A Completionist’s Guide to the Resident Evil Remake Trilogy

100%ing the Resident Evil Remake (RER) Trilogy of RE2R through 4 was quite the undertaking. I’ve slain more Zombies, Lickers, Tyrants, and Las Plagas-infested cultists than I can count. I’ve memorised the layouts of Racoon City and the Salazar Estate like the back of my hand. And I’ve survived lethal pursuers—whether a grotesque scientist, an obsessive lab experiment, or a maniacal Parasite-God. Yet, despite it all—I can’t wait to relive the nightmare.

Playing any game to its absolute completion is a commitment. The art of achievement-hunting is something you don’t fully appreciate until you’ve done it. Exploring every crevice and corner of a game until it feels oddly homely, particularly when 100%ing, involves replaying the familiar moments with new twists. Whatever you play, however you play it, it is worth considering the commitment of doing everything. Being a completionist offers a newfound appreciation for the intricacy, story, and depth of the experience as you master the gameplay mechanics that made you fall in love with it in the first place. 100%ing a survival horror franchise notorious for its gore, looming dread, violence, ludicrous difficulty, and immense depth of content may well not be for everyone, but I cannot recommend it enough.

Firstly, let’s look at the easiest game in the trilogy to achieve full completion in: RE3R. Whilst it is short compared to the rest of the trilogy, RER3’s depth comes from the ability to replay its compact campaign. Initial encounters with the game’s antagonist, Nemesis, leave you hungry for more—and RE3R has oodles of post-game replayability. The game implements new mechanics, cosmetics, weapons, and most infamously, difficulty settings, to satiate individuals who love the outright requirement of conquering a game’s mechanics.

While most of RE3R’s achievements come from finishing the game and gathering a few collectables, to achieve 100% competition you also have to beat the game on its highest difficulty—the aptly named Inferno. If the zombie-infested apocalyptic nightmare of Racoon City wasn’t enough, add one of the most egregious difficulty settings in gaming and you have a hellishly challenging but chronically addictive time. This is all except for the Metamorphosis Nemesis fight, which, aside from having a gorgeously intense score composed by Masami Ueda, will leave you frustrated after your billionth demise. Upon beating it, you will echo the sentiment of the game’s lovable heroine, Jill Valentine, exclaiming, “This is the Last F*$%^#g Time”.

Despite the sheer scale of the mountain you have to climb, the view from the peak is more than worth it

While RE3R is relatively short but continually replayable, RE4R is a far longer, more comprehensive experience. Across its 16 chapters, you play as US government operative Leon S. Kennedy, tasked with rescuing the President’s daughter on a mission to infiltrate the eerie Los Iluminados cult. ‘Capcom strikes gold with “Resident Evil 4 Remake”’ reads the headline of our review of the game—and I can’t help but agree. Whether it be the main campaign, the DLC Separate Ways, or the arcade-style beat-’em-up Mercenaries mode, RE4R is delightfully comedic, intense and, for lack of a better word, badass.

Achieving 100% completion of RE4R was gloriously enjoyable, even with the serious length of the undertaking. To do so yourself, you’ll have to beat the main game, the DLC, and the shooting gallery on all difficulties with the game’s best rank, the heralded S+. That involves beating the main campaign, which takes some players up to 12 hours on their first go-around, in under 5 hours and 30 minutes with no autosave and only 15 manual saves. Despite the sheer scale of the mountain you have to climb, the view from the peak is more than worth it, especially since the game rewards you handsomely for your impressive feats.

Last, but certainly not least: RE2R, the crown jewel of survival horror. Full disclosure: this is my all-time favourite game. Whether you play as rookie cop Leon (canonically long before his RE4R days) or compassionate college student Claire Redfield in either of the game’s 4 campaigns, you are faced with surviving the G-Virus outbreak, which has converted almost every living creature into zombified husks. Brimming with dread, it has enough atmosphere to make you terrified of any and everything. RE2R is sophisticated horror’s magnum opus. You never feel safe—especially with the game’s antagonist, Mr. X, loudly trudging behind you. He may not be quick, but he never stops. You will rest, he will not.

By far the most horror of any of the remakes, RE2R has frightening environments but manages to maintain personal character narratives, as well as the Resident Evil franchise’s trademark ‘barely-made-it-out-alive’ mantra (just listen to Last Judgement from the game’s OST, and you’ll get it). In RE2R, you always feel like your inevitable death is looming, making coming alive against the horrors haunting Racoon City ever more satisfying. It is no surprise to me that the game holds a 91 critic score on Metacritic, rising to 93 for the Xbox version I fell in love with.

[Some scenarios] are so brutal that I will firmly shake the hand of anyone else who has overcome them

100%ing the game, however, certainly dragged at points. While RE4R is longer per playthrough, the immense impact of RE2R comes from the unknown horror it drops the player into, which is lost on each subsequent playthrough. Whilst I admire the depth of collectables in RE2R, some of them feel frustratingly pointless, forcing players to trudge across most of Raccoon City to search a couple of drawers, with one collectable achievement having a resounding 0.65% complete rate. This isn’t even mentioning the scenarios, which are brilliantly tense, brutally challenging compact side-modes, but occasionally go over-the-top in terms of difficulty, eroding some of their appeal. Whilst The 4th Survivor scenario balances intensity and difficulty so well that it may be the best 10 minutes in gaming, other scenarios, such as No Way Out, are so brutal that I will firmly shake the hand of anyone else who has overcome them.

RE2R may have dragged slightly, but I still cannot recommend it enough – and that recommendation applies to the whole RER trilogy as well as achievement hunting in general. You truly receive a newfound appreciation for the games (if my gushing over the RER trilogy for over 1,000 words hasn’t proven that already). There is something beautiful about knowing a game so well that you can truly say you’ve not just beaten it but completed it.

So, whether you’re listening to RE4R’s The Bullet or The Blade on Spotify (as I am while writing this) and getting stuck into the best (survival horror) franchise out there or simply sitting down to finally 100% your favourite game, I implore you to relish every button press. You’ll love the game more than ever and hate that, when it’s over, you can’t do it for the first time all over again.