While Resident Evil set the standard for the survival-horror genre following Alone in the Dark, it left many questions unaswered. So came Resident Evil 2. This was one of the all time top sellers in video game history. Of course, by today's standards the graphics were not that good. My friends, the N64 is hanging on a thin thread, so Nintendo decided to convert Resident Evil 2, a 4-5 years after it came out. It seemed like a pretty drastic move, but it shows how the power of the N64 can totally revamp graphics from the earliest games.

Resident Evil 2 (RE 2) takes place in Racoon City, which actually is a city (thought I'm not sure where.) Eerie things are occuring, namely, people getting eaten by other people. No, these people are NOT cannibals, they are zombies (que the scary music.) These are your every day people that have been infected by the T-virus, which was manufactured my Umbrella INC. Now, for some reason, along with being horridly deformed, they also have this interesting urge to eat non-zombies. Along with the T-virus, Umbrella INC. has created some weird creatures, which they unleashed into the city.

You begin the game being able to choose who you play as (unlike the Playstation version. Really, you are supposed to start off playing as Leon Kennedy, who is driving to the Racoon City police department. When he arrives, he notices a dead body, and soon meets with a bunch of zombies. While Leon tries to fend them off, he meets Claire Redfield, the sister of Chris Redfield from RE 1. They get into a violent crash in Leon's cruiser after a semi screams down the street and nearly hits them. That's where you start.

The game starts you with a pistol, fire, and about 8 or 9 zombies lumbering toward you. You are forced to scramble around to dodge the zombies at the very beginning of the game, which I think is a nice touch, but if you have no clue where to go you can get killed very fast.

After finishing Leon's game, you are supposed to go back as Claire and complete the game again pretty much. Their paths are a little different, but if you played Leon's game you'll know where a lot of stuff is already.

The game isn't just secluded to gunning down zombies. Sometimes you have to gun down mutant dogs, "lickers", and other weird @$$ stuff. However, the game's central theme, if you can imagine, is actually the puzzles. Don't get wrong, there is plenty of shooting action is RE2, but you won't make it very far just shooting stuff. The puzzles are usually very clever, but the game helps you out a little by providing you with instructions or at least hints to completing the puzzles, but you have to find them. Other times, the goal is pretty obvious.

The game has a pretty friendly setup. You access an inventory screen and from there you can do a bunch of things. You can equip and reload weapons, combine items, check your health, read files, or use items. That's one major problem with the game, the health. You really don't know what your health is throughout the game. When your character is in CAUTION, he or she will cluch his/her stomach. At DANGER, your character will limp and hence move much more slowly making tense situations when being chased. Carefull, this game is extremely difficult, and don't even bother even renting this game if you don't have (or don't plan on getting) a controller pack. It's a very long game, and you are likely to get stuck more than once.

RE2's graphics have gone through a major overhall converting from the Playstation. The aren't nearly as fuzzy, and even all the movies from the original RE2 were moved over. The backrounds look better as well, and some of them are downright disturbing, like the one where the guy has a fork stuck in his head. Because the game works by having an isolated camera in each section of the game, you often get enemies just off screen that you don't know about, so when you go to a different view point you are already getting chewed on. Because the game has both CD's crammed into one cartridge, the designers had to compress the hell out of the game.

The sound also converts over to the N64 in improved form. They are crisper. The zombie moans and muching sounds are much more full, and you can actually hear some of the things that were hard to hear in the Playstation verson, such as in the opening movie Leon says, "What's the matter with that guy? That was a clean hit."

On a final note, this game is not for kiddies. I'm sure you have figured it out already, but just in case. Don't play this game if you are squemish or have a heart condition (you think I'm joking.) There is an option to turn off blood or change the color, but it hardly helps. Still, I reccomend this game to people who think they can handle it.

Recommended: Yes