Resident Evil 2’s 30-minute demo is a 1-Shot to the heart.

On Friday, January 11th 2019, Capcom released a demo for the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake (heretofor stylized as REmake) on PS4, Xbox One, and Windows 10. Presented as a “1-Shot” 30-minute experience, the rules were simple: Get to the end within the time limit, once 30 minutes were reached, the demo would no longer be playable.

It was simultaneously more than enough, and not even close to satisfying.

Just the way a demo should be.

As an expidited vertical slice, it was surprisingly effective. Set within the halls of the Raccoon City Police department on the eve of the outbreak, Leon has only just arrived to what should’ve have been a safe place, but instead is a scene of absolute horror. From the outside looking in, the atmosphere is thick, oppressive, and carries a sense of foreboding. As a player, the constantly ticking timer perfectly balances a sense of urgency with the anxiety that accompanies the unknown. It’s surprisingly effective. This feeling carries throughout the entire experience, which if you’re watching all of the cutscenes instead of speedrunning it in three minutes, is really no time at all.

What it makes up for in overall pacing due to its timer, however, it wins back in atmosphere. The R.P.D. has never looked better or depending on your perspective, worse. Gone are the pristine prerendered halls and polished floors of the past that gave way to viscera and carnage behind every locked door. Now, the R.P.D. shows signs of chaotic disarray. Almost as if it should’ve always looked this way due to the citywide viral outbreak, the interior looks to have been used as a sanctuary, stronghold, and triage all at once. The centerpiece here is the presentation, while the original game only hinted at the station being used this way via detailed notes and the odd blood spatter, here, the entire makeup of the station and its puzzles are changed to reflect it, telling a story in and of itself. Unfortunately, their ultimate failure is as obvious on the walls and the occasional ceiling as it is on the floor.

 Everything that is great about the game’s new presentation is evident in the police station, and I suspect it’s why Capcom wisely staged the demo here. The R.P.D. Precinct is only second to the Spencer Mansion in terms of series iconography, and like the GameCube REmake that proceeded it, they’ve managed to make the setting familiar, and yet brand new at the same time. 
As I ran through the halls, my eyes kept scanning for anything I could regognize, and for every hallway I thought looked the same, there was another detritus or corpse-filled hallway reminding me that I was experiencing a very different beast.

It’s almost too much.

Much of this is thanks to the RE Engine, and the numerous advancements Capcom’s made to it over the years. While the game is absolutely gorgeous, with a new rain-slick presentation featuring some truly lifelike characters and animations, the audio ties it all together with a wealth of ambient noise and grotesque creature noises around every blind corner. Like Resident Evil 7 before it, after the initial load screen, you’ll never see another. So the simple act of even opening doors becomes a harrowing experience that never guarantees your safety, whether you’re running to safety and shutting the door behind you, or entering a room for the first time.

Speaking of Zombies, this may be the first time since the series has gone fully action-oriented (and no, Revelations doesn’t count), that Resident Evil has used the over-the-shoulder perspective and faster pace for a survival horror experience, and it fits this game like a glove.

Leon can run, strafe, and aim wherever he pleases similar to Resident Evil 6, but with the heft and weight you’d expect from a slower paced game. A handy flashlight will light your way through darker areas, you can aim your gun with it akimbo, and the combat knife is no longer a permanent addition to your arsenal – it wears, and breaks even faster if you use it to defend yourself. You can even board up open or broken windows to keep creatures out.

It only helps so much though, as the zombies themselves benefit from the new design too, and are probably the scariest they’ve ever been in the series hands down. They shuffle through hallways with an uneasy, weighty gait, hardly react to bullets, and more often than not, when they do, you almost wish you hadn’t bothered. I’ve lost track of the number of times I thought I incapacitated one by shooting it in the legs, only to see it crawl across the floor after me. I’ve run through doors only to see them broken down seconds later, boarded up windows, and hid behind tables only to see them flop over and tumble towards my ankles. In a rare case, I managed to remove every limb of one Dead Space style, and watched in horror as the torso desperately tried to collarbone-shuffle its way to my toes for a nibble. It’s almost too much.

I should stop here, as there isn’t much more I can say about the demo without feeling like I’ve written an entire review, but if it isn’t already obvious, I’m fully on board for this remake. Capcom has been hitting it out of the park lately reimagining their most popular titles, bringing them successfully into the modern age with all new gameplay, lore-building and story elements in a way that feels less like correcting mistakes of the past, and more like building on a classic. This is the gold standard for the way a remake should look, and feel, and January 25th is so close, I can almost taste it.

You could even say, I have an itch for it now.

(Author’s Note: Below is my initial run through the demo on a PS4 Pro, reactions and all. If you want to see everything I’m talking about in this text and judge for yourself, there’s no better way than a fine roulette of me being spooked by the known unknowns.)