Resident Evil 3’s upcoming remake is already going to expand upon the 1999 original in many ways (which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who played last year’s Resident Evil 2), from a lot of remixed elements to greater roles for supporting characters and more. One more area where the game will be doing so is with the setting itself.
Speaking recently to the Official PlayStation Magazine in their February 2020 issue (issue 171), Resident Evil 3 producer Peter Fabiano confirmed that Raccoon City will be a lot larger and more explorable than it was in the original game. Fabiano confirmed that it’s “[still not an open world game” and that players won’t be able to enter every single building, but that there will be more freedom to explore in the remake.
“You’ll find that you’ll be able to walk through areas and explore a bit more than in the original,” he said, before warning players, “Keep in mind that you never know what might lurk around the corner.”
Given the fact that the original Resident Evil 3 was constrained by the hardware limitations of the PS1, it makes sense that Capcom will want to expand upon its ideas and potential much more, now that they have significantly more powerful hardware at their disposal. Making Raccoon City larger and more explorable is certainly a great way to do that.
Resident Evil 3 is out on April 3 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This very interview has also revealed plenty of other interesting new details, such as the fact that Resident Evil 3 won’t have a Mercenaries mode, that it won’t have multiple endings like the original did, and that its story will connect with the Resident Evil 2 remake a lot more than the stories of the two original releases did.
