Biohazard 2 Sourcenext Review (Resident Evil 2 Sourcenext)

In this review I will take a closer look at Biohazard 2 (Resident Evil 2) re-released for PC by the japanese company Sourcenext in the year 2006. Unlike the original PC release in the US and Europe, Sourcenext released an optimised version that can easily be installed and played on modern operating systems (Win XP/Vista/7/8). It is the ultimate definite edition of Resident Evil 2 ever created! The only negative: It got only released in Japan! Let’s find out what it’s all about, shall we?

Table of Content

Patches
Biohazard 2 Sourcenext Patch 1.10

The official Patch 1.10 for Biohazard 2 Sourcenext (Download). What it does is unknown to me.

Resident Evil 2 Classic REbirth

A fan-made patch by Gemini, fixes all the bugs that came with Biohazard 2 Sourcenext and more: full translation into english (but isn’t japanese language the reason you have the japanese version in the first place?), fixed sound, fixed broken typewriters, quickturn, modern controller support, etc. Majority, if not all of it, is toogleable via .ini file! See his webpage for a full feature list. I highly recommend this patch!

Uncompressed Cutscenes in 640×480 at 30 FPS!

Not only did Sourcenext remastered the FMV’s, they also increased the overall screen resolution of the game to 640×480.

Installation

The original had two CD-ROM’s for each character: Sourcenext combined both into one DVD-Rom. Biohazard 2 Sourcenext doesn’t let you choose the installation language unlike Biohazard 3 – Last Escape and it can be a chore to find out what must be clicked to proceed. But once you are done with the trial-and-error installation process and play the game, you will find out why it is the definitive edition of the game.

Original vs Arrange Mode

The japanese and american/european release of Biohazard 2 hat many differences. The most notable one is item and enemy placement. Japanese players received a way easier constellation, while difficulty was warped up for western markets due game-rental services. This means that Original Mode will feature japanese item/monster placements while Arranged Mode western placements.

Original Mode features less ammo but it’s not hidden in backgrounds, monsters also don’t hit that hard. While Arranged Mode got all the invisible in the background hidden ammo pickups and harder hitting enemies. Original got auto-aim, Arranged doesn’t.

Whoever wishes to get the most hardest experience out of Biohazard 2 doesn’t come around to play the no auto-aim having Nightmare Mode (a super hard and unfair difficulty taken from the Dreamcast release of BH2). To unlock it, both Scenarios A and B have to be completed and can then be played by selection Hard for Original Mode and Nightmare for Arranged Mode. They are unforgiving. Feature the double or triple amount of Zombies and can cast a game over screen with one or two bites. Most annoyingly does it need between 20 and 30 pistol bullets for zombies to stay dead.

Specials: Hidden Scenarios

New on the Sourcenext release is the possibility to select the hidden scenarios without to finish scenarios A and B multiple times in a row with an S rank. The Special tab features Hunk’s 4th Survivor and the vegan-friendly To-Fu scenario right from the get go!

Specials: Extreme Battle Mode

The Extreme Battle Mode can also be found there. In this Mode the player picks from characters of the game (including Chris Redfield!) and needs to find 4 randomly hidden bombs in all of the main scenario rooms. Players are given a set amount of typewriter-ink to save their progress. Extreme Battle is the Mode that truly places the Survival back into Horror by randomly placed ammo/bombs and monsters every time they start anew.

Specials: PC only Data Gallery

At its very last, we now come to the positive part of Biohazard 2 Sourcenext, the part which makes this version the ultimate definite edition of the game in the world: The PC only Gallery Mode! Watch artwork, all cut scenes, character model and whatever you like! New content will be added one at a time while playing through the scenarios.

~~Bugs: Broken Typewriters~~

Before Resident Evil 2 Classic REbirth, many of the typewriters have not worked correctly. No matter how many ink ribbons got used, typewriters have not created save games and even deleted existing ones instead to overwrite them.

Summary
- Biohazard 2 by Sourcenext includes:
  - Easy Installation on Modern OS (Win XP/Vista/7/8)
  - Increased Resolution to 640×480
  - Uncompressed Cutscenes (640×480 / 30 FPS)
  - Japanese Original Mode with Hard Difficulty
  - Arrange Mode with Nightmare Difficulty (same as western release)
  - Extreme Battle Mode (Ada Wong & Chris Redfield playable)
  - 4th Survivor & To-Fu Scenario already unlocked separately
  - a Gallery with Rough Sketches
  - a Gallery with Illustrations
  - a Movie Viewer to watch all FMV sequences
  - a Model Viewer to watch all character and monster models

Call To Action

The Biohazard 2 Sourcenext manual version 1.1.0 that was downloadable on the sourcenext website is no longer available and missing. (http://www.sourcenext.info/download/biohazard2.html). If anyone still got a copy of it, please send it over to me via PM or tweet @the_3rdplayer so I can add it to the download section and make it available for everyone. Game preservation is best applied if content is available for everyone at any time! Thanks for your help!