So, does that make the house itself a zombie?
An industrious, frighteningly dedicated fan, using the nom de internet “Cryptic,” has built a wildly detailed, to-scale recreation of the mansion from Capcom’s original Resident Evil within the Halo: Reach level editor.
He explains:
My idea to recapture the essence of the Spencer Mansion in Halo has existed since Halo 2, which became an actual goal during Halo 3. For all I knew before Reach came out, this recreation had to compliment the original in every way in order for me to be satisfied. I’ve been constructing this map as a 1:1 remake, followed by its series of Infection gametypes I like to label as “Survival Infection,” for over a year now; Pretty much since the release of Reach.
And how did his efforts pan out? As you can see in that video walkthrough embedded at top-right, aside from the necessarily lacking textures of the original game, the new mansion is a dead-ringer for the original.
(“Dead-ringer.” Get it? Because, y’know, zombies and stuff?)
While I have to commend Mr. Cryptic on his attention to detail — seriously, that layout is just spot-on — the actual tour of the mansion redux only serves as a reminder that the environment, when taken by itself, isn’t all that frightening.
As it stands, this is merely an excellent call-back to a seminal moment in gaming history. Not “perfect,” mind you. That would require half-rotted dogs leaping through the windows and at least one Master of Unlocking.
I suppose, if you’re willing to settle for simple excellence, you might want to have a look at the mansion’s ForgeHub page which offers full details on the map, the Resident Evil-inspired gametypes that go along with it and how you can download all of the above.
Just try to hide your disappointment when you discover the striking lack of inexplicable basement-dwelling sharks.
