See those those nice camera angles?
See how this is no longer scary? You are basically an action movie star.
The fixed camera angles do make things more tense and spooky, but let's not exagerate.
REmake 2 is still tense and atmospheric and so was 4 when that game wanted too.
Besides even when I played REmake as a kid I never was particulary scared (like I would be in games like Amnesia and some moments in STALKER or Thief) but rather on edge. Because RE horror was always more about the athmosphere than actually getting you to shit your pants.
Oh and of the first 3 RE games, 2 and 3 lean much more to the action side rather than it's horror nature.
Instead of this we will be getting a 3rd person shooter. Don't say tank controls are a problem either. They modified those in the first Remake HD. I understand the old school style didn't sell as much as the third person shooter/boulder punching style, but that does not mean I have to like it. I can't even force myself to beat Remake 2. It's not scary. It's not hard. It's boring and half ass.
Sure you don't have to like it.
But that doesn't detract the fact that RE4 is a pretty damn good game (and so is REmake 2). By the way RE4 used tank controls, and the new control scheme for REmake HD is a dumb decision since the game was designed for tank controls,
Anyway, aside from 4, the RE games weren't particularly "hard". Challenging and thigh, sure. Hard, not really... In fact, I would argue that REmake 2 is more challenging than RE2.
Let me explain.
In the original claustrophobia and horror were evoked by the controls and camera. In the remake the claustrophobia is evoked by the limited visibilty and the character slow movement speed, and the horror is evoked with game rules.
For starters the aiming, combined with the new (and very good) enemy AI, plus the way damage is handled, not only makes combat more difficult but also translates very well with the notion from the classic games of zombies that keep on coming no matter what you throw at them. And this learning curve in the first playtroughs is what creates the feeling of survival horror. And after that you discover an immensely polished and balanced action game beneath it (just one that hides it's rules under the shadows). And whatever you like it or not, that's a very faithul adaptation of one of the design principles behind this series since it's inception. To quote the man himself responsible for the identity of these games:
Shinji Mikami said:
To me, survival horror is a balance between a scary kind of gameplay and the challenge of overcoming that fear. You get a sense of achievement out of that. The fine balance between those two is what makes survival horror.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/0...me-out-of-the-commercial-failure-of-re-remake
If you ever wondered why, even in the classic games, there are boss figths and the final hours are full-on action levels, chock full enemies and big guns. That's why.
It's the ultimate reward these game want to offer. Transforming the player from a scared rookie to an action hero that nimbly dodges and puts down any threat.
This is just the gameplay side of things.
Moving on to content.
The level design is improved. Just take a look at the difference between the main hall in the police station:
It's more packed, makes the traversal less bothersome, gives that area design a whole lot more sense and it's overall more thightly directed.
I am not going to analyse the massive redesign of the sewers and lab, for that would be to long.
Then thanks to things like the lockers, extra medalions and etc., you have alot more density of activities, with still meaningful rewards, that unlock more areas of the station.
They even lead to good combat set-ups, like having to deal with enemies around puzzles - which combined with the more difficult combat - demands more planning and thigher execution from the player.
The slower less demaning combat and enemies and less amount of puzzles/content per distance in the original RE2, means that the game demands from the player less decision making and atention in the moment-to-moment gameplay.
I mean, I would also like another horror game akin to REmake, but REmake 2 did a pretty good job.
So calling it half assed is a dishonest and unfair assessment to an objectively good game.
Fucking Mr. X is broken as hell, so I have no hope for Nemesis. You can tell he just teleports all over the fucking place.
Disagree and not true.
Like all other gameplay challenges in the game, he's fairly balanced and can be dealt with.
He adds a dynamic layer to the game, which is most welcome - since it means he's another thing to plan around and due to his unique nature produces moments of improvisation (which shake things up).
And in my 2 playtroughs, there was only one time where he did appear to teleport.