作者彙整: Ben Reeves

For more than a decade, Resident Evil has felt like a franchise struggling to find its identity. The seminal Resident Evil 4 put a greater focus on action, but subsequent entries lost their luster. Resident Evil 7 was a major course correction but still felt like a radical reinvention that was finding its footing. Fortunately, Capcom might have finally found the magic once again. This brilliant homage to Resident Evil 2 not only revitalizes many of the survival horror elements that put the series on the map, it paves a brilliant path for the future of the franchise.

In its era, Resident Evil 2 was the pinnacle of survival horror. While the original Resident Evil established a formula, its sequel raised the stakes in nearly every way with tense exploration and nail-biting action. In 1998, Resident Evil 2’s action was as intense as its atmosphere was horrifying, so it became a benchmark for PS One horror. Unfortunately, Capcom’s classic has aged about as poorly as a zombie-eaten corpse.

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Capcom’s remake gives Raccoon City a much-needed facelift, but a new third person perspective does even more to update Resident Evil’s action. This remake returns to the series’ slower-paced roots. Thankfully, slowing down the shootouts doesn’t diminish Resident Evil’s intensity. On the contrary, Resident Evil’s action feels better than it has in years, and its smooth shooter controls are incredibly intuitive. Zombies shamble forward like herky-jerky wind-up toys. These animations are unnerving, but they also create an exciting metagame in which you must time your shots perfectly to hit these brain eaters in the brainpan. If you miss your shot, they keep stumbling forward, meaning that even two flaking zombies can pose a challenging if you’re off your A game.

Resident Evil 2’s new visuals also create a darker, more haunting vibe. For those who think Resident Evil has lost its teeth, Resident Evil 2 might be the most intense game in the series. The original Resident Evil 2’s bold colors look almost cartoonish today, but the remake’s atmosphere is almost oppressive. Zombie heads pop in a sickening shower of brain bits. Grotesque body horrors skitter across the walls and ceilings. The station’s halls echo with steady footfalls. I normally have an incredibly steady hand, but Resident Evil 2 had me jumping at shadows, and I couldn’t escape the feeling of being stalked

Resident Evil 2 is also much more than a remake. In a lot of important ways, this feels like a brand-new experience. Fans will recognize locations within Raccoon City’s police department and its sprawling sewer system, but Capcom cleverly reworked the entire layout so they feel fresh. Many of the environmental puzzles are more grounded, and moments like rewiring an electrical grid or looking for environmental clues to a combination lock offer a refreshing break from the action.

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Another big change from the original game is the removal of the zapping system. In the PlayStation original, players’ actions with one character could affect events in a second playthrough with the other character. While the zapping system is gone, this modern update has a mode called 2nd Run, which allows you to play through the campaign a second time with the other character. These two campaigns don’t talk to each other as in the PlayStation game, but 2nd Run challenges you to take a different path through the station and gives you a few new tools to use in the process, such as a rapid fire revolver that burns through high-grade ammo. Leon and Claire’s stories are also very different, so this feature adds extra incentive to play through the game a second time. Fortunately, both playthroughs felt significantly different and I was excited to see what happened to both protagonists.

Over the years, Capcom has experimented with several different approaches to Resident Evil, but this is one approach I hope gets revisited. Resident Evil 2 not only looks great, it plays well, and it forces you into a series of dark encounters that are a total rush. Resident Evil is finally running on all cylinders.

Score: 9.5

Summary: Resident Evil 2 paves a brilliant path for the future of the franchise.

Concept: Revive Capcom’s classic survival horror game with more than a visual overhaul. This feels like a new game that plays homage to the original – not a classic with a new coat of paint

Graphics: Its new third-person perspective and detailed 3D environments bring Raccoon City’s police department to life like never before

Sound: The soundtrack is subtle but effective. However, creaking floorboards and other ambient effects do an even better job creating an uncomfortable atmosphere

Playability: RE 2’s action is slow-paced but intense; the environmental puzzles are clever and never grow frustrating

Entertainment: For Resident Evil fans this is a must-play, but even those without nostalgia for RE 2 will have a good time

Replay: High

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Big-budget, triple-A experiences have never been better, but modern games have no shortage of long cutscenes and hand-holding tutorial sequences. In contrast, Dusk is a nostalgia trip that strips away modern expectations and delivers distilled FPS thrills. Dusk doesn’t mess around with leveling mechanics or a sprawling narrative; it hands you a shotgun and lets you loose on a demon army. This simplicity is Dusk’s greatest strength, because this no-frills shooter is an excellent crash course in basic game design.

Dusk doesn’t hide its homage to ’90s corridor shooters like Doom and Quake. These straightforward, boxy levels are relatively short and filled with colored keycards and hidden monster closets. But, given its graphical constraints, Dusk’s environments are incredibly well-realized. Animated scarecrows stumble out of cornfields while rundown barns teem with hooded cultists and demonic goats. Each level features its own twist on folk horror, seemingly inspired by films like The Wicker Man and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With sparing detail, Dusk establishes an ominous tone that completely sucked me in from level one.

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One of the biggest reasons to explore every nook and cranny of Dusk’s short levels is to gain access to powerful weapons. Early on, I fell in love with dual-wielding shotguns, but another favorite go-to became the rivet gun, which fires off super-heated construction rivets that explode like miniature missiles. Unlike many classic FPS games, I constantly rotated through Dusk’s arsenal thanks to each weapon’s specialization. For example, the hunting rifle is a long-range tool that packs an incredible punch, while the crossbow fires magical green arrows that rip through multiple enemies and even fire through walls. Each weapon is incredibly satisfying, and thanks to an ample supply of ammo scattered on the ground, my magazines rarely ran dry.
 
Mastering Dusk’s arsenal is important, because the action is frantic. Every firefight feels like a dance as you rotate through insanely powerful weapons and strafe dozens of incoming foes. Most enemies do little more than stand and shoot or run straight at you, but given the sheer number of foes and the fact that different projectiles move at varying speeds, I was constantly on my toes. Dusk is a shooter with no reloading, no cover, and no nonsense, so every skirmish is an absolute thrill ride.

Dusk’s intensity also pairs well with its oppressive atmosphere. You rarely have time to think about the horrors you’ve witnessed because the game is continually tossing enemies at you and letting you burn off that nervous energy in combat. Dusk is at once nerve-racking and cathartic.

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After you finish the extensive single-player campaign, you can jump online for 16-player multiplayer mayhem. While the online action remains fast-paced, deathmatch is the only multiplayer mode, and it only has a handful of interesting maps. I had no trouble jumping into online matches, but I did have trouble getting a full 16-player match going. An in-game link to a community Discord channel helps coordinate play sessions, but this feels like papering over a problem rather than providing reliable and robust matchmaking. Given online multiplayer’s lack of options and intentional lack of progression, this mode feels more like a novelty. Fortunately, the single-player campaign is more than worth the price of admission.

The first-person shooter has evolved a great deal since Doom popularized the genre in 1993, but, in spite 25 years of innovations, Dusk proves that many of the old tricks still work incredibly well. Dusk might look and feel like a Quake mod, but it’s so polished it feels modern. Anyone with even a hint of nostalgia in their bones for classic shooters should dive headfirst into Dusk.

Score: 8.75

Summary: Dusk doesn’t mess around with leveling mechanics or a sprawling narrative; it hands you a shotgun and lets you loose on a demon army.

Concept: A faithful homage to the frantic first-person shooters of the ‘90s

Graphics: These boxy environments and pixelated textures feel lifted from another era, but they look great thanks to high resolution and modern lighting effects

Sound: The guns are loud and in-your-face, and the metal soundtrack amplifies Dusk’s horror theme

Playability: Dusk’s action will sweep you away, and it’s small, memorizable levels can be played in short bursts

Entertainment: Fast-paced and violent action hits the ground running, but the intense horror atmosphere might turn off some

Replay: Moderately High

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