RPD Sewer Area in 1.5

[Kegluneq]

This is probably one of the most complicated areas to understand due to how incomplete it is, and how much information we lack. However, I'd like to know if there's something that can help us give some sense of progression of this area, and if there's any clue of what these locations might be:



I believe this the undergrounds tunnels that Leon and Elza cross over in the beginning of the sewer area. Something I noticed. There's some a faint green tint on the walls. Perhaps this is the tunnel hallway that gets access to the area where Elza is fighting the Web Spinners that come off the ventilation shafts?



I've seen this room being referred as the "break room". I have no idea where it fits in the overall sewer area. However it contains a computer, and if computers are indeed used as save points, then I'd say that it's located before fighting the alligator boss, or just before exiting the sewers.



I have no idea what this place is supposed to be. It seems like a machine room, and we've seen video footage (from another camera angle) from it in the BioHazard 2 Complete Disc. Given it's industrial look, I think it might have something to do with power access to the control passage..



Control passage, I think. I believe this leads to the alligator boss fight, and I'm assuming you can access the upper floor where you fight the baby alligators from here. I'm guessing you need to mess around with it first (in that control panel seen in Leon's screenshot), much like the whole valve deal in the retail product.



Baby alligator and alligator boss fight. There's another picture of Leon fighting the alligator, but it's less clear than Elza's..



Some location that I thought that was the Radio Room of the 2nd Floor in the RPD. Considering there's two sets of shotgun shells in it, I'm guessing it's probably located near the control passage. The door texture seems in accordance with the sewer location, but it's difficult to pinpoint it's location.

And I guess that's it. There's more in video footage and some magazine scans, but I think that covers mostly the initial area which seems to be a lot of the same stuff (quite boring, TBQH). I don't know if the pre-rendered background from beta 2 (the beta where Leon has his civilian clothes) were kept in the final beta.

[Enigmatism415]

Certainly, the Sewer is the most mysterious and intriguing chapter of BH1.5. As we all know, we cannot accurately map its layout with what little we have. However, I think we can successfully fit certain pieces of the puzzle together, and then possibly work up from there; this is my strategy for understanding the upper floors of the RPD. I wonder if any design features of the BH1.5 Sewer were carried over to the retail version... If you examine Black~Crow's Sewer maps, the upper floors are fairly plausible and in agreement with known images and footage, but as you descend deeper underground, they increasingly become the product of guesswork (naturally). In fact, one of the exclusive screenshots that Inflames had labeled "Alligator Boss" is flat-out incorrect (what appeared to be a giant alligator was actually just a bush on the outdoor perimeter of the RPD):

[biohazard_star]

Control passage, I think. I believe this leads to the alligator boss fight, and I'm assuming you can access the upper floor where you fight the baby alligators from here. I'm guessing you need to mess around with it first (in that control panel seen in Leon's screenshot), much like the whole valve deal in the retail product.

I believe the control room is basically like a balcony overlooking the pool with the giant alligator. In the Elza shot of the control room, you can see in the bottom center part a protracted part of the walkway which I guess is used to overlook the pool. The ladder leading to the bottom would be just off-screen to the left part, if the shot with the giant alligator is any indication. In the bottom right part of the Leon pic, you can kind of see that the pool is flooded with water. If you pattern it after the valve puzzle in retail, you would probably have to use Item #68 - "Water Key" on the control panel, in order to lower the water level so you can go down the ladder.

[RMandel]

Kegluneq, here's some data for those sewer area screenshots in order, from top to bottom

1) Elza is supposedly running down an access corridor somewhere near the waste treatment pools, per Black Crow's old map. She's already passed through the sewage treatment plant and is heading for the last pool - and the way out. Hence the staining on the walls - scummy water from the treatment pools. These wall textures might be recycled from the corridors in RE1's lab areas (where the shark tank breaks open and floods).

2) This is somewhere in the control area for the sewage treatment plant. No one knows exactly where, as there simply isn't enough data available to place it accurately. Check Black Crow's old second sewer map for the best current guess.

3) Again, somewhere in the sewage treatment plant near the end of the Sewers level. Not enough data to place accurately. Check Black Crow's old second sewer map for the best current guess.

4) Most of us believe this to either be the entrance to the sewage treament plant or fairly close somewhere to it. The corridor in the middle of the first shot, which Elza appears to have just come through, eventually leads back to the two "long" corridors in the Leon Jacket trailer, per the old Black Crow map.

5) Bingo.

6) Most folks believe this is the entrance to the Break Room in the sewage treatment plant. Again, not enough data to accurately map; Black Crow's work is the best guess available at this time. The only other good candidate for this screenshot is the sealed room at the end of the "green hall" in the Admin Building of the Warehouse District, given the door styles. We'd need more than just the one lone still to be sure.

Anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong; several of you here know a lot more about the game than do I.

[TheSelfishGene]

Changed the name of the thread to make it specific to 1.5 discussion

[RetroRain]

The sewer is my favorite part from 1.5, and it also got the least attention, if you look at all of the video footage from 1.5. Compared to the little short areas from retail, the sewers of 1.5 are huge, with so much to explore. I love the crocodiles (or alligators) and the spiders that crawl out of the ventilation ducts. Always wanted to know what the whole music was in that track of the video with the spiders coming out of the ducts. It seems very dark, and awesome.

[Enigmatism415]

I think that it got the least attention mostly because we have the least information about it, but I agree that it's probably the most interesting chapter of the game. If our backs were against the wall and we had to make BH1.5 from scratch, we could come up with something for the Sewer chapter using the information we have... but it would involve a fair amount of guesswork, naturally. These would mostly be "enlightened" guesses though, rather than wild speculation. I think Black~Crow has something going with his Sewer maps. In a way, we are all detectives on the case of the elusive beta. Correct me if I'm wrong, but THIA is the number one community on the entire internet for BH1.5 mystery solving.

[doriantoki]

The suspended "control room" sounds an AWFUL lot like the suspended control area from retail RE2 where Ada and Anette have their confrontation. And if that is any indication, and has been said in this thread, there's probably a ladder to the left in the Elza screenshot that leads to, what I am assuming, is a disposal area beneath. And probably like in RE2, where the alligator is waiting, though the boss fight plays out differently, it seems.

If we're to take the RE1 analogy, this area would be like the basement shark tank lab from the guard house. My guess, as others have pointed it, is that you have to lower the water at one point, and possibly even DO something to the water, to make it safe to travel through. Think to RE3 with the waste treatment plant, and it's probably something similar. This would have parallels to creating the chemical that greatly harms Plant 42 from RE1.

[Kegluneq]

Thank you for correcting the topic title.

I'd like to thank you all for contributing to the discussion. The sewers is, in my opinion, the hardest area to map out. I feel that it's impossible to get anything coherent without exchanging some ideas and feedback regarding it. I didn't know that you fought the alligator by descending a ladder to the left. However, that particular design reminds me of Outbreak File #2's drainage area from the End of the Road scenario. Is it possible that Capcom recycled some of the stuff from BH 1.5?

I have no idea how much was kept from BH 1.5 in the retail product. But I'm sure some of the conceptual ideas are there, it's probably the backgrounds that were changed. For example, the "lobby" and reception room were revamped in the retail product, but if you take out the "carcass" you can see that they are identical; you can see the reception window from the lobby, and the reception is filled with desks. The major difference is, of course, the hallway in the reception that gets access to the basement area and the 2nd Floor. The sewer area probably follows this idea with some minor differences.

Like it's been said, the control passage is pretty much the sewer control area of the retail product where we used the valve; its design is identical, it gets access to the location where you fight the alligator, and you can use it to navigate through the 1st Floor and "2nd Floor" of the sewers.

I think this is a good starting point.

So with this in mind, here's what I think.

Image 1 is somewhere near the spot where Elza fights the spiders that come off the ventilation shaft. I'd say that this is probably halfway the sewer level, corresponding to the passageway where you put the medals in the retail product.

Image 2 is located just before the control passage. The computer is a save point for the boss fight.

Image 3 is located near Image 2. The wall texture seems to be the same.

Image 4 and 5 are the control passage. Almost at the end of the sewer level.

Image 6 and 7 are above and beneath the control passage. I have no idea why is there a box in Image 6, but probably has something to do with puzzle solving. Perhaps to get the "Water Key"?

Image 8 is just before you reach the manhole that gets access to the Factory area. There's something about it that reminds me of the "break room" in the retail product that you pass through before going to the laboratory. There's also two sets of shotgun shells, same deal with the retail product (lots of ammo there, too).

The progression would, therefore, be the one posted (in that order). What do you think?

EDIT: Do Alzaire or Inflames have more screenshots of this area? I'm asking this because Inflames did not release a lot of factory and laboratory screenshots until the pre-rendered backgrounds were out. I don't think he would deliberately hold off important information, but a few unreleased screenshots might be what we need to piece most of the sewer area together.

[Enigmatism415]

I'm sure you've seen this angle of the room depicted in image 3, but I'll just post it here for easy reference.



Also, as you know, the various video footage of BH1.5 contains a good amount of hallway information for connecting the dots.

[Enigmatism415]

I went through the big collection of BH1.5 magazines, and in every instance where a screenshot of the sewer is presented, It is always of the first level. The only information we have of lower levels amounts to Inflames-exclusive images and videos released by Capcom themselves. The big exception is the Hyper Playstation Remix video which depicts Elza fighting giant spiders in what might be B2, but I'm not sure. This leads me to believe that only the first level of the Sewer is playable on the PSM build, since it was minted for Journalistic purposes. There are probably numerous other unplayable assets stored on the disc itself though, if the RE2 Trial disc is any indication. There seems to be relative certainty that both the RPD and Factory are accessed from manholes in the same Sewer corridor, so for demo purposes, the "key item" might have been placed somewhere more easily accessible on the first Sewer level.

I also have reason to believe that the "spider corridor" might be on the first level; compare the grille-like structures in these two screenshots:



It looks like it may house a giant fan, but do you guys think it's plausible that the two areas are directly connected by this structure?

Here's an area that looks like it might be on the same level as the "spider corridor" based on the algae-infested walls and tall ceilings:



I think this area connects like this:

.____[ ]_
|..|........|
|..|........|
|..|...^...|
|..|.pic3.|
|..|........|
|..|........|
|..|........|
|..|........|
|..|........|
|..|........|_____________________
|..|.............................................|
|..|..............< pic2......pic1 >......[ ]
|_|__________________________|

This corridor is admittedly from a fairly early build, but I've no reason to believe that anything significant was altered since (Sewer-wise).

[doriantoki]

I think maybe that's the problem with the sewers, is that from what evidence we have, it seems perhaps even up to "completion", the development staff were still toying with the look and layout of the sewers. This is pretty common in game development, that is, to work on areas independent of each other. There's no doubt that the factory, for example, was finalized. But it seems the sewers maybe were never 100% concrete?

One of the main points of discussion over restarting RE2 was the lack of detail and polish in the backgrounds. In my opinion, beyond the suspended control room, the sewer areas unfortunately best exemplify this point. They are no more detailed than the corridors surrounding the shark tank from the original RE.

So where am I going with this? Well, in my opinion, the areas to-and-fro perhaps aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things. There aren't any important events that occur deep in the sewers, at least that we know of. What we're certain is that there was a central control area, and an alligator boss fight. These were kept in retail. It just seems like the details along the way, such as the corridors leading to these areas, their look and layout, perhaps was never finalized. Another interesting note is that the sewers in retail 2, were, IMO, not that great looking, either. And this was the shortest area by far. All the key events took place in the suspended control room area, and the alligator boss fight was essentially a scripted cinematic.

[Kegluneq]

Enigmatism415,

I've also read that the manhole to the Factory is located close to the manhole that gets access to the Sewers from the RPD. Black~Crow listed them on the same corridor on his map, too. Perhaps I must have missed something in a screenshot, but I don't recall seeing three different manholes in the same sewer corridor. It also seems awkward that the design team would place the end of the level in the same place as the beginning. What does that mean? That you need to get something to open the manhole? Or perhaps something to get access to the Factory but you're allowed to freely roam the outside street?

I believe that the area you uploaded is somewhere close to the place where Elza fights the spiders that come off the ventilation shaft. I also think Image 1 (of Elza in the underground tunnels) fits near that location. However, I don't think they are in the "rear" of the sewer entrance. The giant fan has 3 grids in the first image, 2 of them being very close to each other. The other giant fan has also 3 grids, but they seem more spread. They don't look the same. If the retail product progression is influenced by 1.5's, then these locations precede the passage control room.

doriantoki,

I also think that the Sewers look dull and boring, but it is, without a doubt, the most mysterious section of all 1.5. I feel many fans will be disappointed if they ever see the final (or most complete) build of it.

I'm more interested in seeing how the Alligator Boss Fight plays out, especially in such an enclosed space and without a gas canister to take it out.

[Enigmatism415]

I don't recall seeing three different manholes in the same sewer corridor.

Here is a walking progression of that L-shaped corridor:



And here is an alternate camera angle of the double-door that leads to the "water chase" passage.



As you can see, there are clearly three distinct manholes: one on each end and a third in the corner. Most of us seem to be in agreement that two of them connect to the RPD while the third one leads to the Factory chapter. What is less agreed upon, however, is which manhole goes to which area. As far as the RPD manholes are concerned, one originates from the surface level and one originates from the basement (the basement level is still disputed; my guess is B2).

It also seems awkward that the design team would place the end of the level in the same place as the beginning. What does that mean? That you need to get something to open the manhole? Or perhaps something to get access to the Factory but you're allowed to freely roam the outside street?

This has been known to happen in the series. One of the best examples I can think of is Chris's Rockfort Island chapter in Code Veronica, which basically ends where it begins. On one occasion, I used Action Replay to grant myself the golden Halberd object at the start of Chris's chapter... I basically just defeated the snake and flew the Jet to Antarctica right after. As far as BH1.5 is concerned, there is probably a "key item" that allows access to the Factory manhole from that beginning corridor, and it's probably found near the alligator tank on B3. Maybe this item reveals itself after the Alligator boss is defeated, or maybe the battle takes place after obtaining it. Admittedly, it does seem strange to "unlock" a manhole from underneath it; perhaps there is a short corridor above it that leads to a locked door, itself leading to the final ladder. After all, the first Sewer corridor is at least two levels underground (I hypothesize three).

Also, the "water chase" scene most likely takes place at the end of the Sewer chapter, since it forces you to return to this corridor. As we can deduce from the screenshots, that double-door provides the only access available to the rest of the Sewer; thus, after the flooding sequence, you have no choice but to either return to the RPD or enter the Factory.

[Kegluneq]

Thank you for the images. I had never noticed a third manhole in that hallway. I'll be sure to include those screenshots when I update my project.

But I'll be honest. I think it's a poor design choice. If it's indeed true that the third manhole gets you access to the Factory, then the RPD and the Factory are close by. And from a narrative perspective, it's bad writing to have Leon and Elza getting in the Sewers, which are crawling with lethal creatures just to find an alternate route to something that's a block away. Unless, of course, there's a good explanation for that.

What you said makes perfect sense. Especially if we think about the Guard House from Resident Evil 1. Like it's been said on this topic already, there's some influence of that area in the designs of the Sewers. The gameplay progression is probably similiar too; you need to get something to gain access to a locked area, and you'll have to backtrack all the way when you get it (which is pretty much what happens in the first game). I'm not sure about "water chase" scene though, because I imagine that would block one's character progression, and I'm sure they're not happening simultaneously.

Speaking of that, I think that Elza's sewer pathway is delayed from Leon's. I think that she comes from the middle manhole (Image 3 and 4), and finds Sherry next to the first manhole (Image 1 and 2). Sherry descends after Leon, Marvin and Linda push the cargo from the service area and gain access to the Sewers. They are already ahead of Elza, Sherry and John. This process is definitely reversed by the time they get to Factory/Warehouse, but why and how is something that I have yet to understand.