Product Description
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Prepare yourself for one of the most horrifically fun games to
surface on the Nintendo 64. As part of the incredibly popular
horror game series, Resident Evil, the zombified townsfolk walk
onto the Nintendo 64 for the first time in this follow-up to the
original hit.
Resident Evil 2 is set a few months after the first installment's
zombie plague. Players assume the role of either Raccoon City
officer Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield, whose missing
brother may be involved with those responsible for the invasion.
Both decide to venture forth in search of the source of the
still-active zombie plague. In classic horror flick style, each
goes alone with minimal weapons and a tendency to attract the
undead. And since you can't argue with a zombie, players must
often choose between firing a precious bullet or running for dear
life. Separate character storylines and items that move after
each game keep players coming back for more gore.
The hulking 512-megabit game pack is the largest to hit the
Nintendo 64, and for good reason. The game features
high-resolution 3-D graphics, a massive game world, and even
full-motion video (another N64 first).
As millions of PlayStation fans can attest, you'll scream,
you'll jump out of your chair, you'll shout commands to your
characters as the zombies and mutant creatures close in and--best
of all--you'll love every terrifying second of it. --Eric Twelker
Review
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You'd expect Resident Evil 2 on the Nintendo 64 - a port of a
game that came out nearly two years ago on the PlayStation - to
feel dated. Heck, the third game in the series, Resident Evil 3
Nemesis, was released on the PlayStation two weeks ago, and the
fourth installment, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, is due out for
the Dreamcast in Japan in a few months, with a US translation
trailing only a bit behind. Somehow, though, RE2 doesn't feel old
or tired at all. And it's as impressive today on the N64 as it
was in January of '98, when it first debuted on the PlayStation.
Part of that is due to how impressive it is as a port. The game
takes the contents of two PlayStation discs - including all the
FMV sequences and the bonus Hunk and Tofu missions - and fits it
into one 512-megabit N64 cartridge, which ends up being twice the
size of The Legend of Zelda cart, for the record. The only thing
missing in this edition is the extreme-battle mode from the Dual
Shock edition of Resident Evil 2 on the PlayStation, but the
omission is made up for by new features, such as a randomizer
(which shuffles items around after you've played the game through
once) and files (which you can find to learn details about the
Resident Evil story, some of which have bits that tie in with
Resident Evil 3 Nemesis and Resident Evil: Code Veronica). You
can also change the blood color from red to green or blue, or set
the violence to low, medium, or high. Sure, and the gang's all
here. You play as Leon Kennedy, the rookie cop who has reported
for his first shift on the day the T-virus outbreak turns the
whole town into zombies, or as Claire Redfield, who has come to
Raccoon City to find her older brother, the male lead from the
first Resident Evil. To make matters worse, the creator of the
T-virus has developed a more perfect virus, which he ingests when
the nefarious Umbrella Corporation sends in troops to steal it
from him. (In the process, he's become a monster that could even
give RE's Tyrant pause). Yes, as either character, you end up in
the middle of company politics and a lot of sharp, gnashing
teeth. Resident Evil 2 on the PlayStation was full of moments
that made you sense that something was going to pop out and
attack you (and invariably, something did as soon as you stopped
expecting it), and that's reproduced perfectly here. The sound
effects are fantastic, whether it's the moan and shuffle of a
zombie that's just around the corner or the crunch of your
footsteps as you step over broken glass. And save for a slightly
tinny quality, the sounds and the dramatic score of the game are
just as good on cart as they were on CD. The graphics are even
more of a wonder. If you use the N64 expansion pak, the visuals
are bumped into hi-res mode, making them look even better than
those in the PlayStation version. But even without the pak,
they're still very impressive. Sometimes, the backgrounds look
washed out while the characters remain brightly hued, making them
stand out strangely, but it's a very rare occasion when that
happens. The game's frame rate also slows down a bit when
numerous monsters are onscreen at once, but not enough to affect
gameplay. And though the computer-generated FMV sequences look
grainy in comparison with the PlayStation version, they still
look fantastic considering the cart format. Of course, the same
complaints relevant to the PlayStation original still apply to
the N64 version. You'll find that the camera is your worst enemy:
When you move into an area of the room that you hadn't been able
to see before you'll get ambushed by several zombies that were
standing just into the next screen. Or when you're blasting away
at a boss or sub-boss, the recoil of your weapon will knock you
into another screen, and you'll get killed because you don't know
which side you're going to be attacked from. And you'll continue
to believe that the strange inventory system should've long since
been changed to something more like Diablo's "smaller items take
up less space/big items take up more space" system. But even with
those few detractions, Resident Evil 2 is still as much an
experience as it is a game. A huge improvement over the first
title, RE2 succeeds in making you feel as though you're in the
middle of a horror film - one in which you'll jump many, many
times. If you've already played the PlayStation or PC versions of
RE2, there's really no reason to buy this game, but for N64
owners who haven't tried yet, it's an absolute must-have.--Joe
Fielder--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without
express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot
Review
