Resident Evil Remake Has Always Secretly Been The Best Resident Evil Game
5. The Dead Don't Stay Dead
Though the inventory management system and the ammo conservation already got players thinking tactically about their approach to each objective in the original game, Remake takes that idea one step further.
Just like in the recent Resident Evil 2, zombies are incredibly hard to put down. They can take over half a handgun clip to actually kill, and the generous stun animations of the first release are gone, meaning they can eat your bullets and continue to close you down.
Taking down even one of these guys is a task; you need to put a lot of space between yourself and the zombie in question, make sure there isn’t another one that might be able to get the drop on you, and then pump it with about 8 bullets. And even then, you’re not done.
If you don’t want the zombie to come back as an even tougher Crimson Head, you’re going to want to burn the body. The problem is, to do that you need to have kerosene, which there’s a limited amount of, and a free inventory space (two, if you’re playing as Jill).
If you don't have the time or the health left to completely dispose of it, then you're essentially taking a short-term win now for a long term problem when the zombie comes back to life. Taking out just one of these fellas (outside of tactical headshots which can’t be relied on like in the original) isn’t just a drain, then, but can prove to be a far bigger problem than it’s worth, and might completely screw you on return visits through an area.
A problem I had with the original Resident Evil when going back to it was how, playing as Jill anyway, I could always ensure certain hallways would be safe. Especially when I got the grenade launcher, clearing out rooms became routine. Consequently it made for far more boring backtracking, as there was no danger to the areas I was travelling back through. Remake avoids this problem entirely.
There's only enough resources to completely secure a couple of rooms (which most players will use on the areas with the typewriters and item boxes) and so the constant backtracking never feels like a chore, but a chance to interact with a difficult combat challenge in a new context. And that’s made all the more intense because saving is finite, and a death could set you back a lot of progress.