Resident Evil 2 - The Spooky Bois - Part 4

At with this, our time with Claire comes to an end. Despite a number of close calls, we ended with plenty of ammo and healing items to spare.

Next time, we'll start Leon - Route B.




Difficulties with directions aside, this wasn't a terrible section of the game. While we had some trouble with the plant men and a few lickers, we had more than enough healing, ammo, and items to make up the difference.

In fact, as my co-hosts were quick to point out, I had enough weapons and ammo to open up a small armory. Though I could only carry so much of it at once, it's only towards the end that most players realize how generous that game actually is when it comes to resources. It's designed so that the player feels like they are teetering on the precipice between success and failure, but in actuality there are a ton of safety nets to keep the player from a game state that is truly unwinnable.

Take that final run in the laboratory as an example. When I saw that I was surrounded on all sides by plant men, which David warned me would kill me in a single attack, I thought for sure I was going to die. And yet, I managed to have exactly enough grenades and combat knives on hand to survive every single time I was grabbed on my way out. Assuming I had died, all I would have needed to do was go back into my item box and retrieve the necessary materials.

Even in the room with the lickers, the truth is that I was much safer than the room might lead you to believe. Despite the number of wounds and mistakes I made in that run, I had more than enough healing to make up the difference. I feel this would have been the case even if I didn't have David guiding me through most of the puzzles. If I was playing on my own, I would simply have a walkthrough on hand to help me. If this was a solo stream, and I didn't have access to a guide, I would have simply relied more on trial and error and repeat sections until I could conserve as many resources as I deemed necessary.

As for the final bosses, they're pretty standard. David seemed to panic a bit, presumably because in all other aspects of the game I turn in a mediocre performance. However, I've often fought my fair share of PS1-era video game bosses before. It's odd how different these boss fights feel from the rest of the game. Despite being more powerful than the other threats I face, I feel much more at home fighting Berkin than I do hiding from lickers and plant men. He was nothing more than a resource hog.

Despite how little I've been talking about the story, I genuinely like the bond the Claire and Sherry form throughout the campaign. As they spend more time together, Claire overcomes her fear in order to be the maternal figure Sherry desires in her hour of need (since her actual mother leaves much to be desired). And Sherry herself, in turn, demonstrates how far she's come when she's willing to face the unknown in order to help Claire in the room just before the train.

I'm eager to start Leon's side of the story, to see how they handled his character way back in the day. Remember, for me, this is all new. Everything I know about Resident Evil 2 is second-hand.