Hey everyone! I'm back again with my third entry for the Resident Evil 2 portion of the Nostalgia Diaries. The past couple entries have covered some scenes and elements that were key in making RE2 such a classic title, but I feel I've neglected an important part of the franchise that can't be left uncovered. This week I'll be covering some of the zombies, monsters, and bosses of the game, as well as every way imaginable for you to dispose of them. Chapter 3 after the jump!

Enemies and Bosses

Ask yourself, what would a Resident Evil game be without zombies? More or less an extended tour through various parts of Raccoon City. From the opening cut scene until the ending credits your having to evade/dispose of zombies who'd like to use your brains for salsa at their next zombie block party. The T-virus outbreak started in Dr. Birkin’s underground lab, spread in to the sewers, and then worked itself upward to all the people of Racoon City. The end result of this is zombies... lots of zombies, and in some cases even worse.

Giant poisonous spiders, flesh hungry dogs, and swarms of infected crows also were present to slow you down in any way they could. The zombies of RE2 were fairly slow, so if you got some distance between them, you could take them out with relative ease. The other enemies weren't as easy to get away from. If you were surprised by a group of dogs or crows, there's a good chance you wouldn't make it out alive. These baddies strike quickly, and although their attacks might not be too strong, the sheer number and task of taking them out before your life expires is tough. On the other end of the spectrum are enemies like the lickers, who were both quick and deadly. When facing off against these guys I like to have a couple healing items handy, one or two swipes and you're face down on the pavement.

At the top of the "zombie food chain" you reach my next talking point, and one of my favorite subjects from just about any game, the bosses. I absolutely love a good boss fight, in my mind it can make or break a game. Two great examples of well put together “boss” figures in this game would be Dr. Birkin and the Tyrant (Mr. X). Both are these big, nasty dudes that are heard about and seen noticeably throughout the game (provided you’ve made it to the B scenarios). You get a sense that these guys are immortal almost, because even after you think you’ve finally taken them down, they escape or just sit right back up after you leave.

On that note, it’s confession time. The first time I played Resident Evil 2 I had rented the game. I finished the game once with Claire and thought that it was a really cool game by itself, not knowing that I’m missing like 80% of the content RE2 has to offer. Years later I hear people talking about these strange encounters and boss battles in RE2 that I’d never experienced. So naturally I look it up and, “DOH!”, I find there are 4+ campaigns in the game. Now having played through the campaign "eleventy billion" times, I always make sure to ask fans if they've played through the WHOLE game...including all the little fun bits like meeting with zombie Brad, playing as Hunk, playing as Tofu, etc... but I digress.

Leading up the final showdown there’s tons of stuff going on; we’re trying to save Sherry, get an antidote, get a train up and running, escape a crumbling facility that’s gonna explode in 5 minutes, and all of a sudden a really pissed off, fiery, fully mutated tyrant drops from the sky and he’s ready to slash you to pieces. He’s fast, he’s strong, and has some new moves so everything you thought would work against him, usually doesn’t. Even with the best weapons and tons of ammo you can be dead in a matter of seconds, which makes it fun for me, because I love a challenge. Add in some dramatic music, an awesome environment, and the sense of urgency because the timer is running at the top of the screen, and you’ve got my hands down favorite boss fight of the game. There’s also a confrontation with “Blob” Birkin on the train which interrupts whatever celebrating you might have been doing, and he’s no slouch either. These are just some of my favorite enemies/fights during the game, what were yours?

Weapons

What a hot zombie mess this game would be without these amazing weapons. Now I know some people have probably done it, but I can’t imagine playing through RE2 with just my combat knife, I gotta have a little more firepower! For a quick recap we’ve got the handgun, shotgun, submachine gun, rocket launcher, frag grenades, acid grenades, flame grenades, bowgun, flamethrower, and the magnum. If you’ve played through just about any Resident Evil title you’ll know that you aren’t given a ton of ammo though, so you’ve gotta conserve and choose your battles wisely.
I can remember tons of times where I’ve had a horde of zombies creeping towards me so I raise my gun and *click* I’m empty. If you “John Wayne” through the first portion of the game, you might find yourself running quite a bit to survive. Not always having a ton of ammo can be a good thing though. It helped me plan out my shots and be patient until I could wrangle up a crowd of zombie then take em out with 1 or 2 shots… now that my friends, is asset management. My favorite weapons in the game were the magnum and shotgun. Both were upgradable, had a lot of stopping power, and could take a zombie head clean off with relative ease.

If you'd like to see higher res versions any of the pictures I posted here, along with a bunch of and a bunch of other cool RE2 character/concept art, check my gallery here.

Since this will wrap up my posting about RE2, I'm gonna a run a little giveaway for all the good little boys and girls that have been reading and/or participating throughout the past couple weeks. Now is your time to be creative! Drawings, memorabilia, figures, cosplay, photos, something cool you found on the internet, anything related to Resident Evil 2 that's fun and interesting. I'll select a few of my favorites and send them a cool Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles prize their way. Post your entries in our RE2 Discussion Thread, I'm eager to see what people you guys have to offer :)

~mike