Why do people complain about the RPD not being realistic, and not the labs?

[TheBatMan]

The design of the retail RPD is not unrealistic at all. Several stations I have been to in the UK bear a passing resemblance to old museums and council buildings. There will soon be a lot more given the current economic climate in this country anyway. Police stations are closing everywhere and forces are having to move into town halls, council offices and disused outbuildings all the time now.

Why should the RPD spend millions building a new station if the art museum was going cheap? It's just good business sense.

The only unrealistic thing is for it to be the only station in the city. For a town with a population of 100,000, there would be several smaller precinct houses dotted around.

[Det. Beauregard]

Great topic!

The only full lab in the series that was (dare I say) semi-realistic was the Arklay lab from Remake. Aside from the lack of bathrooms (a common problem throughout the series) and more elevators, it wasn't all that unrealistic. The fountain access was absurd, but remember that the main entrance to the lab was via the helipad elevator, which that giant iron door near the fountain led to.

RE2's lab was insane, and clearly the work of over-active science fiction-minded individuals. Had any of the designers been in a real lab? Most likely not. Real labs don't have Death Star cores or use ladders (instead of staircases or elevators) as the primary pathways between floors. Birkin's lab is an iconic location, but it would have benefited from being much more realistic.

Aside from the giant core of test subjects in RE5 where you fight the U-8, I can't think of any lab in the series being as ridiculous as RE2's. Anyone care to disagree?

The RPD in and of itself isn't wholly unrealistic save for a few minor details, which may be considered nitpicking. However, I don't think a lack of any bathrooms whatsoever or a central hall with the only way to access the upper floor being a ladder is something that should have been overlooked. An elevator would have fit nicely in the southwest corner of the hall, giving access to the two floors above and to the basement parking garage.

And speaking of the parking garage, there's no way that the ramp would have led to the back parking lot. We see the ramp in Outbreak, and given the geography it is literally impossible, regardless of the angle, for the ramp to exit where it is supposed to. If you were to open the shutter in the back parking lot, you'd practically be standing about 10 feet or so north of the ladder in the central hall.

Other details include the random gaps in the west wing of the building and the elevation issues regarding the waiting room and the west office. Some may see this as nitpicking, but these things jumped out at me right away.

You could also bring up RE3 and how the city in no way could have been a functioning American town with its extra-tiny streets and unorthodox building angles. Or how the underground airport hangar in CVX deposited the cargo plane directly into the island that the prison was on. More thought was put into creating tension through the atmosphere than it was on realism.

To sum all of this up, the background designers in the series rarely seem to keep realism in mind when creating the environments. They are game designers, not architects. Outbreak was probably the strongest effort overall, since they at least remembered to include bathrooms.

[Renard]

Aside from the bathroom problem I fail to see people think the R.P.D is unrealistic.

There's a restroom in 1.5, but it's locked. The retail R.P.D. doesn't though, for some reason.

[alexdz]

Because people are more acquainted with police stations than laboratories.

[Code_R]

The lab is pure science fiction, so acceptable to people for .... some reason. I don't really care about either place - all this stuff is done for gameplay and atmosphere. The dull sterile 1.5 station with it's plain metal finish needed to go. And the mansion is a good setting, something worth repeating.

[Lanzagranadas]

Birkin´s lab is one of the most iconic stages and it has an awesome atmosphere that a normal lab couldn´t have never create. Unrealistic? who cares, this is not The Sims or GTA, this is Resident Evil and doesn´t pretend to simulate real life.

If they would have made an ordinary common lab there would be people who complained about boring and repetitive level design. More so, it was an illegal secret underground lab, it had no reason to be builded like a normal lab nor to obey any building regulations or standards.

[Carnivol]

Unrealistic? who cares, this is not The Sims or GTA, this is Resident Evil and doesn´t pretend to simulate real life.

Christ, the idea of The Sims simulating real life made me laugh harder than it should've

[Deathlygasm]

I always felt there shoulda been a giant plant boss in RE2s lab

[Det. Beauregard]

And the mansion is a good setting, something worth repeating.

I don't disagree about the modern aesthetic of the 1.5 station, but the mansion is something that worked due to it being a facade. Traps? Sure! One bathroom? Sure! The whole thing was built specifically to hide the existence of the labs beneath it. But the RPD was a fully-functioning station, and as such, is quite a different story.

If they would have made an ordinary common lab there would be people who complained about boring and repetitive level design.

I'm not so sure about that. As I said, the lab in Remake was pretty realistic, and various parts of many of the series' labs (RE2, CVX, 4, 5) weren't out of place. The biggest problems with RE2's lab involved the central core with a supposedly bottomless pit (which actually would have ended above the monitor room not far below if you look at the map) and the power room / cauldron of molten steel.

I always felt there shoulda been a giant plant boss in RE2s lab

Had we explored the B6 and B7 levels of the lab (as seen in Outbreak's Below Freezing Point), a plant boss may have worked!

[Deathlygasm]

I don't disagree about the modern aesthetic of the 1.5 station, but the mansion is something that worked due to it being a facade. Traps? Sure! One bathroom? Sure! The whole thing was built specifically to hide the existence of the labs beneath it. But the RPD was a fully-functioning station, and as such, is quite a different story.



I'm not so sure about that. As I said, the lab in Remake was pretty realistic, and various parts of many of the series' labs (RE2, CVX, 4, 5) weren't out of place. The biggest problems with RE2's lab involved the central core with a supposedly bottomless pit (which actually would have ended above the monitor room not far below if you look at the map) and the power room / cauldron of molten steel.



Had we explored the B6 and B7 levels of the lab (as seen in Outbreak's Below Freezing Point), a plant boss may have worked!

Insane how when u play outbreak we realized how little of the lab we saw in RE2

[News Bot]

The series actually gets its laboratories pretty realistic. BH2 is probably the only exception since its purpose was to present a sense of scale and mystery. However, that scale is for the complex as a whole since it was intended for more than just virus development. The actual individual labs such as the P-4 Laboratory and Culture Laboratory are pretty much what you would expect from a laboratory.

[Kegluneq]

The series actually gets its laboratories pretty realistic. BH2 is probably the only exception since its purpose was to present a sense of scale and mystery. However, that scale is for the complex as a whole since it was intended for more than just virus development. The actual individual labs such as the P-4 Laboratory and Culture Laboratory are pretty much what you would expect from a laboratory.

It's not, as evidenced by Capcom's complete lack of knowledge of what a draft chamber looks like..

[News Bot]

It's not, as evidenced by Capcom's complete lack of knowledge of what a draft chamber looks like..

I don't think one minor aspect is enough to kill the validity of everything else. Do we know for sure there was even a draft chamber? Can't recall this.

Also; it's important to separate the actual backgrounds from whatever the programmers wrote as the event messages (examine text). In the same way the level design is for the most part independent of the plot.

[Kegluneq]

I don't think one minor aspect is enough to kill the validity of everything else. Do we know for sure there was even a draft chamber? Can't recall this.

Also; it's important to separate the actual backgrounds from whatever the programmers wrote as the event messages (examine text). In the same way the level design is for the most part independent of the plot.

You do have a point. If what the programmers wrote as event messages was not cross-checked with the background designers notes, that would explain why that mistake exists, even if it was not fully intentional. Still, it strikes me as awkward how a small team would not coordinate properly when writing all background info pertaining to level design since that disrupts the intended atmosphere generated when these locations were created.

I could still rip a new asshole on Capcom as to how these laboratories (P-4 Laboratory and Culture Laboratory) are not what you'd expect to see from a pharmaceutical company (much less when it's circa 1996), but for the sake of suspension of disbelief, I can see why Capcom would not to try to nail it down properly. Plus, it would be boring to travel through an actual laboratory, since most its equipment is quite similar (and thus the experience would become repetitive). The factory is pretty shit, though (both in-game atmosphere and real-life representation). You'd definitely expect to see something grander considering how big and detailed these sections are in real-life.

[News Bot]

To be honest, the lack of communication between different sections in CAPCOM's dev teams is surprising. Scenario writers were independent of the background artists, who were independent of the programmers, who were independent of the writers, etc... So there is some lack of cohesion in some areas of each game. Then you have simple mistakes like the R.P.D. elevation conundrum.

I think it's wrong to look at Umbrella's facilities from the perspective of a pharmaceutical company. They were well beyond their means since their arms dealing earned them quite a bit of financial and political influence, and the Progenitor Virus allowed them to make great strides in pharmaceutical research... all that combined makes for one impressive set of resources. I think most people underestimate just how powerful they really were.