Many people consider Resident Evil (2002) to be one of the greatest video game remakes of all time, if not the outright best of the bunch. It’s a remake so good, one could make a compelling case for it being the best remake of all time, period, regardless of medium.
Resident Evil (2002) approaches its source material with a profound amount of respect, only changing and adding new details in order to either make the game scarier or more realistic. While this results in an experience that’s very true to the spirit of the original PS1 release, it can be easy to overlook just how many changes the remake makes to the series’ canon. Not so much in the sense of retconning information, but actually weaving RE1 better into the main narrative.
10 George Trevor
As Resident Evil further grounded itself in reality with the remake, it only made sense for Capcom to try to explain some of the first game’s oddities: like all the puzzles. Enter George Trevor, a New York architect hired by Oswell E. Spencer to build the Spencer Estate that Chris and Jill go through.
Hired specifically because Trevor’s architectural sensibilities led to his design heavily incorporating secret rooms and a structure that would be unfriendly to any intruders, this actually explains the puzzles in-game quite well. Players even find George’s notes throughout their journey.
9 Crimson Heads
Crimson Heads are the remake’s most substantial change from a gameplay perspective. In the original game, downed zombies were dead for good. A pool of blood would form under them, signalling to players that they were now safe. While death cues are still present in the remake, one might notice that zombies now leave bodies behind.
Leave one alive for too long and they become the deathly terrifying Crimson Head, a super durable zombie that can hit as hard as it can run fast. If you aren’t burning bodies, consider yourself dead. Resident Evil 2’s remake mercifully omits the Crimson Heads, but this just means Capcom can double down on the horror of Raccoon City with RE3. But that may be too much with Nemesis.
8 A Fuller Mansion
With the introduction of George Trevor came the introduction of a much fuller mansion. The first game’s Spencer Estate is fine enough, and certainly gets the job done, but it’s also a bit lacking. It’s small, short, and more a big house than it is a proper mansion. The remake’s mansion is incredibly spacious, twisting into new rooms and extensions the mansion never had.
The outdoor area has seen a considerable face lift, with far more to explore this time around. It goes without saying, but the remake’s mansion is far more dangerous as a result, recontextualizing Chris and Jill’s night of horror.
7 More Aggressive T-Virus
Capcom’s rule of thumb with Resident Evil’s zombies seems to be escalation. If they aren’t tripping up fans with each new game, Capcom’s doing something wrong. This has naturally led to them overcorrecting and just veering in a worse direction, but the remake approaches this concept well.
Not only are zombies more durable than they were in the original release, the GameCube’s stellar specs allowed for Capcom to show the effects of the T-Virus in a far more aggressive manner. Zombies are much more violent than they were before, grotesquely ripping and tearing at their prey. It’s very visceral.
6 Fun With Forrest
Poor Forest never stood a chance. In the original game, he’s already been pecked to death by the time players find his body. The Director’s Cut brings him to life as a zombie who attacks Jill and Chris, and Deadly Silence makes him a boss in a side mode. The remake has the most fun with Forest, though.
This time around, he springs back to life and immediately gives chase. He’s aggressively fast, too. Upon clearing the game on Hard, players can then unlock “One Dangerous Zombie,” a mode where Forest chases the player throughout the mansion with bombs strapped to his body. Given the loose nature of canon in Resident Evil, who’s to say some variation of this didn’t happen?
5 Setup For Future Games
One of the most meaningful changes the Resident Evil remake makes to the canon is actually tying the first game to later entries. Now, obviously Capcom wouldn’t have had the foresight to do this in the original game, but a remake presents a natural opportunity to weave the series’ canon better together.
And that it does — in the most minor of ways, too. A letter from William Birkin at the end of the game namedrops Alexia Ashford, carefully setting up the events of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica without indulging in blatant fan service. Not just that, the remake namedrops a strain with connections to Nemesis, tying the game to RE3 as well.
4 Rebecca’s Demeanor
Everyone’s personality changes to some degree going from the original game to the remake, but Rebecca’s is the most blatant if only because grounding her personality makes her demeanor in the game much stranger (in a way that actually makes more sense, too.) Rebecca is quiet, distant, and just socially awkward. She isn’t chipper or upbeat anymore.
But then you consider the facts: she’s been awake for days, she’s low on ammo, she’s watched her entire team die, Billy abandoned her to head into the woods, and she keeps almost dying with only Chris to keep her alive. It only makes sense she’s so scattered.
3 The Story’s Tone
Speaking of the remake being a more grounded game in general, it’s worth just discussing the tonal shift from Resident Evil 1 to Resident Evil (2002). While the spirit of the game’s core design is intact, RE’s remake tones down the color, dims the lighting, and opts for camera angles that produce a more realistic (while still incredibly cinematic) tone.
The Spencer Estate basically goes from a spooky B-movie setting to a masterclass in how to appropriately set the tone for a horror story. Resident Evil 2’s remake keeps the grounded feel of the original remake, so hopefully Resident Evil 3 will only continue the trend when it releases in March.
2 The Life And Death Of Richard
Richard doesn’t do all too much in the original game as one of the earliest victims players stumble upon, but he does see a very interesting facelift in the remake. Should players manage to get him Serum fast enough, Richard will actually stay alive for a bit longer, even bestowing his Assault Shotgun on the player when he does die.
When playing as Jill, Richard will die pretty much right away. He’ll save Jill from Yawn, getting eaten in the process. This gives Jill the Assault Shotgun very early on, making the rest of the mansion a breeze. Chris, on the other hand, has to wait until he’s confronting Neptune for Richard to show up and get eaten.
1 Lisa Trevor
George isn’t the only Trevor added into the remake. Unfortunately, after building the manor, George’s family was wife and daughter were abducted and experimented on. His wife passed, but his daughter mutated into something grotesque. Lisa Trevor is one of the saddest and most unsettling characters in the entire franchise.
A girl robbed of her life and family, Lisa Trevor roams the outskirts of the Spencer Estate in agony, wandering and mindlessly killing anyone she finds. Her only true moment of sentience is when she sees her mother’s corpse. It’s surprisingly a somber addition for a game that was once so cheesy.
NEXT: Resident Evil: Every Main Character Ranked By Their Survival Skills
