'Resident Evil 3' Full of Terror and Fun

By AARON CURTISS

Dec. 2, 1999 12 AM PT

Holiday joy comes in so many forms. Roasting chestnuts. Beaming carolers. Twinkling lights. And, of course, flesh-eating zombies.

“Resident Evil 3: Nemesis” lets players forget the traffic jams at the mall and the clogged online shopping servers by dropping them deep into the sick and wrong and beautiful depths of Raccoon City, home of the walking dead.

The “Resident Evil” series is the best action-adventure franchise on Sony PlayStation, or any other platform. And this third installment takes mystery, chills and exploding zombie heads to terrifying new levels.

As is popular these days in everything from movies to books, this sequel is not really a sequel. Half the game takes place in the days between the original “Resident Evil,” when special forces raided a zombie-filled mansion, and “Resident Evil 2,” when the zombie-making virus infects all of Raccoon City. The other half unfolds after “Resident Evil 2.”

Strange, but it works.

This interim chapter tells the story of 23-year-old Jill Valentine, a member of the elite police unit sent in to battle the zombies in the first game. She just can’t catch a break, and when she gets back to town she finds the whole place crawling with undead flesh-eaters. Bummer.

Like “Resident Evil 2,” “Nemesis” packs a lot of play onto its two CD-ROMs. After players finish the game the first time, they can go on a zombie hunt in mercenary mode. Beat it repeatedly and learn the fates of various characters. Tons of secret items hide in the game.

For veterans of the series, the environments will look familiar. The streets and buildings of Raccoon City have been pre-rendered so they look great and provide a realistic background for the characters. The static camera angles remain, which is both a blessing and a curse. By carefully controlling what players see when, designers have been able to build a game more suspenseful than many movies.

Only after it’s too late does Jill--at least when controlled by me--stumble upon a not-quite-dead pile of zombies or bloodthirsty hounds. Playing the game in the dark with the sound turned up can be a lot more spooky fun than plopping down eight bucks to sit through the latest shriekfest at the multiplex.

But the static camera gets old when players have already explored an area. The shots all remain the same. “Dino Crisis,” which was done by the same team, experimented with a camera that followed characters and the results were nice. Not until the next “Resident Evil” chapter, “Code Name: Veronica” for Sega Dreamcast, can fans expect to see any new tricks with perspective.

In the meantime, “Resident Evil 3 Nemesis” surely will satisfy even the most jaded gamers with sweet graphics, tightly wound story and more zombies than ever.

‘Nocturne’

Call me old. But I just don’t have the sort of patience I once did for games that take forever to load, are a bear to configure and then can be played only in total darkness. “Nocturne” for the PC is supposed to be a spooky trip through the 1930s as part of a top-secret government agency battling the forces of supernatural evil.

Whatever.

Players assume the role of The Stranger, a brooding agent who’s seen everything this world--and the next--has to offer. He hates monsters. So when he’s teamed up in the first installment with a half-vampire for a partner, he’s none too pleased.

Unfortunately, The Stranger’s brooding infects “Nocturne” with a pace that’s desperately in need of some programming Prozac. Dialogue is weak, but players are forced to sit through interminable cut sequences that are supposed to be dark, but come across as corny.

Once play does commence, the screen is so dark and shadowy that the only way to see anything is to play at night with all the lights out. That may work for people who stay up all night, but for those of us with jobs and families, it’s nice to be able to play at other times during the day.

Somewhere inside “Nocturne” may dwell a great game. But I got fed up long before I found it.

“Nocturne” requires Windows 98 and a chipset running at 400 MHz or higher with 64 mb of RAM--128 recommended--and 500 mb to 1 gb of hard disk space. I played on a Pentium II 333 with 128 mb of RAM and a Voodoo 3 2000 graphics accelerator and the game was slow and choppy.

‘Tonic Trouble’

Even in the weird world of video games, “Tonic Trouble” stands out as one of the stranger adventures ever to zip across a screen. Although it plays as a standard third-person, 3-D adventure, “Tonic Trouble” has a bizarre, and ultimately dark premise that’s tough to get past.

The hero of “Tonic Trouble” is a armless, legless purple alien named Ed who spills a can of toxic tonic on a friendly visit to Earth. The result: Life everywhere suffers strange mutations. Rivers turn to fruit punch. Tomatoes arm themselves. And a Viking biker dude threatens life as we know it.

Of course, Ed’s mission is to correct the havoc his tonic has wrought. Players guide him through environments that look a lot like the ice tunnels and lava caves seen in so many other games. Making the game even harder to understand are totally incongruous tidbits, such as a machine that dispenses something from the “Newman’s Own” line of food.

Don’t ask.

Through it all, Ed is a cheery enough little alien and players may find some joy in guiding him through the standard jump and run routine. But it’s hard to muster much feeling for a vegetable-battling alien in a bow tie.

Weird games such as “Earthworm Jim” work because their weirdness fits together in some inexplicable way. They become cool--the way some guys can pull off wearing Drew Carey-style glasses. “Tonic Trouble,” though, misses that mark and ends up being just plain strange.

Aaron Curtiss, formerly a Times editorial writer, is participating in a management training program where he currently serves as assistant to the senior vice president of advertising. He has no financial dealings with the companies he covers. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send e-mail to aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

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Essentials

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

* Platform: Sony PlayStation

* Publisher: Capcom

* ESRB Rating: Mature

* Price: $39.99

* Bottom Line: Oh, baby

Nocturne

* Platform: PC

* Publisher: Gathering of Developers

* ESRB Rating: Mature