First Look At Resident Evil 2 Remake 1 Shot Demo
Re-image The Survival Horror
For years after promising the game, "We Do It," finally announced Capcom in a video presented in broken English from the gaming studio.
For months, gamers had had a look at the game and it is just short of majestic what the RE Engine used on Resident Evil 7 has done in giving the classic both a face lift and new mechanics for modern systems.
Remake stays true to the first adventures of rookie cop, Leon Kennedy who is having the worst first day on the job ever as he enters into what is left of the police station that has been overrun by zombies and monsters stemming from the Umbrella Corporation experimenting with bio-weaponry. A spill in one of their labs has turned nearly every inhabitant and in the events of Remake 2 and its predecessor as well as 3, Raccoon City is completely destroyed.
While pre-ordering for the game has been up for several months in the PlayStation store, the demo released is the first time fans could actually play around with the game similar to Resident Evil 7 Biohazard's demo which allowed the players to interact with a snippet include a Midnight edition.
The demo this time has one objective, play as far through the game as possible in thirty minutes with limited ammo, continues, and a randomized events of the game.
With one rule, get as far through the demo as possible in thirty minutes, Capcom allowed for gamers to experience a snippet of Resident Evil 2 Remake in its One Shot demo which could not be replayed after the time limit had run out, even if the demo was downloaded a second time to the same PlayStation account prompting some fans to use multiple accounts or consoles to get more than one bit at the game demo.
First Day On The Job
Rolling into the Raccoon City Police Department, rookie cop Leon Kennedy has somehow arrived in uniform but without and instruction and bullets for his weapons in the demo. Given only thirty minutes and no way of defending himself until he gets his first few bullets for the gun, Leon is quickly outnumbered by the undead.
The full game will offer both campaigns found in the original including Claire's mission to protect a young Sherry Burkin, whom will later go on to know BSAA fame with those former of the Raccoon City PD, Remake 2 includes sections where the player will be forced to play as Ada Wong in Leon's play through and an added section with Sherry in Claire's.
Only Leon's play through is featured in the demo leaving us to wonder where it will start Claire and how true her mission will reflect the classic although game play of Claire has been released in the last year. Even a short section with Ada at the helm has been put out for inspection.
The demo only features Leon's game play in a way that will not be truly reflective of game play according to Capcom. The demo features a few of the puzzles and rooms that Leon will encounter in the full game.
Fighting Through
First entering at the same iconic doorway seen in both 2 and 3, Leon is staring at a revamped version of the classic police station from the inside entry way. Where once was the counter top and the first computer in the game giving a glimpse of what was in store, Leon is now facing a save box, a typewriter, bullets, and a computer that has been updated to show video footage of a cop fighting a zombie in the same hallway that is later infested with the Lickers.
Beyond is the Goddess Statue puzzle, the Lion Puzzle, and various doors for the Spade Key that are locked. Rounding the statue, Leon has the choice of going up either stairway but the doors are locked. Only bullets appear in the top levels on a bench in the hallway.
Those paying attention know that the only way through is to creep under a shutter that can be opened by flipping a switch where Leon will encounter his first person that he is unable to save from being torn in two by a zombie on the other side in a small office.
Moving about in the dark hallways, Leon is lucky to have a flashlight as the RE Engine really did make it darker and more believable then the original when the power is cut.
The hallways now have flooded for some reason when the power was cut and Leon must stumble through the zombie infested hallways on the look out for the next opened door and bullets. In the limited time, every shot counts and the new zombies take a hot of the handgun bullets to finally go down, even on head shots that will slowly chip away at the body. The combat knife given by Marvin will eventually tear up a zombie to dismemberment, but each us wears on the blade until it finally snaps.
Fight Or Flight
With the overhead camera changing from the fixed camera angles and end of the screen safety of Resident Evil's past pre-rendered backgrounds, there is no telling where the next zombie will pop up and reach for Leon in the demo and he is often attacked from behind.
Keep the controls at the ready and be sure to look around each corridor carefully and weigh making noise opening doors and shooting the gun to keep other zombies from coming and overcrowding the crapped and water logged hallways.
While some doors are chained shut in the demo and most likely in the game, Leon takes a few shortcuts through broken windows, and under the emergency fire shutters to get to other areas of the game. It is possible to get the Spade Key, but backtracking to the location where it is used is a choice of valuable time as the clock keeps ticking down to the half hour, regardless of continues and only pauses when in the pause screen.
It is possible to get the to third level of the building in the time allowed although I never made it much passed the stairs to see what was up there.
Marvin gives Leon the combat knife, which this time has a gauge and while it can hack a zombie to the point of dismemberment, it unlike the knives of the past will break after sometime when the gauge runs low.
Can You See The Lickers
Knowing that I needed to cheat for "research purposes" I made sure to download the demo on both my PlayStation 4 as well as my husband's for another bite at the apple that is the One Shot Demo.
Even in two shots, I was still failing miserably as it took so much ammo to keep the zombies down. Even after finding the key card to the weapons locker and getting the shot gun and the few shells found in the demo, it was nearly impossible to kill a zombie with one bullet and the running for your life method of Resident Evil was back on the table.
Dodging what could be dodged and killing what I had no choice but to kill, I made it to the area where Lickers should have passed the window in the iconic scene but in neither play through were they present leading me to believe that it was impossible to get the Lickers in the demo.
From what I have seen of the demo, this is definatly the game we have been hoping for out of Remake 2.
Full version of the game will be released on January 25th.
