Is Resident Evil 3 Remake Co-Op?

Capcom surprised fans when it announced plans to release a remake of Resident Evil 3 to match the wildly successful Resident Evil 2 Remake. Players were instantly drawn into the plight of S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine and her escape from Raccoon City and the big, bad Nemesis that hunts her.

Faced with the general excitement surrounding Resident Evil 3 Remake, you might have overlooked the bonus announcement from Capcom about Resident Evil: Resistance, the multiplayer mode that launched alongside the main game. In this asymmetrical 4v1 title, a plucky band of survivors must escape the machinations of the Mastermind and its myriad traps. Resistance is the only part of Resident Evil 3 that can be described as co-op; you must take on Nemesis solo.

There are Resident Evil titles that have co-op elements and gameplay, like Resident Evil 5 and 6. However, Resident Evil 3 is more about close escapes and claustrophobic hallways than shooting down monsters with your friends. Jill Valentine will have some help along the way, but she's largely on her own and on the run from a determined, unholy hunter. But, if you're craving some co-op, you can (hopefully) thwart the Mastermind with your buddies in Resistance.

That said, even Resistance has a single player element to it. In short, there are plenty of single player, story mode options for Resident Evil 3 players, but only one way to play alongside friends. From the core gameplay to the Mastermind and Survivors, here's what you need to know about Resident Evil: Resistance.

Resistance is quite different from the single player story of the Resident Evil 3 Remake. It mirrors games like Dead By Daylight, wherein four players try to thwart a sadistic killer. The same applies to Resistance: random teens are snatched up by Umbrella Corps and are then pitted against a Mastermind. This Mastermind can lay traps, spawn enemies, and spy on the other players via security cameras. 

While that might sound overpowered, keep in mind these aren't your average teenagers. To properly test its bioweapons, Umbrella has chosen to kidnap kiddos with a variety of useful skills like healing, hacking, fighting, engineering, and firearms. Therefore, it's anyone's guess as to who might survive this unethical experiment. The test subjects might escape by puzzling their way through stages toward the exit ... or the Mastermind's minions might prevail and turn these kids into a snack.

To take on the Mastermind in Resistance, you'll have to buy Resident Evil 3 Remake. Though Capcom has treated them as separate entities, Resistance comes as a bonus addition to Jill Valentine's escape from Raccoon City. That said, it is an online title, which is how you can connect to other Survivors (or Masterminds) who also bought the game.

Capcom could change tactics in the future, shifting to a model more like Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Warzone. Though associated with Modern Warfare, you don't need to pay to play the battle royale game.

Masterminds are just that: unscrupulous scientists devoted to pushing the limits of what's possible. Currently, the Mastermind roster is made up of Umbrella employees like Daniel Fabron, Annette Birkin, Alex Wesker, and the chairman of the company himself, Ozwell E. Spencer. Save for Fabron, these Masterminds sit back and let the bioweapons do the work for them. Using creature cards and character-unique abilities, they lay traps and summon mutants to trip up the Survivors.

While the gameplay is largely strategic, Masterminds can also take over their monsters and attack the Survivors directly. This is especially fun (read: twisted) when the Tyrant Mr. X himself is summoned. The Mastermind's goal, like Mr. X's, is to make sure no one makes it out alive.

Survivors, on the other hand, are just trying to — you guessed it — survive. After being dropped into the Umbrella facility, they have to cooperate to find items and complete objectives that will unlock new stages. Each stage holds its own Mastermind-planted surprises, but advancing forward will bring the survivors ever closer to sweet, sweet freedom. 

Survivors have various abilities to help them from becoming mincemeat. Valerie Harmon is a healer, while January Van Sant is the resident hacker. Becca Woolett and Samuel Jordan are the damage-dealers, while Tyrone Henry is the tank. And then there's Martin Sandwich, whose engineering skills are put to use to create explosives. It's up to players which four survivors they want on their team, but coordination and cooperation is key to escaping, and, by extension, winning.

While Resident Evil 3 is a key part of the larger story documenting the sins of the Umbrella Corps, Project Resistance is not part of the Resident Evil canon. Capcom made this choice to allow the devs go wild without having to worry about stepping on the toes of the main narrative. This is why the game includes characters like Annette Birkin who (spoiler alert) died in Resident Evil 2. This also frees up the developers to add in improbable survivors like Jill Valentine herself. How did she get into this mess? It doesn't matter: Resistance is its own thing.