I watched Alex play Resident Evil 2 for me, LeonA/ClaireB. (Thank you Alex.) I played pretty far into the original Resident Evil and saw the beginning of Resident Evil 3, but 2 was a giant blank for me so fortunately I didn't suffer from the same problem as Metal Gear Solid and everything was new and refreshing. And it was nice to see a person who knew what he was doing so we didn't have to devote several hours figuring out puzzles.

For its time it should've been a fun game. There are serious problems with gameplay — being unable to turn efficiently remained from the first game — but I reserve the biggest problems for the plot. Why did Leon and Claire form such strong attachments to people they literally just met? Leon was defending Ada's integrity as if they had been dating for a while even though their total interaction time probably clocked at ten minutes. Sherry was two steps away from proclaiming Claire her new mother, even as Claire led her through a dungeon room with the ripped torso of the police chief prominently displayed on the floor.

And then there's the case of William Birkin. Why did he inject himself with the G-virus? Yeah, it has regenerative properties, but he knew damned well what that would turn him into. Or even more glaring, Umbrella Corporation. How the fuck did they think they could get away with this? One isolated mansion incident, all right. But a whole city? Considering they sent Nemesis to kill S.T.A.R.S. members to silence any potential witnesses to their crimes, they seem to be totally cool with creating a shit ton more people to testify against them.

I heard from Alex the plot is really different if you switch the scenarios. It depends on whom you select to play as first. ClaireA/LeonB may make more sense, but I doubt it would answer my questions substantially.

At the end of the day though, it's a fun game. It's great to dodge zombies, crows, and god know what else as you solve puzzles. The atmosphere is tense and claustrophobic. The bosses are fun to combat. And the backgrounds are interesting to look at and explore. Even with its flaws I still say it's a solid game worth checking out if you're into that genre.

Also, according to Resident Evil 2, the term for this is "manhole opener."

I wanted to remind myself to look up an anime opening so I emailed myself the title, except autocorrect wrote it out as "Le Shin." Can any of you figure out what the fuck I meant by that?