10 Things We want to See in Capcom's 'Resident Evil 3' Remake!

With the release of last year’s Resident Evil 2 Remake, Capcom knocked it out of the park and produced a game that arguably was better than its original PlayStation predecessor in every way. From gameplay, pacing, mood and setting, and even the series staple puzzle elements; everything came together that honored the legacy of the survival horror series...

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...In short, they produced a masterpiece. The big question that was in everyone’s mind upon completing the campaign was “Will there ever be a remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis?” 

Fortunately, Capcom gave us an early Christmas present with the announcement that not only was a remake of Resident Evil 3 already on the way, but that it would be in our hands in only 4 months. Having recently completed the campaign to the original Resident Evil 3 and with the recent release of the Nemesis Trailer, here’s a list of the Top 10 things we’re hoping Capcom delivers in the RE3 remake.

10. NEMESIS VS OTHER B.O.W.S.

One of the more amusing aspects of the original game was to inadvertently have Nemesis take out other Zombies and creatures during its pursuit of the player. While all that might be amusing, what if the remake actually made it a point to have nemesis confront the other bio weapons and enemies that get in its pursuit of you? While Nemesis alone is terrifying in its own right, what if Capcom’s writers wrote a scenario in which it confronts and easily dispatches the other creatures that Jill and the players struggled with past and present? Can you imagine if that Licker you had a hard time with in Resident Evil 2 was easily dispatched by the Nemesis? With Capcom confirming the appearance of the Gravedigger and the Beta Hunters, how terrifying would it be if these creatures you had such a hard time with, actively tried to escape, and avoid at all costs, were easily defeated by the thing that is hunting you down? Plus it would satisfy that Resident Evil fan that has always wondered “Could Nemesis take out a Gravedigger?”

09. ORIGINAL RESIDENT EVIL 3 SOUNDTRACK SWAP DLC

Music doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it should, especially when it comes to the Resident Evil series. As much as this is a nostalgic hope for the remake, it’s not entirely impossible. The Developers for the RE2 remake were able to include a DLC patch that included the original soundtrack from the 1998 classic. In the RE2 remake, tracks such as “THE RPD FRONT HALL” and “THE FIRST FLOOR RPD” provided mood in the RPD that was a nice nod to the hardcore fans while enhancing the horror. RE3’s soundtrack doesn’t get as much respect as it should for variety in the moods that come with a post-apocalypse setting.  Tracks such as “THE CITY OF RUIN” and the iconic Save Room Theme “FREE FROM FEAR” provide a somber mood where it feels like surviving this nightmare is both a relief and bittersweet in the face of the destruction of the city. The most effective musical composition comes with “FEEL THE TENSION,” as it gives a sense of dread and panic inducing tension as you can feel the game setting you up for the Nemesis’ appearance at any moment. Having these tracks in the remake would be a great trip down the memory lane of our worst nightmares.

ART CREDIT TO: https://twitter.com/CinemamindDavid

08. MORE NEMESIS FORMS

​In the original RE3, Nemesis appeared in 3 terrifying forms (Original Form, Second Form, and Final Form) While It would be welcomed to see the Nemesis appear again as these three forms, It would be interesting to see more variations between the three forms. As Leon, Claire, and Jill’s looks get progressively dirtier and more wear and tear, it would be interesting to see Nemesis undergo a similar change. It’s confirmed in the new trailer that Nemesis starts off wearing a mask over its face. What if the look not only evolves from taking a mask off, to getting more and more battle damage to the face, Nemesis losing the nose, gaining more tentacles, and becoming more vicious? There’s multiple ways the Capcom crew could go with a more evolved look for the Nemesis as the story progresses.

07. REBOOT BRAD VICKERS

Brad Vickers in the pantheon of Resident Evil characters is one that gets the short end of the stick. He’s so hated and despised by the fanbase, even Capcom’s writers have made his canonical nickname “Chickenheart” to the other S.T.A.R.S. members. Needless to say, there isn’t a lot of love for this character. Granted, he was the helicopter pilot that left the S.T.A.R.S. team high and dry in the mountains during the Spencer Mansion incident and he was easily and pathetically taken out by Nemesis in the original iteration of 3. Now before anyone goes “Brad is a wuss!” think if they decided to rethink the character entirely for this remake? Personally, I would love to see a Brad that holds his own for a bit longer, is tougher, and lives up to the S.T.A.R.S. name. Even playing the original, something didn’t sit right with me that someone as weak as Brad was a member of a team that was so tough, Umbrella had no choice but to send a terrifying and experimental bio-weapon to take them out. Judging from the trailer, Brad is seemingly more S.T.A.R.S. member and less “Chickenheart.” It would also make Nemesis seem much more terrifying if he was able to take down a tough guy as it raises the shakes and enhances the horror. A lot of good can be done to the series if they rethink Brad.

​06. WITNESS MORE OF THE RACCOON CITY OUTBREAK

One of the more terrifying aspects of playing RE2 and RE3 for the first hour was traveling through the city and following the screams of some poor sap leading to a gang of zombified citizens chewing the life out of him. In the trailer, there’s a few scenes showing Citizens and zombies running about in chaos. For a character like Jill to stick around a doomed city, it would be quite an eerie experience to witness the city delving into chaos and constantly coming across other survivors on the street while on the run, which we have never seen in a Resident Evil game before. In the past, the protagonists have walked into the aftermath of an infection, so to witness the beginning would be a good point of attack for the remake to differentiate itself.

05. EXPAND ON DARIO ROSSO’S STORY

​In the original game, Dario Rosso was treated as a throwaway character that meant nothing to the plot. Truth be told he was best remembered as the guy that hid in the hideout at the start of the game, but he does make a mention that he just lost his daughter before locking himself up in the hideout. His story only is brought up in the later half of the game if the player remembers to go back for him in the hideout during the escape. That’s right, you could forget all about him and the player isn’t punished.

In the Manga for Resident Evil 3, it does go into detail about the tragedy he experienced during the outbreak. Dario was a family man with a wife and a young daughter who unfortunately was overrun by the infected. Dario gripped with fear not only ran away and abandoned his family, but he made sure to lock the doors behind him, ensuring their doomed fate. While that story wouldn’t be something that should unfold the same way, it would be interesting to see Jill trying to help Dario’s family in the same way the player got to interact with the Kendo family in the RE2 remake. Something like this would really help sell the idea that Jill Valentine is more than capable of surviving this incident and it gets across her character’s moral fiber to try and save a family from the chaos. With Dario being confirmed to be in the remake, it will interesting to see where Capcom decides to take this character.

04. CARLOS SIDE STORY EXPANDED

Players familiar with the original game know that during the middle of the second act, the player takes control of Carlos Oliveira. While the sequence with Carlos exploring the hospital was a great change of pace, there’s always been that wanting more of Carlos’ side of the game. His motivations in the original game were seemingly a bit off and campy to say the least with him constantly hitting on Jill during their first meeting. With this rebooted version of Carlos, it is an opportunity to not only better develop Carlos as a character, but also expand upon his role and really make us care about him. In the trailer, it’s seen that Carlos and his crew are entering the R.P.D. in search for survivors. This would be a great way to expand on Carlos and make us relate to him more and understand his motivations. Ideally, it would be great if the opening hour was following Carlos and the U.B.C.F’s (Umbrella Bio-Hazard Countermeasure Force) failed attempts to rescue survivors. This would not only give us character background, but it would present a foreboding sense of dread during the hospital sequence with the player asking “Will Carlos be able to complete his task and rescue SPOILER before it is too late?”

03. CROSS OVER WITH OLDER RESIDENT EVIL TITLES

With Resident Evil 3 canonically taking place before the events of Resident Evil 2 and ending a few days after the events of Resident Evil 2, there’s so much potential for crossing over the events of not only the last game, but the first 2 games as well (Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil Zero (2002)). In the RE2 remake, there are plenty of clues that point to events that could have happened during the earlier events of RE3. Case in point, there’s a giant hole in the ladies bathroom in RE2. This is a detail that could have easily been ignored, but the fact that the hole is massive, implying that something big came bursting through the wall (Nemesis perhaps?) Capcom recently added a letter from Jill to Kendo.

​Those who played the remake remember Leon/Claire’s heartbreaking run-in with Kendo and his infected young daughter and letting the family suffer alone. It’s implied that Jill ran into the Kendos during the events of RE3 with the letter in RE2. It would be an incredible opportunity to answer and expand on this story point in the remake series. As earlier mentioned about Nemesis against other B.O.W.S.; what if Nemesis came across a Mr. X Tyrant that was also programed to kill Jill? Even better yet, what if Nemesis came across William Birkin in his horrifically G-Virus mutated form? In fact, the Resident Evil 3 Manga includes a sequence where Birkin and the Nemesis confront each other through the events of RE2 and RE3. There’s even a sequence where Birkin comes across a T-Virus infected Jill in the chapel. Also included in the manga is a nightmare sequence where a T-Virus infected Jill goes through a hallucinogenic nightmare where she is reliving the nightmare that started it all: The Spencer Mansion Incident. Imagining Jill’s iconic S.T.A.R.S. uniform redone and replaying the Mansion Incident with the third person perspective would be a dream come true!

02. FIX THE DODGE MECHANIC

The Dodge gameplay mechanic was an amazing and welcomed addition to the series. Not only did it give the player a chance to push against the infected citizens when getting overrun and dodging other B.O.W.s, but it gave you a fighting chance against the vicious and fast Nemesis…when it worked. That was the entire issue with the original game. The mechanic addition to the gameplay was entirely welcomed, but it was hard to use the same button the player used to aim as the same button to activate the dodge.

Recently playing the PlayStation classic, the dodging would work with pin point timing, but you can easily mess up the dodge. The dodge mechanic was hard to use and unforgiving against the Nemesis. One change the developers could incorporate into the remake would be to expand on the Dodge Mechanic as featured in Resident Evil: Revelations 2. You could not only get better with the dodge mechanic; you could also upgrade it to give the player more space between the player and the enemies, but you could only use it sparingly for a short time. The mechanic in Revelations 2 was balanced so that it wasn’t too easy for the player to spam the move relentlessly, but it wasn’t so hard to grasp how to use the mechanic. If the remake could take some cues from that game, and expand upon it in this remake, that would easily rectify what even some of most hardcore fans call one of RE3’s best and worst features.

01. CLASSIC NEMESIS SKIN

As much as Nemesis’ new look is terrifying in its own right, all of the Resident Evil fans would probably agree that including the original skin would be welcomed. Not bagging at all on the current look of Nemesis (nose and all) but even if the new look was way better than the classic look, there’s always a part of us that would want Nemesis’ iconic, terrifying look rendered in the current gen as an unlockable or paid DLC. The look of the original has endured for over 20 years, to bring it back in the remake as a fun feature would really be a nice gift to the fans.

In conclusion, while not required, these all would be welcomed additions to the remake. Even with Capcom revealing that such features like the Branching paths system and The Mercenaries: Operation Mad Jackal mode were cut, there’s no doubt that this game is shaping up to be one of 2020’s most anticipated AAA titles. Everything’s heading in the right direction, let’s hope Capcom can strike lighting in a bottle once again come April!

Resident Evil 3 will be available on PS4, XBOX ONE, and PC on April 3, 2020!

By Andres Gallego