RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Developer - Capcom

Publisher - Capcom

Release date – September 22, 1999

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, known in Japan as Biohazard 3: Last Escape, is a survival horror video game developed by Capcom and originally released for the PlayStation video game console in 1999. It is the third installment in the Resident Evil video game series and takes place before and after the events of Resident Evil 2.

Story

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis begins 24 hours prior to the events of Resident Evil 2. Jill Valentine, a former Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) member, attempts to escape from Raccoon City. Nearly all of Raccoon City's citizens have been transformed into zombies by an outbreak of the T-virus, a new type of biological weapon secretly developed by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. On her way to the Raccoon City Police Department, Jill runs into fellow team member Brad Vickers, who is killed by a new enemy. This creature, named Nemesis, is a bio-organic weapon programmed to target surviving S.T.A.R.S. members, witnesses of Umbrella's experiments. As she evades Nemesis, Jill encounters three surviving members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.): Carlos Oliveira, Mikhail Victor and Nicholai Ginovaef. Nicholai explains to Jill and Carlos that a rescue helicopter can be contacted if they manage to reach the city's Clock Tower and ring the bell.

Gameplay

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a survival horror game where the player controls the protagonist Jill Valentine from a third-person perspective to interact with the environment and enemies. Aside from Jill, the player takes control of another character for a brief portion of the game. To advance through the game, the player has to explore a city while avoiding, outsmarting and defeating various types of enemies. The player can interact with the environment in several ways, such as opening doors, pushing objects or climbing obstacles. Scattered throughout the city are weapons, ammunition and other items, which can be collected and put in the player's inventory. Items can be examined, used, or combined with others. The inventory is limited to a certain number of slots, and the player must often move items from the inventory to a storage box located in special rooms to manage space.

The player can use a variety of firearms to defeat enemies, ranging from pistols to a rocket launcher. Aside from enemies, parts of the environment, such as explosive barrels, can be targeted and shot at, causing them to explode and damage nearby enemies. The game also introduces the ability for players to dodge attacks or perform a quick 180 degree turn to evade enemies. The player has a certain amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies. Health is regained with herbs, which can be used separately or mixed together to increase their healing effect. The game also features an ammunition creation system that allows players to create new ammunition from different varieties of gunpowder. In addition to engaging in combat, the player must often solve puzzles that focus on logical and conceptual challenges.


During certain situations the player will be put in a perilous situation, where they will be prompted to choose between two possible actions or suffer a certain penalty, if not instant death. These choices affect how the story unfolds and which ending is achieved. Additionally, a creature called Nemesis is encountered multiple times throughout the game as a recurring boss. Nemesis is considerably more powerful than the player and has the ability to use a rocket launcher as a weapon, dodge incoming fire, and pursue the player from one area to the next. During one of these encounters, the player can choose to either fight Nemesis or run until he is evaded. A variety of encounters are possible, with some being mandatory, and some varying in nature and location based on certain choices made by the player. Even if evaded or defeated during one of these encounters, Nemesis will inevitably continue to pursue the player until the end of the game.

Upon completing the main story mode, a minigame titled "The Mercenaries: Operation Mad Jackal" is unlocked. In Mad Jackal, the player must control one of three members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service that Jill encounters during the main game and run from one side of the city to the other within a limited amount of time and resources. However, the starting time limit given is insufficient to actually perform this task directly, and the player must continuously receive time extensions by performing certain actions such as defeating enemies, rescuing civilians and exploring hidden areas. Completing the main game also unlocks alternate costumes for Jill and epilogue files that detail the activities of different characters following the events of the game. The mercenaries minigame and alternate costumes for Jill are available from the start of the game in the Microsoft Windows and Dreamcast versions of the game.

Development

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was developed by Capcom and produced by Shinji Mikami, who previously worked on the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. After the release of Resident Evil 2, Capcom was working on multiple Resident Evil projects and had a team led by Hideki Kamiya developing what was planned to be the next main installment in the Resident Evil series. According to Resident Evil 3 scenario writer Yasuhisa Kawamura, the intended game "was loosely set on a luxury cruise liner and had a general plot where HUNK was attempting to bring back a sample of the G-Virus" featured in Resident Evil 2. However, Capcom realised that the game would not be completed in time for a PlayStation release due to Sony's announcement of the PlayStation 2, so the project was ultimately cancelled. As Capcom did not want fans to wait some years for a new game, the company promoted one of its other projects as the third main canonical game while Kamiya's team was moved onto developing Resident Evil 4.

The selected project was a spin-off that was being developed by an inexperienced team under director Kazuhiro Aoyama. The spin-off was originally intended to introduce a new character who would have to escape from an infected Raccoon City. However, after the promotion, Capcom decided that Resident Evil protagonist Jill Valentine would be the main character and Raccoon City would be destroyed. Unlike the majority of the early scripts in the series, the scenario of the game was not created by Capcom's Flagship studio but by internal Capcom writer Yasuhisa Kawamura, who had very little experience with the Resident Evil series at the time. Kawamura noted that he had to play the original game to familiarize himself with the series' fictional universe immediately. Nevertheless, the story was proofread and sanctioned by Flagship to avoid continuity errors with other installments in the series, an issue that was also given attention in monthly meetings between all directors and producers.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis uses the same game engine as its predecessors. The environments consist of 2D pre-rendered backgrounds while moving objects such as enemies and some interactive elements consist of 3D polygon graphics. The developers chose this technique because having full 3D graphics would not allow them to create graphically rich and detailed environments. According to project supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto, "the number of polygons allocated for the enemies would not be sufficient. We did not want to have blocky, pixelated zombies. Interaction with the environment was improved so that the player could shoot objects like explosive barrels to damage enemies. Developers also added more variety of zombies, who can take the form of policemen, doctors, and ordinary citizens, among others.

Unlike previous Resident Evil games, which take place inside buildings, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis takes place in Raccoon City. The developers noted that the city setting allowed them to create more varied environments. Capcom also decided to give the game a more action-oriented style, which resulted in the 180-degree turn and the introduction of a dodge feature so that the player can avoid enemy attacks. Additionally, the developers designed the game so that up to nine enemies can appear at the same time and improved their artificial intelligence to hunt the player up and down stairs. The eponymous Nemesis creature was inspired by the liquid-metal T-1000 Terminator from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. According to Mikami, "I wanted to introduce a new kind of fear into the game, a persistent feeling of paranoia. The Nemesis brings that on in spades. When it disappears after the first confrontation, you live in constant dread of the next attack. The idea is to make you feel like you're being stalked.

The game was developed in tandem with the Dreamcast version of Resident Evil Code: Veronica and was originally referred to as Biohazard 1.9 due to its setting between the first two Resident Evil games, although the codename Biohazard 1.5 was also used. Although Code: Veronica takes place after Resident Evil 2, Okamoto explained that Capcom wanted Nemesis to be the third numbered game in the series to keep the titles of the PlayStation games consistent. Development of the game began with a team of 20 people. However, as the game was getting closer to its release date, the development team gradually increased to between 40 and 50 staff members. Unlike Resident Evil 2, which features two discs with two different protagonists, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a single-CD game that centers mainly on Jill Valentine. Capcom chose Jill as the protagonist of the game because she was "the only suitable character remaining", noting that Resident Evil protagonists Claire Redfield and Chris Redfield were previously chosen for Code: Veronica.