Resident Evil 2 Remake DLC Ghost Surrivors
Escape Raccoon City
Living up to the hype, Resident Evil 2 Remake is possibly the best Resi in years, even coming off the success of Resident Evil 7, a beloved game that brought the franchise back into the horror vein after a departure since Resident Evil 5 took away the horror element and brought some sort of weird shooter with zombies.
As Resident Evil almost lost its entire fan base in the format change, coming back to its senses with 7 and splitting the over the top action into the Umbrella Chronicles, at last the franchise was hitting a home run again.
This is especially true in the notion of bringing back Remake to join the other HD remasters of the previous game, but Remake the first announced of many to be remade with the RE Engine that gave 7 its gore and mechanics.
Ghost Survivors, the first DLC material to Remake came as a glorious free surprise as a Valentines gift to those that shelled out for pre-orders and and downloads of the game since its debut.
Staying in the same vein as the A B campaigns of Claire and Leon, the content is styled similar to that of Hunk and Tofu's bonus runs.
The first downloadable content available, Ghost Survivors is the story of the few characters that overlapped from the original game but didn't get a real proper introduction this time around. With three playable characters, these are speed runs similar to how Hunk and Tofu play that are timed. Like the One Shot Demo, mistakes will end a run so use inventory wisely and try to progress as far as possible through each scenario.
A Second Look At Kendo
If you found yourself with a heavy sigh not getting to explore as much of Kendo Gun Shop as you expected, do remember the overlap between Resident Evil 2 and 3 and know that you will be revisiting again most likely when the Jill Valentine centered companion will be coming as Remaster 3 sooner than you think.
3 shares so many of the same locations and elements, gaming media already projects the wait between games will happen in the PlayStation 4 generation for sure.
The Kendo in Leon's campaign is where he and Ada come across a man with a "sick" daughter and "sleeping" wife, which differs from the original appearance of the family. While Leon tries to convince the man to come along and get help as his daughter may not make it much longer, Ada has a simple solution to take the child down before she turns and attacks them all.
In Ghost Survivors, Kendo after seeing the end of his family decides to take to the streets of Raccoon City and try to find help at the police station.
Armed with a gun and few rounds, much less than we feel the owner of a gun shop would have on hand- Kendo retraces the steps of Claire and Leon fighting all new hordes in a timed encounter.
In Remake Claire doesn't meet Kendo as her mission to get to Sherry at the orphanage puts her next to the stop as she dances around waiting for the zombies to take down the gate that allows for her to escape up the catwalk and passed where Mr. X. can reach only to encounter some of the worst zombie dogs the game can throw at you. And now they have the ability to vault gates leaving one safe ever again!
Kendo is on a mission and its a timed one. Given up to twenty minutes to complete, ten if there is a mistake, even less if you run out of ammo or health and are taken out.
The mission plays very similar to that of Tofu and Hunk's runs that are unlocked after playing both A and B scenarios for both Claire and Leon, similar to that of the original game only without the added worry of an item not being available to the B player if picked up in the A game. The location of items though are scrambled in the B game and the story plays out differently explaining events of the game.
This is what Ghost Survivors does as well and it gives a little background to what Kendo was doing after the events Leon's run and he and Ada took off into the sewers.
Eagle eyed Resi fans will notice the section of Claire's game when the daughter of the mayor's body is not on the desk of Chief Irons. Don't feel disappointed through if you haven't played yet as Claire as during Sherry's part in the orphanage we find the body of Katherine Warren in an odd location on a table where she appears to be experimented on maybe? Whatever the case, its creepy knowing the added information about the Umbrella run children's home.
No Good Ending For Katherine Warren
In the original Resident Evil 2 Katherine was the body on Chief Irons desk.
What we know is she was the daughter of the mayor and that the police chief had become so obsessed with her in life that when the events of Raccoon City took her her left her in a pretty dress, or is that a night gown; on his desk as decoration and stared at her intently either waiting for her to rise or in some sort of creepy necrophilia induced fantasy that was way too much for the my brain in 1998 even with pixel people.
Catching up with what Katherine actually looked like while still alive in Remake, Katherine must escape the clutches of Irons and we see the events before her death and finding her in the orphanage play out.
The same as Kendo, ammo and health is scarce so it is lucky to see backpack wearing zombies that can be taken down for extra supplies when things are scarce.
Unfortunately from what we know, completing Katherine's section doesn't save her life in the end as the events of Claire's campaign show her body twice as a sickly Easter egg.
The Umbrella Corp That Isn't Hunk
We know that Umbrella's soldiers had stomped William Burkin trying to steal back the samples that caused for the original events of the franchise, but assuming one of the men in the flashback is Hunk and that he already has his place, who is this?
We see about five Umbrella soldiers in Remake and we meet more in 3, so is it possible that these men could be one of the mercenaries that Jill runs into? It doesn't seem likely as they would save their debut for the new remake.
This unnamed man may have the skill to get away from the new Paleheads, a forerunner to the Crimsonheads that we meet in the HD remaster of Resident Evil.
Like Crimsonheads, these Paleheads can regenerate and come back as a far more vicious type of zombie that we will most likely see in more DLC and the remake of 3 which focuses most of the game play on avoiding Nemesis.
Paleheads are already terrifying in the one day they have been known to the universe.
Just as the rest of Remake, this free download is well worth the effort to play and gives insight on the smaller unsung characters of Resident Evil 2 Remake.
