Resident Evil’s Remakes Could Be Even Better With a New…

The announcement of the Resident Evil 2 remake at E3 2018 was met with varied reactions, but few of them involved skepticism. The original RE2 was already one of the most beloved survival horror games out there, and after the successful launch of Resident Evil 7 a year prior, many gamers were confident that Capcom knew what it was doing with the remake. Sure enough, 2019's Resident Evil 2 did indeed turn out to be a hit, but not a lot of people could have guessed just how popular the game would end up being. The remake overtook the sales of the original Resident Evil 2 in less than a year, and by 2023, it became the best-selling installment in the entire Resident Evil franchise.

Resident Evil 2's success incentivized Capcom to make remakes of two other beloved installments in the series, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4. These two remakes were released over the next four years, and although they didn't surpass RE2 sales-wise, both ended up finding a spot among Capcom's most commercially successful games of all time. The Resident Evil remakes are all largely great in their current state, but Capcom could make them even better by taking some inspiration from a fellow survival horror video game, The Last of Us Part 2.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s Chronological Mode Can Finally Put One Controversy to Rest

Naughty Dog has revealed the Chronological mode for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and it could finally end an ongoing debate.

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By LB Beistad

The Resident Evil Remakes Should Get a Chronological Mode, Just Like the One in TLOU Part 2

A New Feature in TLOU Part 2 Remastered Lets Players Experience the Game's Story in a Whole New Way

The Last of Us Part 2, the 2020 sequel to TLOU on PS3, wasn't exactly the most unanimously acclaimed game at launch. Although the hit horror title was lauded by professional critics, its story and characters had a mixed reception from players. Some fans complained about the direction that developer Naughty Dog took with the game, while others criticized the somewhat confusing nature of its non-linear narrative. Luckily, Naughty Dog has responded to some of these complaints by releasing some new content for the game, more than five years after its initial debut.

A few days ago, Naughty Dog and fellow PlayStation studio Nixxes dropped a surprise update for The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered on PS5 and PC that added a new feature to the game called Chronological Mode. This mode, as its name implies, allows players to experience the events of TLOU Part 2 in chronological order, without flashbacks or flash-forwards of any kind. While it isn't necessarily the best way for newcomers to play the game, Chronological Mode allows experienced The Last of Us Part 2 players to get a better insight into its overall narrative, according to Naughty Dog.

Capcom Should Give Players the Option to Play the Resident Evil Remakes in Chronological Order

The recent Resident Evil remakes aren't nearly as convoluted as The Last of Us Part 2 is, storywise, but they aren't as intrinsically connected as some might think. While the plots of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4 are mostly linear, these games aren't direct sequels to each other. Resident Evil 2 takes place during the events of Resident Evil 3; this means that RE3 is, in a sense, both a sequel and a prequel to the game. Resident Evil 4, meanwhile, has an Ada Wong-focused DLC titled Separate Ways, which is set before the events of the main game.

It's worth noting that the Resident Evil 2 remake has two different campaigns, one with Claire Redfield and another with Leon Kennedy. Since there are some narrative inconsistencies between them, it's hard to tell which one fits into the overall Resident Evil timeline.

While the chances of this happening are perhaps somewhat slim, it would be great if Capcom added a Chronological Mode of sorts to the modern Resident Evil remakes and allowed players to experience them in sequential order without having to switch between titles. This, admittedly, would be a bit more difficult to do compared to The Last of Us Part 2, since Capcom would have to re-release Resident Evil 2 and 3 and combine them into a single, standalone game. In the case of Resident Evil 4, however, the company could just integrate the Separate Ways DLC into the base game itself, which probably wouldn't require a lot of hassle. Regardless of the specifics, though, a chronological mode would give the Resident Evil remakes even more replay value than they already have.