RESIDENT EVIL 2

This is just primo grade-A videogame, right here. Capcom updated a classic, tightly designed game with smooth modern action and managed to retain the low-level anxiety and occasional bursts of terror that early excelled at. As did so well: Giving you an explorable space small enough to keep in your brain as you poke around. That’s what makes it so pleasurable to criss-cross the police station, opening up new paths between rooms and solving goofy puzzles. It remains a tight game, finishable in ten hours, but with enough secrets and weapon choices to be fun a second time through. It’s a shame Capcom didn’t make Claire and Leon’s campaigns more distinct, but that’s the only weakness of this remake. For the most part, it’s better because of how restrained Capcom was in adding to what already worked.