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UPDATE: We had erroneously called one of the creatures shown in the gameplay footage spiders based on their movement and design. They have since been confirmed to be a newly redesigned combination of Drain Deimos and Brain Suckers, special for Resident Evil 3 Remake.
After just having commented on the lack of footage (especially gameplay footage) for the upcoming Resident Evil 3 Remake, low and behold there’s finally some footage! Gameplay footage from multiple major news sites including IGN, Easy Allies, and yesterday’s leaker GamerGen, we get our first real look at Resident Evil 3 Remake in action. There’s a ton of footage from different sources, but we get treated to zombie combat, street exploration, Nemesis himself, and tons more. Easy Allies will be the source I’ll use for most of this information.
First off, Easy Allies highlights how you can enter shops and other areas, making Raccoon City proper feel significantly more alive and open in comparison to the claustrophobic R.P.D. station from REmake 2. Likening it to Dead Rising, they explain how many there are and how they needed keys, lockpicks (which are now confirmed to be making a return), and boltcutters (from REmake 2 and RE7) — and that some stores may even be entirely optional, able to be explored for supplies.
Next, we get a little focus put on Jill’s dodge ability, which is returning from the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Easy Allies explains that R1/RB is now a dedicated dodge button, although it’s difficult to execute perfectly. As a reward for hitting that sweet-spot though, you’ll be able to execute a short slow-motion counter-attack. While I was skeptical at first of how far into action territory this was pushing it, the footage of Jill facing off against Nemesis that immediately followed made it pretty obvious why the dodge had been implemented in this way.
Nemmy has been turned up to 11. Running, leaping, punching, Nemesis is Mr. X on steroids. One shot in particular of Nemesis leaping past Jill and scraping up the pavement as he lands took my breath away. Lassoing you with his tentacles and yanking you off your feet towards him, smashing through walls (something he actually doesn’t do in the original game), this beast is exactly what you wanted from Nemesis and more. He can still be staggered by standing your ground and pumping lead into him, but is that trade-off of ammo for breathing room worth it? Easy Allies mentions a “loot-box” popping out, although it appears to be ammo and other items rather than weapon upgrades (like in the original). They also describe that, unlike Mr. X, there’s little to no indication of when or where the Resident Evil 3 Remake version of Nemesis is going to pop up.
Back into gameplay, we get our first look at Jill’s grenade launcher and I’m delighted to report that it does indeed appear to be an ARWEN 47 grenade launcher, and possibly Forest’s from REmake 1. This is the second weapon that lines up with a REmake 1 version (the first being Richard’s Benelli M4 Tactical Shotgun), so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is all intentional. Something I would like to note here is that, in the gameplay footage, Jill seems to fire flame-based shotgun rounds at Nemesis, with the shot bursting into flames upon contact. There’s no mention of it, but it seems pretty obvious. Nemesis himself gets some time using that new flamethrower of his in this footage, and it looks like there may be a way to damage or even destroy the weapon when it vents to cool down. A small hatch in the flamethrower pops open and glows, and I suspect that we can shoot that as a weak point.
In other gameplay details, we can see Jill shoot an electrical conduit that bursts and shocks zombies surrounding it. This is an element brought over from the original RE3, where you could shot various objects around the city to cause damage to enemies nearby, including Red Barrels (which also make a return here). You can also spot one of the series staple wooden boxes, a standby item dispensary in the series in almost every game since RE4 (although this version is pulled directly from RE7). Easy Allies highlights that picking up items has been streamlined back to something more akin to RE5 and RE6; you click grab on an item, Jill grabs it. The menu no longer pops up to inform you of what you’re picking up, nor to allow you to manage the inventory space. It also appears that there’s a new black and white filter that will fade in over gameplay to indicate when your health is getting low, along with a mild heartbeat sound.
In terms of creatures, Easy Allies confirms that those weird white things we reported on from the leaked screenshots are indeed the newly redesigned Resident Evil 3 Remake version of Hunter γ, and seeing moving footage of them is nightmare fuel. We also see that they do indeed still eat Jill whole, although it’s significantly more horrifying than it ever was before. We also get some very brief footage of a new, mutated form of spiders, which I’m sure many of you will lose it over.
There’s also a bunch of footage of Jill and Carlos exploring the subway, amazingly sans voice-over, so check that out as well. It’s pretty neat to see the pair interacting with each other, and Carlos is charmingly in-line with his classic machismo vibes. Similar to RE6, we get to play while they talk rather than being locked into a cutscene until they’re done.
There’s also some footage and details on Resistance, Resident Evil 3 Remake‘s pack-in multiplayer game. Easy Allies details as having a “ton of progression” with lots of unlocks, cosmetics, and skills, and how concerned they are with that balance vs the map and character variety and how much support the game will get post-launch. Outside of that, however, there isn’t much new that they talk about. There are a few new screenshots though; one, in particular, I liked of Frankenstein’s monster from the amusement park map.
Resident Evil 3 Remake releases April 3rd across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam.
