The Resident Evil franchise has had a lot of heroes over the years, but few are as iconic as former S.T.A.R.S. alpha team point man Chris Redfield. He was the protagonist (along with Jill Valentine) of the very first game back in 1996 and has since appeared in Code VERONICA and Resident Evil 5-7.
One title he’s notably not in though is Resident Evil 2. Recently remade in stunning fashion by Capcom, Claire Redfield’s half of the game involves her searching for clues as to why her brother Chris has disappeared. But that might not be the case in the remake, as data-miners digging through the files have found a finished-looking Chris Redfield model.
From the looks of it, this model takes direct inspiration from his appearance as a member of the Umbrella PMC in Resident Evil 7 (and you play as him in that game’s free Not a Hero DLC). Given that (with some modding tweaks on the PC version) you can now play as this character model, some fans have taken it as a sign that he’s destined to make an appearance in future Resident Evil 2 DLC.
Sadly, I think this is an outside bet. You see, the events of the game take place in 1998, while Resident Evil 7 is set in 2017 – so you would expect a Chris Redfield just out of the Spencer Mansion incident to look 20 years younger than this character model. It’s not particularly likely that they’d do DLC set in the modern day either because, as fans of the series will know, Raccoon City’s now a crater.
My bet is that this model is in the code because the Resident Evil 2 remake is built on the RE Engine that powered Resident Evil 7. I would imagine that during development, Capcom were experimenting with the third-person controls and needed a suitable model to test things out, with the Chris Redfield one fitting the bill. Still, a Redfield-centric DLC would be pretty cool, don’t you think?
Published: Feb 25, 2019 10:30 am