Features That Were Cut From Resident Evil 2 And No One Noticed
The Resident Evil 2 remake is largely a master class in how to do a proper reimagining of a beloved game. Certain aspects of the game that hadn't aged well were dropped, while others were beefed up and improved. It all paid off wonderfully, as reflected by the game's incredible sales numbers.
However, a roundtable discussion between the members of the team that made the game revealed that we nearly got something very different. While the general structure of the game would have remained the same, there were numerous features that were dropped during production. The reasons for these omission vary; some of them being deemed simply unnecessary, while others were seen as too goofy to work within the slightly more grounded aesthetic of the remake.
Let's take a look at some of these features that were removed from Resident Evil 2 and wonder at what could have been. The game we got was pretty great, but is there any way that including a few of these elements would have made it even better?
Multiple locales and vehicles
One of the most memorable aspects of Resident Evil 2 is the maze-like Raccoon City police station where the bulk of the game takes place. However, much more of the remake was originally meant to take place outside of Raccoon City.
Similar to his trek through the mountains in Resident Evil 4, there was originally a sequence in RE2 involving Leon boarding a cable car that ran above ground, rather than the subterranean one seen in the final game. This being a Resident Evil game, it's unlikely that Leon's trip over the scenery would have been a quiet one. It's easy to picture the cable car rocking back and forth, swarming with the undead.
Likewise, there was to be a sequence of Leon driving a car through the outskirts of the city. This driving section would have taken Leon to the mountains and the previously mentioned cable car. However, the driving option was dropped for a pretty good (and amusing) reason. At the end of the day, the development team couldn't rationalize giving Leon a car and then explaining why he wouldn't just try to get the heck out of town. Wouldn't you?
Scrapped enemies and encounters
During the roundtable discussion, we were treated to a few bits of concept art and early visuals for enemies cut from the game. Early on, the developers discussed how many design iterations the dreaded Mr. X went through during development. Some of these early looks included army fatigues and a much more slender frame.
More intriguing is a set piece that would have involved Leon using a crane to battle the giant alligator from the Raccoon City sewer system. In fact, there was a much longer chase sequence planned for the monster. However, the design team came to feel that they were essentially wasting the creature design as it was constantly out of frame, just behind Leon.
The creepiest canned enemy type was referred to as the Condemned. These things looked straight-up haunting, like something out of a Silent Hill game. They resembled the more classic, humanoid zombies, but they featured a very gaunt frame and some kind of metallic headgear. These abominations were meant to be encountered in the Orphanage sections of the game, just to up the creepiness factor. Please tell us these things were never anywhere near kids.
Different camera angles and perspectives
Perhaps most surprising of all is how much debate went into the camera system for Resident Evil 2. In fact, we nearly got a very different game that utilized the first-person view from Resident Evil 7. It's unclear how far along in development this idea was scrapped, but it is hard to imagine playing through this story with that perspective.
The game also originally featured an option to switch between different camera types. At one point in production, the game could be played with a fixed camera, much like the original version of RE2. This was meant to be included as a selling point for fans who wanted a more "classic" experience.
While this would have been interesting, the developers again had a solid reason for dropping it, which all came down to aesthetics. Once they decided they wanted to have a cinematic closeup every time a zombie managed to latch onto our heroes, it simply looked awkward to jump between the two camera angles. Therefore, the fixed camera option was dropped and the team went all-in on the over-the-shoulder perspective of the final game.