The PlayStation Museum recently got their lucky hands on the final build of the long lost Resident Evil 2 Prototype, more commonly known as Resident Evil 1.5. Resident Evil fanataics know the long history of canceled Resident Evilgames but very rarely are we given an extensive look at these lost titles.
The PlayStation Muesum has released a ten minute long video going through various parts of the game. Appraently, RE 1.5 had better graphics then RE 2 ended up having, the enemy A.I. was much smarter and the stories ended up being much different. Hit the jump for a little history lesson.
Eliza Walker was the original second character you would be able to play as rather than Claire Redfield. Eliza's and Leon's story never overlapped and there was to be more human characters that would help you out in the game. Marvin Branagh (the cop who was found near death in the beginning of the game) and Robert Kendo (the gun shop owner who couldn't tell the difference between a human and a zombie ... ) were going to be characters who would be more involved in the story to help Leon and Eliza (respectively) along with Sherry Birkin and Ada Wong (who was originally going to be a scientist rather than a spy).
At the one minute mark, it's revealed that William Birkin was going to sound like a zombified Arnold Schwarzenegger. Seriously, listen to that voice! As you watch the video, you'll notice that the levels had much more polish then what we ended up getting.
The zombies had the ability to sprint too. Not a full on run like the Crimson Heads, but I'm sure zombies that could sprint would have made the game a hell of a lot harder. Not only that, but the zombies are smart enough to actually crawl on their belly to get through small gaps. It's odd to see the zombies we ended up getting were extremely gimped versions in RE 2. A couple of new enemy types are also shown. At the 8:09 mark, a gorilla zombie is shown beating the shit out of Leon. Shortly after that, a Man-spider is attacking Leon in a lab.
Check out the PlayStation Museum for a review of the RE 1.5, some screen shots and concept art and if you really want more info on this game, then I highly suggest picking up the Resident Evil Archives book. It covers all of the console games, give tons of back story, plenty of concept art and there's even a section about actual Biohazard incidents.
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Its always interesting to see what the "secret" stuff looks like, but when the unreleased content looks better than the original...wtf? I didn't think either of those hidden enemy types looked cool either. Glad they got the axe.
How many times are people going to keep bringing this up? I could have sworn I saw some of this "totally unreleased footage of the original RE2!" stuff last year.
They should release this with Umbrella Chronicles or Resident Evil 5 as a extra. It would be a nice surprise for all of the hardcore RE fans, like myself, who've been dying to play it for years just to see what it was like.
how can you guys think this looks better the the version we got!????? i actually just popped the game in to check...im glad we got the version we did...this looks pretty bad and everything is all blue too....you boys are crazy!!???
The graphics only look better due to lower texture resolution, the way FF VII look better than VIII and IX to some. If the PS1 had tri-linear mapping, like the N64, the textures of those supposedly graphically worse games would have looked as good as intended, as the texelation would have been hidden.
Some day there will be a "critereon collect" of the RE series that will include this game and the mostly finished but scrapped version of RE4 where Leon fights a guy with a meat hook who's made out of black clouds and electricity. I think he also fought demonic toys.
best history lesson ever, even better than the time i was learning about the nazis, on the other hand im a whore for claire redfield and gald shes in resi 2
Part of the reason it looks more polished and better than Re2 did is because this game was damn near completion. Then they scrapped it, for whatever reason, and it seems they kind of rushed RE2 to the market. Either game would have been awesome, but I would definitely love to play this game one day. Too bad Capcom will never finish it and release it. AS it stands, Ada would have been an epic fail as a scientist. Sexy Spy or Sexy Scientist? Exactly.
The backrounds look better, but you're kidding yourself if you think those models are better.
And the zombie crawling thing is a scripted event, and something you see in both RE1 and 2.
Holy shit, that RE4 beta video!
How the fuck is that supposed to work in RE's "Everything's caused by a virus, science-zombies not magic-zombies" universe? I mean, Capcom has hardly been dedicated to making things realistic (Singing to control leeches in RE:0, for example >_>), but there's not much you can do to explain a virus causing toys to come to life and a ghost zombie guy apparating out of a painting.
It lookd pretty kewl, though.
I wish they would've released the beta version of RE4. I loved RE4, but a poltergeist twist on the series would've been so kickass, if only for one game.
Personally, i'm getting pretty fucking tired of all the fan-wanking going on over these "beta" versions of RE games. There's probably a very good reason why we never got this version of RE2 and the 3+ scrapped versions of RE4. RE2 was the best game in the series until RE4 came along and completely destroyed everything that came before it, so i really can't understand this "OMG, wtf iz rong with Capcom, y didnt we get this superior version!!!111!" shit.
@OhGr Yeah, because Capcom thought that the game was too hard. That's the only legitmate reason that I've seen why this was never released.
And while I'm at it, You've got something that you probably fangay over, so why don't we just shut out pieholes and let people have their fangay day is we've got nothing positive to add to it? Hmm?
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Contest:
1:18 AM on 10.25.2007
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I bought it for 0.01... seriously.
can i get a wutang
My apologies, I actually watched the video and you were right, there was a lot of unseen stuff here. Gomen!
I will admit I laughed out loud at 5:05. The way their arms were flailing about was amazing.
*Also, it's Elza Walker, not Eliza. :]
No?
Just me?
Oh, ok...
Yep, here's the vid with the toys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWpEE_5pDzQ
Sorry, haven't drank my coffee yet.
And if anyone can help me to actually play this game, email me at tronknotts@gmail.com
Thanks and kisses.
Yeah the "tank" controls are a little annoying :-p
And the zombie crawling thing is a scripted event, and something you see in both RE1 and 2.
How the fuck is that supposed to work in RE's "Everything's caused by a virus, science-zombies not magic-zombies" universe? I mean, Capcom has hardly been dedicated to making things realistic (Singing to control leeches in RE:0, for example >_>), but there's not much you can do to explain a virus causing toys to come to life and a ghost zombie guy apparating out of a painting.
It lookd pretty kewl, though.
The screen turns blue whenever some of that crazy stuff happens. Do you think it could have been a throwback to some type of sanity effect?
Which reminds me: Where the hell is my Eternal Darkness II?
And while I'm at it, You've got something that you probably fangay over, so why don't we just shut out pieholes and let people have their fangay day is we've got nothing positive to add to it? Hmm?