There's A Dark Side To Remakes Of Old Video Games Like Resident Evil 2 – TheGamer

Resident Evil 2 and 3 are both coming to GOG. No, not that Resident Evil 2 and 3. The other Resident Evil 2 and 3.

The Classic PS1 Resident Evil Games Will Finally Be Available For Modern Players

Until now, the original versions of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis have been unavailable on modern platforms. You could emulate them or you could track down old PS1 discs (which sell online for much more than you probably want to pay for used copies of quarter-century old games), but there was no legit way to play them on modern hardware. Thanks to GOG, these good old games are finally going to be widely available on PC.

The Resident Evil series is notable for its ongoing chronology. There have been genre reboots (like RE7 which took the series in a fresh new direction with a first-person perspective while reverting to the survival horror of its roots), but never narrative reboots. Village was continuing the same story that started all the way back in the first game. So, it’s odd that it’s been so difficult to find these games — games you need to play if you want the background for the latest release. Capcom has ameliorated this problem somewhat with remakes of the first four numbered entries, but I would argue it actually causes as many problems as it solves.

Resident Evil 2 (1998) and Resident Evil 2 (2019) may share the same name, but they are not the same game. The PS1 version has tank controls, an isometric, fixed perspective, and only allows you to shoot when you’re standing still. It has blocky, polygonal graphics, and the script is ’90s camp. The version available on PC and modern consoles, by contrast, plays like you would expect a modern game to play. It has a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective, the right-and-left-stick controls are familiar to modern players, you can shoot while moving, and the script is 2010s camp. Most noticeably, the graphics are hyper-real (check out the disgustingly detailed burger in the opening scene), not PSX blocky.

Leon in original Resident Evil 2 with the Crow Country setting in the background

Crow Country Is Reminding Me That Nothing Beats The Resident Evil Loop

What’s better than finding a key shaped like a cow, then finding a door with a cow-shaped lock, then opening that door with the cow key? Nothing.

Ground-Up Remakes Like Resident Evil 2 And 3 Aren’t Really Preservation

I appreciate Capcom’s commitment to making the entire story playable on modern consoles, and I enjoy all of the remakes (yes, even 3). But, this kind of remake can’t reasonably be considered preservation, can it? These are entirely different games, with new graphics, voice acting, writing, mechanics, level design, and more. These games are great, but they aren’t preserving anything. Instead, like a French cathedral built on Roman ruins, something new has been constructed on the foundation of something old.

It’s worth acknowledging that the success of the Resident Evil remakes is likely what convinced Capcom to make the old games available again. The new games proved that the appetite was there.

This delineation is clearer in the case of a game like Final Fantasy 7 Remake. That game takes the events of the original game and subverts them. It was a fascinating game upon release (before “multiverse” became a four-letter word) because it was the rare remake that was led, in large part, by people who had worked on the original, who were interested in having a conversation with the work they made decades before. They got to go back, in the form of Remake’s ghostly wraiths, and futz with the story they told in the ’90s. By doing that, the team made it crystal clear that FF7 and FF7 Remake were entirely different works.

The Resident Evil remakes aren’t interested in operating on that meta level. They make plenty of changes, but they don’t frame those changes as diegetic alterations happening within the game’s world. They’re just presented, name and all, as the new version of an old thing. Many players will prefer the new games, and won’t seek out the old ones. That’s fine. But, it’s only fine because, thanks to GOG, they at least have the option.