sisslethecat
Because I’m super hyped and don’t know what to do with myself (and I also really love doing these), here’s a gigantic ass breakdown of the latest Resident Evil 3 Remake trailer and the accompanying screenshots and info. The last trailer we saw was during the December Sony State of Play stream, which was the game’s official reveal. We had a lot to go through there — or so I thought. The absolutely insane amount of info here is staggering. SO, let’s get to it, shall we?
The very first thing we see is the opening of the previous trailer, this time in third person (as opposed to first-person). The most notable part of it lasts for less than a second — Nemesis’ face, or lack thereof. Nemesis appears to be wearing a mask, although a more apt description may be that the sort of trash-bag wrapping he’s wearing seems to be stapled over his face as well. This is pretty neat for a couple of reasons, first in that it seems to emphasize the “not really quite ready yet” vibe of Nemesis, as he is technically still a prototype (not a factory-line cloned terminator the way Mr. X is), and second that it gives us our first clue into something I was really hoping for. The overall hood-like design feels as though it’s meant to give off a medieval executioner vibe, which is very fitting. We’ll go into that a bit later, but the main point is that Nemmy will start with this black bag thing stapled to his skull, and we’ll probably be the ones to blow it off. Thanks to Where’s Barry for noticing it first.
Next, we see Nemesis pick up and physically throw Jill down the burning hallway, akin to Mr. X’s new face-grabbing move from REmake 2. Nemesis was the original skull clencher, so this seems only fitting for Resident Evil 3 Remake to follow suit.
Smash cut to another classic Nemesis move, the ol’ grab ‘n yank. Nemesis pulls out his tentacles for the first time in a Resident Evil game since 2007’s The Umbrella Chronicles, yanking Jill onto the tarmac. This move was one of his in the original game, used in basically the exact same way — to pull Jill within arms’ reach. We can also see the power substation, which appears to be a major part of the story, off in the distance.
Interestingly, the following shot seems to be a repositioned angle on this same move, perhaps to allow for more light. You can now see two dead zombies to Jill’s right (they’re clipping into each other a little if you wanted any surer sign of this being gameplay and not a cutscene) and Nemesis is standing closer to the scaffolding to the left (thus angling the camera that way as well).
I’m not quite sure what’s happening here, as the image is so dark. My best guess is that this is Nemesis pounding us into goo, and is thus one of these REmake‘s fancy new death screens. In REmake 2, death would be accompanied by a prolonged animation of our character of choice having various parts of themselves ripped/sliced off, their heads crushed, etc. An intimate look at how Nemesis treats his targets sounds just about right for Resident Evil 3 Remake.
We see a shot of Jill being blown back against the side of a car, in what looks like a cutscene from a completely different part of the game. Immediately after that, Carlos rushes up to her. It doesn’t appear to be from the same scene either, as the car is nowhere to be seen (although she could have crawled away).
Update: I hadn’t noticed Carlos throwing away a rocket launcher as he races to pick Jill up here (nice spotting, !) Odds are he blows Nemesis the fuck away here, and it’s possible he’s the one who burns off Nemesis’ new executioner’s mask.
Interesting to note that we can see the R.P.D. station in the distance, to the left. Based on the geography, this places us on the same cross street Leon/Claire start their 1st Scenario on, just a block away from Ennerdale Street, where the R.P.D. is located. I went and double-checked, and sure enough, that’s where we are. This also most likely puts us in front of the barricade seen in the previous batch of screenshots. Also, really emphasizes the change in pallet between the two games putting these images side-by-side (although to be fair I have HDR on in the RE2 pic)
Carlos pulls Jill to her feet and we get to hear a little more of him talking. It looks like we have, officially, left his accent (that drove all the foxy ladies crazy) in the dust. Nemesis steps out of the flames, mask off and teeth bared, which we also have a nice screenshot of. However, if we cut past the Capcom logo to the next scene, an expanded version of Carlos and Tyrell infiltrating the R.P.D. unfolds. While it might not seem that interesting at first glance, note that the barricaded entryway (which cuts off access between the 1st and 2nd scenario areas of the R.P.D. main entrance) is missing — not having been constructed yet. Here’s hoping we’ll get to see a less destroyed, dead version of the R.P.D. building in Resident Evil 3 Remake, as it’d be a great change from the wonky differences between revisiting it in RE3 Classic compared to RE2 Classic.
Next is the entrance to the Central Street Tram Station — now the Central Street – Redstone Street Subway Station. The tram had served as a hub of sorts for RE3 Classic’s activities, and seeing it referenced here as a cross entrance for the new subway area gives me a warm feeling. Raccoon’s subway line is hardly new, it appeared in Outbreak File #2 and subsequently The Umbrella Chronicles, (although that isn’t the same area, with that entrance being on South Raccoon Street, presumably a few dozen blocks down in Uptown Raccoon), but it was never really given a chance to shine. To the right, we can also see an Umbrella Corporation ad with a charming “No need to worry, we’ve got you covered” slogan above the image of a woman holding… an umbrella. Cute.
Next, we see that the U.B.C.S. has indeed rounded up a group of civilians inside the subway train car, which is something I had speculated on in the previous analysis (we even see the same shot I talked about again in this trailer). While none of them stand out (save for the blue jean jacketed woman to the right), I’m curious to know if we can interact with these survivors at all or not. We only ever really interact with one, Dario Rosso, in the original game, so this is a nice change of pace that can help illustrate the decline of the city (not to mention the whole point of the U.B.C.S. being sent in was to save civilians, at least on the surface). I don’t have high hopes for these people making it out of Resident Evil 3 Remake alive, though.
Here are a few reaction shots of Mikhail, Carlos, and Jill aboard the subway car, as Mikhail explains how desperate his team is. Cutting away from that, however, we get our first look at a returning location — Raccoon General Hospital. Originally, this was Carlos’ one playable section, after [spoilers] and he’s forced to search it looking for [spoilers]. Now, it appears he’ll have two: the R.P.D. and the Hospital. A completely redesigned interior, from the looks of it, with much wider corridors and a more streamlined appearance. The original hospital was very claustrophobic (to a point that I’m not sure how they got gurneys around) and small, so expanding it into something more like Raccoon City Hospital (the building seen in Operation Raccoon City) makes more sense. Resident Evil 3 Remake is making some pretty huge changes to certain sections of the map (honestly, it’s pretty cool they’ve kept as much intact as they have), so I expect quite a bit will have been reshuffled.
It’s also worth noting that the hospital is not marked on the map we’ve seen, simply a blank area of buildings beneath the “This area not explored yet” writing. The building that was Raccoon General in the original RE3 is still visible here, so it might still be the same location.
Next, we have a shot of Jill pumping hot lead into a few zombies standing in an alleyway, with a trusty pump-action shotgun. It appears to be the same W-870 Shotty from REmake 2, but only upgraded with the stock, and not the long barrel.
Finally, the big reveal of a creature many had speculated on — the Hunter, or rather, the Hunter β. This iteration on Umbrella’s reptilian nightmare that stalked the Spencer Estate is faster and more agile, plus significantly uglier. The image used here is a Capcom provided screenshot since it’s easier to see the creature. The main difference, however, is that they seem to be from two different builds, as the trailer version has a poster (Quality, Service, Satisfaction) on the wall, whereas Capcom’s screenshot replaces it with blood splatter.
Back in the subway, Jill and Carlos meet up with Nicholai and Tyrell. It’s interesting to see so much of Tyrell here, as the character literally only had seconds of screentime in the original RE3. Seeing these characters expanded on is a real treat. Nicholi yells at Jill for a bit, and while the new actor is doing just fine I can’t help but miss Rick D. Wasserman, who personified the silver fox with a chilling yet mocking performance in Operation Raccoon City.
Jill realizes that Nemesis’ primary target is her and ducks under a security gate to buy the U.B.C.S. some time. I’d have never noticed before, but we can actually see Nemmy rounding the corner here. Also, it kinda looks like the poster for Top Gun is on the wall there — likely a fun homage. I always figured Wesker was based on Iceman anyway. , It’s also a shoutout to Capcom’s old bullet-hell precursor 1942 (thanks again, Where’s Barry)
El Flambé! Nemesis steps into frame in an unknown location (we’ll find out more in the next image) hoisting with him an all-new weapon: a flamethrower. This weapon was previously seen in Nemesis’ reveal image, but it wasn’t obvious that that’s what it was. Fueled by a massive tank on his back, this giant flamethrower will roast anyone’s meat. Jill climbs up a ladder and out of the way just in time, into…
… the upper level of what appears to be an under-construction building. This is an entirely new area, not featured in the original game at all. Nemesis hoists himself up via tentacle, continuing to give chase. Jill makes it out onto the roof, where Nemesis decides to just make his own door. The trailer closes out here as we hear the rattling groan of Staaarrsss!
Or does it? We cut to a shot of Jill driving a car straight into Nemesis on the roof level of a parking lot. Odds are pretty good that this section will be completely scripted, similar to Resident Evil 6‘s (extremely) short moment behind the wheel of a car. Nemesis grabs and stops the car, but Jill is able to push the gas just that little bit extra to send them sailing off a roof (what looks like the top level of a parking garage). It’s hard to tell where exactly we are in terms of the city as a whole, the only identifying mark is a neon sign across the way reading “Store House Blue Mountain,” which we’ll learn a smidge more about later. Either way, Jill slams the car into Nemesis and sending both plummeting over the edge.
Update: Eagle-eyed Reddit users have discovered that Blue Mountain Store House is actually a location from the original Resident Evil 3!
This section appears to be much, much earlier in the game than the majority of this trailer, as Nemesis is actually still wearing his “executioner’s mask.” Considering that, the helicopter pick up either might happen at a different point in the story. Originally this scene came just slightly after the game’s mid-point serving as a fake-out ending. Either that, or it’s a completely different helicopter pick-up altogether.
We then cut to Carlos attempting to contact Jill over the radio. Odds are this is, again, from a completely different part of the game simply based on Nemesis still wearing the mask. Still very early, mind you, but from after a certain point in the story. There’s also a chance the audio isn’t even from this shot, and that Carlos is actually talking to Mikhail or someone here and the audio is from a different scene. Regardless, the main takeaway here is that Carlos and Tyrell have made it to their destination — the S.T.A.R.S. office inside the R.P.D. building. Even more interesting than that, however, is that (based on the angle of the shot, looking straight on at the door) Tyrell is hacking into or simply working on Jill’s personal computer. He seems to have placed some sort of device on top as well; it looks like a webcam, maybe he’s trying to make a call? He mostly appears to be going through messages or lines of code, so it’s possible one of the U.B.C.S.’ side objectives is to locate as much information about S.T.A.R.S. as possible. Remember that circle on the map indicating “S.T.A.R.S. survivor confirmed”? Future tension between Carlos and Jill may be at hand.
The trailer closes out here, as Jill coughs and gags in the wreckage of the car and Nemesis looms up out of the smoke. However, our journey of picking apart this stuff doesn’t end here, there are tons of new screenshots to dive into as well!
First off, we’ve got a very pissed off looking Dario Rosso. He’s been aged up a bit since his original appearance, more resembling that grumpy asshole from TWD Season One. Capcom has explained that his role will be expanded this time around, although the description from their website (He’s “reeling from the shock of losing his family, [rejecting] Jill’s pleas to escape the crumbling city”) sounds basically like his role in the original game.
This shot is potentially very telling if you recall the story of the original RE3. Jill and Mikhail staring in shock and horror at what looks like an explosion or at the very least fire. They are aboard the subway car here, and Mikhail is grabbing Jill’s arm, holding her back. In the original RE3, a very important moment took place aboard the cable car, in which Jill is held back by Mikhail. It’s one of my favorite moments in the original title and solidifies Mikhail as one of my favorite characters in the game. There’s always the possibility that Resident Evil 3 Remake will be changing things up a bit, though.
Here we have a shot of what appears to be sort of a happenin’ place in Raccoon, a market district of sorts. We see Moon’s Donuts, a crab shack, the aforementioned Blue Mountain Store House, and off in the distance Rich Clothes: Women’s Clothing Made to Order. I’ve looked over the new map to try and figure out where this place might be, as the only real clue we have is that Blue Mountain is across from the parking structure, and the “big rectangle” makes up about 90% of this map. My best guess is inside that aforementioned “S.T.A.R.S. Survivor” area circled on the map. That location holds significance as it would be the same area as the Downtown market district from the original RE3.
Another angle of the same location (confirmed by the crab shack). The interesting thing here is that Moon’s Donuts now appears to be ablaze. Whether this is the result of Nemesis’ new flamethrower or a scripted explosion it’s impossible to say, but if I had to guess, this is the result of a new take on Jill using a gas leak to blow up the back end of Grill 13 in the original game, most likely now replaced by Sam’s(?) Crabs.
The next few screenshots of Jill in interior locations (one in the subway car, the other two from the subway entrance we saw Nemmy in earlier, and another in a service tunnel in the sewers respectively), and while they’re gorgeous screenshots, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. The real fun comes with this next one.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but let’s go one by one. First off, Nemesis has Jill wrapped around the front end of his Rocket Launcher. This is either just an image put together in order to show off how badass and scary he is, or worse — this is something that can happen in-game, and I don’t see any reason why Nemesis wouldn’t just pull the trigger in this instance. Given that Nemesis still has his iconic launcher, gore is something I’m very (hesitantly) curious about. While Resident Evil used to have some pretty gruesome player deaths (with RE4 perhaps being the peak with decapitations, bisections, and face-melting) it’s steered away from them for the most part in recent years. Even then, the series has never really approached the level of just absolutely unrestrained player deaths that franchises like Dead Space and The Evil Within inhabit.
In the original Resident Evil 3, Jill was able to take quite a few rockets to the face before she died, and even then she just sort of collapsed. In the hyper-realistic world of Resident Evil 3 Remake, I find it a little harder to believe that Jill wouldn’t simply fly apart into bloody rags upon being hit even once. Odds are good Capcom still wouldn’t show that level of gore, most likely zooming the camera in or out as to obscure the death itself. Don’t get too worried about the chances of seeing our amazon blown to smithereens in too much detail.
We also see, just behind Nemesis, a familiar element that all classic RE3 fans will feel deeply nostalgic for. Towards the opening of the original game, one of the very first places we cross through is a small courtyard in the middle of intersecting alleyways, where a child has drawn a charming railway with chalk. It appears that it will be making a return, more or less in the same location from the looks of it as well. Here’s hoping we don’t find what’s left of the kids.
Update: Another image of Nemesis fighting Jill has appeared. This appears to be the same area as the shot of Nemesis hoisting Jill up in the air at the end of his launcher (note the burning tire on top of boxes and boards in the background). Take a look at Nemesis here, perhaps the clearest shot of just how much damage he’ll be able to take, and retain, at our hands; his Limiter is completely shredded to bits. We can also see the physical rocket loaded into the top of his launcher, it looks like it probably rotates in a new missile with each shot fired. It’s even possible we’ll see him reload his launcher manually (in the original game he just makes this sort of cocking motion with it), one rocket at a time.
We get a few badass hero shots of Mikhail and Murphey (I especially love the shot of Mikhail holding his gut), before we arrive at another grand image of Nemesis, this time giving us a more detailed look at his launcher. Bulky and forest green, it’s clearly taken some heavy inspiration for the Colonial Marines Pulse Rifle from the film Aliens (the top handle being the most obvious). The rocket is now laser-guided as well, most likely more for our benefit than his. Now that movement is a lot more complicated, the world itself is a lot denser (and the launcher is probably a one-hit kill). Having a clearer tell of where Nemmy is pointin’ that thing is a must. The laser sweeping across an area, zeroing in on us, will give the player a good line of sight on when and how to move in Resident Evil 3 Remake.
These next two shots I’m going to put back-to-back for the sake of pointing something out:
Notice anything different about these two pictures? Nemesis has taken damage at some point in between them; his stomach area and right shoulder exposed behind shredded bits of his trash-bag suit. On top of that, the outfit in general looks a lot more tattered, all of which indicates that Nemesis will show the same amount of wear and tear as Jill does after each fight. The original RE3 did this to a much smaller extent. After a major boss fight, Nemesis is badly damaged and limps off into a fire where he subsequently goes into a reboot mode, collapsing and burning. Next time we see him, his limiter is completely destroyed, and the tentacles from the NE Parasite are consuming his body. It was pretty cool back in the day, but the idea that we’ll have clearer feedback on how Nemmy’s fights are taking just as much a tole on him as they are Jill in Resident Evil 3 Remake is a great touch.
Update: I’d been so focused on Nemmy I hadn’t actually paid that much attention to the background. This is, of course, the power substation, which appears to be playing a much larger role this time around (like, literally, it’s twice as big as the R.P.D. on the map), but @Matias_Redfield noticed that it appears to be covered in some sort of goo or muck. While not originally characteristic of them, it’s very possible that this is a sign of a Drain Demos infestation, an insect-like monstrosity that scurries around Raccoon and appears near the original power substation in RE3 Classic. It’s possible that this is why we’ll be visiting, the bugs have completely overrun the station and their alien-like cocooning is throttling power for the subway station.
We have another shot of Jill and Carlos in the subway station, Tyrell on Jill’s computer, and a scene where it looks like Jill walked in on Mikhail talking about how hot she is with the boys™. There isn’t much else to say here other than it looks really funny, but it’s fun to note the obvious movie homage poster to Aliens (STALKER here), tying together with the Top Gun poster from earlier, and what looks like ads for a lobster place (maybe Sam’s Crabs is having a special?) and a disco something or other.
Finally, there’s a shot of Carlos in what’s probably the main lobby of Raccoon General. Not a lot to talk about, but it’s still fun to see never the less. Again, the Resident Evil 3 Remake version will clearly be different, although the layout of the lobby is actually somewhat similar, in a purely map sense.
After that, all that’s left are the character art pictures, which aren’t all that remarkable. Carlos, Brad, Dario, the other U.B.C.S. mercs (Mikhail’s portrait mirrors his classic one), the most important one to go over however is Nemesis, as it’s our first full-body look at the pursuer.
Resplendent in black that flows down into a long skirt, Nemesis looks just as intimidating as ever. Despite the initial reaction to him now having a crooked little nose, it’s surprisingly invisible when the camera is pulled way out. The piping on his new heart-container (or whatever that is) is also clear to examine, and we can see the full length of his launcher. Just as Mr. X before him, Nemesis’ Resident Evil 3 Remake design captures exactly what made him intimidating in the first place while updating him into something fresh and terrifying for the new decade. We can also make out a radiation warning label mixed in with the other caution stickers all over him. Are you telling me this sucker’s radioactive?
That’s all for now, but expect more of this sort of shit as each new piece of footage and scrap of info is revealed. We can’t wait to get our hands on it, and luckily we don’t have too long to wait. Resident Evil 3 Remake releases on April 3rd (80 days away!) on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam.
