Whether you’re returning to Racoon City or a first time visitor, Resident Evil 2’s mixture of horror and action can be daunting. If you don’t want to get your neck-flesh literally torn off in the new remake, here are a few tips to help you survive.
Play On Normal Difficulty
After you die a few times, Resident Evil 2 will ask if you want to play the “assisted” mode. It adds aim-assist, weakens the enemies, and gives the protagonists some minor health regeneration.
It’s totally valid to play in this mode, but I suggest playing it on the normal difficulty. Part of the fun of Resident Evil games is having to really struggle for survival. Resident Evil 2’s revamped controls already give players a huge leg up on zombies. Stick with the normal mode and summon up some courage. You’ll do just fine.
Only Adjust Brightness If You Need To
Resident Evil 2 is a dark game, but that darkness is key to the atmosphere and horror. If you’re having a lot of trouble seeing or are really, really nervous it’s OK to turn up the brightness, but I suggest leaving it alone if you can manage it.
Play As Whoever You Want
You can play as either rookie cop Leon Kennedy or tough-as-nails university student Claire Redfield when you start a new game. Claire and Leon have access to different weapons and some different story moments, but neither of them is the “right” choice for your first playthrough. Pick your poison and enjoy the ride!
Save Often
Unlike old-school Resident Evil games, you don’t need ink ribbons to save your game. If you find yourself needing to take a break or even if you’ve just snagged a new item, don’t be afraid to save. It affects your end of game ranking, but you shouldn’t worry about that on your first playthrough anyway. There’s some checkpointing throughout the game, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Explore Everywhere
I don’t care if that room has a ton of zombies in it – you need to go in there and check out every corner. Open every door, check all the lockers you find, and make sure to take in your surroundings deeply. You’ll find ammo, crafting materials and even safe combinations. Resident Evil 2 has a lot packed into a relatively small game; be sure to look around.
When In Doubt, Check Your Map
The map isn’t simply good at helping you find a specific room. It’s also good for knowing what else you need to explore. Red rooms still have items in them. If you’re looking for a key or unsure of where to go next, try heading for rooms you haven’t cleared.
Craft Ammo ASAP
You’ll find gunpowder throughout Raccoon City, which you can combine to make bullets and other types of ammo.
It’s tempting to stockpile this for when you “need” it or want to make special ammo. But the truth is that Resident Evil 2 is so generous with these materials that you’re better using them as you progress and having ammo right away. Even if you’re twitchy, you’ll have a ton of bullets and even grenade launcher ammo by the end.
Pick Up Everything
Even if it looks like garbage, it isn’t. If you have the inventory room, take it. If you don’t know what to do with it, store it in an item box and use it when you do.
Examine Items Closely
More than most games in the series, Resident Evil 2 likes to hide items within items. If you find a book, go into your menu and open it. That badge you found? There’s a button on the back that totally changes what it does. Examine everything you find to make sure you aren’t missing a puzzle solution or key item.
Discard Useless Items
Some keys and special items are useless once they’ve unlocked all their corresponding doors. If you look in your inventory and see a red X over the item, select it and choose “discard”. You’ll free up coveted inventory space that you can use for ammo and other goodies.
Combine Herbs
Herbs can be combined for a variety of useful effects. The most standard combination is Green+Red, which creates a mixture that will heal you to full health. You can also combine Blue with Red to get rid of poison and gain temporary resistance to status effects. If you combine all three colours, you’ll gain a bonus to defence.
Know your combinations and use them wisely to heal quickly or prepare for boss fights.
Remember Safe Combinations
While puzzles change on your second character’s playthrough, safe combos stay the same. Write it down somewhere and use it later to save yourself some hassle.
Zombies Are Pushovers!
They might be able to take a beating but you actually have a lot of ways to deal with zombies. Shooting them in the head (multiple times) can put them down quickly, but if you don’t have the ammo you can also shoot or knife them in the kneecap and run past them when they fall.
Never Trust A ‘Dead’ Zombie
Unless you manage to blow a zombie’s head off, there’s a chance that they’ll get up again even after you’ve “killed” them. Defeating them enough times will stop them from reviving, but you should always be way of corpses to avoid getting caught off guard.
You Can Turn Around Quickly
This changes depending on your console, but if you press down and B on the Xbox One or down and O on the PlayStation 4, you’ll do a quick turn. It’s good for getting away from zombies, and you should get comfortable using it.
Use Your Knife
Knives are incredibly useful, and you should always carry one. Not only can they be used to escape an enemy’s clutches, you can slash at zombies when they fall to do extra damage. For extra effect, slash their arms. You can cut them right off, preventing them from grabbing you in the future.
Burn Plant Zombies
Eventually, you’ll find zombies infested with mutant plantlife. You can temporarily dispatch them by shooting weak points, but if you have the flamethrower or incendiary grenades for your launcher you can burn them to a crisp to keep them from getting up. If they’re black and shrivelled, it means they’re down for the count.
Just Run From Mr X
Unless you’re caught in a dead end, there’s no need to waste ammo on Mr X, the massive and mostly invincible Tyrant that stalks you throughout the game. If you’re in a tight spot, try to bait a punch of out him and dodge around. Run away and, once you’ve lost him, go back to wherever you need to be.
Play The ‘2nd Run’
After you complete the game with one character, you unlock a “2nd” story route for the other. You need to play this in order to get the real ending. The second story hits all of a character’s plot beats but revamps some of the puzzles and enemy placement for a sort of ROM hacked experience. This is what you want to play if you want to actually finish the story.
Don’t Be Afraid
Resident Evil 2 is a tense game and it can be easy to panic. Take a breath and try not to worry. The worst that happens is you see a Game Over screen and start up again.
If you aren’t into horror, professional music-liker Kirk Hamilton made some tips specifically for you that might help. They’re for RE7 but apply here as well. Otherwise, try to keep a cool head and take breaks from time to time. Eventually, you’ll cruise through Raccoon City like a pro.
Have Fun
This is a game! Enjoy the all the twists and turns, and try not to get angry if you make a mistake. Resident Evil 2 is a fun ride, made all the better with a positive mindset. You’re gonna do great.
Comments
11 responses to “Tips For Playing Resident Evil 2”
Seriously excellent game. Quality over quantity in the best possible way.
Saving too often, I think affects your rank, and there are numerous checkpoints so it’s not really an issue unless you quit and come back.
The game can be finished pretty quickly – I finished the first scenario within 7 hours and that was exploring everything and back tracking for items.
Saving doesn’t affect your rank, it is entirely time based.
S rank is 3:30 on first play thru, 3:00 on second.
But I’m a coward. I haven’t even finished RE7 yet because of my cowardice…
I haven’t even started RE7 yet because of my cowardice!
Don’t be afraid? ARE YOU KIDDING?
Right now? Seriously, I’m waaaaay back in 1998 again, 20 years old, sitting in my bedroom at my parents house. Literally half my lifetime ago. Wow. That’s a hell of a landmark time for me.
I was scared shitless by RE2 when it first came out, found it to be one of the scariest (at the time) games that was released until Silent Hill came along.
Now, I bought this last night and holy crap, it’s that same experience all over again, feeling exactly the same way. I love how they combined 2 and 3’s storyline more or less. I love the reimagining rather than just a straight up remake. It’s utterly brilliant. While I didn’t mind RE7, this is how the series should go forward from here.
But damn, I have my 7.1 headset, I’m in a dark room and sitting here with just the monitors lighting my room and this game is seriously making me jump lol. When MR X first appeared? Boy did I feel that terror that I first felt in RE3. Well done Capcom, bravo! Great to see you restore yourselves to the credibility of the old days with such a quality product 🙂
[Waits for Weresmurf to play the game again, then just creeps up behind and taps him on the shoulder just as a zombie on screen tries to touch the character.]
oh you evil bastard, have and upvote
My son did that last night…
We aren’t on speaking terms at the moment >:|
Sorry in advance if I cross the line.
But look at it this way. Your son actually feels safe and comfortable enough to actually do that.
I don’t think many can claim being able to do that past or present.
Hahhahahaha nah man it was funny as hell.
I was running from a certain character, turned a corner, got grabbed and jumped (probably sharted a bit lol).
At the same time he goes “BOO!” and taps me.
I think I yelped? lol.
I pretended to be angry at him for an hour, he told me I was a sook lol.
Don’t just pick up everything!
Many times during my first run I picked up something, without having ammo/health in my inventory and then realised that in order to pick up the ammo/health I just discovered I would have to discard something else or risk a mad dash back to my box with no ammo/health.
I would suggest doing a discovery of the room first, find what is in the room, what is needed in your inventory and go from there. When you click on an item you don’t need to add it to your inventory right away and it will also be left on your map as a marker when you can come back for it later.