Remember when Resident Evil started on its journey into prequel and spinoff territory? The pathway which led us to such mistakes as Resident Evil: Gun Survivor and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City began with earlier titles that were on the whole pretty damn impressive. Resident Evil Zero and Code Veronica hold a special place in the hearts of many as a pair of Resident Evil games that didn’t follow the traditional series of 1-6, yet were able to be great games. Their creature designs were astonishing and the gameplay itself wasn’t anything to be sniffed at.
Thanks to the Project Umbrella group, a fan collective for all things Resident Evil, a collection of concepts emerged today that show off just how daring the designs were. According to a post on neoGAF, the group came into contact with concept artist Satoshi Nakai who worked for Capcom on the art for these games (as well as Resident Evil 3). That then lead them to being given access to a collection of concepts for Resident Evil Zero, Code Veronica, and 3, which they proceeded to “sit on” for two years. Until now that is.
Here’s just three of the pieces of concept art, showing the Hunter and Gulp Worm along with an environmental concept for the train in Resident Evil Zero.
All of these images and more are available in the imgur gallery which was linked from the original thread. Of particular interest to many will be the concepts for Rebecca Chambers and Billy which appear about half way through the gallery. There’s also a few images of the Leech right down at the bottom which simply have to be seen to be believed.
Would you like to have seen some of this concept art before today? Do you think they should go back to having monsters like these rather than the Las Plagas which infect Resident Evil titles of this era? Let us know in the comments
