Resident Evil 2 (1998)

About Resident Evil 2 (1998)

Resident Evil 2 first came out on the PlayStation in 1998. This is the original game re-released on Steam in April 2026, co-developed by GOG with Capcom: it adds an improved DirectX renderer, windowed mode, vertical sync, gamma correction and integer scaling, six languages, both the original US and Japanese versions, the Extreme Battle mode and a picture gallery. The re-release also fixes old bugs, such as missing text in rooms 114 and 115, an invisible diary in room 210 and a looping sound in room 409. It came to GOG in August 2024 and to Steam on 1 April 2026, and it is a separate game from the 2019 remake.

You play as Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie police officer on his way to his first day of work, or Claire Redfield, who has come to Raccoon City looking for her missing brother. Each has a scenario of their own through the same night, and finishing one opens a second scenario for the other character that changes to reflect what you did in the first. The city is already lost, and the Raccoon Police Department, with its marble hall, locked rooms and puzzles, becomes the place you try to survive.

It plays as classic Resident Evil does. Fixed cameras frame each room, so you often hear a zombie before you see it. Ammunition and healing herbs are scarce, your inventory is small, items you do not carry wait in boxes in the safe rooms, and saving uses ink ribbons at typewriters. Much of the progress comes from finding keys and solving the station's puzzles while deciding which enemies are worth the bullets.

The fright is in what the camera will not show you, in the mutated creatures past the zombies, and in the gore the game does not cut away from. The secret scenarios, the 4th Survivor and Tofu, are open from the start in this release. It suits players who want to see the game the remake is built on, as it was.

How to play Resident Evil 2 (1998)

1. Choose Leon or Claire; each has a scenario of their own through the same night.
2. Explore the police station room by room from fixed camera angles, picking up keys, ammunition, herbs and puzzle items.
3. Keep only what you need on you and leave the rest in item boxes in the safe rooms.
4. Save at typewriters with ink ribbons, which you find in limited numbers.
5. Shoot what blocks your way and walk around the rest to save ammunition.

Tips

• Combine green and red herbs before using them; mixed herbs heal far more.
• A zombie on the floor may not be dead; give it a wide berth or finish it off.
• Read the files and notes you find; many hold the answer to a puzzle in the station.
• Do not spend every save ribbon early; save before a new area, not after every room.
• Leon and Claire each start with a different key item; play the second scenario as the other character to see the rest of the story.

Questions