Outdated graphics bring this otherwise nice game down a little more than necessary. A short but enjoyable experience.
User Rating: 6.7 | BioHazard 2 GC
After having played Resident Evil: Remake, Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil 4, I felt I need more survival horror in my life. So I decided to try Resident Evil 2 out, going against the advice of numerous reviews. The game is by no means a total letdown, but it sure could've used improvements - especially in the graphics department. I first heard about RE2 when the director of the RE-film talked about his sources for inspiration. Just as it happened I don't own a Play station, so I picked the game up for the Game cube instead. The first thing that hits you is the graphics. They are truly despicable and have not aged well at all. Compare it to the way the graphics of the Mega Man games in the recent collection released were not updated either, it really shows very apparent how 3D-graphics age much much faster than its 2D counterparts does. The worst part of the graphics are the zombies, they look completely awful, extremely blocky and with huge pixels on the skins. The best part of the visuals are the pre-rendered backgrounds that are passable or even look quite all-right in some instances. Make no mistake though, since you do get used to the graphics after a while. Once you've gotten used to the way the game looks, there is a really good and enjoyable game under that filthy surface to be found. It's not as well balanced as RE1, though. There is too much ammunition, too few enemies and too many healing items around. If you know your RE you'll finish this in around five and a half hours which is a little on the short side even though the game is cheap these days. As a consistent theme of the RE-games, the first area you get to is without a doubt the most interesting, then they get more routine and un-intriguing. In other words; police station is cool, waste dumping place and laboratory - yawn factor steadily rising. The sound is ok, the zombies sound very tacky though. I could do better zombie-sounds than this myself. The undead sound like mentally retarted persons, not moaning zombies with a hunger for human flesh. Music is great just like the other RE-games. If you are a huge fan of survival horror and the RE-series in particular, this game might be worth buying if you can get it at a low price. If Capcom would update this game to today's standards - most importantly the graphics - like they did with RE1, then I'm certain it would get a much higher score from me. It seems unlikely something like that will happen today however. 
