Resident Evil 2 is a weird game, I recall liking it even when I still beat it but after playing the Director's Cut version of the first game, I have a new appreciation for RE2 than I originally did. Jumping into RE1 1996 to RE2 1998 and it feels like a massive jump in almost every way.
Everything about RE1 that is good is mostly kept intact in RE2, the amazing level design of the Spencer Mansion is carried over to the STARS Police station. The interconnected areas where you have short cuts, where you need to collect ammo, healing and inventory items to progress and where you learn new things about the map as you are going through and checking down each room and making a list of all the important areas of interests is all kept intact.
The inventory system which I have come to appreciate about the older REs is also still kept intact, where treks outside of save rooms is a game of, "how many health items, weapons, ammo, and puzzle items can I keep with me before venturing out". Now, you even get extra inventory spaces all though you have to choose if Leon and Claire will have it.
The satisfying weapons like the shotgun and magnum are still there and the damage animations are still as satisfying as ever.
Where RE2 improves on RE1 is all the questionable aspects of the first game. For example, there is now a visual indicator of when the player character has taken damage, making it easier to tell when the player should take a healing item.
The voice acting is better, all though still not amazing, it does have an intentional camp to it where the first game's voice acting outside of maybe Wesker and Barry's VAs sound confused about the material they are acting out.
Music is also much improved and the ambient music gives a tense yet oddly catchy tunes that accompanies the game since it would be dull just hearing Leon and Claire's footsteps.
Combine all of these things and RE2 is one of the most engrossing games I have ever played, I played the game for hours on end without ever getting up from my chair, RE2 just nails everything I like, decent enough combat and very engrossing and engaging level design.
Where RE2 really makes the massive leap forward is the A and B game system. I encourage anyone to play the B game after playing the A game of either character. It gave me a new appreciation for RE2, where RE1 has seperate camapigns for each character where both took place in their own universe, RE2 improves upon this by having Leon and Claire's campaigns intersect with each other. Stuff that happened or gets overlooked in Leon's campaign will get addressed in Claire's, for example remember the part where the zombies start to burst through the area where the basement entry was in Leon's campaign, in Claire's campaign you will have to deal with that.
Remember the crashed helicopter as Leon? In Claire's campaign, you will have to blow it up to meet Chief Irons. There is also a sub plot with Mr. X not present in Leon's A game.
I don't have much in the way of compliants, the combat issues can be annoying like the lack of a dedicated dodge button, the auto aim not always being reliable, and enemies covering a good portion of the screen where you are trying to aim your gun but these are small compliants since you get powerful weapons that make short work of many of the enemies especially as Leon.
And this transitions me to my next issue, Claire's projectile weapons don't feel as good as Leon's hitscan weapons. Leon gets a super shotgun that rips enemies apart late game and a magnum where Claire's most useful weapon is a grenade launcher that has a good chance of missing enemies since it's projectile and the auto aim minus the fixed camera makes it not as easy to land shots but the low hp of enemies makes this tolerable enough.
The bosses aren't that great but they go down pretty quickly like the enemies and there isn't many of them luckily.
Overall, RE2 1998 is one of the greatest game sequels ever made, I completely understand why it gets the praise it does, it took what RE1 did and improved upon it in every way. This might be one of my favorite games of all time, it certainly is one of my favorite game sequels of all time.
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