sisslethecat
Photographs were a pretty big part of Resident Evil 2 back in the day. Finding and developing rolls of film helped flesh out the lore and even give us hints at upcoming areas. Most famously, an Easter Egg was hidden in one film roll that has gone on to become a pretty popular joke among RE fans, Film D, which showed RE1 survivor Rebecca Chambers in gym gear with a basketball (popular enough that it even received an update with an official DLC costume in RE0 HD). All of these photos were developed in the RPD dark room, a small off-shoot from the RPD West safe room, and this feature and area are making a return in the remake. In fact, the dark room safe area is one of the few spaces in RE2 Remake to still look more or less identical to its original incarnation. That said, one fan managed to spot a sneaky Easter egg hiding in plain sight in the dark room.
While editing a video for their website, NewGamePlus, Twitter user @demartinifelipe spotted a familiar image mixed in among other photos in the dark room developing station. While it’s actually pretty damn hard to see in-game (due to not only the photo being deliberately muddier than the others surrounding it, and the dark nature of the game’s lighting), RE superfan Where’s Barry managed to color correct the screenshot to give us a clearer look:
Yep, that sure as hell looks like the S.T.A.R.S. family portrait that hung behind Captain Albert Wesker’s desk in the original RE2. This photo was bittersweet for fans back in the day, seeing the entire S.T.A.R.S. team (sans Rebecca, who hadn’t joined when the photo was taken) together before the events of the original game. It gave us both a clearer glimpses at the doomed members like Enrico, Kenneth, and Forest, but also fond looks at Chris and Jill. It only helped to cement the mix of nostalgia and loss upon entering the empty S.T.A.R.S. office, and those feelings have only grown stronger over the years. Odds are good that this photo will most likely be recreated in RE2 Remake, possibly even using the REmake character models to further impact us with nostalgia and build a bridge between the two games.
In the meantime, all we have for now is this blurry little shout out to yesteryear, as the S.T.A.R.S. office is inaccessible in the demo. I can’t wait to see the location as it will be in the final game, especially seeing as it appears to be much larger than before with a new armory room. It’s becoming increasingly clear that RE2 Remake is simply going to be jam packed with Easter eggs from top to bottom, both looking back and marching forward. I simply can’t wait.
