Resident Evil 2 is the best classic RE game. After 10 years, this game still gives me chills, and I love playing it.
Graphics wise, this game is decent. You can play it, and not get a headache from the not so smooth characters, and the slight fuzziness in FMVs is tolerable. Really, the strong point is the backgrounds I suppose. While they aren't fully 3-dimensional in parts, the backgrounds lead to the convincing nature that this could happen, and is happening to an everyday city. The alley ways are gritty, with graffiti on the walls, hallways are smeared in blood from where people were attacked...Overall, spooky. You may take them for granted, but the background lends a good deal of scariness to the game.
Sound is a key to a survival horror, and this one has a great key. Music is delighfully spine tingley, and zombie moans make you shiver a bit when you hear them, and later when you're in the sewers, and you hear water splashing towards you, you feel your hair stand up on your neck, and get your gun ready.
Gameplay is standard survival horror. Grab this item, get this item, use this key, etc. Kind of repetitive, but it doesn't detract from gameplay, unless you forget something entirely, and have to backtrack to it. That does suck, but is a rare event. Shooting is the same as number 1, as is moving. Hey, you don't always need big changes for a sequel.
Story is...well...scarily believable. A Pharmecutical giant has been playing with viruses, and accidentally released a really bad one in a regular american city...More of a town really. The point is, when you're running from monsters in this game, and you think "Wow, this could really happen...", you are immediately happy it's just a game, and really happy that a game can make you feel like that.
Now, the one big complaint for this game is the voice acting. I could have mentioned it before in the sound paragraph, but let's talk about it now. It sucks. Seriously. I'd expect teenagers with no experience to sound better than these actors. Granted, it's the writer's fault more, but even horrible dialogue can be made palatable by good actors. Like number 1, the dialogue is laughable at parts, and overall just sad. This is an area they could have improved. Another area of improvement would be the fetching quests. Grab this key, get this item...Really. It's not that bad, but when you can get really lost, it doesn't help that the key you need is a half an hour of backtracking away. Granted, that's really rare to do, but it's happened before.
Despite those problems, I still love this game. I would, and have, recommended this game to people. Easily a must have of the PS1 era, get this game if you can find it. Or the Dual shock version, it's the same game.
Get this game, it's a 10.