Resident Evil 2 Mod Adds In GTA: San Andreas’ C.J. And Big Smoke

A new fan-made mod has introduced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' C.J. and Big Smoke to Resident Evil 2.

Despite its mature themes and stories of mutagenic horror and corporate malevolence, Resident Evil rarely takes itself all that seriously. Be it the infamously corny Jill sandwich line in the original PlayStation title or the beguiling hysterics of Lucas Baker in Resident Evil 7, the series can occasionally come across as more of a comedy. Now, a modder by the name of beastgaminghd has taken things to the next level by replacing Leon and Mr. X with C.J. and Big Smoke from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Watching as the hulking, enigmatic Mr X. marches toward the player character incites some sort of primal fear that isn’t easily forgotten. However, it’s hilarious to see how quickly that can be subverted by a simple change of model. “You picked the wrong house, fool,” he shouts as a lifts part of a crashed helicopter out of his path toward the player. It’s quite literally the last thing any unwitting Resident Evil 2 player would expect, and perhaps that’s what makes it so funny.

This mod really isn’t much more than a palette swap, but it could make the game more palatable for those without much experience with the horror genre. The sequences featuring Mr. X are undoubtedly the most harrowing parts of the new remake, so turning them into a lighthearted joke could make the experience of trundling through the world’s most convoluted police station all the more tolerable.

It’s important to note that this is far from the first Mr. X mod to make its way into the new Resident Evil 2 remake. In fact, it’s been done so often that it has become something of a meme at this point. Shortly after the game was released in late January of 2019, a modder struck comedic gold by replacing X’s traditional pursuit soundtrack with DMX’s 2003 hip-hop classic "X Gon Give It To Ya". For those looking to spice things up for a second playthrough, this comes highly recommended.

Another modder took things to an even greater extreme by modding Thomas the Tank Engine — of all things — into the game. Truthfully, there’s something profoundly unnerving about watching a massive anthropomorphized locomotive slowly lurch toward Claire, and it could ruin someone’s childhood on multiple levels. Thomas has been something of a meme for quite some time, but this is a whole new level of strange.

It’s great to see the new Resident Evil 2 remake receive so much love from the modding community, particularly because it isn’t exactly the sort of game that is built with mod support in mind. Sure, what’s been done so far has mostly been put together for the sake of comedy, but it’s still something that players weren’t apt to get with the original version of the game.

It might only be a matter of days until some bright spark puts a Shrek Mr. X mod up on nexusmods, and that will probably go down as the greatest Resident Evil mod in history. Just imagine that hulking ogre shouting “get out of my swamp,” as he relentlessly stalks the game’s protagonists — it’s a comedic goldmine.

Until then, though, at least we can enjoy C.J. and Big Smoke.