Resident Evil 1.5?

Resident Evil was a success and success means a sequel. Capcom, being Capcom, re-released an improved version of Resident Evil instead and called Resident Evil: Director's Cut. The game had an extra disc in it which contained the prototype of Resident Evil 2. This early beta was called Resident Evil 1.5.

The finished product however, differed vastly from 1.5. Resident Evil 2. For example, 2 had Claire Redfield as a protagonist instead of Elza Walker from 1.5. The other differences from the finished product were that the whole G-Virus thing with William Birkin wasn't mentioned in 1.5, Elza and Leon didn't cross paths, The police chief wasn't as asshole and other story differences.

However, both games did take place in the Raccoon City Police Station. The police station in 1.5 however, looked radically different. It looked like how a modern police station should look and not like the creepy, museum-like, puzzle-filled, nonsensically large design 2 had with even less bathrooms.

Fun Fact: The doomed gun shop owner and the doomed policeman in RE2 were originally supporting characters who might have lived.

Anyway, I thought that 1.5 might be worth mentioning because it's fun to think of what could have been. Apparently, the bigwigs thought that the story in 1.5 was too "conclusive" and wanted an open ended bullshit story so they could milk..er make a huge franchise. Oh boy, that turned out swell didn't it?

Thanks to Youtube, footage from this little curiosity in RE lore exists!