Resident Evil 2 (1998) We want resident evil 1.5
- Thread starter Darren Clarke
- Start date
Some features of Resident Evil 1.5 that didn't make it on 2 were interesting, like the blood of nearby enemies splashing in the characters's clothes when you destroyed them, it made the game more realistic.
As much as I love RE2 (favorite entry along with C:V), I think they were too harsh on 1.5 - there was a lot of good stuff in there that got cut either because they felt like it or because they had not time to add it to retail. Above all, I very much prefer the RPD from 1.5 - it's an actual precinct, not another haunted mansion pretending to be a precinct like in 2. I remember playing the retail version, circa 1998, and thinking "this is not a police station, but, hey, I am playing a Japanese game after all" - so I was VERY surprised to discover there was supposed to be a realistic precinct in the beginning. The whole "Oh, it looked so sterile!" argument is just a matter of art direction more than anything: the RE2 RPD has some parts that look like a police station (like the offices), they just look very lived-in and messy. It's the same difference between "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" (or "Alien"): one has people wearing impeccable uniforms aboard ultra-clean spaceships, the other has space cowboys wearing leather jackets and dirty boots in rusty ships. Also, 1.5 had a better explanation for you ending up in the Umbrella lab: you were taken there either by Ada or Sherry and the elevator to access it was hidden in a warehouse in a chemical plant also owned by Umbrella - which you reached after exiting the sewers. In the final game, you just get there without any real reason.
The police station on 1.5 had a more realistic look, since it was always a police station, not a former museum reformed to be the RPD, which was the case in Resident Evil 2.
There were some RPD segments that should have been kept in the final version, like the zombie hands trying to reach your character in the cells.
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There were some RPD segments that should have been kept in the final version, like the zombie hands trying to reach your character in the cells.
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Yeah, the cells were much better than what we got in the retail edition. Also, the basement was better - I was glad they got bits of the prison and the lower floor (like the shooting range) in the remake.
But I still prefer the RPD of the final version, the one from Resident Evil 1.5, since it was always a police station, not a former museum, had a generic look, it could be found in any survival horror game of that area, from Dino Crisis to Parasite Eve.
Another thing about Resident Evil 1.5 I dislike is that Leon and Elza would have separate stories, so unlike what happened in the final version between Leon and Claire, they would never met.
Actually, they were supposed to meet, but only at the end. About a year ago I was handed some dev papers from one of the people involved with the 1.5 restoration effort and one of the documents was the full Grant Bitman \ Leon scenario flowchart: Leon and Elza would meet on the train, even though there were instances of people referencing one character in the other's campaign in the rest of the game, so they were somehow aware of each other. Unlike RE1, their stories were always supposed to happen at the same time (they were not mutually exclusive like Jill and Chris' campaign).
Well, actually, Dino Crisis came later. Personally, I would've preferred a modern-looking RPD that was as dirty and messed up as the one in RE2. It was more of a matter of art direction than concept per-se. RE2 has a color scheme based on green and brown, to make everything look like puke. 1.5 was all about neon blue and grey, but, when you really think about it, a lot of areas in the official RPD are pretty modern - it's just that they get alternated with some crazy haunted house rooms. Hell, they took reference from the precincts in movies like "Terminator" and "Robocop 3" - none of which had a museum-turned-precinct.But I still prefer the RPD of the final version, the one from Resident Evil 1.5, since it was always a police station, not a former museum, had a generic look, it could be found in any survival horror game of that area, from Dino Crisis to Parasite Eve.
Everything I've seen from RE 1.5 has simply made me appreciate the final build of RE2 even more. People keep talking about how the blueish/greyish color scheme made it feel more scary, when it essentially was nothing more than a pretty blue filter. It's like when film editors put on blue filters to make movies look more cold, scary, etc. From a purely artistic point of view, the 1.5 build is a real treat and offers a certain uncut/raw style, but in the end that raw sense of style is undoubtedly amplified by feelings people already have for RE2. Take the nostalgia out of it and there's nothing special left. On its own, Mikami was probably right when he said that the 1.5 felt dull and of less desirable quality.
Besides, I can't help but think of Terminator 2 when I see those blue filters in RE 1.5.
Besides, I can't help but think of Terminator 2 when I see those blue filters in RE 1.5.
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I hate to be so anal about it, but, as a working cinematographer, I have to correct this: it's not editors who put those "filters" on (when things are done in the proper way, it's more complex than that). Unless you're referring to Youtube videos or some ultra-cheap productions where they (God forbid) hand color grading duties to the editor because "hey, the NLE software can do it, right?". In the case of T2, it was a mix of using HMI lights with tungsten-based filmstock and adding a thin blue gel over the printing lights to enhance what was already in the footage. And I am pretty sure that's what Kamiya had in mind too when it came to 1.5 - which is not a bad thing, considering that "Terminator 2" is one of the best sci-fi action movies of all time and it's the best photographed film in the series (the second is "Salvation", which is terrible under almost every other aspect - T3, Genysis and Dark Fate are as generic as it can get - T1 looks great in its own way, but it's not as stylized as T2). Incidentally, 1.5 looks a lot of like "Assault on Precinct 13" by John Carpenter, even though I don't Kamiya had seen it (Mikami might have had)...personally, I think the whole "precinct" idea came from "The Terminator".
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@Hardware I didn't say what sort of filter techniques T2 was using, and I also didn't say that looking like T2 is a bad thing. Photographic filters have been used for as long as the camera's existence, and the fact is that in modern day of digital filmmaking you use digital color grading (which is usually the job of the editor). I'm a filmmaker myself and I've been color grading my fair shair of videos and short films. Whether it's the decision of the director, photographer, editor or producer varies between projects but at the end of the day it's all just filters, no matter if they're practical or digital. And when it comes to a video game like RE 1.5, the process behind the blueish tone was digital.
But the point of my post wasn't to criticize the use of blueish filters, but rather the overall obsession fans have for a very mediocre prototype that is RE 1.5.
But the point of my post wasn't to criticize the use of blueish filters, but rather the overall obsession fans have for a very mediocre prototype that is RE 1.5.