Modder Discovers Cut Animations in REmake 2

Well, that answers a few questions. As amazing as REmake 2 is (I gave it a glowing 10/10 review and consider it one of the best games in the series), many fans questioned some of the exclusions made. While the original REmake not only included every single enemy (and also added an entirely new zombie class and boss monster), REmake 2 cut four enemies and altered two of the existing ones. The giant moth, it’s larva, giant spiders, and crows were all MIA from an otherwise incredible remake — although small nods to their presence can be found (a small cluster of normal moths in the lab, some webbing on the ceiling in the sewers, distant crowing when exploring behind Kendo’s). I’ve had theories on why certain things are missing (spiders could be being saved for REmake 3, where they played a more prominent role in the clocktower than they did anywhere in RE2), but it looks like a few things may have been planned — but never saw the light of day.

I got the chance to talk to modder and web designer @XxCRAZYPOTATOxX , who explained that while “working on a few mods that needed to be tested” and was “using a new script (a plug-in of sorts for a 3d program” to easily test for issues with their mod. While doing so, Potato discovered a few interesting leftovers in REmake 2‘s data that expose at least a smidge of cut content:

Looks like, at one point, crows may have been included (possibly larger moths as well, but who knows). I’m curious if this feature was cut due to time, or if the crows were straight up just not a great addition. Thus far the only game to include crows as an enemy (RE4 and 5 have crows but they’re normal, alive crows and they’re full of money) was Umbrella Corps, and they were an annoying bitch in that game. Pecking away at you from above your line of vision, they added nothing to the game and only ever served as a frustrating (and often unnoticed until the last second) source of unnecessary damage. Seeing this animation, which has the character standing still (as opposed to moving) suggests the idea of crows stunning the player, which could have been annoying in succession. Who knows though.

These two are both returning from the original RE2 (and RE1 and 3 for that matter) insta-kills. In almost all of the pre-RE4 games, being grabbed from below would automatically have the player character either stomped down on a zombie’s head, or kicking it straight off (for female characters). Considering the serious tone, and the deliberately vague HP of zombies, I can see why this was cut. The kick especially would look pretty comical with the way REmake 2 presents itself. Awesome as hell, yes, but silly as hell too. The HP issue is probably what really axed this function, though, as REmake 2‘s wonderful dismemberment system would essentially end up recreating the same action-based gameplay of Resident Evil 5. While it probably wouldn’t have been a button prompt like that game, the concept of shooting out an enemy’s legs so you could run over and stomp their memories of childhood away would make the player overpowered (as well as massively undercutting the risk/reward of defense items).

Finally, one of their latest discoveries is what looks like a recreation of the original up/center/down knifing animation from RE2 Classic (and indeed all of the fixed camera games). First of all, it’s freaking adorable that they seriously are using Tofu here for collision testing — and second, it’s most likely this is left over from the version of REmake 2 that included a fixed camera mode. This was planned to be included but was cut closer to completion due to them wanting to focus on the intensity of zombie encounters (as much as I love the fixed camera games, fighting zombies in those vs REmake 2 are nothing alike). It’s possible the stomp, kick, and crow animations could be from this version as well. Them all still being left over in the data makes me wonder if it’s possible to rig them back into the game if a fixed camera mod were to ever be made (note — I know fuckall about game coding, I’m sure it’s probably a lot more impossible than I imagine).

That’s all for now, but it’s possible there’s even more to discover. The fact some of this stuff is still floating around in the code makes me hopeful that maybe there could be a Director’s Cut type deal in future, a budget version of REmake 2 that restores fixed camera gameplay and design. I’m not holding my breath, though. There was Dead Rising 2: Off the Record… sigh, I should stop. You can look forward to a collaboration mod coming from XxCRAZYPOTATOxX, ZOMBIΞALI, and JTeghius Kittius called Project 98, which aims to replace all of REmake 2‘s models with the original 1998 PS1 models. It’s honestly pretty rad, and will be fun once it releases to match up with the ’98 costumes for Leon and Claire (if I can bare to say farewell to Beachboy X).

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