Terminology can be a tricky thing when it comes to giving new life to old games. Is it a remake, a remaster, or a rerelease" Often the truth lies somewhere along the spectrum. In the case of Resident Evil 2, the Capcom team is pushing back on assigning the term remake to this new iteration of an old fan favorite. While remake remains the most accurate term to assign to the game, Campcom rejects it to emphasize the fact that this game isn’t just a prettier, smoother, carbon copy of the original. In an interview with Gaming Bolt, Capcom Brand Manager, Mike Lunn explained their stance:
It won?t be faithful one to one. [As far as fans] [s]ome people played it once and some people played it a thousand times because it?s their favourite game. For the people that have even played it a thousand times, we wanted it to feel fresh. That?s why we don?t call it Resident Evil 2 Remake. It?s a new game built on top of the foundation. The examples Lunn gives range from tweaking iconic set-pieces, like the introduction to Licker enemies, to revamping puzzles. He continues:
We want you to be scared by [the elements of the game], not just repositioned to a new part of the building, but sort of reimagined… we don?t want you to know exactly how the puzzles are solved, we don?t want you to know exactly where the enemies are going to be. We want to surprise you. So, we have changed things a bit. But on the whole, the main idea, the main arcs of the story are very similar. But ...