History VideoGame / ResidentEvil2

** The sewers have one too; from where you enter the sewers to where you use the two medallions to exit is flat and level. However, going through the Waste Pool and through the ventilation fan to go back that way includes a rather tall ladder [[spoiler:from where you meet the Croc]] that the architecture of the rest of the sewer doesn't account for.

* EquipmentUpgrade: Leon can find gun part kits to upgrade his handgun (extended magazine, 3-round burst, stock), shotgun (somehow upgrading it from a Remington 870 to a Remington Model 1100), and magnum (replaces the nickel-plated 6 inch barrel and slide with a blued 10 inch barrel and slide).

* GoingForTheBigScoop: Ben is your typical muckraker, but perceptive. He knew the R.P.D. was taking bribes from Umbrella, and willingly had himself arrested to get close to the conspiracy.

* JumpScare: Ordinarily [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment redundant]], though the game has one example that is notable. All the ''Resident Evil'' games have mandatory door animations. Nothing special, it merely allows you to catch your breath, or brace yourself for whatever lies within the next room. The door to the outdoor parking lot, only accessible in the B scenario, will spring two zombies at you [[ShmuckBait if you try to go back out]]/ This is notable as being the only time in the classic games that an enemy of any kind is in the same room as a typewriter.

* MightyGlacier: Mr. X and Birkin in his first and final forms come off as this.

A [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of ''Resident Evil 2'' was released for PC, UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}} and UsefulNotes/XboxOne on January 25, 2019. For details, please see ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake''. It also has a [[FanGame fan-made prequel]] in the form of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilDuringTheStorm.''

Whereas ''Resident Evil'' segregated its branching paths, ''Resident Evil 2'' allows the player to replay both routes from either Leon or Claire's perspective, creating a total of four possible scenarios. Under this premise, actions performed by the first character affect the environment of the second (e.g. an uncovered passage in Claire's playthrough likely won't need re-clearing in Leon's chapter). Players can unlock a miniscenario titled "The [=4th=] Survivor" after finishing both characters' scenarios, as well as a harder version of the same called "The Tofu Survivor". Later releases of the game, excluding the Nintendo 64 version, added the "Extreme Battle" mode, a three-stage minigame.

** Claire's bonus outfit from the [=PS1=], PC, Dreamcast, and [=GameCube=] versions has a red tanktop or tubetop under her jacket that shows her stomach.

** William Birkin goes through five different forms, each one more horrific then the last.

* ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: First, the secret underground research facility, [[spoiler:then the train used to evacuate it]], explode to contain biohazardous material.

* JustBetweenYouAndMe: For someone who is highly suspicious of everyone, and is trying to safe-guard the virus, Annette feels the need to explain to everybody what the G-Virus is.

* NiceGirl: Claire, looking after Sherry in the abscence of her parents proves this.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In Claire B, Claire and Sherry go past [[spoiler:Chief Irons]], who is HalfTheManHeUsedToBe. While Claire has seen this before, Sherry should be terrifed (they also have to descend the very manhole where he came from and spilled all of his blood).

** The 1999 PC port of the game received an updated re-release in 2006, but it never ended up ported outside of Japan. The PC port by [=SourceNext=], which came on a single DVD (as opposed to two CD-[=ROMs=]), combined both Leon's and Claire's games into one (like the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube ports), fixed many of the compatibility issues that Windows XP or higher had with the original PC release, and showed all of the CG cut-scenes at full uncompressed quality.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: While there are much more variance of models used for zombies compared to the first game (which only had at three models: green jacket, white labcoat, and naked), there's only a handful of zombie models that will repeat very quickly. Female zombies only have one model.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: During the intro, a sign for "Grady's Inn" shows a phone number with a 212 area code. 212 is exclusive to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Capcom didn't model Raccoon City after New York (obviously) and the games place Raccoon City somewhere in the Midwest. The S.D. Perry novelizations placed it in Pennsylvania, while fanon typically also places it there, West Virginia, or Colorado. Raccoon City certainly doesn't look Midwestern with its mountains and forests, but Capcom never reveals where it is other than the "Midwest".

* AloofAlly: Ada always gives off this feeling.

* BikerBabe: Our introduction to Claire sees her riding a Harley into town. Her end result screen also shows her and Sherry riding a massive hog. Her alternate costume is even more evocative of this trope, with Claire being dressed like a biker from the 70's complete with the hippie headband and the denim jacket with flames printed on the sleeves.

A [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of ''Resident Evil 2'' was released for PC, UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}} and UsefulNotes/XboxOne on January 25, 2019. For details, please see ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake''.

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Unlike other games in the series, there's no need to finish the game first in order to change clothes. A zombified Brad Vickers shows up just outside the police station if the player reaches it without picking up any items on the way there, and he takes a lot more ammo to kill than most. Once he's dead, Brad will drop a Special Key one can use on the locker in the Dark Room save point that has two costumes for Leon (a tank top, fatigues/cargos, and an RPD ball cap, and a leather jacket and jeans set) and one for Claire (a flame-patterned denim suit). The Nintendo 64 version changed the costumes to a biker gang outfit and an alternate STARS uniform for Leon and a purple leather jacket and pants for Claire. They also come with some slight extras as well. When Leon's wearing any of his alternates, barring STARS outfit on the Nintendo 64 version, his pistol aiming stance changes so he holds his pistol with one hand, GangstaStyle, which slightly speeds up his pistol firing rate. Claire's has no built-in effect but comes with a Colt SAA gun for her which fires faster at the expense of a smaller ammo capacity, leading to more frequent reloading.

* AttackOfTheTownFestival: Played with. An entire precinct was planning a party for the rookie, Leon, joining the force, and party hats and lemon-lime soda bottles are still visible in some of the deserted offices.
** [[spoiler:Actually, if you examine a blackboard in the party room, it mentions something called "Michael Festival" being held on September 29th. So, the outbreak did occur during a festival.]]

** A photo of Rebecca can be found in Wesker's desk that shows her in a green sports bra and shorts with a basketball. (To get this easter egg, you need to check Wesker's desk 50 times. It's the desk that reads "It's trashed, somone must have searched the desk.)

* BikerBabe: Our introduction to Claire sees her riding a Harley into town. Her end result screen also shows her and Sherry riding a massive hog.
** Her alternate costume is even more evocative of this trope, with Claire being dressed like a biker from the 70's complete with the hippie headband and the denim jacket with flames printed on the sleeves.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Leon, Claire, and Sherry escape from the city, but both of Sherry's parents are dead, meaning she's an orphan, and Ada's fate is uncertain...]] [[spoiler: Until she returns in ''Resident Evil 4'', working for Wesker. ''The Umbrella Chronicles'' reveals that she was only knocked out by Mr. X and also escaped, albeit badly injured.]] [[spoiler: In addition, ''The Darkside Chronicles'' reveals that Leon and Sherry were both taken into government custody after Claire left to find Chris; The G-Virus vaccine ''didn't'' cure Sherry, but merely suppressed the virus's negative effects, and they use Sherry's safety to coerce Leon into working for them. And if that weren't enough, other samples of the G-Virus ''still'' made it out of the city thanks to Ada and HUNK.]]

* BlatantItemPlacement: Like all ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games, ammunition and other supplies are strewn about the environment in a seemingly careless fashion. However, this is explained in-game. A file reveals that Chief Irons ordered RPD's ammo be scattered throughout the entire station, possibly to make it harder for the officers to fight against the zombies.

* BrutalBonusLevel: After completing the game with a high ranking, players can unlock the ''[=4th=] Survivor'' scenario. This level shows how a single Umbrella operative, HUNK, escaped the city with the G-virus. HUNK starts in the sewers and has to make it to the helipad. He begins with a sizable arsenal and two mixed herbs, but nearly every room is full of enemies. There are no saves and no item pickups, so every bullet counts. Even though it's extremely short, taking anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes to beat, it packs in a huge amount of difficulty. To take things to the extreme, the player can later unlock a different version of the same scenario where the character is a giant block of tofu named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tofu]] – armed only with a knife.

* ChekhovsGun: Sherry's pendant. It turns out to be concealing [[spoiler:a G-virus sample]] Annette put in there for safekeeping, fearing William's plans to betray Umbrella would be exposed. She was right.

* FourIsDeath: The main character of the ''4th Survivor'' is HUNK, who's later revealed to have the nickname "Mr. Death".

* GratuitousGreek: For no apparent reason the underground Umbrella lab has signs with Greek letters substituted for some of the Latin ones. For example ΔEΣK instead of DESK and ΛOΧKEΡ instead of LOCKER.

** WhiteGangBangers: Leon's other alternate outfit is this in spades

* JokeCharacter: You can play through HUNK's ''4th Survivor'' minigame ''as a giant, knife-wielding block of Tofu'' that wears Jill's beret.

* LateToTheTragedy: Both Leon and Claire are lucky enough to roll into Raccoon City when the ZombieApocalypse has been raging for over a ''week'', but several days ''before'' the city is vaporized with a nuclear missile. [[spoiler:Leon is officially a case of SleptThroughTheApocalypse, as [[WordOfGod the designers ultimately revealed]] that he had gotten really drunk the night before and overslept, whilst in S.D. Perry's novelization, he was delayed by a ''really'' bad traffic jam as he was leaving New York to head to Raccoon City.]]

** ''[=RE2=]'' has one in ''The [=4th=] Survivor'', where you play as an Umbrella agent trying to escape from Raccoon City. This game also has a much harder ''Tofu Survivor'' variant which stars [[ShapedLikeItself a living block of tofu named Tofu]].
** The ''Extreme Battle'' mode, introduced in the ''Dual Shock Edition'', has you return to the police station from the underground lab in order to retrieve four time bombs while fighting hordes of monsters throughout each room. The player can choose to play as either Leon, Claire, Ada, or [[GuestFighter Chris Redfield]].

* PermanentlyMissableContent: If you miss any items before you get to the police station, you won't get it until the next time you play, as once you enter the gate there will be a text that reads "It's too dangerous to go back outside." if you try to go back out.
** Same with after you get to the Umbrella underground lab. Any items you missed before then will be gone forever.

* RuleOfFunny: ''The Tofu Survivor'' qualifies -- and its status as a SelfImposedChallenge breed of minigame makes it even funnier.

* SameStoryDifferentNames:
** ''[=RE2=]'' generally sticks to the plot of the original, replacing the "Mansion > Residence > Lab" format with "RPD > Sewers > Lab". At times, the police headquarters looks like a reskinned mansion with exposed pipes and girder work.

* SayMyName: "ADA, WAIT!"

* WorstAid: When Leon is injured, Ada dresses the wound by wrapping the bandages outside his clothes. After she pulled the bullet out. In a sewer. During a {{zombie apocalypse}}.

** Actually, if you examine a blackboard in the party room, it mentions something called "Michael Festival" being held on September 29th. So, the outbreak did occur during a festival.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''[=RE2=]'' turned out far easier than the first game, as the game packs in more ammo and weapons for the player to pick up, even in the overseas editions (which Capcom made slightly [[DifficultyByRegion harder than the Japanese version]]). Capcom also made the game's EliteMooks (Lickers) significantly easier to deal with and less plentiful in numbers than the Hunters from ''Resident Evil''. The PC and Dreamcast ports of ''[=RE2=]'' added a Nightmare mode that increased the health points of the enemies.

* HideYourChildren: Averted with Sherry, who can be killed. Played straight with the fact that [[InfantImmortality no zombified children can be found]].

* AnachronisticOrphanage: The 2019 remake adds in a subplot involving one, even though the story takes place in 1998, well after orphanages were supplanted in the United States by the foster care system. Umbrella built the orphanage in Raccoon City as a deliberate P.R. move, and [[spoiler:they eventually started [[OrphanageOfFear using the children there as guinea pigs for their bioweapons research]]]].

!!''Resident Evil 2'' contains the following tropes:

* BigBadDuumvirate: The antagonist of Scenario A (and indeed the overarching storyline) is William Birkin, an Umbrella scientist whose half-baked corporate espionage wound up backfiring on him. After being shot, Birkin hastily injects himself with the G-Virus and turns into a seven-foot tall monster, who kills the assassins sent to kill him and smashes the T-Virus vials into the sewer, allowing rats to feed on it and start the outbreak. As "G", he mindlessly shambles after his daughter in the hope of propagating more spawn. In Scenario B, "Mr. X", a new type of Tyrant, is deployed by the company to retrieve Birkin's lost vial. Within moments, he spots Claire/Leon and begins hounding them everywhere. Both monsters are fought numerous times in-between the police headquarters and the laboratory.

This time around, players control two newcomers to Raccoon City: Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie R.P.D. officer late for work; and Claire Redfield, the sister of Chris Redfield (one of the survivors of Mansion Incident) who went [[KnightErrant AWOL]] while investigating the Umbrella Corporation. Two months later, the T-Virus somehow leaked into Raccoon City's water supply, causing it to spread quickly and create [[SequelEscalation an even bigger outbreak]] than the one around the Spencer Mansion. Leon and Claire arrive in town together, and while they're forced to split up by circumstance, they still cross paths now and again while shooting zombies and looking for the root of the outbreak (and a way out). But Umbrella wants to make sure no one can blow the whistle, so they send in an improved Tyrant, the featureless "Mr. X", to find the evidence first. And as if that wasn't enough, T-Virus mastermind [[ProfessorGuineaPig William Birkin]] seems to have infected himself with a rather nasty strain of the virus...

** Which is kind of funny when you remember that VideoGame/ParasiteEve2 - Squaresoft's take on the Resident Evil formula - ''did'' have Coca-Cola brand machines in the game.

** Which is kind of funny when you remember that ParasiteEve2 - Squaresoft's take on the Resident Evil formula - ''did'' have Coca-Cola brand machines in the game.

** All the female zombie models are the same, a short brown haired woman with a shredded tank top showing their rotting stomaches.
** Claire's bonus outfit from the [=PS1=], PC, Dreamcast, and [=GameCube=] versions has a red tanktop or tubetop under her jacket.

** Leon's portrayed with red or light brown hair. In later appearances, he has dark brown hair.

* BroadStrokes: Leon and Claire are running around the same police station, sewers and research facility at ostensibly the same time, yet only run into each other a couple of times before the ending. On top of that, they ''both'' have to explore the entire precinct, unlock every door and solve all of its puzzles, some of which are identical yet yield different items, while others are completely different. It's unknown as to how the remake is going to handle this.