Resident Evil 2 (2019) Catch-All

Xbox One X or PC?

Dyni wrote:

One of the other major design decisions that helps to maintain tension throughout is the incredibly unreliable zombie movement. I was reminded of this fact when one of my 4th Survivor attempts was quashed by whiffing a zombie with my shotgun, a weapon with a reticle that takes up nearly half the screen, because the zombie in front of my decided to trip violently to the side at the perfect moment. She bit me, other enemies surrounded me, and I died.

These jerks aren't trying to dodge. They just always stumble around like they've taken 15 tequila shots in the span of an hour. I much preferred using semi-auto to full-auto weapons for that reason. No matter how many I killed, it was only a matter of time before i emptied 2/3 of a clip into a wall.

This unreliability was likely added as a way to counterbalance the increased control and awareness the player has with a 3rd person controllable camera vs. the fixed camera angles of the original. It's just one more design decision that shows how much thought was put into this remake.

You're not thinking like Dead Space my friend. Go for the legs. They're a much easier target, and once they're on the ground they're far easier to dodge. And should they be too much of a risk even then, it's easier to lodge a 9mm or two into their skulls to get 'em to settle down. Or slash 'em with the knife (if you've got one).

ClockworkHouse wrote:

You guys have done a great job of selling this game. I might get it with my next paycheck.

Some of my thoughts on the game have changed since my initial impressions here, particularly regarding a certain stomper of the station hallways, but they've only changed for the more positive. I've technically "moved on" from RE2 now that I got the true ending, but every time I see that icon on my PS4 dashboard I'm tempted to boot it up again and take another trip through Raccoon City.

As Dyni said, it's clear how much thought went into this game as a remake, but even then a lot of thought went in as a game, period. Despite there being a lot of scripted events and enemy spawns, there's still a sense of the game world being alive. There's also still plenty more to go back and see and do. It really feels old school in that the encouragement of replaying it feels like it's not just a disposable consumer product, played once and then tossed aside as you wait for the next iteration. It feels like they want you to get intimate with it (not that way!), and its list of "records" contain so many challenges that you kind of want to go back just so you can try new things to unlock those bonuses.

Which, honestly? I sometimes feel like concept art is a throwaway bonus, but what I love about unlocking character models is they let you play the animations, and being able to see all the individually moving parts outside of the context of "oh gosh oh gosh please don't bite my eyes out" is awesome.

Balthezor wrote:

Xbox One X or PC?

If you're asking which platform would be better.... personal preference? On my plain vanilla PS4 the framerate was approaching 60FPS at times. Not consistently, and that I noticed it means it wasn't 60FPS the entirety of the time I played, but if it was capable of that on a regular PS4 then it's more than capable on an Xbox One X.

That said, I'm still waiting to hear that someone modded the game on PC so that a certain character might have a certain theme song in a game, so to speak.

And speaking of people modifying things, you want some real nightmares? Check out what happens when you crank facial and body animations up.

If Capcom is looking for something to monetize, shifting items around and bringing in the Zapping play mechanic would probably get them a few DLC dollars. That seems to be the "most missed feature" in the reviews I've read.

How do you get a breather from Mr. X once he finds you? Hide in a locker? Create a large distance? Riddle him with lead until he takes a knee for a while?

The idea of him getting in the way too often, breaking my rhythm, is a real put off.

Spoiler:

Although the central hall's no longer safe, he won't enter the other save rooms.

Also, I beat Leon's b-route.

*Creates new google doc titled Games of the year 2019*

This is one tightly crafted videogame. I have other stuff I could move onto (Sunless Skies just released, Dragon Quest XI is on hold), but honestly, I just want to go back and see if I can manage an S-rank run on normal now that I've beat it on Hardcore. And then maybe another run on easy where I just poke at every corner and detail.

These kind of detailed, intimate settings are uniquely suited to survival horror mechanics, but I hope other games go down this route as well. They're so much more memorable than massive open world sprawls.

RnRClown wrote:

How do you get a breather from Mr. X once he finds you? Hide in a locker? Create a large distance? Riddle him with lead until he takes a knee for a while?

The idea of him getting in the way too often, breaking my rhythm, is a real put off.

I mean, technically all of the above.

Spoiler:

As soon as you've put some distance he'll begin looking around for you, at which point it helps to have 3-D sound in order to tell if he's even on the same floor as you are. If you start shooting bullets then he's going to start heading to that room, so you can technically use that to draw him to a specific location and then run elsewhere. If you choose a large enough room you can down him for... thirty seconds? I'm not entirely certain the length of time, but the library is a perfect example of a large enough space that you can tackle him with little concern. Which is good, because in order to progress at a certain point in the game you'll need to solve a problem in that room.

As Alien Love Gardener said, the safe rooms are places he'll never enter, but he'll always patrol in that zone. Nevertheless, you can use it as a chance to get him to walk away in one direction and then go the opposite. There are also a few rooms that are small, but have obstructions in the middle so that you can run away and around him. The thing to remember is that he's only fast when you're standing still and he can therefore charge right at you. If you're always moving, however, then you can outrun him with ease.

I didn't like Mr. X at first because I like to take my time and plan, but I grew to find he helped change my interaction with the police station and the enemies in it. Without Mr. X the game is at risk of becoming too easy on repeat playthroughs. With Mr. X the nature in which you approach enemies in each room changes.

Plus, if you're more interested in exploration and completionism, both A and B routes give you an opportunity to return to the police station before you enter the final Umbrella Laboratory, and Mr. X is gone by that point. There may be other enemies present, but you'll be able to grab any last-minute items and secrets you missed on the first time through.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

This is one tightly crafted videogame. I have other stuff I could move onto (Sunless Skies just released, Dragon Quest XI is on hold), but honestly, I just want to go back and see if I can manage an S-rank run on normal now that I've beat it on Hardcore. And then maybe another run on easy where I just poke at every corner and detail.

These kind of detailed, intimate settings are uniquely suited to survival horror mechanics, but I hope other games go down this route as well. They're so much more memorable than massive open world sprawls.

Pretty much the same. I'm pushing onward in DMC4 and World of Final Fantasy but I keep thinking about this game and wanting to play it more. I figure I'll keep things similar but fresh by playing REmake after DMC4, but I'm worried that I'll want the over-the-shoulder controls and style instead, or something else will just make it less enjoyable.

The only thing Capcom could do to make me happier at this point is announce Breath of Fire 7, and it's a full-blown console game instead of a mobile one.

ccesarano wrote:

You're not thinking like Dead Space my friend. Go for the legs. They're a much easier target, and once they're on the ground they're far easier to dodge. And should they be too much of a risk even then, it's easier to lodge a 9mm or two into their skulls to get 'em to settle down. Or slash 'em with the knife (if you've got one).

You know, I shot legs off and ran around enemies, but I never thought to knife them from there. I assumed they would still be able to grab onto me. By the end of Claire's run, I had 4 knives on me, so I certainly could have. Next run!

RnRClown wrote:

How do you get a breather from Mr. X once he finds you? Hide in a locker? Create a large distance? Riddle him with lead until he takes a knee for a while?

The idea of him getting in the way too often, breaking my rhythm, is a real put off.

Alien Love Gardener and ccesarano covered the ways to avoid him well. The one other method I used regularly was to lead him into the one room where you crawl out of a room into a hallway through a high window. He can't follow you through the window.

It's worth mentioning that some people hate all timers in games without exception. Mr. X is a huge reason this game is so tense and thrilling the whole way through, but if you are one of those people, you probably won't like RE2 Remake. It's a big part of this game.

ccesarano wrote:
Alien Love Gardener wrote:

This is one tightly crafted videogame. I have other stuff I could move onto (Sunless Skies just released, Dragon Quest XI is on hold), but honestly, I just want to go back and see if I can manage an S-rank run on normal now that I've beat it on Hardcore. And then maybe another run on easy where I just poke at every corner and detail.

These kind of detailed, intimate settings are uniquely suited to survival horror mechanics, but I hope other games go down this route as well. They're so much more memorable than massive open world sprawls.

Pretty much the same.

Ditto. I know I mentioned that I'd come back when the free DLC releases in a couple weeks, but I'm already feeling the itch to start another run. It is so rare that I want to keep playing through a game that I've already completed multiple times, but it's just so incredibly satisfying to play.

Thanks for the Mr. X tips. Enablement has received a buff!

Some easter eggs that can be found in RE2.

Aw yiss - S rank with a couple of minutes to spare.

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/939466694320140440/8549E97B76E88F7035D5BE2B9781FD835BF8592B/?imw=2048&imh=1152&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=true)

Now, to do a Leon S- rank run, or go for a poking around run?

I played the demo and got RE fever, but I'll be waiting for a price drop. In the mean time I picked up RE7 and played through it in a day. I felt woozy after taking the VR headset off. I have now started RE1 Remaster. That's one I've had for a while, but never played. I should have played it. It's still really good even with some of the antique design.

Did you play with the Tank controls or go with "modern"?

Played through both sides, Leon A and Claire B, loved every minute of it. Thought about trading it away, but the game is so good I want to hang onto it for now. At some point I’d like to go for an S run, then possibly try Hardcore.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Aw yiss - S rank with a couple of minutes to spare.

Wow, that time looks really impressive to me. Were you pretty familiar with the original RE2? Both of my first runs took 7-8 hours on normal.

I'm still planning to do a slow paced hardcore run next, but I might give a speed run a whirl after that. Sounds like fun.

Dyni wrote:
Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Aw yiss - S rank with a couple of minutes to spare.

Wow, that time looks really impressive to me. Were you pretty familiar with the original RE2? Both of my first runs took 7-8 hours on normal.

I'm still planning to do a slow paced hardcore run next, but I might give a speed run a whirl after that. Sounds like fun.

Oh, this was my third run, and I did the first 2 on hardcore.

I might have slightly fallen into Resident Evil 2 sized hole. As evidenced by:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/QzqzGHi.png)

I am enjoying this Let's Play because he seems to suck!

CLAIRE REDFIELD'S CAMPAIGN (Blind!) | Resident Evil 2 Remake (Claire A) #1 | ProJared Plays

To follow up my own post - I am really enjoying his playthrough. He is terrible and it is just fun to watch him miss, run away, fail, etc.

I like the failure more than the Let's Plays where the player does perfect.

Spoilers below, but BoundaryBreak did some examination of this game. So if you like seeing... uh... I suppose what the interior of the sausage looks like? Or... what it looks like while in the factory but only left to how it all goes together? Regardless, get to see what some stuff looks like "off camera".

A full week with no posts here? Unacceptable!

I finished Claire A Hardcore this past week and Leon B Hardcore tonight. Hardcore was more hardcore than I was expecting. Hats off to Alien Love Gardener for doing Hardcore on a first run. I was happy to have the experience of running through on standard first. Even with that knowledge, I died a lot.

I knew I'd need ink ribbons, the enemies would take more bullets, and I'd find less ammo, but I did not expect a more restricted inventory. 6 fewer inventory slots is tough! It really makes you juggle your weapons and decide what to bring for each situation. The one change I really disliked was

Spoiler:

Berkin requiring an extra crane hit to kill. I hate that fight!

I also made it through 4th Survivor after many attempts. Tofu mode unlocked! I tried that once, and it seems impossible. I'll probably look up a video of someone doing it and then decide if I want to try to figure it out.

During my hardcore run, I became aware of one other seemingly minor QoL change that I wish every other game would copy. After you click the stick to run, you maintain that run through most other actions. Pause? Still running. Stop to open your menu or inventory? You're still running when you close them. Climb a ladder? Still running. Aim and shoot? Still running. It's such a small change, but not having to click that stick every damn time I take another action is so incredibly nice. I hate having to reapply my sprint after doing seemingly anything in other games, but I have always just accepted it as something that is the way it is. Now that I've seen the light that is a perfectly implemented sprint, it's going to suck going back.

Dyni wrote:
Spoiler:

Berkin requiring an extra crane hit to kill. I hate that fight!

He can take 2 on all difficulties, afaik. It just depends on how much damage you deal to him before the first hit.

And yeah, that fight is pretty much the low point of the game. I'm more or less fine with it now that I know how it works, but it's really poorly signposted.

And yeah, going from hardcore to standard for the S runs, all that extra inventory space was *huge*.

Losing inventory space is actually the one thing that would probably keep me from trying Hardcore. I like having inventory management, but I also like having my insurance policy (that's what I named the shotgun and grenade launcher) on hand.

Ghost Survivors DLC is out later today! Probably around 12pm to 2pm ET, I forget precisely when PlayStation updates their store... oh, and I suppose on Microsoft and Steam as well. I will be taking a break from Yakuza 0 to check out at least one of the DLC campaigns.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
Dyni wrote:
Spoiler:

Berkin requiring an extra crane hit to kill. I hate that fight!

He can take 2 on all difficulties, afaik. It just depends on how much damage you deal to him before the first hit.

Ah ok. I figured it was an extra hit because I beat him once on standard without shooting him at all. I lit him up on hardcore and still had to hit the button 3 times. I must have needed to pump a few more shots into him.

ccesarano wrote:

Losing inventory space is actually the one thing that would probably keep me from trying Hardcore. I like having inventory management, but I also like having my insurance policy (that's what I named the shotgun and grenade launcher) on hand.

Yeah, that's what makes it tough. I pretty much always ran with a pistol and then swapped between shotgun, magnum, or flamethrower depending on the situation and current ammo counts.

Even with the limited inventory space and more limited available ammo, I ended the game with a sizable surplus of ammo. A big part of that was learning the value of accuracy and making every shot count.

When aiming, your reticle size modifies your weapons shot by a small percentage. A quick potshot (with the reticle fully expanded) will result in a bullet that does less damage than a fully aimed shot. For this example lets use the Matilda.

When you aim the weapon starts out doing 60% of it's base damage and slowly ramps up to 100% the longer you aim. A fully aimed shot will do 150 damage, while a pot shot will only do 90.

This seems to be on a per gun basis as well. For example, if you modify the Matilda with the Gun Stock your reticle modifier increases to 70%.

I saved a ton of ammo by waiting for that reticle to fully close far more often than I did during my first run.

ccesarano wrote:

Ghost Survivors DLC is out later today! Probably around 12pm to 2pm ET, I forget precisely when PlayStation updates their store... oh, and I suppose on Microsoft and Steam as well. I will be taking a break from Yakuza 0 to check out at least one of the DLC campaigns.

Awesome. I'll check that out this weekend.

Anyone else check out the Ghosts Survivors DLC?

I made it through 3 of the 4 campaigns. "Campaign" is a bit of a stretch considering each of them is 10-20 minutes tops, but I really enjoyed all of them. Be warned though, they are quite difficult. If you're not interested in a challenge, use the training mode to make them much more manageable. The game ranks "Runaway" as the easiest campaign, but I found it to be more difficult than "No Time To Mourn." "Forgotten Soldier" was definitely the toughest of the three.

They are basically mini missions ala The 4th Survivor, but much more interesting thanks to some mechanics not present in that mode or the main game. First, there are zombies with backpacks strewn about the levels. You could run past most of these zombies, but then you'd miss out on valuable resources. Killing them and retrieving the backpack for a few of them requires some planning.

There are gumball machines at certain points in the level. These let you choose between three different items. You only get one, so you have to plan accordingly.

Each of the campaigns also introduces one new enemy type to mix things up. I won't spoil them here, but the ones from "Runaway" are the scariest.

Once you beat the first three campaigns, you unlock the 4th, "No Way Out." In it, you're trapped in the gas station from the start of the game and have to defeat 100 zombies that gradually pour in from 3 entrances. All three of the new zombie types from the other campaigns are present. Backpack zombies show up to keep your guns supplied. Even with a stream of spark guns, flamethrowers, and shotguns, it's still tough. I made it to 76 kills my first try, but the last 24 seem like they will be much more difficult than early ones.

Hrm, I was hoping for something more narrative than challenge-mode. I'll check it out, definitely, but might just try for a second playthrough instead. Once I finish Yakuza 0, though. That's what I'm working on currently.

Any starting tips? I'm playing on Xbox. I've played other Resident Evil games but not the original of this one.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Any starting tips? I'm playing on Xbox. I've played other Resident Evil games but not the original of this one.

I never played the original either. That's no concern here

General tips:

  • Your map is your best friend. Red rooms have items to grab or puzzles to solve. Blue rooms are totally cleared.
  • Interact with everything you can, even if you know you don't have the item for it yet. Doing so will put a labeled icon on your map so you don't need to guess what puzzle piece goes to what marker.
  • Red+Blue herb gives you a buff that halves all damage for about 2-3 minutes. It's great if you know you're going to take multiple hits in a row.
  • You don't need to kill every zombie. Often, you can just cap their knees and run by, but it could make your life tougher later. See my earlier comment for more on that.

A couple more specific combat tips:

  • As I mentioned a few posts up, accuracy = damage for handguns. Your reticle starts wide and begins to shrink as you stand still. Your damage from a fully closed reticle with the basic pistol is something like 50-70% higher than an open reticle, so let it close whenever you can to get the most out of your bullets. I didn't know this during my first two runs, but it made a big difference when I discovered it for hardcore.
  • It's tempting to use your knife as a defensive tool for when a zombie grabs you, but it's much more efficient to use it as a way to finish off downed zombies. When you knock a zombie down, swing wildly with that knife until they no longer get back up. You should be able to finish off 4-6 zombies with a single knife this way. That's a lot of bullets saved.
ccesarano wrote:

Hrm, I was hoping for something more narrative than challenge-mode. I'll check it out, definitely, but might just try for a second playthrough instead. Once I finish Yakuza 0, though. That's what I'm working on currently.

Missed this comment before. There is a small slideshow intro and outro and some text setup at the start of each mission, but these are definitely challenge missions focused on the action. Not much narrative to be found.

I sincerely hope the solid sales push them to develop some narrative DLC later this year.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Any starting tips? I'm playing on Xbox. I've played other Resident Evil games but not the original of this one.

Dyni got most of the ones I would suggest. I will add to that, however, that you might be able to avoid Lickers without direct confrontation as long as you walk slowly and softly. Under most circumstances they won't immediately register your position, and you may be tempted to panic if you're right next to them. If they're in a room you know you'll have to come back through, then that's your chance to use Flash Bangs. Alternately, you can use the Flash Bangs to run past them or clear all items you need to collect out of a room, then run on through.

Red+Blue herb gives you a buff that halves all damage for about 2-3 minutes. It's great if you know you're going to take multiple hits in a row.

Y'know, I wish the game clarified this. It says the Blue Herb heals poison. I wasn't sure if it's because I played on Assist like a coward or I simply didn't get hit by anything that poisons, but I basically assumed that combining it with a red herb or something simply made you less likely to be poisoned. Knowing that it reduces damage you'll take, I'd have certainly made more use of that.

Good to know for my Normal run-through. Don't know if I have the guts to do a Hardcore run.

Dyni wrote:

Missed this comment before. There is a small slideshow intro and outro and some text setup at the start of each mission, but these are definitely challenge missions focused on the action. Not much narrative to be found.

I sincerely hope the solid sales push them to develop some narrative DLC later this year.

I'm a bit disappointed, but given that this DLC was free I can't complain too much. I'd say the price was more than right.

At the same time, I'd rather they do DLC if they have truly good ideas for it. Otherwise, I'd honestly love for these guys to be the ones working on either RE8 or a brand new Revelations spin-off. I imagine the RE7 team is already working on an 8th installment, though...

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Any starting tips? I'm playing on Xbox. I've played other Resident Evil games but not the original of this one.

I clicked through Dyni's link about accuracy, and noted something I'd suspected during my time with Resident Evil 4 & 5 (I have played those and the REmake of the original, haven't started this yet):

Spoiler:

Like other Resident Evil titles, Resident Evil 2 has a dynamic difficulty system in place. The game scales all the damage your give and receive based on how well you are doing in the game itself. The better you do the harder the game is.

I find this weirdly relaxing: you kind of find you're going to die at a certain rate regardless.