Under less than ideal conditions a fan restoration project for the canceled Resident Evil 2 title, more commonly known as Resident Evil 1.5, has been released for public consumption. This is not a final release, it's not even a fully working release, instead it was put out to combat a developer who had acquired the code and was using it for nefarious means. While not the best circumstances, it's great to see the project is alive.

While the details are left purposefully nonspecific, a friend of the company with which a mutual code share had occurred took said Resident Evil 1.5 code and tried to use it for their own profit. It's alluded to that he tried to sell it for profit, as well as posting screenshots and code snippets merely for attention. Remember, this project was previously announced. 

In order to combat this developer's unprofessional use of their code, the restoration project's developers have simply released a version of the game to the public. The version released is representative of the work that was stolen, not of the current state of the project. Thus, the game is incomplete -- saves don't work, severe bugs remain in the game, and content is ... well, missing.

Nevertheless a Resident Evil 1.5 restoration project is in the works and hopefully we'll all be able to try it out in a finished state soon. That is, unless Capcom smells blood in the water and decided to quash our dreams with their legal team. Hopefully that isn't the case. Check out the source for links to the release.