Pros: The most frightening experience in my life...
Cons: ...Next to being conned onto a rollercoaster.
The bottom line: Old people should literally stay away from this game; little kids shouldn't play this game; people who have a problem with gore and violence shouldn't play this game.
I can honestly say after spending the weekend with my cousin playing RE2, I left his shack a converted believer in the superiority of video games over movies. And in the superiority of the Playstation over the N64.

Long before I wisened up to the fact that the N64 was becoming nothing more than a financial rip-off, my cousin was the only one who owned a PS, and I hadn't played that many games for it. I remembered our trials and tribulations playing the first RE (and at the time neither of us had beaten that game), and then one day my cousin, Patrick called me, saying that he had RE2, and that it was a cool game, so I went up his place and watched as he proceeded to play the game. I found out that RE2 was 2 discs long, and each disc was for a different character, the first being for Leon, and the second being for Claire.

For those of you who've had their heads cemented into the sidewalke for the better half of the last decade, Resident Evil is about a biological disease that causes its victims to mutate into all sorts of grotesque creatures, and turns people into zombies, craving for human flesh (cool, huh). While the game is horror, it's also a sort of strategy-survival game, utilizing the various items and weapons you find in the most effective way possible, and to make do with those items, because they're all you get.

The first RE's setting was an old mansion in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, crawling with all sorts of coronary-inducing freaks. The setting greatly added to the creepiness of the game, as did the sounds of the creatures made as they wandered the hallways of the mansion. The music also helped to express the mood, putting you on edge even if there weren't any monsters in that room at all. There were also plot twists concerning your characters, and multiple endings to the game, depending on what you did at certain points of the game.

RE2, for the most part, is just like the first, but very well improved, and much more frightful, due to certain game elements. The controls are super easy to grasp, and extremely easy to use. It's the kind've set up you'll remember forever and ever. The in-game graphics were much more detailed, and the characters looked better than the ones on the previous RE. Also, the voice acting was much MUCH better in this one than in the last one (well, actually, I mean the stupid dialougue from the first one). The CG graphics aren't all that great (they suck compared to today's stuff), but still help the game take on a cinematic look, and help with the endings. Overall, the CG wasn't used that much, but this game emphasizes gameplay more than pretty FMVs.

Each character on each disc has their own storyline and objectives, as well as their own weapons. Leon's weapons were much better than Claire's, and he got more of them, but Claire got a really cool grenade launcher that fires three kinds of ammo, so it evens out. Also, about the weapons, they're all (as far as Leon's weapons, and Claire's grenade launcher, anyway) real, with cool descriptions on the check screen for each of them. They use real company names, like Remington, or the Desert Eagle magnum. While this doesn't seem like much, I found it helped add to the realism of the game.

Another cool aspect of the game is the scenario system. It's kinda complicated to explain, so here:

First off, you can either play Leon, or Claire's disc first, at the beginning, both of the charcters are seperated. Now, you play as either Claire, or Leon, and go through the game, and you beat it. Now, the credits roll down, and then you're asked to save your game. Do it. Now you'll be able to play the other character and see how things went for them during the game. This is the 2nd Scenario. It's actually pretty cool. Things in the second scenario greatly differ from those in the first, and when you beat that, you get to see the REAL ending.

THE ENDLESS NIGHTMARE
I watched my cousin play through RE2, and he did pretty good, and he played non-stop, mainly because he didn't have a memory card. He got to the end of Leon's first Scenario, but then got killed. After that, we vowed that we'd join forces and kick the games butt. Pat would get a memory card, and I would get a game guide to help us go through it. Well, a week later he said that he'd gotten himself a card, and I had gotten a really cool walkthrough mag by Versus magazines. Well, one weekend, with my aid, and Pat's determination, we got through Leon's first scenario, and then started Claire's second scenario. At first, we were just trying to beat a real tough game, but by the end of weekend, I left his house pale, nervey, on-edge, freaked-out, hair a tangled mess, and completely blown away by what the game had done to me, and all I had done was watch Pat play it.

BEFORE NEMESIS
At some point during the game, everything became personal for us. We weren't just trying to beat the game, we were trying to SURVIVE it. Tyrant-103 (the original "Nemesis"), was what made it that way, for the most part. Tyrant is a really huge, trench-coated monster that chases your character throughout the second scenario. He pops up in specific areas of the game designed to scare the living crap out of you. You can shoot him down and search him for ammo, but he always comes back for more. There was this one part where we were getting a certain item out of a room, and we had gotten it when, with a bang, Tyrant exploded through the wall. While I can honestly say I am no longer a sissy when it comes to horror movies, at that moment me and Pat were screaming our heads off. He shot the Tyrant down, grabbed the item, and left the room. We then had to go down a winding hallway when BOOM!, the Tyrant slammed through ANOTHER wall and came after Pat. We screamed again, and I said, "Kill it kill it kill it!" over and over again. He did, but that wouldn't be the last time we saw the Tyrant again, not by far...

This game took video games to the next level, if you ask me. It made the scariest movie in the world tame compared to it. And soon after that, I couldn't get enough of playing it myself. Not long after that, and I had played through Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I had had my fill of N64, and finally ventured forth into the unexplored wilderness of the Playstation, and I'm STILL out there.

To make it short. This game put the PS on the map. It's got easy controls, terrifyingly good graphics, more creepy monsters, more guns, more people in it, and even some mini-games and bonuses for beating the game in a certain amount of time, and much more terrifying than the last one. This is one of the best games I've ever played, and THE game that got me into the Playstation, and I've never looked back.

Oh yeah, me and my cousin didn't suffer any long-term damage from playing this game. (well, I might have, ever since then, I have nightmares involving the Tyrant)