Friday Flashback: Resident Evil 2

Young children these days are spoiled. They get to jump right into games like Gears of War and enjoy all the perks of ridiculously realistic graphics, controls that allow you to do almost any maneuver thought possible, and stories that rival Hollywood productions. But a lot of us gamers have been here since the genesis. Consider us the "Before Halo" generation to today's "After Halo (AH)." We've seen the evolution of the medium, rolled with all the ups and downs, and have the privilege of laughing in the faces of all the people who told us growing up that video games were only for children, only to see the industry grow larger, and become more profitable, than the film business. So consider this weekly column a service to the youngsters. The wee children that never got to experience a multitude of amazing games because they can't get past the pixelated graphics, the overly simplistic controls, or the fact that your only goal is to find the castle that houses the princess. It's time to jump in our Delorean, travel back in time, and look at both the good, and bad, of some of gaming's greatest achievements.

Resident Evil is a hot commodity right now. RE5 released roughly two weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to launch this column with a look back at one of the highlights of the franchise, the one I consider king; Resident Evil 2. Sure, Resident Evil 4 kick-started the new approach to the core game-play, and Resident Evil 5 refined it with co-op, but Resident Evil 2 was the game that made everything bigger and badder than it's predecessor, and proved survival horror video games have staying power in the video game market. It's also the game where I bought the strategy guide without owning the game (it had badass pictures in my defense), made clay statues of Leon (soooo dreamy) in my middle-school art class, and pretended to play the game by watching a vhs copy of someone else's play-through. Yea, Resident Evil 2 and I have a long ass history...of awesomeness!

But even factoring how much I loved this game growing up, I can't turn a blind eye to all of it's problems upon revisiting the game now. Firstly, the controls are awful. I mean, they were awful back in 1998. Now they are atrocious, which makes the entire game frustrating as hell. We've been spoiled with the ability to roundhouse kick zombies heads off, so going back to the days of only being able to shoot in a straight line is pretty tough. It's just that the logic of this game-play choice is so wildly bizarre. I understand it needs to be "survival horror" but you accomplish that by having zombie dogs trying to eat my face off, it doesn't make it scarier when you're handed the controls to a retard and told to escape, it makes it sadder. You're telling me that Leon's training to be an officer of the law only taught him to shoot straight up, straight down at his feet, or perfectly forward? He was also taught how to walk as a child from a dump truck apparently. I'm actually surprised you don't hear a truck reverse beeping noise every time you step backwards in Resident Evil 2.

Also, who the hell designed this police precinct?! The man/ woman who did, or the one responsible for ordering this layout, needs to be brought out back (if you can find your way outside) and shot. I can't even imagine how much of a pain it was to get to a file cabinet and find a folder of some convict you're arresting. "Hey Bob, I need get my hands on the O'Donnell file, can I snag the wolf crest from ya? This should get me into the captain's office, right? I think the octagon crank is still in there." God damn, I bet multiple employees working at this police station die every year just because they get lost in the labyrinth of corridors and just give up, willing to except death.

But the reason why I suffered through the controls, the outlandish setup of the game's environments, and the god awful voice acting (remember the initial store clerk?) was because the actual story and presentation were top notch, and only out-shined by Metal Gear Solid on the original Playstation. Everything was just bigger in scope than the original Resident Evil, which is all you could ask for from a sequel. With a larger cast of characters, two intertwining narratives for each of the main characters, and more larger, and frequent boss monsters, Resident Evil 2 delivered a lot of thrills and scares for fans of the series. And more importantly, Resident Evil 2 took the "survival horror" genre and made it a completely acceptable mainstream form of gaming entertainment which helped usher in the demand for all the current horror games players are enjoying today, namely Dead Space, the F.E.A.R. series, Bioshock.

Resident Evil 2 is also the only Resident Evil to not be remade on any console. Sadly. I don't know what Capcom's deal is because the demand is definitely there. The Gamecube remake of the first Resident Evil was absolutely stunning and it would make me so happy to play a version of Resident Evil 2 where characters looked more life-like instead of polygonal blocks. One can hope I guess, but until then we have the original game to hold onto and enjoy, flaws and all.