I'm finally getting around to this game and I'm just as impressed by it as Abby's Claire series and the 30 minute demo led me to believe I would be earlier this year. However, I'd always said to myself that when I got around to this game I'd play with save ribbons and the original soundtrack, because for me those were two of the primary factors / appeals of the original game. I am roughly 2-3 hours into the game, having expired the use of the chain cutters, the spade key, opened the showers, expanded my inventory, ran like a baby from my first Licker, tried to shoot at a placement of C4 and shed a single tear perusing the desks of all my favorite S.T.A.R.S. officers.

That said, I have six shotgun bullets and that's it, with just a three or four gunpowders of various types I'm aware of on my map. I can't figure out where to find the crank for the library or the Chief's office just yet, I'm still missing the third medallion and I only have two ink ribbons left while I'm sitting at caution with two GR wraps and a GG behind it. I feel like I can get good and high through the next major checkpoint, but my concern(s) is A) unlike the original, zombies seem pretty impossible to dodge in one-on-one hallway situations and B) it's not just that ammo is scarce, it's that these sons of bitches want that lead dumped into them at a severely unhealthy rate for themselves and myself.

I've done a quick scan of the internet and it seems like some other people agree that the first third of the game is hard enough that a few dumb mistakes make the latter two thirds damn near impossible, and while that's charming in a nostalgic kind of way I also don't recall RE2 being fully balanced against finding yourself in a corner from time to time while you learn the lay of the land. Many of those same people make a convincing case for the shooting and dismembering of the zombies to be a primary selling point of this remake, something you feel almost guilty for (and, in my experience, definitely anxious as hell for doing) while playing on Hardcore.

So I ask you, the good folk of Giant Bomb: ought I to turn back now, play on Normal and accomplish in 45 minutes or so what it took me roughly two and a half hours to accomplish this afternoon, or should I expect a decent buffer of understanding, equipment and ammo just over the horizon?

P.S. I'm still sad they added a Tyrant to this game and I haven't even had to deal with it yet. At least once it happens I'll be able to confirm why I played the hell out of 1, 2, and 4 as a kid but could never so much as open the case of 3.

Update: G1 down, 2 shotgun bullets is all I got, at caution, no healing, 1 save ribbon. Still happy to know if I should abort.

maybe go back to an older save?

when you get close to a zombie, they do a little lunging animation. back up as soon as they start doing that. after you dodge that, you have time to run passed them. be more stingy with bullets. I don't think you should try to kill that many regular zombies. they are easily dodge-able.

I felt so at first, but unlike the original games (or at least my memory of them, or the original REmake) the corridors are so tight that when you run past, they don't just reach but lunge at you and grab you when you feel otherwise safe. I suppose that's what you're describing, but it feels weird to back away when RE1, 2 and 4 taught you to run towards and past the threat rather than bob and weave it and I played so much of those games.

I probably should've focused on just taking out the legs of certain zombies earlier rather than their heads, but it took a while to realize it wasn't just some RE4-style RNG and that every zombie wanted what feels like 5-7 headshots to die, and sometimes they'll still wake up and crawl around a few seconds afterward.

Mr. X is on the horizon (Hi Ben), and given how relatively straightforward it's really been to get here I wouldn't be at all discouraged to start over now that I have some momentum back under me, but I do still worry I just won't have what it takes from an inventory standpoint to get to the end. Part of me loves feeling that for the first time in a while; the nearly 31 year old in me is a little taken aback by the gaul of the design, though! I could have (but don't) a wife and kids and responsibilities to attend to!

@nodima: Yeah, like you, I was trying to do it like in the old games for a while but I don't think you can. Their ability to change directions while lunging is good but they have a bit of recovery time after they do the lunge so that's your chance to run passed.

If you're really worried about inventory, you can definitely get to where u r now probably in less than an hour so I don't think it's a bad option.

It really is comforting that this game seems clearly designed to speedrun, or at least learn well. I know this conversation was likely had in detail on these forums already but I really do admire it. I spent a good amount of time getting to where I am and the entire time recognized that if I knew exactly what I was doing it would have been almost obnoxiously straightforward. It reminds me in some ways of God of War's tight design; I wanted to play it on Hard from the get-go coming straight off finally clicking with Bloodborne, got wasted time and again on the very opening fight sequence...

Considering you can New Game+ on Hardcore it seems, there's a good chance I just put it off and put in the work on Normal to have some fun if I restart, but I do appreciate I've got as far as I have on pure nostalgia and adrenaline. These kennels may be the end of me (this save/run)...but again relating to God of War, I love that I can see the "hard mode" on the horizon and genuinely look forward to it the way I almost never do with games outside the Sony first party handbook (GoW, Spidey, Horizon).

@nodima: o yeah for sure. first playthrough for me was 10 as Claire and did Leon's in 5 and those are on the longer side I think. I know ppl are not happy about the A/B thing but it's still worth playing both. There are enough differences.

I did my first run as Leon on hardcore. It was a decent challenge(I died a lot) but it wasn't impossibly difficult. I generally jack the difficulty up on games, I find modern games tend to be faceroll on default difficulty.

I will say if you are having fun on Hardcore I would maybe stick with it or even start over on Hardcore if you feel you are truly boned. If you are having fun then finding an excuse to play more RE2 isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It sounds like you are having the ultimate survival horror experience so I would just keep trucking.