Hoo boy. Not what any of us wanted, really, but good enough I guess.
So the 20th anniversary of Resident Evil 2 came and went with… nothing at all shown for the upcoming Resident Evil 2 Remake. Sucks, but worth remembering that it was never something promised to us; it was hype built up by fans based on pictures and actions that were interpreted to be teasing. The Capcom R&D Twitter account even apologized for getting people’s hopes up, saying that they never intended to tease us, but that they were just showing off fun photos. But thanks to some maybe-insider info from 4chan, we might at least have an idea of what to expect.
Of course, take this with a massive grain of salt – but I would like to throw in that part of why we’re posting this (and not just disregarding it because it’s… you know, 4chan) is we’ve actually heard some of this information from one of our own sources (who has proven to reliably update us on past games, most notably Resident Evil 7). That doesn’t mean that this post is 100% legit, but it gives it enough credence we’ll at least talk about it. Thanks to Jawmuncher on Twitter, we’ve got a nice ‘ol screenshot of the post as well. It’s a lot to unpack, but we’ll take it a piece at a time.
Crocodile was cut
Sigh. Remember what I said about “changes for the better”? This is one of those things I’m betting a lot of fans will miss, but I’m not that broken up about it. While the jumpscare was pretty damn great (essentially being RE2‘s version of the dog jumping through the window in the original RE), but… the actual fight was pretty lame if we’re being honest. You run away from him, press a button, shoot a gas can. That was it. Sure, they could have tried to create a more complex boss fight, but I’d much rather them come up with something more interesting. We also just got a bunch of crocs in the End of Zoe DLC for RE7.
Sherry is playable, can defend herself (like Natalia in Revelations 2)
Cool. Sherry’s section was a nice pace-breaker in the original RE2, as you had no means whatsoever of defending yourself, but I don’t mind changing it up. If the balancing is done right, having extremely limited and weak defense capabilities might even be scarier, considering that the original section consisted of just running past some puking zombies and pushing some boxes.
Ada section(s) expanded, gets unique weapons
Again, cool. The original Ada sections where largely just sections Claire and Sherry did… but with Ada. In fact, the second time we control Ada is so similar to a section from Claire’s they actually recycled a cutscene to save space in the N64 version. It’d be really great to see her do some more… spy style shit, especially given there’s no real reason to pretend literally anyone won’t know the twist at this point. Might be a nice chance to squeeze some Wesker connections in there as well, especially considering she turns out to have been working for him the whole time anyway.
No 4th Survivor, Maybe no Tofu
Okay, this one I can see being a little mad about. The 4th Survivor was an integral part of the original RE2, especially considering the amount of work it takes to unlock. The poster speculates that maybe it’s being held off on for DLC, and honestly, the only way I’m cool with that is if it’s free, like Not a Hero was for RE7. It reaks of modern game greed when something that was originally a free unlockable in a game becomes a 15$ add-on you buy after the fact. Tofu I’m a little less surprised by, as that mode was just a harder version of 4th Survivor with a big white rectangle. It was only ever in there because the devs thought it was fun, so if 4th Survivor is gone I can only assume so would Tofu.
Focus on Horror
Too right it is. One of the general fears I’ve heard from people worrying about a switch to OTS gameplay is that it would inherently end up an action game. Capcom would be making an actual, quantifiable mistake trying to transform a game as dear to horror fans as RE2 is into anything but a slow, grueling horror experience. There’s a difference between “change for the better” and simply ripping something’s heart out.
Difficulty works like RE7: No Autosave on Hard
Another not surprise. If they’re making the effort to make it more accessible through game design, it only makes sense one of RE classic’s most ruthless elements would be changed up a bit too. It was simply a joy to return to the “ink ribbon” style (albeit with cassette tapes) in Resident Evil 7‘s Madhouse difficulty, and (grain of salt) knowing that RE2 will follow suit is great. I personally know plenty of people who just can’t handle the old-school style of managing your saves, so I’m not too beat up about the game being accessible to those people. It’s honestly not even that different from Resident Evil 3‘s Easy/Light mode, where the ink ribbons where just infinite.
Costumes are back, RE 1.5 Costumes planned, focus on DLC
OH, MY GOD, WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO DRESS CLAIRE UP AS ELZA WALKER. Sorry, but this is an RE nerdgasm come true. Elza Walker was the original female character planned for Resident Evil 2, a Motocross racer who was planning to attend Raccoon City College. When Resident Evil 2 was scrapped (resulting in the unfinished RE 1.5), Elza was reworked into Claire Redfield to give RE2 a stronger connection to the first game (being the sister of Chris). To be fair, outside the redesign and new backstory, the two characters are almost identical (love of motorcycles, teams up with Sherry, etc). So the idea of finally having some recognition of this super nerdy, trivia level character in a game is awesome. The OP mentions a focus on DLC costumes like what Resident Evil 0 did, and that’s actually perfect. RE0 had some insanely awesome costumes for Rebecca, including her original RE0 costume from the N64 version of the game (which was canceled) and her infamous basketball jersey costume from the secret photo found in Resident Evil 2. Speaking of which…
We can still develop that Rebecca photo… and something else?
More RE2 trivia that you probably already knew. In Resident Evil 2, you can examine Albert Wesker’s desk in the S.T.A.R.S. office about 50 times to get some secret undeveloped film, which can then be taken to the photo lab and developed into a photo of Rebecca Chambers (from RE0 and 1) in a basketball uniform. It’s one of those weird little easter eggs that die-hard fans like to bring up to friends not in the know but was well known enough to be worth basing one of her costumes in RE0 HD on. So it’s neat that this not only is returning but presumably the side-quest thing that involved developing film in RE2 (there’s quite a few, and offer small pieces of backstory). The thing that’s intriguing though is the “something else”. What in the world does that mean? There’s just no way to know for now.
Late 2018 is the target release date
I had assumed this, honestly. Especially considering how soon after announcement almost every Resident Evil release has been for the past few years (Resident Evil 7 came out 7 months after the reveal, and Umbrella Corps. was only about a year after a delay). This is, of course, assuming we get to see the damn thing’s trailer this year.
So that’s everything. Who knows how much of it is true or not (while we have a source for some of it, we can’t vouch for all of it). We have our fingers crossed we get to see something soon. Like, really soon. It’s maddening. Of course, we’ll keep you updated, and we’ll also be the first to call bullshit on this whole piece if it turns out to have been so when we finally get to see something.