The time has come to return to Raccoon City and experience Jill's nightmare, as a demo of the Resident Evil 3 remake is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Resident Evil 3 is almost identical to Resident Evil 2 (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it has two key differences that make things exciting - a more combat-focused character in Jill Valentine, and the terrifying monstrosity that is Nemesis, who manages to make Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 look like the Brooklyn Brawler.
It wasn't long ago that fans had a chance to return to the revamped Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2, which won a ton of acclaim and shipped millions of units for Capcom. Resident Evil 3 uses the same engine as its predecessor, but so did the original version of the game on the PlayStation, so fans shouldn't expect major differences between the two games.
Jill's Subway Sandwich
The Resident Evil 3 demo isn't that long, even when taking your time to explore every nook and cranny. The fans who are speedrunning the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo will have a field day with the Resident Evil 3 demo. We managed to finish the demo in around forty minutes during our first run-through, which included a couple of deaths at the hands of a certain monster.
The story of the demo involves Jill needing to switch on the power to the subway, in order to help survivors escape from the city by train. There is a brief encounter with Carlos and Mikhail (former Umbrella mercenaries), but Jill is soon sent out into the world to find a way to restore power.
In Resident Evil 2, the player spent most of their time in the Raccoon City Police Department, the sewers, and in secret labs. In Resident Evil 3, the player is thrust onto the streets of Raccoon City, which is crawling with zombies. The main goal of the demo is to find the firehose and use it to put out a fire that is blocking Jill's way. In order to do this, she needs to explore the nearby buildings, search for items, and survive the undead horde.
Nemesis 'Gon Give It To Ya
The gameplay of Resident Evil 3 is practically identical to that of Resident Evil 2, which makes sense considering the incredibly short turnaround of the game. The demo has mostly the same items and monsters as Resident Evil 2.
There are two main changes to Resident Evil 3, the first of which involves Jill's ability to dodge. If the player presses R1, then Jill will do a short dash in the direction the left stick is being pushed in. If the player does this just as an enemy attacks Jill, then not only will she avoid damage, but time will slow down briefly and allow the player to take some free shots at the enemy. We initially thought that this tactic would be overpowered, but the timing needs to be precise and it's incredibly hard to predict how the zombies will move, so the player shouldn't expect to be able to master the dodge straight away.
The other major addition to Resident Evil 3 is Nemesis. Remember how Mr. X used to walk slowly at you in Resident Evil 2? Well, Nemesis is an acrobatic monster that leaps ahead of you, can strike Jill from a distance with his tentacles, has the ability to knock her down, can empower nearby zombies by infecting them further, and is seemingly resistant to the slowdown effect from Jill's dodge. You can put him down temporarily with damage, but this doesn't last long. Nemesis shrugged off four point-blank shotgun shots during our playthrough, but a single grenade was enough to drop him to one knee and put him down temporarily.
Our first encounter with Nemesis was so horrifying that we did our best to try and circumvent it, but to no avail. This is not a foe that can be trifled with and we're excited to see what other tricks Nemesis has up its sleeve in the final version of the game.
Raccoon City Action
The brief Resident Evil 3 demo matched our expectations going in. Like Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, this game is just an expanded side story of Resident Evil 2. The people who adored Resident Evil 2 will find more of the same here. The new additions are awesome and Nemesis is a truly terrifying foe, but those facts alone might not be enough to convince people to fork out for a full-price game, especially as Resident Evil 2 dropped significantly in price throughout its first year of release. For the people who loved Resident Evil 2, this is more of the same, with some extra action and terror thrown in. The people who weren't sold on Resident Evil 2 likely won't be won over by the Resident Evil 3, but considering the sales numbers and universal acclaim that Resident Evil 2 won, this likely won't be too much of a factor and lots of people will still want to return to Raccoon City when Resident Evil 3 launches next month.
Resident Evil 3 will be released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on April 3, 2020.