Survival Horror Gaming: Resident Evil 2

When I was about six or seven years of age, my family got its first home computer. In the late 80s, this was probably a bit of an extravagant purchase; but it's one that I'm really glad my parents decided to make. So much of what and I am today stems from a comfort and familiarity with computers and therefore technology as well. Like any kid of the era, one of my favorite things to do to kill time was to play video games. My parents weren't ever the type to buy the latest greatest game console though; we'd gotten burned buying the last generation of the ColeccoVision and they weren't about to start buying this crazy new Nintendo thing.

If my siblings and I wanted to play those new games, we'd have to do so at our friends' houses. What this meant was that for my formative years, all the games I played were on our computers. It wasn't until I was 20 that I bought my first console, the first PlayStation. Since then I've owned just about every console that's been released; but my favorite game of them all is one that I first played on that PlayStation, "Resident Evil 2."

For starters, it was a two-disc game. That was just unheard of back then. There was so much content that two whole discs needed to be used. Each disc had its own half of the story as well; so it felt like you were really getting two games for the price of one. At the time splitting a games narrative into two completely different playable parts was very innovative.

Secondly, the graphics were such a step-up from the first installment of the franchise. I've gone back and played this game again on an old console I bought on eBay for about $15, and while the graphics don't look to be cutting-edge anymore, I could see why at the time they still seemed very advanced, as they were as close to photo-realistic as could be expected from a console of that time.

The sound design is another key element in this game. Great care is always put in these games to make the soundtrack and ambient noises in the environments as absolutely creepy as possible. When the game is billed as a sort of "playable horror film" this is pretty important to the overall appeal of the game, and Resident Evil 2 absolutely nails it.

My love of zombie games is a direct result of Resident Evil 2. My favorite game series on the Xbox 360, Dead Rising, took the Resident Evil design ideas and improved upon them. This isn't surprising since both are Capcom games, but I know that Dead Rising definitely has its roots in those first few Resident Evil titles; at least as far as game-play goes.

Lastly, what I love most about Resident Evil 2 is that it was so damn hard to beat. Unless you played it on its easiest difficulty level, it was going to be an uphill slog to get through this game the first time. The designers of the game made it tough but not impossible to get through it all, and that's something that I think a lot of more modern games are missing. If I'm able to completely beat the game in under twelve hours of play time, I feel pretty cheated out of my sixty bucks, don't you?