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Resident Evil 2 is releasing this week, and it’s more of a return to form than Resident Evil 7 was. With such a change in direction, the game is ostensibly one of the hardest Resident Evil games ever made, and as such pretty damn overwhelming.
While these are obvious to most fans, these are some tips that will help newcomers find the world of Resident Evil 2 a little bit more approachable. On a side note, I personally find it betrays the spirit of the game to give away solutions to puzzles or codes to safes and the like – so you’ll find none of that here!
Obviously, I’ll keep things spoiler-free too. I’m not that mean.
Given how Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 played out, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had to defeat every enemy you come across. This is simply not the case in Resident Evil 2. There’s not enough ammunition in the entire game to kill every enemy you’ll come across. As such you have to be a little bit smarter with how you go about things.
The best course of action is obviously to run around enemies – either by simply sneaking past them quietly or baiting them to attack you before running around them.
If you absolutely must engage in combat with an enemy though, make sure that you’re not wasting any time – you don’t even need to kill them. Just plug them with enough hits to make sure they fall so that you can run around them without taking damage. I could be wrong, but the game seems to remember how much damage an enemy has taken so you shouldn’t have any issues taking them down on a return visit.
This one is bound to alleviate some of the stress and pressure on the completionists reading this article. Much like the original game, you can backtrack pretty much anywhere in Resident Evil 2 even after you move on to another area. In fact, the game encourages it, placing items in later locations that can only be used or deciphered in earlier ones. You can even leave items behind knowing you’ll be able to return to them later too, most of the old areas will be behind deadlocked doors.
While I’m still coming to terms with the loss of the Spiders, Blue Herbs have an additional effect in Resident Evil 2 that’s never been seen in another game before. Obviously, if your character does get poisoned, they will assist in flushing the toxins out of your body (Pete Evans who?) but combining them with a Red Herb this time around gives a bonus effect that is invaluable, especially on higher difficulties.
The games file’s describes the Blue Herb as “improving one’s constitution”. What does this mean exactly? It is essentially a timed layer of armour on your character. When buffed by the effects of a mixed Blue Herb, Claire or Leon will take considerably less damage than if they just took a normal herb or healing item. So stock up on those herbs and pop a few before a major boss battle and watch your rate of survival climb!
This one is more of a subjective one but one that is worth mentioning anyway. Typically in a Resident Evil game you would be encouraged to “aim for the head” to do maximum damage to your enemies. Resident Evil 2 is a little bit different on that front. You can still aim for the head, of course, and you’ll randomly be rewarded with a critical hit every now and then that will kill your enemy in one shot. But the way Resident Evil 2 handles damage is different to other games.
Okay, I’ll admit that this one is a bit of a cheap one. The game even tells you it on the load screen, but it’s one of the biggest time saving exercises that I found myself indulging in on my run of Resident Evil 2. Essentially, every time you enter a room in Resident Evil 2 it’s important that you use your map to scout the area out before you do anything else.
Resident Evil 2 releases on Friday, 25th of January for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC. You can read the Press Start review right now by clicking HERE.
