Betas, breasts and the making of Resident Evil 5

[Det. Beauregard]

Any word on whether the grid-style inventory from RE4 was supposed to be carried over to the single-player beta RE5?

Here's how I see it. After the success of RE4 (even amongst casual fans), Capcom thought they could make a successful RE game for the masses. This is why RE5 began development right after RE4's release, but the cool beta ideas were scrapped after a while due to RE4's massive success (PS2 port, Wii edition, etc). Hence, you get the final version of RE5, marketed to the casual gamer crowd - linear co-op crap with lots of boobs and nonstop action. Unfortunately, RE5's sales were massive, and thus I predict this style is the future for the series.

Why even release this book? So die-hard fans can get extremely disappointed at what would have been a way better game than the final product? It's almost as if they're making the evidence of their massive screw-up (obviously not from a financial standpoint) public. I'm still convinced that if the beta RE5 was the final version, it would have sold just as well due to people's love for RE4. I would understand making Mercenaries co-op, but the full game?

This makes me sick. Sure, RE 1.5 and 3.5 looked cool, but at least the final products were still great. But this is pure garbage.

[Archelon]

What I would be interested in finding out is how much of this stuff was scrapped due to the technical limitations of the current generation of consoles. For example, the scenario where you would be fighting an army of El Gigantes (which sounds awesome, by the way, if it played out like the artist's renderings suggested) probably wouldn't be doable without some serious smoke and mirrors. Even the desert area with the enemies crawling up out of the sand probably would have been extremely difficult to implement effectively.

Nothing story-related would have needed to be changed due to technical limitations, so I imagine they were just trying to "trim the fat," so to speak, and streamline the plot from the way it was originally intended, but I don't really consider the final product much of an improvement. I imagine a lot of the plot changes were also made as a result of the switch to co-op so they could better accommodate Sheva's character.

Something we should keep in mind, however, is that a lot of this stuff was scrapped even before the decision was made to make the game completely co-op compatible. We know from comments from Anpo, for example, that the level leading up to the confrontation with Irving, and said confrontation itself, would have been essentially the same even if the game wasn't co-op. The main difference would have been that Josh would be dead by then, and Sheva would instead be the one driving the boat.

So while the artbook mentions that originally we would have fought Irving in the city, that idea was scrapped at some point before they actually started working on the levels.

[Pikminister]

...Hence, you get the final version of RE5, marketed to the casual gamer crowd - linear co-op crap with lots of boobs and nonstop action. Unfortunately, RE5's sales were massive, and thus I predict this style is the future for the series.

And by casual you must mean the type of casual gamer that ONLY plays TPS/FPS games, right? You know, Halo, GoW, etc. and that barely touch games from any other genre. Got it.

That's why one of the producers mentioned being influenced by such "action-packed" games during a couple of interviews. It was obvious to whom RE5 was being targeted. Fans got the table scraps.

[Det. Beauregard]

And by casual you must mean the type of casual gamer that ONLY plays TPS/FPS games, right? You know, Halo, GoW, etc. and that barely touch games from any other genre. Got it.

That's why one of the producers mentioned being influenced by such "action-packed" games during a couple of interviews. It was obvious to whom RE5 was being targeted. Fans got the table scraps.

I just can't stand that type of gameplay. Move from point A to point B, take cover, shoot, kill, repeat. No point Cs, no exploration, regenerating health bars, etc. Many of these games are developed for this casual crowd that picks up a game for an hour or two a few times a week to get their mind off of reality. Many of these people don't appreciate the story or detailed environments or even the atmosphere - it's all about shooting everything that moves, like on auto-pilot.

Resident Evil was one of the few series that still contained massive exploration, haunting locations, strategy, and interesting characters. RE4 strayed from this a little bit, but the superior gameplay made up for it. With RE5, all that good stuff that made this series what it is has been flushed down the crapper to please people who have short attention spans and who must be entertained every few seconds.

[TheBatMan]

Unfortunately, nothing about the technical side is answered. All the commentary comes from the art department who are just following orders from the development team. I very much doubt any of this stuff got past the planning and storyboard stage.
As far as I can work out, there are three versions that were worked on.
1. Single player, zombies. NPCs Chris, Jill or Barry, Sheva, BSAA soldiers. Tricell CEO, Excella, Wesker
2. Single player, Las Plagas, NPCs Sheva, BSAA soldiers. Excella, Wesker
3. Co-op, Las Plagas.
The biggest changes in terms of design seem to come from the Ndipaya kingdom. Originally everything was to be spherical and it was all supposed to be half submerged in water. There was a concept at one stage for Chris to be able to explore the ruins by swimming underwater, going through arches and looking for air pockets.
A few more points:
*You could explore the merchants shop and actually steal weapons and ammo from him.
*The Tyrant design included tube-like protrusions on its back {think Giger's Alien} that spewed out smoke. It uses these tubes to take in vast amounts of oxygen at once to instantly enhance his physical capabilities. He also has massive veins all over his body. Both his arms were to have claws and his entire arm extended with the claws. At one stage he also had a cluster of spikes on his upper left chest area that would be all closed up but would suddenly spring open like a venus-fly trap.
*Other levels included an abandoned fort and a shopping district.
*One reason why they changed it to Wesker mutating at the end is that they wanted to change him enough to see his internal struggle exposed. Wesker had always been a bit lofty and arrogant, smugly secure in his superiority. But now, possibly for the first time ever, he feels seriously threatened and maybe even desperate, and the developers wanted to portray this. But they wanted him to be still recognisable as Wesker and not be completely taken over like past human enemies
*For the reaper, the artists orders were to design "a really Resident Evilish enemy for the laboratory area." The reason it is so durable is because it only appears in the latter part of the game and the player would therefore have access to advanced, upgraded weaponry.
*The Tanker stage was originally supposed to be completely open so that the player would be able to explore every inch of it.
*The ruins also contained 'an ancient BOW' that was re-activated by the progenitor flower.
*Chris originally fought Wesker in the sun garden. Wesker gets the upper hand then three NPCs turn up to help Chris and Wesker leaves. This triggers the 'ancient BOW' boss fight.

[Dracarys]

The zombie parts sound good.

A few of the things mentioned you can see in early RE5 trailers, you see the chainsaw-executioner, pretty sure you see that tower that is mentioned, I remember Chris sniping from far away the bridge that in the released game has a truck overturn on it.

The multiple storyline thing would have been good for a return also.


I loved RE5 co-op though.

[doomed]

I just can't stand that type of gameplay. Move from point A to point B, take cover, shoot, kill, repeat. No point Cs, no exploration, regenerating health bars, etc. Many of these games are developed for this casual crowd that picks up a game for an hour or two a few times a week to get their mind off of reality. Many of these people don't appreciate the story or detailed environments or even the atmosphere - it's all about shooting everything that moves, like on auto-pilot.

Resident Evil was one of the few series that still contained massive exploration, haunting locations, strategy, and interesting characters. RE4 strayed from this a little bit, but the superior gameplay made up for it. With RE5, all that good stuff that made this series what it is has been flushed down the crapper to please people who have short attention spans and who must be entertained every few seconds.

You are right (although obviously I like various kinds of games, even dumped down ones are fun sometimes, and I quite liked the first 2 Halo games that I've played)

The truth is, in past times gaming was considered a "hobby", something you were passionate about and you wanted your private space to enjoy it, etc..

These days everyone is a "gamer", everyone plays some sort of game. It's like watching TV.. would you define watching TV as a hobby? Of course not... it's just killing time.

Since this gen all strong PC gaming franchises are being turned into mainstreamed (read: dumped down) console games, and since consoles have moved from the private space of the bedroom to the living room (how many times do I have to listen to "gamers" telling me it's all about "sitting on the couch, relaxing a bit with my buddies") sadly I can't see how we can go back.

[Prime Blue]

2. Single player, Las Plagas, NPCs Sheva, BSAA soldiers. Excella, Wesker

Co-op was considered as soon as the Plagas were in the picture, though.

[Grem]

I always considered the final products to be of better quality than the betas, but when I read this....ugh.....damn Capcom, it looked much more inspiring than what we have in the end.

I espacially like the idea that Jill had a more important role, that Excella was a young power hungry secretary rather than a naive bitch with big boobs, Wesker not mutating and dying in the lava instead of that lame and overused rocket launcher finish move, and so on and so forth....

Chris single player, old BOW's....

All these good ideas sacrificed for a stereotypical action game with babes and big guns. Fuck.

[ashkan]

They ruined the franchise forever! But stealing from Capcom's hard drives makes me feel better! Just imagine... we can take whatever we want. like: different betas of Re1.5, Re3.5 and Re 4.5 ! When our dreams come true?

From now on, we can call it "Resident Evil 4.5" or "Biohazard 4.5"

[News Bot]

They ruined the franchise forever! But stealing from Capcom's hard drives makes me feel better! Just imagine... we can take whatever we want. like: different betas of Re1.5, Re3.5 and Re 4.5 ! When our dreams come true?

From now on, we can call it "Resident Evil 4.5" or "Biohazard 4.5"

lol.

Companies don't keep their extremely old beta material lying around. They're either deleted or re-used/remade into something else. In this case, RE5 ended up getting a lot of elements from RE 3.5 (Uroboros and the scrapped hallucination creature). The zombie version of RE5 didn't get past rough beta stages. There are screenshots of it in a book, though which book exactly escapes me.

Also, the ancient B.O.W. idea is still in the final game, its just never explicitly brought up or mentioned. There are cave drawings of the Ndipaya kingdom being savaged by beast-like figures. I would assume those are the ancient B.O.W.s.

[Archelon]

There are screenshots of it in a book, though which book exactly escapes me.

They're in the official player's guide.

[Zombie Fred]

Remembering this information again from the art book still strikes me on the many ideas on the beta version of 5. I thought the ending on Weskers' fate with the jet was more fitting to me than infused with Uroboros. The bright side is some of the ideas can be moved on the next chapter (Tri-Cell CEO, hallucinations, etc).

I think the best way for CO-OP is to be a seperate mode to save technical resources to increase the single player's quality in certain areas (this has its own pros/cons) and have other teams focus on focusing the level design around COOP and make some interesting scenarios for later on.

[Archelon]

Maybe it's not fair to make this comparison, as I'm not entirely certain how Capcom's resources compare to these other companies, but the thing that I think still irks me the most is when you look at certain Western titles like Uncharted 2 or Mass Effect 2, for example. These titles were only in development for 2-3 years, and yet they were still such monumental leaps forward from their predecessors. It looks like other games like InFamous 2 and Dead Space 2 will be similar in that respect, though we won't know for certain until they're actually released.

Then you look at Resident Evil 5, which we know was in development for almost five years. Despite that fact, we get a game that could have easily been done on the previous generation of consoles (the graphics notwithstanding) and probably in less time, to boot. Heck, the game is even full of reused assets, which, in my opinion, is inexcusable when you consider how long the game was in development and the fact that it was developed for a brand new set of consoles.

Now, as I said, this may not be a fair comparison, as studios like Naughty Dog and BioWare may have access to more resources than Capcom does, but even so. If those Western teams can make such huge strides in just a couple of years, why can't Capcom?

[Zombie Fred]

Maybe it's not fair to make this comparison, as I'm not entirely certain how Capcom's resources compare to these other companies, but the thing that I think still irks me the most is when you look at certain Western titles like Uncharted 2 or Mass Effect 2, for example. These titles were only in development for 2-3 years, and yet they were still such monumental leaps forward from their predecessors. It looks like other games like InFamous 2 and Dead Space 2 will be similar in that respect, though we won't know for certain until they're actually released.

Then you look at Resident Evil 5, which we know was in development for almost five years. Despite that fact, we get a game that could have easily been done on the previous generation of consoles (the graphics notwithstanding) and probably in less time, to boot. Heck, the game is even full of reused assets, which, in my opinion, is inexcusable when you consider how long the game was in development and the fact that it was developed for a brand new set of consoles.

Now, as I said, this may not be a fair comparison, as studios like Naughty Dog and BioWare may have access to more resources than Capcom does, but even so. If those Western teams can make such huge strides in just a couple of years, why can't Capcom?

I think honestly is the most bet would have to do with MT's production over the course years and their production approach compared to how fast Western development did this generation. It was constantly updated over past games - from Dead Rising, Devil May Cry 4 - to Resident Evil 5. MT 2.0 must have got the mile stone number after a significant leap from its vanilla release. It could be with how Capcom's internal project teams share and use their resources when producing these games. Compare with how far Unreal 3 has changed quickly and then look at games like with Mass Effect 1 and 2, Batman and other big U3 game releases, these games had much a much bigger punch in features and length, these games were only around a two year production set (outside of pre-development with like Mass Effect), and that’s only looking at Unreal 3 when you think on other engines; EA Redmond/Viscerals’ dead space Engine or with Sonys’ ICE engine on Uncharted and other titles have evolved in a short amount of time.

It just boils to how quickly technology overseas from Japan has been better implemented and ready this generation compared to the past. Capcom is not the worst of the bunch though (Square Enix with Final Fantasy 13 is one of the worst offenders) and they’ve tried to adapt to an approach to help release a number of new and old IPs’ over the years but management and planning has been far weaker on production when you look at Western titles.

[Archelon]

It kind of makes me wonder how the game would have turned out (or perhaps how long it would have taken to develop) had they used an engine like Unreal. I know very early on Takeuchi mentioned they were looking into the possibility of using Unreal or another similar engine to help reduce development time, but obviously that didn't happen.

Also, I'm still not entirely sold on the idea that producing the cutscenes in Hollywood was really all that necessary. I've asked this before, but does anyone know if Capcom allocated funds specifically for the cutscenes? If the production costs for the cutscenes and the game development were entirely separate, then it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference had the cutscenes been handled in-house, but if all of the money was basically in one big pot, I'd be interested to find out how much of it was spent on the cutscenes and how much was spent on the actual game.

I only bring this up because the cutscenes in both Lost in Nightmares (okay, so there was really only one in LiN) and Desperate Escape certainly didn't suffer from lacking the Hollywood treatment.

[Zombie Fred]

I only bring this up because the cutscenes in both Lost in Nightmares (okay, so there was really only one in LiN) and Desperate Escape certainly didn't suffer from lacking the Hollywood treatment.

I think I remember hearing the production team being slightly disappointed on the cut scene work being imported to external teams. I bet that was involved on the games production time and certain things being changed. But I guess the best outcome from all of this would be boosting some confidence or change within Capcom on the next game to work harder after the reception being not that fond on the games' direction and fan criticism, and then the experiance with the production on 5 might be changed to be faster (and better in some regards to resource allocation).

[Det. Beauregard]

*The Tanker stage was originally supposed to be completely open so that the player would be able to explore every inch of it.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Due to the co-op nature, they had no choice but to dumb it down and make it completely linear. I can seriously think of TWO locations in the game that aren't linear, and that's just sad.

[xfactor]

i was suppose to buy the book today. I guess I'll get it tomorrow.

[Vixtro]

It's seems to me that a few of you guys are forgetting what did the series in before this game. As bad as RE5 turned out to be and how much worse it seems to be now that we know what it could (should) have been, RE4 is the real culprit to blame here and is the sole reason for this poor show of sequels for over 5 years running now.

Now Capcom knows that dumb generic action and sex appeal (which was always mild in the past games) sells a Resident Evil game, how can the series possibly recover and get it back to what the true RE fans really want?