encephalon
Member
As far as I know, as of now, there are at least 2 versions of RE1.5 floating out there: a prototype for the fan "restoration" that includes an early version of a recreation of Claire's first encounter with a zombie in the diner, "Resident Evil 2," and the "Biohazard 2" prototype that seems a bit easier to explore in and get a feel for the game. I've been running around in the latter, without understanding how to open the debug menu that others seem to have found, and I'm unsatisfied with the lack of discussion after the impossible has actually happened and this has been released.
For those unfamiliar with the 40% E3 1996 build, here's 2 videos that show off the skeleton of the game: Leon Elza
Key Differences between 1.5 and 2
Scale: The above videos don't really do the scale of 1.5 justice. Although the police precinct may have been more or less the same size as the RPD, it not quite a bit smaller, 1.5 adds a much larger sewer location, includes an Umbrella factory that's as least as large as the the final area in 3 if not a little bigger, and a much larger lab that was finally paid homage to in Outbreak. A lot of the locations in the game seem fairly reminiscent of Outbreak locations as well (actually, this should be the other way around). Another thing to note is that if you run around in 1.5 you'll quickly notice that you have much more room to run around zombies, etc. It's not nearly as cramped.
Enemy design: Others seem to have noticed this as well, but 1.5 seems to throw more enemies at you at once and gives you more fire power to go with it. Noticing a trend here? It seems Capcom felt they had to go "bigger" in every way. Another trend is having enemies appear before they've become zombies. In the beginning you'll notice Elza walks in the reception office to find the dead bodies of police officers scattered about to have them reanimate afterwards.
Sense of Progression: It's very hard to judge when the puzzles aren't really there yet. But interestingly enough, there does seem to be one area where we can judge a key difference for 1.5: The importance of working with other characters to move forward in the story. In 2, characters appear for the moment, come, and take off leaving Claire to run after Sherry and Leon to chase Ada to the chemical plant. But in the 40% build, after getting stuck post conquering the Birkin boss fight, I noticed that in the video above the player had to go back and regroup with the characters that had made it thus far (Joe? and Sherry). You might also be reminded of Outbreak yet again, where characters work together to solve puzzles and make their way through a city in groups of 3.
Final Thoughts
Thoughts about 1.5 and 2: Perhaps from the combination of these elements and what we know about 1.5/2 in general we can reason that there was an understandable effort to streamline the sequel. The route from Point A to Point D became Point A to Point C, with Points B and C being greatly reduced in scope. Moreover, RE2 quickly kills off the 3rd wheels and the main characters and Sherry form a final group on the train, whereas 1.5 would have had as many as 5 characters escape from Raccoon City. Storywise, having Sherry alone become infected with the G virus, as opposed to having an alternate scenario where Marvin faces the threat as well, they were able to create a more cohesive, unified story, rather than mirrored but alternate routes that seem to share a pretty significant element (having you create the vaccine in the lab, which occurs in Claire A alone if I remember). And now that I think about it, it seems like Marvin's place in Elza's line was replaced by Leon, as well as Joe being replaced by Leon for Elza/Claire.
Thoughts about 1.5's place in the series: The interesting thing about having more firepower and more enemies is that it could not be more relevant to where the series is today. It's hard to say at this point whether or not 1.5 would have been a straight up action game with no real pretense of limiting resources, but it's interesting to think about what the series could do with attempting to create a survival horror within the context or more enemies and more power. Is it even possible to crowd the hallways with enemies and have the players find ways to get around them without simply blasting everything in sight?
Moreover, if 2 were ever to be remade, would it be wise to go back to the 1.5 for insight? When Remake built upon the original, they went back to some of their original unused ideas and created a larger game. Now that 2 now has a framework that no longer resembles a jumbled soup of ideas, perhaps we could have the characters explore a factory while searching for that lift key? Or a larger lab like in Outbreak? I'm also entertaining the idea that more could be done with Marvin. Perhaps there's really no more need to immediately fill the players in on what happened in the Mansion and after the events of the original game. And perhaps his 2/Outbreak File 2 storyline could be retconned into other ultimately fatal heroics for both Claire and Leon (streamlining) later on. Sure, we'll never get the remake, but then again, playing 1.5 would have been a far fetched idea some time ago.
Any lingering thoughts? Do you have any sense of whether or not 1.5 would have been a flop or a worthy sequel.
For those unfamiliar with the 40% E3 1996 build, here's 2 videos that show off the skeleton of the game: Leon Elza
Key Differences between 1.5 and 2
Scale: The above videos don't really do the scale of 1.5 justice. Although the police precinct may have been more or less the same size as the RPD, it not quite a bit smaller, 1.5 adds a much larger sewer location, includes an Umbrella factory that's as least as large as the the final area in 3 if not a little bigger, and a much larger lab that was finally paid homage to in Outbreak. A lot of the locations in the game seem fairly reminiscent of Outbreak locations as well (actually, this should be the other way around). Another thing to note is that if you run around in 1.5 you'll quickly notice that you have much more room to run around zombies, etc. It's not nearly as cramped.
Enemy design: Others seem to have noticed this as well, but 1.5 seems to throw more enemies at you at once and gives you more fire power to go with it. Noticing a trend here? It seems Capcom felt they had to go "bigger" in every way. Another trend is having enemies appear before they've become zombies. In the beginning you'll notice Elza walks in the reception office to find the dead bodies of police officers scattered about to have them reanimate afterwards.
Sense of Progression: It's very hard to judge when the puzzles aren't really there yet. But interestingly enough, there does seem to be one area where we can judge a key difference for 1.5: The importance of working with other characters to move forward in the story. In 2, characters appear for the moment, come, and take off leaving Claire to run after Sherry and Leon to chase Ada to the chemical plant. But in the 40% build, after getting stuck post conquering the Birkin boss fight, I noticed that in the video above the player had to go back and regroup with the characters that had made it thus far (Joe? and Sherry). You might also be reminded of Outbreak yet again, where characters work together to solve puzzles and make their way through a city in groups of 3.
Final Thoughts
Thoughts about 1.5 and 2: Perhaps from the combination of these elements and what we know about 1.5/2 in general we can reason that there was an understandable effort to streamline the sequel. The route from Point A to Point D became Point A to Point C, with Points B and C being greatly reduced in scope. Moreover, RE2 quickly kills off the 3rd wheels and the main characters and Sherry form a final group on the train, whereas 1.5 would have had as many as 5 characters escape from Raccoon City. Storywise, having Sherry alone become infected with the G virus, as opposed to having an alternate scenario where Marvin faces the threat as well, they were able to create a more cohesive, unified story, rather than mirrored but alternate routes that seem to share a pretty significant element (having you create the vaccine in the lab, which occurs in Claire A alone if I remember). And now that I think about it, it seems like Marvin's place in Elza's line was replaced by Leon, as well as Joe being replaced by Leon for Elza/Claire.
Thoughts about 1.5's place in the series: The interesting thing about having more firepower and more enemies is that it could not be more relevant to where the series is today. It's hard to say at this point whether or not 1.5 would have been a straight up action game with no real pretense of limiting resources, but it's interesting to think about what the series could do with attempting to create a survival horror within the context or more enemies and more power. Is it even possible to crowd the hallways with enemies and have the players find ways to get around them without simply blasting everything in sight?
Moreover, if 2 were ever to be remade, would it be wise to go back to the 1.5 for insight? When Remake built upon the original, they went back to some of their original unused ideas and created a larger game. Now that 2 now has a framework that no longer resembles a jumbled soup of ideas, perhaps we could have the characters explore a factory while searching for that lift key? Or a larger lab like in Outbreak? I'm also entertaining the idea that more could be done with Marvin. Perhaps there's really no more need to immediately fill the players in on what happened in the Mansion and after the events of the original game. And perhaps his 2/Outbreak File 2 storyline could be retconned into other ultimately fatal heroics for both Claire and Leon (streamlining) later on. Sure, we'll never get the remake, but then again, playing 1.5 would have been a far fetched idea some time ago.
Any lingering thoughts? Do you have any sense of whether or not 1.5 would have been a flop or a worthy sequel.
I'm beginning to have the vague sense that the decision to scrap 1.5 was the correct one, despite the pain and loss.
