Resident Evil 1.5 / Biohazard 1.5 (also known as BIOHAZARD 2 PROTOTYPE) is the development name given to the first iteration of Resident Evil 2, which was scrapped in 1997.

As the game was approaching its May 1997 release date, the developers were dissatisfied with the resulting product. Rather than releasing a game they were unhappy with, the developers took the risk of cancelling the game and developing the game again from scratch.

After the S.T.A.R.S. investigation during the Mansion Incident, news of Umbrella's illegal biological experiments was made public. In what would become known as the "Umbrella Incident", the company subsequently collapsed and its facilities in Raccoon City were carefully guarded by members of the Raccoon City Police Department. Two months later, a mysterious skin disease begins to spread around Raccoon City, with those dying from it rising as zombies. Excerpt The police department, despite its modern riot defenses, soon falls to the infection but not without attempts to seal them behind shutters.