The Long History of Resident Evil (Part 3)

With the huge success of Resident Evil 2, easily out-shadowing the original it was time to make another game, however with the release of the 128-bit console the Sega Dreamcast around the corner it was planed that a sequel involving Claire Redfield looking for her brother Chris alongside Leon S Kennedy. The game would have been fully 3D using the next-gen graphics. However due to some teething problems a spin-off involving Jill escaping Raccoon City 24 hours before Leon and Claire made it would be made for the Playstation while development for “Resident Evil 3” for the Dreamcast would go underway. Originally called Resident Evil: Last Escape the game would be pre-rendered and have Jill valentine trying to escape the city while being hounded by an Umbrella built BOW. However due to the long wait for Resident Evil 3 they decided to make Resident Evil: Last Escape - Resident Evil 3 and for Western audiences change the sub-heading to Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

This game proved to have some of the best gameplay in a Resident Evil game: No longer did you have to press a button to head up the stairs, but you could just run up them. There were also better looking Zombies, and more of them including ones of different weight, gender and ethnicity. You could now mix gun powders to make more ammo, or change the type of ammo, and a dodge and 180 degree turn was added too.

The visuals were a lot better, despite the major jolts between FMV and cut-scenes where the character model barely had any features. This gameplay would surely be carried on?

Unfortunately the “true” sequel to Resident Evil 2 now called “Resident Evil CODE: Veronica” was not about to break any boundaries. In fact because it was under development by a different team they used the exact same controls as they did in Resident Evil 2, which made Resident Evil 3 a far superior game as far as gameplay.

There were some minor changes to the original concept. Whereas in the original script Claire met Leon on Rockfort as a fellow prisoner where Leon and Claire would fall in Love, and Leon would be killed off. However it was decided that fans loved the character of leon so much, they feared too much of an uproar, so a small love story was decided for a new far more annoying character that made every teenage guy wonder how the fuck he managed to get Claire to ever fall in love with him. The name was Steve Burnside. The game also resurrected an old foe - Albert Wesker. Not much was known about his motives until a Director's Cut was brought out for the Sony Playstation and Sega Dreamcast called Biohazard: Code Veronica Complete (in Japan) or Resident Evil: Code veronica X (everywhere else) in 2001, but we’ll come back to this game later in the history lesson.