We’re currently living through a golden age of remasters and remakes. With 2019 bringing us Resident Evil 2 Remake, and a reimagining of the third game a year later, studios can see that bringing a classic game screaming into the modern era can be done successfully. Okay, RE3 wasn’t as good as RE2, but it shows that there is a desire to return to the beloved entries, while also moving forwards with the likes of Resident Evil Village.
On top of that, fans are also wont to create their own unofficial remakes, and just recently, one modder has released an early iteration of their upcoming Resident Evil 3 fan remake. Simply called “Resident Evil 3: Remake Fan Game,” the project being developed by user ranj over on Itch.io is looking to be a more faithful recreation of the original RE3 game from 1999.
Where this differs from the official remake, is it’s being developed in Unreal Engine 4, whereas Resident Evil 3 Remake was created in Capcom’s own RE Engine, and reinstates the classic camera from the source material. Essentially, it looks to be more of a throwback to the first three entries in the horror series, with fixed camera angles, as well as the return of the classic inventory. Except with modern visuals.
You can watch the video above, in which the YouTube channel Residence Of Evil plays the first 20 minutes or so of it. It should be reiterated that this is still in alpha. As a result, the Resident Evil 3 fan remake is still being worked on, so it will appear a little janky and unpolished in its current state.
In general, it seems to suggest that there are fans of the series that are interested in seeing a return to the original games, or at least their camera systems. While the over-the-shoulder viewpoint which began with Resident Evil 4 has stuck around, as well as the recent first-person perspective from Resident Evil 7, there’s something to be said for the classic control scheme that began with the first game all the way back in 1996.
The fan remake is available to download now. While the options menu does give players the opportunity to switch to the over-the-shoulder look, many will likely want to stick with the fixed camera mode, if nothing else, just for the nostalgia. The fact that someone else is also making a Resident Evil 3 fan remake, only in Unreal Engine 5 instead, is proof that people will always want to pay homage to the games that kick-started the series.
