This is, by far, my favourite of the classic Resident Evil games. I have played and replayed it several times because, just like every game by director Hideki Kamiya, it has incredible replay value. While the first run will have you engaged thanks to its amazing atmosphere, perfect pacing, and satisfying challenges, the subsequent playthroughs where you're chasing ranks will feel like the time game truly begins. If you've never played a game with fixed camera angles then fret not. This and Resident Evil 1 are perfect introductions to it; you may even fall in love with them. The satisfaction of perfecting the controls and movement will open your mind to it even more. You can trust me because I used to feel the same about these types of games. There are also different control options and even a very necessary auto-aim option. If you think this game doesn't need to be played because you have the remake then you are completely mistaken. While that remake is great in its own way, the reason this game is held in such high regard is its unique gameplay and endlessly replayable campaign. This also completely and undeniably trumps the remake in at least one way and that is the scenario A and scenario B system. The remake does have this system but it isn't nearly as well implemented as it is here, and I would it's the ultimate pillar of this game. You might be the type of player that highly values the length of a game. I'm not one of those people but in case you are, you might be disappointed at the short length of this game. After all, a first time player might find themselves seeing the credits after a mere four or five hours. Highly experienced players can beat a scenario in under two hours. That's where the scenario system comes in. This system works almost the same as the remake but in a much deeper way. You can start the game as Claire during scenario A and do certain puzzles that unlock bonuses for Leon in scenario B. Meanwhile, scenario B Leon has fully remixed run of the game with new areas, item placement, and Mr X is even unique to scenario B. To top it off, you can have a unique scenario A as Leon and another scenario B for Claire. As if the system didn't already double the length of the game, it quadruples the length too. Basically, while the remake made you play the game twice only as different characters with the same cutscens, puzzles and layouts, you essentially have four different campaigns in this game. The fact that you can effect the scenario B runs makes it even more interesting. There's still room for improvement, mind you. Seeing such a perfect scenario system get little to no iteration has caused some amount of mental anguish among fans of it, but overall it's a solid method of getting as much mileage out of a short length game as possible, one that I haven't seen before or since this game. While I was typing this, I forgot to mention that there are things like bonus campaigns, weapons and costumes to unlock as rewards getting good ranks and beating the scenario B campaigns. The fact is, while those rewards are great incentives to replay this game, I find it already fun to replay anyway. Your mileage may vary depending on whether you're an extrinsically motivated player or an intrinsic one like myself but the gameplay, level design, and scenario system are just that good that I can't help but play it for those aspects alone.
