There is just thing I need. And that is the announcement which, at this point, is absolutely inevitable; that of the Resident Evil 3 remake. For those who don't their finger on the trigger with this sort of stuff like I do, yesterday there was a leaked image revealing the cover art for the RE3: Remake which had it's voracity confirmed by Eurogamer sources, and I couldn't be more absolutely pumped out of my freakin' mind! Fair warning for you mild mannered and sensible folk out there, if you are adverse to going through the inane ramblings of a fanatic, then just take a look at that gorgeous boxart below and be on your way, because I'm about to go full fanboy on this unannounced game.
Firstly, I am so, so glad that Capcom are finally taking the time to go the right direction when it comes to this franchise, it took them *so* long. I've mentioned it before but there was a long period of time when Capcom had no idea what they wanted to do with Resident Evil and how to go forward, this resulted in the weird Resident Evil 4, the dull RE 5 and the confused RE6. (Let's never forget that one anecdote wherein that unnamed member of management expressed wanting to hear 'Resident Evil' and 'Call of Duty' discussed in the same breath.) Yet it seem that after 'Resident Evil 7: Biohazard', people have finally got their act together and decided where it is that this franchise needs to go, and it's backwards.
Early this year Capcom released one of their best video games of all time, Resident Evil 2, again; only this time they somehow made it better. Resident Evil 2 was already a game that had a beloved place in gamer's hearts with the way it stepped itself up from the last entry and managed to release at the absolute perfect time, and by all know laws of physics there was no way that fervour should have been captured again. And yet, when we first saw the 'RE2: Remake' and it's promise of mind-blowing fidelity, hauntingly locales and remixed encounters, even the diehard anti-remake folk were starting to take interest. This was a title that managed to do everything right to hook in that nostalgic audience whilst differentiating itself enough, both in vision and quality, to stand on it's own feet, and that was an effort worth commending. Resident Evil hadn't seen a full-game remake since 2001's Resident Evil, and this project put that game to shame. (Not to dunk on the 2001 remake at all, I just thinks it's amazing how they consciously decided to remove the original game's terrible voice actors and replace it with new people who were bad in an entirely different way.)
Now we have the full release of Resident Evil 2 and, I have to tell you, I cannot remember the last time I was this enamoured with a game. I poured my life essence into loving this game, because that was the same amount of love that I felt oozing out of every pour of this remake. Every scare was meticulously measured, every bullet hole painstakingly rendered and every sound impossibly evocative. Personally, I had never been a huge fan of the horror genre (And yet I blame a bunch of them, go me.) but even I could tell when I was receiving an absolute masterclass on how horror can be done right on a triple A budget. 'RE2: Remake' also has the dubious honour of being the only horror game that has managed to wring panic-fueled profanities out of my screaming mouth on the fourth playthrough. (The Fourth!) That is the triumph of a game with atmosphere, tension, and just plain quality, for days.
From the second I reached those credits as Leon, the first thing that I wanted to do was follow Jill's story through that same nightmare. The original Resident Evil 3 was famous for it's quick turn around back in the day (achieved by the team reusing a great number, if not all, of RE2's assets) and, despite game design having evolved considerably, people hoped beyond hope that the same would happen again here. But rumors seemed to imply this wouldn't be the case as a remake was in the wings but it wasn't 'what we were expecting'. I'm still not sure what is exactly meant by this, but as long as I get to take control of Valentine once again I don't really care about the details surrounding it.
As you can tell from the image, it seems that Capcom have doubled down on their tactic of basing these new character models off of real-life models. This worked wonderfully with bringing cherub-faced Leon to life with Eduard Badaluta and round-checked Claire with Jordan Mcewen. Both of these updated models looked like younger versions of their character models from the later games, and I can only imagine that was the rational behind picking them. Unfortunately, Jill is completely reworked in the later games (Through one of the dumbest twists in the franchise) and they have nothing to work on, so this new Jill doesn't really invoke the same 'Oh, good choice!' vibes that I got from RE2. That being said, she still looks like a total badass and I have no issues about that. Hmm? 'What about the other guy?' What other guy- Oh Carlos! Yeah, they changed his hair, I don't care; let's look at the real star of this game; Nemesis.
Nemesis is the hulking monstrosity deployed by Umbrella with the sole intention of wiping out S.T.A.R.S. before they can reveal the secrets that they learned in Spencer Mansion to the world. (Which Umbrella decided to wait a week before acting on.) He is the reoccurring main boss of RE3, much in the same vein as Mr. X, only this guy uses guns and so is automatically 10 times worse. Whilst Mr X was built to look nondescript and covert, or as covert as an 8 foot monstrosity can be, Nemesis resembles a patchwork Frankenstein nightmare who appears to have the jaw of a killer shark for some unknowable reason. In these remake images the team seems to have leaned off on the 'patchwork' aesthetic and leaned more in on the 'stretched skin' look which worked so well for their surprise boss in the RE1 Remake: Lisa Trevor. We can see the uncomfortable way in which the sinews and flesh contorts in order to make way for that unsettling row of sharp teeth and I can only imagine how much more grotesque things will get once the RE Engine gets ahold of it. (Someone's getting a shotgun blast to the face post haste.)
I have been salivating over these leaked images all day and it kills me that I'll have to wait until the 13th to get the accompanying teaser trailer. (That isn't officially confirmed, as neither is this game, but come on, Capcom, we know.) Resident Evil's resurgence has been one of the best things to happen to gaming this year and I'm ecstatic to see it continue onto the next decade. Heck, RE3 hasn't even been officially announced and I'm already thinking about where they could go next. Will we see a remake of 'Code: Veronica'? Surely they wouldn't try their hand at redoing 4! Maybe they'll just banish 5 and 6 from the canon and start fresh! Or maybe they'll just be boring and go back to making 8. There is so much potential for the Biohazard franchise that I cannot contain my wild speculation, and things will only get more nutty once we get that trailer, fair warning.
No comments:
Post a Comment