Resident Evil 2 Remake is out in some places of the world right now and will soon be out for the rest of the world in mere hours! There are a few things you need to know before you grab Capcom’s horror classic.
First off, it’s the bomb. Like, this game (pardon my French) fucking rules. You can click here to read our glowing review and our in-depth impressions. Second, Resident Evil 2 does not hold your hand. It gives you some basic tutorials and you can find organic hints naturally in the environment (easily missable) but a large portion of the game is you figuring out its rules.
Some of these will come to you rather quickly, some of these could be total mysteries until you finish the game once or twice. There won’t be any story spoilers here and I’ll leave some elements a mystery but if you’d rather go in totally blind, you may want to just leave the article and you can return if you have questions as you’re playing.
With that said, here are some things to help you survive the apocalyptic events of Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2 Remake.
The undead are truly undead
In Resident Evil 2, zombies are arguably more threatening than in the vast majority of other zombie games. They crowd you in tight corridors, they’re slow but have heads that feel like they’re on pendulums making them hard to hit, but worst of all, they’re relentless.
Zombies will take multiple rounds to the head before falling over, meaning it’s not one and done. And that double tap rule we all learned in Zombieland? It applies here significantly but you also should avoid using it at times. Zombies will fall over, seemingly dead, but so long as their head is intact, they can get back up and will get back up. Usually, you can rely on them to stay down long enough for you to get away but should you shoot or stab them again, they’ll get back up.
More powerful weapons like the shotgun, Claire’s grenade launcher, and other high-powered weapons will easily take a zombie out but if you don’t destroy their brain in a bloody explosion, don’t count them out of the fight.
Lickers are your worst nightmare but have a key weakness
Lickers are these pale creatures that walk around on all fours with the ability to crawl up walls and move at high rates of speed. They’re not to be trifled with and when you hear them, you should instantly freeze.
Lickers are blind, they can’t see you so long as you keep a good distance away from them. Move slowly and carefully in their presence away from them or make an effort to get the jump on them with high-powered weapons or a stun grenade. The stun grenade, while useful against all enemies, is particularly helpful against lickers because it confuses them and ruins their sense of sound. Use these stunned moments to unload on them or to run away.
Running is almost always an option
With the exception of boss fights, you can pretty much always run away from an encounter and that may be more viable than wasting bullets. Bullets are a valuable commodity and should be used in desperate situations. Sometimes you’ll find a lone zombie or two and you should just leave them alive unless you have an excess of ammo and can spare it, you can usually slip past them or go another route.
Since zombies are slow, you can usually lose them by running through multiple rooms, slowing them down when doors shut behind you and they have to bang them down to get through. Running is not the coward’s way out, it’s a strategy that the smartest players will use to conserve resources and stay alive.
Know when to take items and when to leave them
Items in Resident Evil 2 are your best friend. Ammo, herbs for health, guns, and everything in between. You’ll likely get really eager and pick everything up as soon as you see it but this is a vital tip: DON’T PICK EVERYTHING UP. Your inventory space is severely limited, even with upgrades.
If you want something but your inventory is full, you’ll have to discard an item in your inventory, but if you do that, it’s gone forever. Leaving an item where you find it will ensure it remains there until you pick it up, meaning you should only pick stuff up you know you’re going to use or can effectively store by combining with other items. Inventory conservation is key to success in Resident Evil 2.
There will be key items you can’t get rid of in the game used for progressing the story, eventually, you’ll render them useless by using them for their intended purpose. Make sure to discard them, it’ll have a red symbol next to it in the inventory. You will never ever need one of these items once they have this symbol, so get rid of it.
Use your storage box
When you can, store extra items in your storage box found in safe rooms. This crate is universal so if you store something in the lobby of the Raccoon City Police Department, it’ll transfer to the last safe room in the game as well. Put extra herbs, extra first aid, extra crafting resources, and non-essentials in here. This makes sure that if you do pick something up, you will have it somewhere it can be retrieved from.
Not only that but it allows you to have a reserve of supplies to always rely on if you get a little cocky and start burning through whatever resources you have. I always kept one first aid spray on me and one herb/herb combo so that I had health supplies, but I’d never carry any more than that at one time to conserve space.
The answers to puzzles sometimes lie within the environment itself
Every now and then, you’ll come across a puzzle in Resident Evil 2. This could be mandatory for progressing or could just give you a nice bonus for a gun attachment or other resources. The answers aren’t always going to be available to you right then and there.
There are entire sections of this game that you can’t solve as Leon or you can’t solve as Claire or you can’t solve them at all within the first run. Different things happen depending on how and when you play this game, so… don’t get too worried if you can’t figure out why you can’t find a key for a certain room.
That said, the stuff you can solve isn’t super easy either. You’ll find answers on notes which can be accessed in your notebooks, you’ll find clues hidden organically in the world such as written on a whiteboard you keep walking past but don’t look at because it’s not something you can specifically interact with.
Embrace the world, look around, take your time. Exploration is rewarded in Resident Evil 2.
Play the game multiple times
Resident Evil 2 has a pretty good length of around 6 – 8 hours if you play at a good pace. If you know what you’re doing, you can finish it in 5 hours or maybe less. It’s a game that you can play multiple times without feeling like you just finished a marathon after your first playthrough.
You’ll want to play as both Claire and Leon, they have different stories but are following similar paths with new gameplay opportunities and weapons. On top of that, the “Second Run” is a campaign that you unlock after finishing Claire or Leon’s story once. It provides a new POV and has much more to offer, this is a pretty essential mode in comparison to feeling the need to complete both Leon and Claire’s regular stories.
Now you’re ready to face the undead, go save Raccoon City!
Resident Evil 2 is out on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
