Resident evil 5's former self

I stumbled across some Resident evil 5 concept art that I couldn't stop looking at. Purely because it shows that at one time Resident evil 5 was far from the game we both love and hate in equal measure. It doesn't come as a surprise. Resident evil 2 is famous for having been near completion, before being scrapped and re-worked on pretty much from scratch. And Resident evil 4 is noted for its drastic change in direction from 'the haunted mansion' and hook-man demos. It seems 5 at one point was also a different game. Whether the game was developed and partially completed under the original story and concept is unknown. But the artwork is interesting to flick through. Check out more images after the jump, as well as a run down of what we could have had.

This concept art shows that at one point Resident evil 5 was going more in the direction the series should have been going in, instead of some cheap action game cop out that was kinda fun, but underwhelming.

Notable things are...

• There are are more B.O.W's.
• A Tyrant variant B.O.W existed and was mean mugging around Kijuju.
• Excella was NOT sexy at all.
• Excella got impaled instead of swallowed from the inside out by a piece of tentacled doo-doo.
• There is a greater contrast between light and dark area's (Something Capcom said would be highlighted in the game when the very first trailer released).
• Chris still looked like Chris, and not some over muscled jock.
• Jill has no Battle suit. And there-by no titties on display.
• Sheva was NOT sexy.
• We see the aftermath of Jill and Wesker's fall from the Spencer estate window.
• Jill was to play a MUCH bigger role.
• Sheva gets captured at one point.

I've always felt that Sheva was only given more of a leading role to counter the 'white vs. black' argument many made when the big Resident evil 5 trailer was released. Having Chris and Jill back together again would've made much more sense. But could you imagine the backlash if Capcom had Chris AND Jill wiping out n***a's in Kijuju!? Capcom employees would have to go into hiding, and bow for a solid 4 minutes and 35 seconds in a YouTube video in apology.

Jill definitely should have played a bigger role and been the leading lady in Resident evil 5. It's because of her that Wesker's research was able to jump leaps and bounds and create Uroboros. She and Chris should have been the ones to fight Wesker in the end. Just to draw the ultimate line under the whole chapter, and have it be the picturesque fall to Wesker and Umbrella that fans deserved. Jill didn't truly get pay back on Wesker: for not only raping her with viruses, but killing many of her S.T.A.R.S members. Capcom shouldn't have denied her that.

What's done is done now. But it's interesting to think that at one point the concept arts and ideas were different to what made the final game, and that many of the ideas actually seemed better. These concepts arts look very much like an RE game. Where-as 5 didn't feel like Resident evil at all. At least not the RE many of us remembered. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from here, as it could really go any which way and anything could go at this point.

You can check out shit loads more Resident evil concept art here @ Resident evil centre.
The verdict: Resident evil 5 review