Editorials
5 Takeaways from Capcom’s ‘Resident Evil 3’ Demo [Review]
Resident Evil 3 is just two weeks away, but to slake our coronavirus-enhanced bloodlust, Capcom has just released a short demo to play in the interim.
The Resident Evil 3: Raccoon City Demo is free now on PS4, Xbox and PC, and provides an enticing glimpse of 45-minutes of early game action. As the demo begins, Carlos and Jill have just met, and Carlos has brought Jill to a parked subway car to meet Mikhail Victor, a grizzled member of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service. From there, players are let loose on the city, invited to explore as Jill, with a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other.
It’s a solid chunk of the game; small enough that you won’t feel like you’ve seen too much when you start the full game, but substantial enough that you’ll have a good idea of whether or not this reimagined version of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is for you. Here are five takeaways from our time with the demo.
If You Played the Resident Evil 2 Remake, You’ll Feel Right at Home
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but playing Resident Evil 3 feels almost exactly the same as playing Resident Evil 2. Jill’s movement speed, the way the guns handle, the UI for interacting with the world and your inventory — all of it communicates that this game, as much as it is a reimagining of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, is also very much a continuation of the ideas Capcom developed in the Resident Evil 2 remake.
For example, zombies in Resident Evil 3 retain the hard-to-hit shaky shamble of their RE2 counterparts. Headshots, too, often remain ineffective. Instead, you’ll want to aim for your enemies’ legs to bring them to the ground, allowing you to dart around them. About two-thirds of the way through the demo, this kind of crowd control becomes significantly easier.
That’s when you pick up the shotgun and…
The Shotgun Rules
You can tell a lot about a game by how good the shotgun feels, and Resident Evil 3 is no exception. The Resident Evil series has typically prioritized strategic shooting over thoughtless blasting, and that’s still the case this time around. Shotgun ammo is scarce, so you’ll need to be picky with how you use it.
But, with a reticle the size of a cantaloupe (I’m barely exaggerating), using the ammo you do find to obliterate zombies is fast, easy and satisfying. A quick shot to the chest — and, seriously, the reticle is almost as big as their torso — will have most enemies down for the count.
The ‘90s Are In
From the campy movie posters (one, weirdly, is for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) plastered on the subway walls to the giant Big Boy-like head smiling out at the city from atop a restaurant, Resident Evil 3 genuinely feels like a late ‘90s-set period piece at times. While few game levels will ever feel as perfectly realized as Resident Evil 2’s Raccoon Police Station, the chunk of urban corridors in this demo have personality to spare.
The Writing is Still Bad
At one point, Carlos tells Jill that clearing a path through the flames in a burning alley should be easy for a “tall drink of water like [her]self].” To which Jill replies, “Fuck you.”
Resident Evil 3 continues to widen the gap between the Naughty Dog-esque visual fidelity Capcom is capable with the RE Engine and the laughably bad dialogue that never seems to improve.
Nemesis is Scarier than Mr. X
Capcom is certainly onto something here. While the sections of Resident Evil 2 that had Mr. X loudly stomping around the police station were pulse-pounding, Nemesis evolves the dynamic in an interesting way. While Mr. X was plodding and inevitable, Nemesis is fast and unpredictable. If you see Nemesis at the end of a hallway, the only option is to stand your ground and attempt to dodge at the last second. Running won’t get you anywhere with this speedy mutant, who can close the gap, even from dozens of feet away, in the blink of an eye.
But, Nemesis’ movements are also difficult to predict. In my first attempt at escape, the monster cornered me and killed me. The second time, I lost him in a building and, though taking the same route, easily escaped. Resident Evil 2 felt tailor-made for speedrunners, and I’m curious what the most nimble-fingered among us will be able to manage given the dynamism of Nemesis.
Of course, we’ll find out in a few short weeks.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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