Resident Evil 3 Preview: Run and Gun
With everyone raving about the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo, and now the Resident Evil 3 demo, I decided to give it a go seeing as I missed out on it the first time around. Is it any good though? Hell yeah!
A little origin story in case you’ve been self-isolating for the last few decades. Once upon a time, a special police task force called S.T.A.R.S. search for their missing Bravo Team who have curiously disappeared. They end up in a mansion which leads to our first introduction of the T-virus and the Umbrella Corporation.
Amongst that group are some familiar faces such as Chris Redfield, brother to Resident Evil 2’s Claire Redfield, and Jill Valentine – the protagonist of our story, initially released in 1999 as Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, from Capcom. In the original game, the story takes place 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2 and Jill has to escape the clutches of Nemesis: a seemingly unstoppable agent with the task of destroying all surviving S.T.A.R.S. members.
As mentioned before in the news piece on the Resident Evil 3 remake, I didn’t have a direct experience of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, I was more a fan of Resident Evil Code: Veronica (I think I have three or four versions of it now), second to Resident Evil 2. The original. What I do know about the remake is the focus on action and a change in pace from fixed cameras to an over the shoulder third-person shooter.
Much like its peers, Resident Evil 3 follows the same path of conserving ammo, making use of green herbs and solving very simple puzzles. When I say simple, it’s more to do with fetch type tasks, i.e. triggering off a hydrant means trekking back through a horde of the undead, never having enough ammo to take them all out.
Though I installed it last week, I still haven’t played the Resident Evil 2 remake so, I don’t know if it follows the same mechanics, but in the originals, you could usually take out a zombie with a bullet or two in the head. If they were likely to become reanimated, a quick stomp would take them out. This doesn’t appear to be present in the demo so repeatedly got bitten, and the oh-so-familiar lack of herbs meant my experience of Jill Valentine was mostly of her keeled over.
Without a doubt, the Resident Evil engine has moved the franchise forward once more, and the visuals and fluidity of controls are fantastic. After attempting to get through the 30 minute plus demo using my knife due to a lack of ammo, I ended up using the quickstep trick where Jill would duck and dive forward, often avoiding the impending unwanted undead hug.
The original release date for Resident Evil 3 was the 3rd of April. Whether it’s still on schedule remains to be seen as there’s undoubtedly going to be a shortage of physical copies like there will be for the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for things to do, you can download the demo on the PS4 now!