Resident Evil II

Resident Evil 2^[b] is a 1998 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation. The player controls rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and college student Claire Redfield, who must escape Raccoon City after its citizens are transformed into zombies by a biological weapon two months after the events of the original Resident Evil. The gameplay focuses on exploration, puzzles, and combat; the main difference from its predecessor is the branching paths, with each player character having unique storylines, partners, and obstacles.

Resident Evil 2 was produced by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, directed by Hideki Kamiya, and developed by a team of approximately 50 across 21 months. The initial version, commonly referred to as Resident Evil 1.5, differs drastically; it was canceled at approximately two-thirds of completion because Mikami decided it was inadequate. The final design introduced a more cinematic presentation.

Resident Evil 2 received acclaim for its atmosphere, setting, graphics, audio, scenarios, overall gameplay, and improvements over the original game, but with some criticism towards its controls, voice acting, and certain gameplay elements. It is widely listed among the best video games ever made. It is the best-selling Resident Evil game for a single platform at more than 6 million copies sold across all platforms. It was ported to Windows, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and GameCube, and a modified 2.5D version was released for the Game.com handheld. The story of Resident Evil 2 was retold and built upon in several later games and has been adapted into a variety of licensed works. It was followed by Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999. A remake was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in 2019.

Gameplay

A screenshot shows protagonist Leon battling zombies in a police station. The character and item models are the only moving elements of the graphics. The backgrounds are pre-rendered still images, which allows for a higher level of graphical detail.^[1]

A survival horror game, Resident Evil 2 features the same basic gameplay mechanics as its predecessor, Resident Evil. The player explores a fictional city while solving puzzles and fighting monsters.^[2] The game’s two protagonists may be equipped with firearms, but limited ammunition adds a tactical element to weapon use.^[2][3] On the status screen, the player can check the condition of the protagonists, use medicine to heal their wounds, and assign weapons.^[4][5] The characters’ current health can also be determined by their posture and movement speed. For example, a character will hold their stomach in pain if wounded and will limp slowly if on the verge of death.[2][6] The protagonists may carry a limited number of items and must store others in boxes placed throughout the game world, where they may later be retrieved.[2][7] Each protagonist is joined by a support partner during the course of the story.

Plot

On September 29, 1998, two months after the events of the first Resident Evil,^[20] most citizens of the Midwestern American mountain community of Raccoon City have been transformed into zombies by the T-virus, a biological weapon secretly developed by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella.^[21]^[22] Leon S. Kennedy, a Raccoon Police Department officer on his first day of duty, meets Claire Redfield, a college student looking for her brother Chris. After being separated, they each make their way to the Raccoon Police Station.^[21] They discover that most of the RPD has been killed,^[23] and that Chris has left town to investigate Umbrella’s headquarters in Europe.^[24] They split up to look for survivors and find a way out of the city.^[25]^[26] While searching for an escape route, Claire meets a little girl, Sherry Birkin, who is on the run from an unknown creature, and Leon encounters Ada Wong, who claims to be looking for her boyfriend John, an Umbrella researcher from Chicago.^[25]^[27]

RPD chief Brian Irons had been bribed by Umbrella to hide evidence of the company’s experiments in the outskirts of the city. He concealed their development of the new G-virus, an agent capable of mutating a human into the ultimate bioweapon.^[25]^[28] Leon has multiple encounters with a Tyrant, a monster air-dropped into the police station by Umbrella to seek the G-virus. Irons tries to murder Claire but is killed by a G-virus mutant in the police station. Claire and Sherry escape through the sewers and become separated. After splitting up with Leon, Ada finds Sherry and picks up a golden pendant the girl loses while running away. Further into the sewers, Ada reluctantly teams up with Leon again, after he insists on his duty to protect her. They encounter a middle-aged woman who fires at Ada, but Leon jumps between them and takes a bullet himself. Ada ignores the unconscious Leon and follows the woman, who reveals herself to be Sherry’s mother Annette and the wife of William Birkin, the Umbrella scientist who created the G-virus. In an attempt to protect his life’s work from special agents sent by the Umbrella headquarters, he injected himself with the virus, which turned him into the malformed creature and is now chasing Sherry because of her genetic make-up.^[25] Annette recognizes her daughter’s pendant and attempts to take it from Ada. A fight ensues, during which Annette is thrown over a railing.^[29] Ada learns that the golden locket contains a sample of the G-virus, and later – taken over by her emotions – returns to Leon, tending to his bullet wound.^[21]^[25]

Development

Development of Resident Evil 2 began one month after the completion of its predecessor in early 1996.^[33] Resident Evil 2 was developed by a group of about 45 people that later became part of Capcom Production Studio 4.^[34][35] Director Hideki Kamiya led the team, which was composed of newer Capcom employees and over half of the staff from the original Resident Evil.^[33][34][36] In the initial stages of development, producer Shinji Mikami often had creative disagreements with Kamiya, and tried to influence the team with his own direction. He eventually withdrew into an overseeing role as producer, and only demanded to be shown the latest build once monthly.^[37] The game took more than $1 million to create.