Posts Tagged ‘re2’
Jam’s Dream List for the Resident Evil 2 Remake
Capcom really has been trying to do a make good with its long term fans even if that make good is them just re-releasing all their old games. With the recently released Devil May Cry 4 HD Remaster, Mega Man Legacy collection, and heck there is even talk the Onimusha series might make a comeback (yes please), Capcom has now pulled a Final Fantasy 7 announcement and revealed that it’s remaking Resident Evil 2. Arguably one of my favourite games of all time, this is the title that got me hooked to the series back on the original Playstation. I’m certainly excited for the project and this article covers what I’d like to see from the release. Keep in mind a lot of this “wish list” is completely barmy and probably won’t happen but hey one can dream.
Resident Evil 2 Remake Ends Fan Made Remake, Happy Ending Ensues
Ever since the recent announcement from Capcom that a Resident Evil 2 remake is incoming, we here at GH101 have been wondering what will become of the ongoing development of a fan made remake. It was revealed yesterday by PC Gamer that Capcom has officially send a cease and desist (C&D) order to those developers halting the project. On the plus side, it seems everyone wins in this situation unless you were planning on playing the Unreal 4 developed project as it entered completion this summer. The team working on that project have announced that its ultimate goal was to have Capcom proper release a remake and furthermore that Capcom is meeting with them to discuss this development. It’s possible the team could be brought in as consultants or even contractors to work on whatever this remake will be, which I am certain is barely in the planning stages.
Fred’s Take: I’m always cautious with remakes (as opposed to remasters, which often take the original game and upres or upscale the assets) because by definition changes and creative liberties will be made. It could go either way, but the feedback I keep hearing from contemporary games press is that most hope to thwart tank controls, ink ribbons, and possibly even the static camera perspective (opting possibly for the forward thinking over-the-shoulder cam started in Resident Evil 4). As an avid fan of those early games, I think that all three of those aspects should still be included and you can easily overcome the tank controls by offering the modern controls found in Resident Evil HD Remaster. It does appear, however, that given the fact that the fan remake was using the over-the-shoulder cam and given the current landscape of games (not to mention the term “remake”) that we very well may lose those static angles I covet so much. Who knows what the overall changes will be and I will most assuredly play whatever this becomes when it finally sees the light of day sometime in the next 2-3 years. I also dream of a world where two teams make an old school and new school version of the same game, utilizing the features of both, but I can’t possibly see how that’s an effective development cycle.
Now & Then: Resident Evil 2
Now & Then is different from both a retrospective and a review. It tackles games you probably already know and is a place for gamers to discuss these games. Below is an overview of a game’s presence in the market then and now. Authors of these articles share their personal experience, so we encourage all of you to do the same in the comments.
Resident Evil 2 (RE2) hit the market with a steep price; like other series favorite RE4, this title was scrapped and redone after it was more than 60 percent complete. In order to keep hype and demand strong for the series after the extremely popular original, the sequel began production one month after the release of Resident Evil. This first version, dubbed Resident Evil 1.5 by Capcom when production stills and videos released, featured a similar plot without crisscrossing paths. Leon was still the male protagonist and Elza, a motorcyclist college student, as an early version of what would eventually become Claire Redfield. Graphically the game was much uglier, looking the same (or worse) than the original, but only so that more zombies could appear on-screen. In 1.5 Umbrella had already closed down, the outbreak still occurred, and the police station looked a lot more modern. Players could equip different clothing, which changed their appearance (as did combat damage). There were also many more survivors for players to encounter along the way, some of which played new roles in the final version of RE2. Producer Shinji Mikami scrapped the project when it was near beta (60-80 percent completion) because he found gameplay and locations to be “dull and boring”¹. Originally the series was supposed to end with the sequel, but supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto wanted a more open-ended series. As a result Elza became Claire Redfield to connect to the first game and the plot was made more big budget movie style to get Capcom to the 2 million copy sales goal. Graphics were updated, adding more polygons to each character, and items were made much more scarce to increase tension and fear. Since it would miss the planned early 1997 release date, the Resident Evil: Director’s Cut and Complete Edition were released instead and included a demo of RE2.
Gaming History 101 