is only using it defensively that it takes off big chunks of the knife's durability.

@Zero

I think if you're grabbed from behind, the knife won't work, but it should be an option with normal grabs from the front. Not sure what the issue might be if not that. I remember Claire B feeling tougher at first, but I gradually got back in the swing of things after the first third or so.