resident evil 2

The story is set on September 29, 1998, two months and five days after the events in the original Resident Evil. The t-virus has been released in the sewer system of Raccoon City and has been digested by rats, which then spread the virus to the city's population, which includes animals as well as humans. As the outbreak begins, two figures make their way into the city: Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop on his first day, and Claire Redfield, a college student looking for her brother, Chris, of the S.T.A.R.S. unit. Leon and Claire quickly find themselves fighting for their lives against massive hordes of zombies in the search for a way out of the city. But there is a creature much more powerful than a normal Zombie lurking in the shadows.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Playable characters

• Leon S. Kennedy - The male protagonist. A graduate from the police academy who has been selected for the Raccoon Police Department's newly established Select Police Force. He arrives a few days later for his job than scheduled to due to unknown reasons. He has a deep passion for the safety of others and wants to assist as much as possible and is very cautious. In the game, his main arsenal is comprised of a VP70 Handgun, an M1100-P Shotgun and a Desert Eagle, which are all upgradable with their corresponding parts. A handmade Flamethrower is also available for Leon, but cannot be upgraded and has no replacement ammo. His personal item is an oil lighter (which Claire has to procure separately).

• Claire Redfield - The female protagonist. A student and motorcyclist who arrives to Raccoon City in search of her brother, S.T.A.R.S member Chris Redfield (the protagonist of the first game). She is a very optimistic, outgoing, and strong minded young woman, and for a typical civilian survivor she is shown to be very self-confident, collected, and brave. Revealing herself to be somewhat of a mother figure as well after finding the wandering Sherry Birkin, Claire is seen to take the role of protecting the abandoned young girl very seriously. Her main weapons are a Browning Hi-Power, an M79 grenade launcher, a bowgun and Umbrella's experimental Spark Shot. Her personal item is a makeshift lockpick like that of Jill Valentine.
  • In the 1.5 prototype of the game there was a female character named Elza Walker. She was also a college student, coming back to her home town for vacation. She wore an orange leather biker outfit and could wield such weapons as machine guns and Leon's shotgun.

In the game with Leon you can create especials Weapons with the especials parts. This is the list of weapons: H&K VP70, DESERT EAGLE 504. A E 10, Remington M1100-P and you see in the items selections if change the name of the weapon this is the names: H&K VP70 Burst you can fire 3 bullets, Remington M1100 this shotgun is more powerful at the shotgun normal if use 7 shells, Magnum D.E. 504 A E 10 is more powerful at the Desert Eagle now you can fire one bullet and destroy the heads of 5 zombies and kill the boss in a time short and complete the game.

[edit] Supporting Characters

• Ada Wong, an Asian-American woman who claims to be searching for her missing boyfriend, John. Ada is briefly playable twice in Leon's scenarios. She is equipped with only a handgun, ammo, and a first aid spray and picks up only a key needed for Leon.
• Sherry Birkin, a 12 year old girl who is hiding in the police station at the request of her parents. She is briefly playable in Claire's scenarios, twice. Sherry is only equipped with one item: A First Aid Spray. She does hold a family picture of her and her parents, however and only picks up one key that Claire needs.
• Dr. William Birkin, the scientist responsible for the creation of the G-virus and the subsequent outbreak of the T-virus in Raccoon City.
• Annette Birkin, another scientist working for Umbrella, she is desperately trying to protect her husband's legacy.
• Brian Irons, the R.P.D's chief and the inside operative for Umbrella.
• Ben Bertolucci, a reporter for the local newspaper.
• Marvin Branagh, a dying R.P.D. officer.
• Robert Kendo, owner of the "Kendo gun shop".

There are also two hidden characters named HUNK and Tofu (see below). Only HUNK is part of the game's normal storyline, as Tofu is a joke character.

Ada and Sherry are both playable during key portions of the main game.

[edit] Locations

The following are notable locations visited in the game:

• Emmy's Diner — Only seen in the intro, this "greasy spoon" was Claire Redfield's first stop in Raccoon City. She was nearly killed by a zombie lurking within, but was saved by Leon S. Kennedy at the last moment. In the novelization of the game by S.D. Perry, she mentions that this diner is frequented by Claire's brother, Chris Redfield, due to his inability to cook.

• Taxago Gas Station — Only seen in the intro, this gas station is where the unknown trucker is bitten in the arm by a zombie. The trucker later succumbs to the virus and rams his truck into Leon and Claire's police car, causing a massive explosion. This forces the two to separate on the streets of Raccoon, each having to find a different route to the police station.

• Kendo Gun Shop — A local armory surplus which was owned and operated by Robert Kendo. Robert was a good friend of Barry Burton and his brother Joseph Kendo designed the S.T.A.R.S. Samurai Edge Custom Beretta handgun. The gun shop was invaded by zombies and Kendo was immediately killed and eaten in the onslaught.

• Raccoon Police Department — This large building houses the R.P.D, along with the S.T.A.R.S. headquarters. It has a library, a clock tower, a heliport on the roof, and the main hall is decorated with a fountain. Sewers can be reached from the kennel in the basement of the building, or through the hidden passage in Chief Brian Irons office.

• Sewage Disposal Plant — This facility can be reached through the manhole behind the R.P.D. building or through the sewer entrance in the kennel of the R.P.D. building. Only Ada Wong or Sherry Birkin can visit this location, depending on if you are playing as Leon or Claire.

• Umbrella Sewer Facility — This is a hidden facility within the sewers of Raccoon City. It can only be accessed through a mechanical device that requires two medals, Eagle and Wolf, to reveal the entrance. The facility contains a cable car that is used as transportation to the Vacant Factory.

• Vacant Factory — A vacant factory owned by Umbrella. This factory conceals the entrance to the Umbrella Subterranean Laboratory. The laboratory is accessed through a train car on a rotating turntable that descends to the Lab's main level.

• Umbrella Subterranean Laboratory — One of Umbrella's secret laboratories was located below an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Raccoon City. This lab was used primarily by William Birkin and his staff for research into the T-virus and the new G-virus.

[edit] Development

Resident Evil 2 began development in 1996 shortly after the original game and was scheduled for a March 1997 release. However, as the game was approaching its release date, the developers were unsatisfied with the resulting product. Rather than releasing a game they were unhappy with, the developers took the risk of developing the game from scratch. This scrapped version of the game was later dubbed Resident Evil 1.5. by the internal staff of Capcom. This prototype version of the game starred Leon S. Kennedy from the finished game and Elza Walker, a prototype of Claire Redfield. Like Claire Redfield, Elza was a motorcyclist and college student, with the only difference being her appearance and the fact Elza had no ties to any established character from the previous games. Other supporting characters from the released game also appeared in Resident Evil 1.5. For example, Marvin Branagh, a minor character who gets killed off early in the finished game played a major role in the prototype, helping Leon and Ada escape. The settings of the game were also significantly changed, with the police station in the original prototype having a more contemporary design.

There were dozens of sketches done for the main boss of the game, G, and there were even final bosses planned before him, entitled "Zeiram" and "Gorgoda." When they were scrapped, their designs were incorporated into G's, however, little remains of their original appearance. Some of the sketches of G differ so drastically from the used version that they appear as if they could be entirely different creatures.

The actual finished version of Resident Evil 2 was preceded by a demo version of the game that came bundled with Resident Evil: Director's Cut.

[edit] Regional Differences

In Japan, where Resident Evil 2 was titled Biohazard 2, the game was released a week after the North American release. The game was made easier for the Japanese market with changes in item and enemy placement, increased firepower for weapons and the auto-aiming feature turned on by default.

In addition, the Game Over scenes are less violent and censored in the Japanese version, as zombies and other creatures do not devour or eviscerate the player's character on-screen like they do in the North American and PAL versions.

[edit] Dual Shock Ver. re-release

Several months after the original version's release, a second version of Resident Evil 2 was released known as the Dual Shock Ver.. As the title suggests, the game was modified to incorporate support for the vibration function and analog control of the then-released Dual Shock controller. The main addition is a new unlockable minigame titled "Extreme Battle". The objective of Extreme Battle is to reach the Police Station from the Underground Lab and retrieve four anti-biohazard bombs located throughout the station. There are four playable characters (including Ada Wong and Chris Redfield, both which are unlockable) and three difficulty settings. The Extreme Battle became a standard feature for subsequent versions of the game.

There are also a slew of minor additions, such as ranking screens for the HUNK and Tofu minigames, a Rookie difficulty setting for the main game (as well as a "USA version" mode in the Japanese version, based on the North American version's default setting) and a new cheat code that grants the player unlimited ammo for all weapons.

[edit] Other platforms

Like the original game, Resident Evil 2 saw release on other platforms after its initial success on the PlayStation. The first of these ports was a PC version titled Resident Evil 2 Platinum in 1999. It features all the additions from the Dual Shock Ver. and added a new gallery mode featuring illustrations, renders and in-game character models, as well as a new Hard Mode setting for the main game (The game was later re-released on DVD and is based on the Biohazard 2 Value Plus). The Sega Dreamcast version (released during the same year) features these additions, along with the added benefit of viewing the character's health in a VMU. In Japan, the Dreamcast version (where it was titled Biohazard 2 Value Plus which the PC-DVD version of Resident Evil 2 is based) was bundled with a demo of Resident Evil Code: Veronica and also contained assorted music from several Resident Evil soundtracks released in Japan.

A Nintendo 64 version was also released in 1999, ported by Angel Studios (currently Rockstar San Diego). While it was the only port of the game that did not feature the Extreme Battle mode, it did contain a slew of console-exclusive features. The most prominent was a series of additional in-game documents known as the "EX Files" that connected the plot of the game with the other games in the series (including the then-unreleased Resident Evil 0). Other features include an item-randomizer, violence control (allowing players to change the color of the blood), first-person controls and new unlockable outfits replacing the ones from the previous versions. The game supported the Rumble Pack and Expansion Pack. The N64 version is notable due to the compression techniques that the developers were forced to use in order to fit 2 CD-ROMs worth of data (including voice acting and FMV) into a single cartridge of 512 mbit (64 Megabyte).

The Nintendo GameCube version was released in 2003. The game is identical to the PlayStation's Dual Shock Ver. in terms of content, featuring only a minimal set of improvements such as skippable cut scenes, higher framerate for the game's FMV sequences and a partial improvement of the graphics.

An LCD game based on Resident Evil 2 was also released for the short-lived Game.com in late 1998. Two versions of the Game.com game were scheduled to be released, one starring Leon and the other with Claire, but only the former saw release. An aborted port for the Sega Saturn was also planned that utilized the 4MB RAM included with X-Men vs. Street Fighter.

[edit] Difference between Scenarios

There are two scenarios: "Leon A/Claire B" and "Claire A/Leon B". Which scenario combination is seen is determined by whose game the player opts to play first, and the storyline changes accordingly.

In Claire A/Leon B, Sherry is found by William Birkin and implanted with a G-Virus embryo, which Claire must counteract with a vaccine known as "Devil", the instructions to create it given to her by Annette. Furthermore, Ada finds Sherry's locket, inside which is contained a sample of the G-Virus, Ada is attacked by a Mr. X and is critically injured, and died in Leon's arms.

In Leon A/Claire B, however, Sherry is never found by William and witnesses the death of her mother. Ada, meanwhile, is revealed to be a spy sent to recover a sample of the G-Virus, but before she can take it from Leon, she is shot in the shoulder and nearly falls down a pit; Leon tries to hoist her back up, but she plummets regardless. Angered by what the G-virus had caused, Leon takes the G-Virus sample and throws it into the same pit before evacuating with Claire and Sherry.

Many more minor differences exist in the games, notably in the area of which boss encounters each character will have, and where each character will be able to travel. Whichever routes the A path character opens up, will become available to the B path character at a set point in his or her scenario. One minor puzzle also requires both characters to register their fingerprints with the Umbrella lab's computer in order to access a sealed room during the B scenario.