Some cool 1.5 exclusive screenshots (**As seen on TV!**)

[Rick Hunter]

Did they really have to turn the police station into a museum though? It was incredibly lame.

edit: Anyway, back in the old day, I read that many of Capcom employees left the company and joined Square to work on Parasite Eve, and it might have been one of the reasons that would explain the reboot. I don't have much information about that though.

[Guest]

The flow. The direction. The foundation



The way I see it; this is exactly what they did - and thus RE2 was born.

Good points. Still a lot of those aspects are superficial and could easilly be changed. I mean for example, my street is very linear but there's many things I can do on my street, I can go down on a bike, in a car, I can walk, I can stop and chat to people on the way, I could even do rolly polies if I wanted to. Just because one day on my street is mundane it doesn't mean the next day will be.

What I mean by that is, Capcom could have used their imagination and made the locations of 1.5 into something interesting without scrapping the majority of the art work. If the flow of the game was bad, change it up, use the locations for something else. Change characters round, put them in different places, add enemies, remove enemies, introduce a puzzle, change a corridor or two. They couldn't have redesigned the whole game just because it was bad, perhaps the overall design was not to someone's liking, but it's simple enough to change a map around and have a new design.

For instance, they could have made an armoury in the building where you meet John Kendo, an RPD Sergeant who chats to you and gives you a shotgun before dogs get loose in the room and maul him to bits. They could have had a locker room where you meet already bitten Marvin who surrounded by dead officers chats to you and gives you a key card before turning into a zombie and trying to bite you. You could have met Ada in the parking lot who helps you push a crate before taking part in a cutscene and disappearing off to god knows where.

The flow of the game could have been EXACTLY the same as retail had Capcom really wanted to do it, they could have expanded on what they had in any number of different directions to make it a better game. Updating graphics, improving AI and expanding on the controls are just some of the simple things that could have changed the press' opinions on the game. Hell having an actual coherent build for them to play like beta 1 as opposed to the poorly stitched together mess like the PSM build would have gave them a completely different view of the game.

A game is only as bad as you make it. Personally I love the atmosphere in the RPD and if I use my imagination I could turn it into something I like, and something I think other people would like, I don't see any reason why Capcom couldn't do the same. While RE2 remains imo the best RE game of them all, I still think the game is very boring aesthetically and lacks a real horror like atmosphere. We could have had the best of both worlds, we really could.

[Guest]

If you ask me, re1.5 have more imagination than re2, weird creatures, stronger and faster zombies, modern places, creepy music and more varied weapons like that c4 which i wonder why they never implanted it in the final game ?

[P.I.M.P.]

If you ask me, re1.5 have more imagination than re2, weird creatures, stronger and faster zombies, modern places, creepy music and more varied weapons like that c4 which i wonder why they never implanted it in the final game ?

like the producer said...had this game been released then no one would've looked forward to resident evil 3

[Rick Hunter]

You don't know about that and it's a stupid assumption.

[ParasiteAdam]

like the producer said...had this game been released then no one would've looked forward to resident evil 3

Well yeah the series would of had a definitive end with this story. Bottom line it was about wanting to squeeze as much money as possible out of the series. While I enjoyed all the games I still wouldve loved to see where the series went with 1.5 in place of retail 2

[RetroRain]

Well yeah the series would of had a definitive end with this story. Bottom line it was about wanting to squeeze as much money as possible out of the series. While I enjoyed all the games I still wouldve loved to see where the series went with 1.5 in place of retail 2

It probably would've ended with some dignity.

[News Bot]

I don't buy into the words of the developers really. What exactly is shit about 1.5? The backgrounds? The graphics? The story? The characters? The music? The sound effects? The voice acting? The scenario? The controls? The puzzles? The action?

The only three of those I really buy into as legitimate complaints from the developers are the backgrounds, the graphics and the scenarios, as those are the elements that underwent the biggest changes. The characters are virtually the same, the story is only slightly modified, there is nothing about 1.5 that couldn't be changed and improved on with the amount of work they did.

About 80% of the games backgrounds got scrapped and I can honestly say that I prefer the prototypes backgrounds compared to the retail game. They could have easilly gave the game a graphical overhaul, tweaked the engine and used the time spent to improve on the the game they already had. Like re-rendering the backgrounds at a higher quality, modifying code and changing the scenarios, reinventing the characters and giving them new personalities, creating new puzzles and new ways to tackle the locations, adding new life to boring rooms and making them more exciting. I find it really hard to believe that the game is shit when it's based off one of the most influential games of its era, something I could happily play even today.

If the actual game its self is shit, in my opinion, it's only because it's unfinished. Most of the things to complain about are superficial and would instantly improve 1.5, by miles. Get rid of the repetitive sound effects, improve on and smoothen out any problems with the controls, iron out bugs and make the AI more interesting, redo the script/voice acting and make it more involving, update the graphics and make the textures more detailed.

I honestly think Capcom were just worried the game was too different and thought they were giving away too much too soon in the franchises life, because I really don't see how a new game of this nature could be shit unless they cut the development short and enough time and effort didn't go into making it the best it could possibly be. 1.5 as we see it is like a rough draft, and no rough draft is worthy of publication, the only thing it lacked was polish and it could have easily became something capable of flying off the shelves.

The "story" is more than just a brief summary. "Slightly modified" is a big understatement in regards to what they did with the scenario. Initially, Sugimura was brought in only to tweak 1.5's script. In the end, they realized that the entire thing was shit, so they decided to scrap it.

One of the reasons the game was scrapped was because it was too similar to BH1, not because it was too different.

Saying that the only reason the actual game could be shit is because it's unfinished is a trite excuse. It's unfinished because it was bad.

Well yeah the series would of had a definitive end with this story. Bottom line it was about wanting to squeeze as much money as possible out of the series. While I enjoyed all the games I still wouldve loved to see where the series went with 1.5 in place of retail 2

Then I'm glad CAPCOM is a business and improved their products.

edit: Anyway, back in the old day, I read that many of Capcom employees left the company and joined Square to work on Parasite Eve, and it might have been one of the reasons that would explain the reboot. I don't have much information about that though.

They left after final BH2 and worked on Parasite Eve II, not the first game. The only one who left before BH2 was Kenichi Iwao, BH1's scenario writer. He left in 1996, though.

[Guest]

like the producer said...had this game been released then no one would've looked forward to resident evil 3

I find that hard to believe. While it would have been harder to expand on the overall story, RE3 could have still worked, as the version we got served more as a prequel or sort of side quest to RE2, as opposed to an actual successor. You wouldn't have had to change anything really, Jill comes to Raccoon City looking for Chris and searches the RPD before taking off into the streets as she tries to escape the city from the stalking Nemesis. I don't see any reason why I wouldn't look forward to that any differently to what we got, RE3 is what it is, whether they finished 1.5 or turned it into RE2 would have no effect on the concept of the side story. Sure there would be some slight differences but the main concept could have remained the same, perhaps it would have been superior to learn more about Raccoon city in this way, you never know.

[News Bot]

That still would not have made 1.5 as good as BH2.

[Aleff]

in PS1 times silent hill had naked kids in it.

You need to check out some images of SH1 buried on the US Demo disc, there is even a picture of some japanese girls showing some tits...

[Zombie_X]

Oh? Are the images in .TIM format?

You need to check out some images of SH1 buried on the US Demo disc, there is even a picture of some japanese girls showing some tits...

[Guest]

The "story" is more than just a brief summary. "Slightly modified" is a big understatement in regards to what they did with the scenario. Initially, Sugimura was brought in only to tweak 1.5's script. In the end, they realized that the entire thing was shit, so they decided to scrap it.

One of the reasons the game was scrapped was because it was too similar to BH1, not because it was too different.

Saying that the only reason the actual game could be shit is because it's unfinished is a trite excuse. It's unfinished because it was bad.



Then I'm glad CAPCOM is a business and improved their products.



They left after final BH2 and worked on Parasite Eve II, not the first game. The only one who left before BH2 was Kenichi Iwao, BH1's scenario writer. He left in 1996, though.

You are right, it is a big understatement, but the basic premise for the story remains very much the same. The setting is Raccon City, it takes place in the Raccoon City Police Department and the surrounding area, including sewers and underground laboratories. An RPD officer and a motor cyclist make their way through the stages teaming up with various support characters where they come across a scientist, William Birkin, who is infected with the G-Virus and is trying to hunt down his daughter, Sherry.

Yes a lot did change but a lot of the core elements are still there, the premise of the story is very much the same it's just the journey the characters go on, the characters they meet along the way and how they reach their goal that changed. None of this really requires you to scrap a whole games worth of backgrounds, change art direction and remove gameplay elements. The sole argument that the scenarios were bad is not the whole story as there's many other aspects of 1.5 that make it what it is, such as imagery and mood. All these elements were also lost and whether they were good or bad is down to personal interpretation, rewriting the script based on the same locations doesn't require the sacrifice of these elements and could have easilly worked with them intact.

I personally still consider 1.5 and RE2 to be different based purely on imagery and gameplay elements alone, regardless of badly written scenarios. I like the dark moonlit atmosphere, I like the emergency lights shining through the windows, I like the hordes of blue skinned, fat bellied zombies and face melting alsatians that come after you, I like the cold and damp walls of the RPD corridors, and so on. All of these visual elements were lost and were integral to 1.5's design, were all of these elements also bad and needed to be scrapped? I'm not so sure they were, I think a rewritten script could have easilly worked with small modifications to the RPD design much like they did with the labs, as opposed to binning absolutely everything and starting over from scratch.

One thing I can't understand however is how 1.5 is too similar to the orginal Biohazard. So much had changed from Biohazard to the prototype, such as the way someone saves, the way someone picks up an item, the amount of enemies one encounters, the abilities the enemies have, the weapons a person can use, the upgrades a person can acquire, and so forth. If anything Capcom made RE2 more like the original by reintroducing type writers, scaling back on the enemy AI, making things a little easier to manage, reducing the amount of upgrades and unique items a person can use (grenades, etc). The only thing that was truely unique about RE2 was the alternate scenario system, having each character on a separate disc and having multiple scenarios for both, that was the one big change that separated them and every single one of those things could have worked with 1.5's design, absolutely.

1.5 wasn't a bad game from a visual perspective having such beautifully rich backgrounds, and I don't see how it could be bad from a gameplay perspective being based on the original. The only thing that might have been bad was the scenarios and that's totally down to a persons effort and vision of the project they had taken on. 1.5 was so much more than bad writing, so much more went into the decisions they made than a simple "the game was bad" can't answer for, imo of course.

[Biohazard 1995]

in PS1 times silent hill had naked kids in it.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

[chrisliam2]

You are right, it is a big understatement, but the basic premise for the story remains very much the same. The setting is Raccon City, it takes place in the Raccoon City Police Department and the surrounding area, including sewers and underground laboratories. An RPD officer and a motor cyclist make their way through the stages teaming up with various support characters where they come across a scientist, William Birkin, who is infected with the G-Virus and is trying to hunt down his daughter, Sherry.

Yes a lot did change but a lot of the core elements are still there, the premise of the story is very much the same it's just the journey the characters go on, the characters they meet along the way and how they reach their goal that changed. None of this really requires you to scrap a whole games worth of backgrounds, change art direction and remove gameplay elements. The sole argument that the scenarios were bad is not the whole story as there's many other aspects of 1.5 that make it what it is, such as imagery and mood. All these elements were also lost and whether they were good or bad is down to personal interpretation, rewriting the script based on the same locations doesn't require the sacrifice of these elements and could have easilly worked with them intact.

I personally still consider 1.5 and RE2 to be different based purely on imagery and gameplay elements alone, regardless of badly written scenarios. I like the dark moonlit atmosphere, I like the emergency lights shining through the windows, I like the hordes of blue skinned, fat bellied zombies and face melting alsatians that come after you, I like the cold and damp walls of the RPD corridors, and so on. All of these visual elements were lost and were integral to 1.5's design, were all of these elements also bad and needed to be scrapped? I'm not so sure they were, I think a rewritten script could have easilly worked with small modifications to the RPD design much like they did with the labs, as opposed to binning absolutely everything and starting over from scratch.

One thing I can't understand however is how 1.5 is too similar to the orginal Biohazard. So much had changed from Biohazard to the prototype, such as the way someone saves, the way someone picks up an item, the amount of enemies one encounters, the abilities the enemies have, the weapons a person can use, the upgrades a person can acquire, and so forth. If anything Capcom made RE2 more like the original by reintroducing type writers, scaling back on the enemy AI, making things a little easier to manage, reducing the amount of upgrades and unique items a person can use (grenades, etc). The only thing that was truely unique about RE2 was the alternate scenario system, having each character on a separate disc and having multiple scenarios for both, that was the one big change that separated them and every single one of those things could have worked with 1.5's design, absolutely.

1.5 wasn't a bad game from a visual perspective having such beautifully rich backgrounds, and I don't see how it could be bad from a gameplay perspective being based on the original. The only thing that might have been bad was the scenarios and that's totally down to a persons effort and vision of the project they had taken on. 1.5 was so much more than bad writing, so much more went into the decisions they made than a simple "the game was bad" can't answer for, imo of course.

You just summed up everything I love about 1.5, well said mate.