I don't know what rank I'll ultimately get when I beat it, but so far in my Claire/Second Run take on Resident Evil 2's Remake, I think I've only died once (I was running from Mr. X and waded into a room with like a Licker and several zombies).
I'm given to understand that the original version had very little direct overlap between the two runs. In this, things are structurally different, but there are a lot of overlaps.
I also don't know the extent to which the fact that this is my second playthrough of the game has changed things - I'm given to understand that in both characters' versions, if you start with them, Mr. X doesn't show up until you douse the helicopter (Monty Zander pointed it out in his critique, but the no-frills introduction of Mr. X is fantastic: no cutscene, just this massive dude pushing the crashed helicopter to the side and beginning the chase).
In Second Run, Mr. X shows up very early, which forces you out of the slow, careful exploration that you spend the first run doing. Of course, by this point I have a pretty good sense of the layout of the RPD, understanding the most efficient paths through it.
I actually think my total playtime is not that much shorter than my first run (I've made it to the Nest, but I think I'd have to spend over two hours of un-paused gametime there for me to have a longer run than my first). But I don't have to check my map nearly as much, and I have a better sense of efficiency.
Claire enters the RPD through the side, and interestingly enough (though this might be a second run thing) the central lobby is never a safe room. In my Leon run, that central hall was home base at the start of the game, until Marvin succumbs to the G-Virus (It's the G-Virus that's also turning people into zombies, right? I know that it's the T-Virus in the first game, but this is all G-Virus, I think. Also, have there been A- and C-Viruses to complete the DNA symbolism?) In this run, Marvin is already a zombie by the time you get to the central lobby. Indeed, I've actually put him down several times, but only because of my previous run to I actually know who he is.
Given how tough each zombie is, and thus how relative few there are in total, it's kind of fascinating how you can sort of imagine giving each of them a unique identity.
There are significant differences between the runs - Claire doesn't meet Ada Wong here, and instead meets a little girl whom we discover is Sherry Birkin, the daughter of the Umbrellas scientists who more or less caused this catastrophe. Also, interestingly, Claire never gets the Club key, but does get the Heart key that Leon never got. Claire doesn't find the reporter in the jail, and seems to spend less time in the basement of the RPD, but instead has to deal with Brian Irons, the monstrous police chief and Umbrella (or more specifically Birkin) stooge. While Leon's story takes a break for us to briefly play as Ada with her high-tech gadgets, Claire's story takes a break for us to play the little girl hiding from a psychopathic serial killer.
So far, I've had to play through the same boss fights - just two encounters with William Birkin, which play out the same. That said, it really seems like Mr. X is dead - William carves a massive chunk out of his torso. Given that Leon has to fight him as the final boss, I wonder if this is truly the last we see of him (it also looks like Mr. X shows up again in Requiem, but I don't know if that's meant to be the same tyrant-zombie or just one of the same line).
One notable difference with how Claire plays is the weapons she gets - I don't know if some of these are because it's a second run, but while Leon gets pretty standard pistols and shotguns (and then a flamethrower,) Claire gets a revolver and what feels like very, very little ammunition. I got a few handguns that all used the same very rare ammo, so I've found myself using a fair amount of the chemical-grenade launcher, which can have acid and fire canisters. These are really effective, and I'm terrified that I'll be completely out of fire canisters before I'm ready to deal with the vine zombies or whatever they're called in Nest (with Leon, I had barely used the flamethrower by the time I got there, so it was pretty trivial to just burn the plant-zombies and burn them again until they charred, which meant they were permanently gone. I'm skeptical I'll have enough ammo to actually get that done on this run).
Claire definitely seems to get more unusual weapons - the ironically named Single Action Army has her fanning the hammer like Roland Deschain, such that it's rare that I can even just get a single shot off. It also takes an insane amount of time to reload. I also got a really weird weapon - a kind of high-powered lethal taser where you shoot the target, and then if you hold down the left trigger (basically keep aiming and thus being unable to run) you can continually send more electricity through the wires until they overload, which will do a lot of damage. Against a single zombie, this is great because they're frozen in place while you're zapping them. I suspect it'll be hard to use on a fast-moving boss.
I've already gotten to the Nest in just two sittings, and if it's like Leon's run, the Nest goes pretty quick (the botanical lab is somewhat substantial, but the rest is super short).
I know that RE3 actually takes place prior to the events of RE2, but on the same day. My first run with Leon ended somewhat abruptly, with him finding Claire and Sherry on the train heading away from the Nest. I wonder if Jill is also on that train. I've heard the RE3 remake was not as good as the RE2 or RE4 ones, but I might still check it out if it's as dirt cheap as these have been.
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