Before Claire Redfield, Elza Walker Was Resident Evil 2’s Female Star

Prior to the Resident Evil 2 that we all know and love, Capcom had all but finished a completely different version of the game before scrapping it and starting over. That unfinished version has come to be known as Resident Evil 1.5.

Not much is known about Elza Walker aside from the facts that she likes motorcycles and attended Raccoon City University (sidenoted: Raccoon City University should totally be the next game in the RE franchise). Just like Claire Redfied, Elza’s support character was Sherry, but she also had another support character: Robert Kendo - the owner of the gun shop at the very beginning of RE2!

Taking a look at the concept art above, it’s easy to see how Elza’s design slowly changed into Claire Redfield. It even looks like they just reskinned her character model for the final game.

Check 10 minutes of footage from Resident Evil 1.5 below. Watching it feels like witnessing something from the alternate universe in Fringe.

While the police station looks completely different, it looks like most of the Umbrella lab stuff made it to the final version of the game. I wonder what happened to those zombie gorillas and mutant spider men though.

Yesterday Kotaku reported on a group of fans who somehow obtained the game’s code and are working on a playable build which you can check out a video of below.

With all the hype around HD re-releases, there could actually be a market for unreleased beta games like this. I can honestly say I’d pay around $40 for a copy of RE 1.5 that I could play on my PS3 or Vita, and there’s plenty of fans out there who would say the same. I just wonder if it would even be worth the effort for Capcom to polish the game off for digital retail.

Think about it, Capcom. Think about it.

(pics via)