sisslethecat
While most of the attention has been directed at the newly nosed redesign of the Nemesis, Resident Evil 3 Remake has redesigned pretty much everyone to some degree. Thus far the only character who seems to have gone basically unchanged is S.T.A.R.S. pilot Brad Vickers, as Jill Valentine and the entire U.B.C.S. squad has gone through a slew of minor to major redesigns. Perhaps the most significant is that of Carlos Olivera, the U.B.C.S. mercenary Jill befriends midway through her last escape. We haven’t gotten the chance to see much of him thus far, with only three brief shots (as in literal seconds) in the reveal trailer, the box art render, and a screenshot released when the game was revealed. Well, we finally have a new, full look at his redesign thanks to an early morning Instagram Story posted by Capcom France.
Just drink in all that man. Resident Evil 3 Remake, following suit with REmake (2002) and REmake 2 (2019), is making a concentrated effort to make the characters and costumes more realistic and believable. Carlos’ upgrade here is probably the biggest change any character has received between the three REmake titles, and I’m personally pretty happy with it. Carlos hasn’t gotten many chances to shine, appearing only twice more outside of his appearance in the original RE3 — The Umbrella Chronicles (2007) and Operation Raccoon City (2012), so giving the character a once over was needed to flesh him out more. Carlos’ history of being an ex-Communist guerrilla fighter in South America turned mercenary for the (unknowingly) cannon-fodder Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service never really fit with how much of a pretty-boy he’d been before. Sporting a surprisingly clean look and semi-Leon-ish hair, Carlos always felt weirdly inconsistent with his backstory and the lore surrounding the U.B.C.S.. Now, Carlos appears as a rugged, tired-looking merc — unshaven, hair a mess, and a generally more dangerous vibe about him.
Fans have been quick to point out that his new digs are perhaps a bit too advanced for 1998 military garb, which has been a problem across both of these modern REmakes (as cool as the USB S.T.A.R.S. badge is, the USB stick was not invented until two years later in 2000). It is a bit weird that Capcom is just shrugging on this stuff (especially when Blue Umbrella was shown to be using ancient early 2000s PCs in RE7’s End of Zoe DLC), but it’s most likely aesthetic over era-accuracy. It’s also worth mentioning that Umbrella Corporation’s omnipresence in the tech industy and military contracts may have skipped the universe of Resident Evil ahead a few decades, especially considering we see people using the cosmic cube as a telephone in RE6.
Capcom has promised a new trailer this month that will be showing off more of Carlos and Nemesis, and I can’t wait. We haven’t even really heard Carlos speak (there’s a line that plays over footage of him in the trailer, but it’s hard to tell if it’s actually him speaking) and we’ve only heard Nemesis’ classic line twice so far (both times it’s a bit hard to hear as well). We’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available!
Resident Evil 3 Remake releases on April 3rd across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam.
