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Description

Intro follows; skip down past the line if you're already familiar with the RE1.5 REvisited project.

The RE1.5 REvisited project was a three-year effort by darksaviour_DXP (DXP for short) and myself to recreate in low-end 3D model form all of the locations that are seen in the cancelled Capcom video game known as Resident Evil 1.5 (RE1.5), which was the original form of what you know today as the original Resident Evil 2. Long story there, best told elsewhere. I came up with the idea because I was sick and tired of the antics of certain people on the old RE1.5 scene at the time who like to hoard their "exclusives" and only share little drips and drabs after months and months of begging by their many fans at the time. When I first approached DXP back then about what I had in mind, not long after both of us had left that particular dog-and-pony show behind, he thought I was nuts but went along with it anyway. He eventually warmed to it (along with my funding, wink), we got our "little" project done long before that other bunch eventually announced the cancellation of theirs, and for several years the full RE1.5 REvisited recreated locations model set was available to one and all without charge of any kind, so long as proper credit was given. They're not retail quality because I never intended for them to be so, although they were and can still be used for posing 3D concept art and images and such. Rather, they were meant to serve two chief purposes: as a ready 3D reference for RE1.5 fans, and as a good base or starting point for people who want make better and possibly even retail quality models. Sadly the RE1.5 REvisited model set is no longer available online as I write this (winter 2021), due to my having pulled it for the same reasons DXP and I were forced to pull what of the RE3 REvisited model set had been done up to a point a few months ago and make everything private. All the same the RE1.5 REvisited set for the most part got used as I has first intended during the original time that it was available (2018-2021). I can think of at least three fan projects that used them either in part, in whole, or as references for their own better models. Both I and several others used them for posing purposes, I myself in particular as a very handy resource for posing concept scenes from my novel Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker. Perhaps I'll start reposting Exodus concept art in the future too. (chuckle). Who knows? Maybe the RE1.5 REvisited model set might make a comeback someday, or someone will do even better free models ... although it won't be me doing it. I've moved on to other things.

Good news, folks! I found my original higher quality image for this part of the tour!

--------------------

Well! It's been a while, hasn't it? Though I'd better get back to the old RE1.5 Virtual Tour and finish reposting it before I forget about it completely.

This part of the Underground Lab is where RE1.5 makes a significant deviation from RE2. It's an extra wing of this level that wound up being deleted in its entirety during the RE1.5-to-RE2 reboot process because the better part of it was still unfinished by the time RE1.5 was cancelled, even though the layout and gameplay were pretty much set and all that was needed were the extra necessary gameplay tweaks and more time to properly texture and render the unfinished parts of it for retail release. It was probably also deleted to speed up gameplay and make it less complicated. This connected to one of the doors in the RE1.5 Monitor Room (which was part of the central core in RE1.5, hence its hexagonal shape) that was later deleted and its former position textured over in RE2 retail. Lets take a look at each room in turn as you enter from the Monitor Room, shall we?

The P2 (or L4) Arrival Area is just that: a big ass room very similar to the Arrival Area back up on level P1 (or L1 in RE2 retail). It probably would have been textured in the same fashion, although all that survives from the actual game data are the unfinished and untextured backgrounds from the game's final build. These were recovered from the RE1.5 data hidden and locked away in the original Japanese release of the Biohazard 2 Trial Edition. Like the other Arrival Area it too has some floor level grates (represented by holes in the wall) out of which man-spiders or arachnoids in my book could have popped out at any time to attack the player. Also like the other one this would have been the site of an infected gorilla attack, although this one is exclusive to Leon's game and happens late, apparently during the flight to the Shelters. It has doors to three other areas: the Freight Elevator, its own Security Office, and an additional and very large Storage Room. One other thing I need to mention is that per the surviving data there were apparently plans for an "on fire" version of this room for when after the Lab's reactor blows, with access back to the Monitor Room blocked by fallen rubble. This would have forced players to go back around the long way if they tried to use the Freight Elevator as a shortcut to get to the Monitor Room after that event happened.

The Freight Elevator connection is there because this was the lowest part of the Underground Lab that the Freight Elevator could reach as originally planned in RE1.5. No "magic" sideways moving elevator here (!), since it didn't have to go all the way down to the Train Bay as it later did in RE2 to better support its simplified gameplay.

The P2 (or L4) Storage Room is where Elza eventually finds the infected and unconscious Sherry in RE1.5, and I get to take credit for figuring out how that happened. It's one of the few fan-solved pieces of the RE1.5 puzzle I get to claim as my own (grin), but enough tooting my own horn. She apparently crawled through a hole under some of the stacked crates to get behind them in her failed effort to escape G-Birkin (he simply jumped over them), and so Elza has to solve a crate puzzle in order to be able to reach her. Once Elza finds Sherry in here then she takes her to the nearby P2 (or L4) Security Office and John joins them there shortly thereafter once he returns from his own efforts to find Sherry. Fully textured backgrounds were found for this room locked away in the Biohazard 2 Trial Edition although the room data itself was missing (probably overwritten with newer RE2 stuff). This room is also missing in the one authentic build of RE1.5 that survives outside of Capcom as of this date. Given the date that particular build was created and the later date stamp on the surviving backgrounds for this room, it is widely held by fans that this may have been part of the game's final build before RE1.5 was cancelled, although only access to the final build itself or comments by the original developers could confirm this.

The second Security Office is virtually identical to the first one save for minor details. That's probably why its surviving backgrounds exist in finished form and why the early RE1.5 fan reconstructors found it so easy to reconstruct before the one working build of RE1.5 we have so far turned up, which had it in working form. This is where Elza brings the infected Sherry given the gameplay path in her game, given that it's a short walk away from the Storage Room -- whereas Leon takes Marvin to the upper Security Office in his game. This was an obvious and ultimately unnecessary duplication of game locations, and this second Security Office was deleted during the RE1.5-to-RE2 reboot process even though it was working and virtually finished, with only minor tweaking left to do prior to retail release.

The total elimination of this wing of the Underground Lab P2 (or L4) level required some gameplay reworking in both Elza's and Leon's respective games for RE2 retail, given that they had events happen in here that were unique to both games (Elza's in particular). The elimination of the story section about the exploding reactor before the players leave the area and the subsequent removal of the Shelters eliminated the need for Leon to pass through here in his game, although the Freight Elevator had to be turned into the "magic" sideways moving one in RE2 retail so he could carry Marvin all the way down to the Train Bay. The infection of Sherry was moved up earlier in the game, which eliminated the need for this part of the Lab in Claire's game in RE2. Thus this entire unfinished wing of the Underground Lab's P2 (or L4) level "went away" for RE2 retail, and fans would not know of its previous existence until the legendary recovery effort for RE1.5 began and began to yield its early fruits.

Description

Intro follows; skip down past the line if you're already familiar with the RE1.5 REvisited project.

The RE1.5 REvisited project was a three-year effort by darksaviour_DXP (DXP for short) and myself to recreate in low-end 3D model form all of the locations that are seen in the cancelled Capcom video game known as Resident Evil 1.5 (RE1.5), which was the original form of what you know today as the original Resident Evil 2. Long story there, best told elsewhere. I came up with the idea because I was sick and tired of the antics of certain people on the old RE1.5 scene at the time who like to hoard their "exclusives" and only share little drips and drabs after months and months of begging by their many fans at the time. When I first approached DXP back then about what I had in mind, not long after both of us had left that particular dog-and-pony show behind, he thought I was nuts but went along with it anyway. He eventually warmed to it (along with my funding, wink), we got our "little" project done long before that other bunch eventually announced the cancellation of theirs, and for several years the full RE1.5 REvisited recreated locations model set was available to one and all without charge of any kind, so long as proper credit was given. They're not retail quality because I never intended for them to be so, although they were and can still be used for posing 3D concept art and images and such. Rather, they were meant to serve two chief purposes: as a ready 3D reference for RE1.5 fans, and as a good base or starting point for people who want make better and possibly even retail quality models. Sadly the RE1.5 REvisited model set is no longer available online as I write this (winter 2021), due to my having pulled it for the same reasons DXP and I were forced to pull what of the RE3 REvisited model set had been done up to a point a few months ago and make everything private. All the same the RE1.5 REvisited set for the most part got used as I has first intended during the original time that it was available (2018-2021). I can think of at least three fan projects that used them either in part, in whole, or as references for their own better models. Both I and several others used them for posing purposes, I myself in particular as a very handy resource for posing concept scenes from my novel Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker. Perhaps I'll start reposting Exodus concept art in the future too. (chuckle). Who knows? Maybe the RE1.5 REvisited model set might make a comeback someday, or someone will do even better free models ... although it won't be me doing it. I've moved on to other things.

Good news, folks! I found my original higher quality image for this part of the tour!

--------------------

Well! It's been a while, hasn't it? Though I'd better get back to the old RE1.5 Virtual Tour and finish reposting it before I forget about it completely.

This part of the Underground Lab is where RE1.5 makes a significant deviation from RE2. It's an extra wing of this level that wound up being deleted in its entirety during the RE1.5-to-RE2 reboot process because the better part of it was still unfinished by the time RE1.5 was cancelled, even though the layout and gameplay were pretty much set and all that was needed were the extra necessary gameplay tweaks and more time to properly texture and render the unfinished parts of it for retail release. It was probably also deleted to speed up gameplay and make it less complicated. This connected to one of the doors in the RE1.5 Monitor Room (which was part of the central core in RE1.5, hence its hexagonal shape) that was later deleted and its former position textured over in RE2 retail. Lets take a look at each room in turn as you enter from the Monitor Room, shall we?

The P2 (or L4) Arrival Area is just that: a big ass room very similar to the Arrival Area back up on level P1 (or L1 in RE2 retail). It probably would have been textured in the same fashion, although all that survives from the actual game data are the unfinished and untextured backgrounds from the game's final build. These were recovered from the RE1.5 data hidden and locked away in the original Japanese release of the Biohazard 2 Trial Edition. Like the other Arrival Area it too has some floor level grates (represented by holes in the wall) out of which man-spiders or arachnoids in my book could have popped out at any time to attack the player. Also like the other one this would have been the site of an infected gorilla attack, although this one is exclusive to Leon's game and happens late, apparently during the flight to the Shelters. It has doors to three other areas: the Freight Elevator, its own Security Office, and an additional and very large Storage Room. One other thing I need to mention is that per the surviving data there were apparently plans for an "on fire" version of this room for when after the Lab's reactor blows, with access back to the Monitor Room blocked by fallen rubble. This would have forced players to go back around the long way if they tried to use the Freight Elevator as a shortcut to get to the Monitor Room after that event happened.

The Freight Elevator connection is there because this was the lowest part of the Underground Lab that the Freight Elevator could reach as originally planned in RE1.5. No "magic" sideways moving elevator here (!), since it didn't have to go all the way down to the Train Bay as it later did in RE2 to better support its simplified gameplay.

The P2 (or L4) Storage Room is where Elza eventually finds the infected and unconscious Sherry in RE1.5, and I get to take credit for figuring out how that happened. It's one of the few fan-solved pieces of the RE1.5 puzzle I get to claim as my own (grin), but enough tooting my own horn. She apparently crawled through a hole under some of the stacked crates to get behind them in her failed effort to escape G-Birkin (he simply jumped over them), and so Elza has to solve a crate puzzle in order to be able to reach her. Once Elza finds Sherry in here then she takes her to the nearby P2 (or L4) Security Office and John joins them there shortly thereafter once he returns from his own efforts to find Sherry. Fully textured backgrounds were found for this room locked away in the Biohazard 2 Trial Edition although the room data itself was missing (probably overwritten with newer RE2 stuff). This room is also missing in the one authentic build of RE1.5 that survives outside of Capcom as of this date. Given the date that particular build was created and the later date stamp on the surviving backgrounds for this room, it is widely held by fans that this may have been part of the game's final build before RE1.5 was cancelled, although only access to the final build itself or comments by the original developers could confirm this.

The second Security Office is virtually identical to the first one save for minor details. That's probably why its surviving backgrounds exist in finished form and why the early RE1.5 fan reconstructors found it so easy to reconstruct before the one working build of RE1.5 we have so far turned up, which had it in working form. This is where Elza brings the infected Sherry given the gameplay path in her game, given that it's a short walk away from the Storage Room -- whereas Leon takes Marvin to the upper Security Office in his game. This was an obvious and ultimately unnecessary duplication of game locations, and this second Security Office was deleted during the RE1.5-to-RE2 reboot process even though it was working and virtually finished, with only minor tweaking left to do prior to retail release.

The total elimination of this wing of the Underground Lab P2 (or L4) level required some gameplay reworking in both Elza's and Leon's respective games for RE2 retail, given that they had events happen in here that were unique to both games (Elza's in particular). The elimination of the story section about the exploding reactor before the players leave the area and the subsequent removal of the Shelters eliminated the need for Leon to pass through here in his game, although the Freight Elevator had to be turned into the "magic" sideways moving one in RE2 retail so he could carry Marvin all the way down to the Train Bay. The infection of Sherry was moved up earlier in the game, which eliminated the need for this part of the Lab in Claire's game in RE2. Thus this entire unfinished wing of the Underground Lab's P2 (or L4) level "went away" for RE2 retail, and fans would not know of its previous existence until the legendary recovery effort for RE1.5 began and began to yield its early fruits.