The battle of the G-Virus starts all over again
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Close your eyes and imagine yourself back to 1998. You’re on the couch eating Cookie Crisp when you load up your PlayStation and Resident Evil 2 starts up. Now, you won’t have to imagine you’re playing one of your favorite childhood games, you’ll actually be able to play it in real life. This year at E3 2018 Capcom took the world by storm by showing us a trailer for their upcoming game, Resident Evil 2: the remake.
Not only will you be able to play this classic edition of Resident Evil, but you’ll be able to do so on your shiny PlayStation 4. With improved graphics and gameplay I’m ready to lose a few days out of my life to binge this game. If you’re interested in the new remake of Resident Evil 2, read on below to learn everything you’ll need to know!
What’s new with Resident Evil 2?
Ahead of the acclaimed survival horror’s anticipated remake, keep up to date on all new information that we receive, from trailers to gameplay details and everything in between.
November 12, 2018
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If you were hoping for some classic threads on your favorite characters, you’re in luck. Both Leon and Claire’s classic costumes will be unlockable in the game for free. Leon is able to sport his Classic Police costume while Claire can don her Classic Jacket.
Should you decide to splurge and get the Deluxe or Collector’s editions, you’ll have access to five additional costumes as well; three for Claire and two for Leon.
If you need a refresher on the game’s story, Capcom also released a story trailer at TGS 2018. Resident Evil 2 has certainly never looked so good.
September 18, 2018
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While E3 gave us our first look at Leon’s gameplay, Gamescom 2018 graced us with new footage showing off Claire Redfield. As Claire is in the midst of a vicious boss battle, the developer also took part in an interview with IGN discussing how it felt to return to these iconic characters with a more robust engine.
For players looking to have a more difficult or easier experience, Resident Evil 2 is implementing a feature similar to that which debuted in Resident Evil 4 to do just that.
“In terms of the standard difficulty, it does adjust based on player performance,” said producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi in an interview with VG247. “I’d like to believe that you were doing really well and so the difficulty ramped up even more. But we have it tuned so that no matter how well you’re doing, there’s always going to be that sense of dread and tension there.
“Also, we are definitely implementing things that assist the player if they choose to utilize that stuff such as auto game. If a player thinks, hey, I’d rather have an easier time going through this, we will have those sorts of options as well.”
In terms of performance, Capcom confirmed that the game would support 4K on both PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X with “a stable, high-framerate experience.”
Earlier comments from brand manager Mike Lunn regarding its performance seemed to indicate that players would have a choice between either 4K or 60FPS on higher-end consoles, but could not play with both simultaneously. It’s unclear if Capcom is working to enable a 4K at 60FPS mode.
Update June 13, 2018: Capcom confirms both Fourth Survivor and Tofu modes will be included in the game.
Everyone remembers how hard and outright ridiculous it was to try beating Resident Evil 2 as a massive piece of Tofu. You read that right. After you completed the main campaign of the game you unlocked the Tofu Mode, which allowed you to take the form of a giant piece of Tofu and make all the zombies go Vegan. Another mode you could unlock if you completed both Leon and Claire’s campaigns with A rankings, was the Fourth Survivor mode. This is a mode where item boxes weren’t connected, aiming was manual and included a few proto-type only options that weren’t available on other modes. Capcom has confirmed that both of these modes will be included in the remake and I don’t think I’ve stopped screaming yet.
Gameplay
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The second trailer shown at E3 gave us glimpses of gameplay. One thing that’s been confirmed from this video is that you’ll be playing from a (now) popular third person view from the perspective of over Claire or Leon’s shoulder. The old Resident Evil games were played from a fixed camera angle which was bittersweet to say the least.
During the press release Capcom confrimed we would still have some gameplay modes from the original game, but with modernized controls.
A look into the world
Another big mention during the press release was “- the characters themselves appear sharper than ever and the grotesque hordes of zombies are brought to life with a horrifyingly realistic wet gore effect. Zombies now react in real time as they take instant visible damage, making every bullet from the player count. Stunning lighting brings the familiar rooms and corridors of Raccoon City Police Department to new life.”
This means it’s not just a simple remaster where they took the told game and threw some new graphics updates on it. The remake for Resident Evil 2 is built from the groud up and I can’t wait to see what it looks like.
A few familiar faces
We’re back in Raccoon city and it looks like we’ll be revisitng our old friends Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield as playable characters in this remake, much like we were able to in the original. Not just that, but from the looks of the trailers I see Mr. X and WIlliam Birkin as well. I know some people aren’t a fan of playing remastered or rebuilt games, but hear me out on this one.
Capcom officials have noted, “- has been completely rebuilt from the ground up for a deeper narrative experience. Using Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine, Resident Evil 2 offers a fresh take on the classic survival horror saga”
So this most certainly won’t just be another remasted game. Details are thing but I’m willing to bet with all the information we have now that you’re going to see aspect of the story you’ve never seen before. And, if that’s the case, it will have to come with all new missions that you won’t know all the answers to because you beat the game 100 times when you were twelve.
Release date and pre-order options
Mark your callenders, January 25, 2019 is the date you want to save for this game to release. If you’re interested in pre-ordering the game for yourself you can check out your options here.
Standard edition
The standard edition of the game is available for preorder for $59.99.
See at Game Stop
See at Best Buy
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Deluxe edition
The Deluxe edition of the game is available for preorder for $69.99 but, since there is no information on any upcoming DLC the Deluxe edition might not be worth ordering as of yet.
See at Game Stop
See on Amazon
Thoughts
What are you most excited for with this new release? What are you least excisted for? We don’t have a whole lot of information as it stands, but as soon as we get more we’ll keep this post updated. Be sure to keep checking back in for updates and, as always, tell us what you think in the comment section below!
Updated November 2018: We’ve updated this with new trailers featuring additional costumes for both Leon and Claire.
