Resident Evil 3 remake rumors spread before the RE2 remake even made its debut. With reports from the company that it intends to continue to “promote utilization of dormant IP and remakes,” and the success of RE2 remake, it seems inevitable that Capcom will follow up with Jill Valentine’s escape from Raccoon City. In fact, there are plenty of clues in Resident Evil 2 remake that indicate RE3 is in development.
Please note that the two hints below aren’t definitive proof that RE3 remake is coming out. As a long-time Resident Evil fan, I’m reading between the lines here, and I might see more to some of these than is really there. The main point here is to have some fun guessing at how the RE2 and RE3 remakes might intersect with each other.
Broken walls in the 2F West Shower Room and 3F West Office
The biggest hints to a possible Resident Evil 3 remake are the damaged walls in the Shower Room and the third floor office. When you reach the shower room for the first time, your path is blocked by hot steam from a damaged boiler. Whatever broke the boiler also busted through the wall to the right of it and stomped its way through the showers, leaving broken tile and debris along its path. This destruction is mirrored on the third floor. When you find your path through the Shower Room blocked, you have to climb to the top floor of the RPD to proceed. To make it to the West Storage Room, you must pass through a giant hole in the wall and into an office where you find the Spade Key.
If this damage occurred while Leon and Claire were in the RPD, it’s massive enough that we should have heard it reverberate throughout the station. So, we can deduce that whatever event caused the destruction must have happened before the events of the game. As Resident Evil 2 takes place on September 29 and the first part of Resident Evil 3 (when Jill visits the RPD) occurs on September 28, this sets the stage for Nemesis to rampage through the police station and dip out before Claire and Leon get there.
Arguments for the walls being broken down by Nemesis
When we visit the RE2 remake RPD, we only encounter Zombies, Cerebruses, Lickers, and the Tyrant (Mr. X). We know Zombies, Cerebruses, and Lickers can’t cause the amount of structural damage we see in the Shower Room and 3F Office, so we’re left with two culprits: Tyrant and Nemesis. Most likely, the Tyrant doesn’t arrive at the RPD until around the time Leon or Claire encounters him on the 2F East Wing of the RPD. Since we see the demolished walls before that, it leaves Nemesis as the only creature near the scene that has the power to cause that kind of damage.
It also makes sense that these walls are smashed in the areas they are. Jill’s mission in the RPD in RE3 is to reach the STARS office, which in the RE2 remake is right down the hall from the showers. It’s likely that her time in the RPD will be expanded upon and Nemesis could chase her to the third floor for more hijinks.
Arguments against Nemesis breaking through the walls
Unfortunately, Resident Evil 2 remake is missing an iconic scene from the original. In the B scenario of the original RE2, you see a helicopter drop Tyrant into the RPD via a capsule. This establishes that he arrives at the RPD after Leon and Claire. We can assume his arrival is similar in RE2 remake, but without any onscreen evidence we can’t place the time of his arrival.
The Tyrant could have been at the RPD before Leon and Claire arrived and caused the damage seen in the Shower Room and 3F Office. This is especially true as his aim of getting a G-Virus sample from the original game seems to be omitted in the remake. Mr. X seems to be solely preoccupied with killing any survivors, which means he could have been responsible for hunting down surviving police officers and civilians in the RPD. However, since neither Marvin nor any files mention the Tyrant, this is highly unlikely.
I also considered Birkin as being a wall smashing suspect. However, no memo in the RPD proper mentions him, and he never seemed interested in going beyond the sublevels of the station in the original or the remake.
Police officer corpse hanging by a pipe in RPD 1F West Wing hallway
In the RPD 1F West Wing hallway, just past Reception, you’ll find a few deceased cops. While a licker killed the one propped against the corner with the gruesome wounds, the fate of the one nearby is in question. The hanging body has been impaled through the head on a pipe in the ceiling. However, he doesn’t have the same injuries as the body nearby, which might indicate that he didn’t meet his death via Licker.
Lickers are strong. They’re strong enough to pull a body into the ceiling, as made clear by the behavior observed in the Western Storage Room. However, the hanging body in the 1F West Wing Hallway doesn’t show any signs of a Licker attack. That means we’re looking for another monster, one that’s strong enough to pick up and impale a man on a pipe dangling from the ceiling.
If a Licker didn’t kill the hanging cop, then the only other BOWs we know that might visit this area are the Tyrant and Nemesis. Since it’s likely that the Tyrant hasn’t visited the RPD by the time you find the body, that leaves Nemesis as the likely killer.
Arguments for Nemesis killing the hanging cop in the RPD 1F West Wing hallway
Nemesis isn’t shown killing any RPD officers in the original RE3 besides Brad Vickers. However, that might change in the remake. Besides Nemesis having the strength to impale a man in a way that killed the hanging cop, a detail from the original game lends some support to the possibility. We find the corpse along the path that Jill takes in RE3 to get to the STARS Office.
Arguments against Nemesis causing the death of the hanging cop in the RPD 1F West Wing hallway
Since the cop in the hallway’s corner died from a Licker attack, the most obvious killer for the hanging cop is also a Licker. We’ve seen these beasts pull corpses up through the ceiling, and they have the strength to impale a man in that manner. However, we’ve never seen a Licker use the environment to damage a target, and they may lack the intelligence to do so.
Even though I’d like this to be a Nemesis teaser, I feel like it’s a bit too obviously a Licker kill. The most likely reason the body was hanging from the ceiling pipe is so that it could fall down for a jump scare. I’d love to be right in this being a Nemesis connection, but it’s a lot thinner than the broken walls discussed above.
