Ah, I still remember the reaction when this was shown off at E3 2018. I had heard in passing a couple times that a remake of "Resident Evil 2," a title many fans consider to be one of the best in the series, was announced all the way back in 2015. It would take until Sony's showcase at E3 2018 for it to finally surface...but damn, were the fans happy. It was by far one of the biggest moments of Sony's show and was arguably one of the biggest games of that year's E3 (no small feat when going up against the re-reveal of "Cyberpunk 2077," the official announcement of "Devil May Cry 5," and the boatload of "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" content, just to name a few things). Admittedly, when the game did come out in 2019, I missed out on it. I hadn't played the first "Resident Evil" game and wanted to wait to play this until I got through that one. But now that I've finally played it...I'm ashamed it took me so long to play this. What a game.
"Resident Evil 2" faithfully recaptures the story and characters of the original game, but also expands on the story and adds some incredible new horror set pieces. The visual design adds to the chilling atmosphere, and let me just say this is genuinely one of the scariest games I've played (Mr. X? Absolutely terrifying). The gameplay is butter smooth and controls fantastically, it absolutely feels far more accessible and easy to get into than the first "Resident Evil" remake. There's a good layer of challenge without feeling overly difficult, and there are plenty of great collectibles and bonuses to discover. Also, even more so than the original game's remake, this does more than most remakes reasonably should; it's to the point where it almost feels like a whole new game. It almost feels like Capcom made something of a "Remake Plus" with this one: they took the template of the original game, and reapplied it to a whole new style of game, to where it's a remake by association but almost a completely new title in its own right. And it's a great thing that "new title" is a damn amazing game.
If I can find anything negative to say about the game, uhh...it's easy to run out of ammo? Yeah, that's the best I've got.
It's kinda funny because, for the longest time, I had "Astral Chain" as my favorite game of 2019. Of course, I would qualify that with "but I haven't played 'Devil May Cry 5' or 'Resident Evil 2' and I really want to play those," so its place at the top was never entirely safe. "Devil May Cry 5" fell just short of knocking it from that spot, but "Resident Evil 2?" Sorry, "Astral Chain," but I can confidently say this is my favorite game of 2019. It does far more than any remake reasonably could do, and above all else, it is just an absolute gem to play. By far one of the finest horror game experiences I've had, and a game I can't wait to play again once I no longer have a large backlog. If you haven't played this masterpiece yet (and you can reasonably handle horror games), please do so.
Final rating: 10 out of 10 "Fantastic"