Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

About Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) is Capcom's PlayStation survival horror game in which Jill Valentine escapes a zombie-overrun Raccoon City while hunted by Nemesis, a spin-off promoted to numbered sequel.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in Depth

Jill explores the streets of Raccoon City, rather than the mostly indoor settings of earlier games, collecting weapons from pistols to a rocket launcher and managing a limited inventory with storage boxes. Herbs and first aid sprays restore health, gunpowders can be mixed into ammunition, and puzzles test logic. New to the series are a dodge and a quick 180-degree turn, explosive barrels that can be shot to damage nearby enemies, and up to nine enemies on screen at once. At certain perilous moments, the player must choose between two actions, and these choices change how the story unfolds and which ending is reached.

The Nemesis, a bio-weapon programmed to kill the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members, appears repeatedly as a boss. It is far stronger than Jill, fires a rocket launcher, dodges gunfire and follows her from area to area; in some encounters the player can choose to fight or flee, and even when beaten it keeps coming back. The story starts 24 hours before Resident Evil 2 and runs past it, as Jill teams up with members of Umbrella's U.B.C.S. unit, among them Carlos Oliveira and the treacherous Nikolai, before the government launches a missile at the city. Finishing the game unlocks The Mercenaries, a timed run across the city.

Making Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

After Resident Evil 2, Hideki Kamiya was directing the planned next game, set on a cruise ship, until Capcom dropped it as unlikely to finish before the PlayStation 2's launch. Not wanting fans to wait years for a PlayStation Resident Evil, Capcom promoted a side project by an inexperienced team under director Kazuhiro Aoyama to be the third main game; it then made Jill the lead and decided Raccoon City would be destroyed. Writer Yasuhisa Kawamura, new to the series, played the original to learn its world. Mikami produced, and the team grew from 20 to 40 or 50 people, developing it alongside Code: Veronica. Yoshiki Okamoto said full 3D would have meant "blocky, pixelated zombies", so it kept pre-rendered backgrounds.

It was released in Japan on 22 September 1999 and North America on 11 November, and sold a million copies by early October and 3.5 million by 2012. Critics praised its detailed city and Nemesis as an intimidating villain but found it short and its story simple. Windows and Dreamcast ports followed in 2000 and a GameCube version in 2003, and a remake was released in 2020.