Nick Springthorpe.
Well-Known Member
Welcome back to my take on Resident Evil 3 Remake Extended Cut. Last thread, things dragged on longer than expected. I decided to do the smart thing and cut the Clock Tower into two thread posts. Yesterday we covered the arrival at the Clock Tower, explored the first two floors, and covered one-half of the fifth live decision. So let's pick up from there, shall we?
Choosing to search the second floor leads to the Curator's office where Jill finds the bodies of the Mercenary and the Woman. She gets a call on the radio, that consists of Carlos shouting in Portuguese accompanied by bursts of gunfire. Jill heads downstairs to the ballroom in time to see Carlos drop a chandelier on a group of zombies. The room falls silent. Carlos slumps back against the wall and slides to the floor. He is clearly physically and emotionally exhausted.
"Carlos?" He turns and points his rifle at Jill, then lowers it.
"Jesus Christ, don't you know better than to sneak up on a guy when he's fighting zombies?" Jill looks out at the expanse of the ballroom. Bodies litter the floor in pools of blood. Mercenary and civilian alike.
"My God," Jill gasps. "What happened here?"
"Looks like they were sheltering survivors." Carlos answers. The layout of the ballroom is strewn with emergency beds, boxes of food, and cans of water. Jill sits down next to Carlos.
"God damn it!" Carlos rages. "I'm f*cking sick of always being too late to help."
Jill looks away from the carnage and spots a stuffed Mr. Raccoon down by her feet. Its fur is coated in blood. 'Are we the only survivors left in this city,' She wonders to herself.
Suddenly the radio crackles to life. It's Tyrell, he's still alive and heading for the hospital. When Carlos declines his offer for backup, Jill interrupts and tells Tyrell that Carlos is already on his way. Carlos protests leaving Jill alone in the Clock Tower.
"I won't leave you alone with that monster roaming around outside. It's suicide!"
"Carlos, you just said you were tired of not being able to help people. Well, now's your chance. That vaccine could save thousands, millions. We can't afford to lose it."
"You're...you're right Jill," He concedes reaches. "I'm on my way, over." "He looks at Jill one more time. "If anything happens, anything at all, you call me or Tyrell right away. If I don't make it back, ring the bell, get on the chopper, and get the hell out of Dodge. Got it?"
Jill shoots him a faint smile. "Got it."
Now that we've covered the divergent paths, it's time to discuss the puzzle elements. One of the categories RE3 Remake falls short of is the number of puzzles and their simplicity. The Clock Tower was famous for its puzzles from the music box, to the clock portraits. We're going to fit them all in here.
Now the two main Clock Tower keys return from the original but both play very different functions. The Winder Key is used to unlock not just doors, but also drawers, clocks, and music boxes. The main gimmick with this key is you don't just turn it in the lock, you have to 'wind' it to unlock. Each lock has Roman numerals engraved on it. It doesn't tell you in the text when examined so you have to know your Roman numerals to get it.
The' Bezel' in the Bezel Key is functional and can be adjusted on the examination screen. The locks it opens are 'time-sensitive' Which means the key's teeth won't fit unless its bezel is set to the same number on the lock. Like the Winder Key, these numbers are in Roman numerals. However, the Winder Key's numerals are between one and ten, while the bezels are between one and sixty.
Both keys are combined together with the Chronos Chain to form the Chronos Key.
Next, we move on to the gears. In the original, the silver and gold gears had to be combined to form the Chronos gear. Here, however, it's a bit different. First, the gold and silver gears are gone, and in their place are the past, present, and future gears. Second, the Chronos gear they form is not used to ring the bell, instead, it is used to open a clockwork gate at the top of the U-shaped stairway that leads to the roof. Third, all three gears are kept inside the clock paintings in the Curator's office.
The third puzzle we visit is the goddess statues and the Amber, Crystal, and Obsidian Balls. Like the original, the balls are placed on trays at the bottom of the clock paintings. Here however the solution is to open all three to collect the gears. Before that, however, we need to find the statues which like the ones holding the medallions in the RE2 remake are scattered throughout the Clock Tower. One is in Foyer, another is in the Art restoration studio, and the third one is in a third-floor storeroom accessible by a stairwell in the curator's office. The statue is way in the back behind piles of old school desks and supplies.
You can't take the balls like in the original, however. The statue's hands are closed. Each one has a plaque on its base with a keyhole depicting two sets of Roman numerals. One simple, one complex. The simple one is for winding, while the complex one is for adjusting the key's bezel. Ex: Simple= 5 Complex=5:30.
To open the statue's hands, you must first adjust the bezel, then turn the key the correct number of times. Once you have all three, head back to the curator's office, and let's figure out how to open those clocks. In the original, the solution was to use place the balls in such order that the hands of the middle clock would stop at midnight. This version however requires us to stop all three clocks at the right time.
Each clock has a different 'solution' and each ball affects all three differently depending on both the trays they are placed in and the order in which they are placed down. Thus the solution is to determine which ball goes in which tray and find the correct order of placement to stop the clocks at the correct time. Once this is done the hands of all three clocks will spin and the faces will open revealing the gears. Once you assemble the Chronos gear, place it in the gate and you'll be able to access the clockwork storeroom. This is a save room with a lot of ammo and healing items. And we all know what that means.
Once you step through the doors and onto the rooftop terrace you are greeted by the Nemesis. The rooftop's architecture is like something straight out of a gothic horror novel. A wide-open area resembling a castle rampart, decorated with gargoyle statues, battlements, and spotlights. It's also under restoration, which means there is scaffolding, red barrels, portable generators, and electrical wiring. These items are the key to winning this battle. You need to catch Nemesis off-guard, by first blinding him with a spotlight, then using the objects in the environment to damage him. You've got the usual red barrels, but you also got cords you can throw into a puddle, scaffolding you can shoot to collapse, and my favorite hanging gargoyles to drop on his head. Like in Downtown Nemesis learns quickly from your attacks and will destroy any you've already used. (Ala Mr. Freeze in Arkham City.)
Once he's down for the count, he'll stumble over to the edge and tumble over the battlements, leaving Jill free to enter the Clock Tower proper. But before that, if you look just across the street from the Clock Tower, you'll see a church. That is Saint Michael's Church, and it will be playing a part in a bit.
Once you enter the clock tower you'll find yourself in the machinery room. This is a high room with multiple floors connected by wall-mounted L-shaped staircases. Reaching the second to the top floor we find the Clock Tower's bell, conspicuously not installed in the belfry. Heading to the top, we find out the reason why. In place of a bell, we have a PA system designed to play the sound of the bell ringing. This is our final puzzle, in order to play the sound, Jill needs to have collected a series of plugs from music boxes scattered throughout the clock tower. She needs to place them in the proper order in a nod to the music box puzzle from the original to get the correct sound. once this is accomplished the speakers will play the chiming.
Suddenly the Nemesis crashes through the clockface knocking Jill to the ground. She rolls out of the way of his next attack and fires a mine round into the floor near his misshapen feet. It explodes staggering him back toward the edge but before he can fall he throws out one tentacle to grab the minute hand of the clock tower and wraps the other one around Jill's leg. Jill only has a few seconds to fire a grenade at the remaining part of the clockface before she is pulled out and dropped to her death.
"Your time is up!"
The grenade blast breaks the minute hand-off and sends Nemesis plunging down. Jill feels a stabbing sensation in her leg just as Nemesis releases it. In an ending worthy of a Hammer film he falls to the courtyard below and is impaled through the chest by the minute hand destroying the restraint device on his chest. Jill looks down at her leg and sees one of the monster's projectile spines sticking out. The horrifying realization that she is likely infected sets in.
The radio in her ear crackles to life with the voice of the helicopter pilot. "This is UBCS Helicopter Delta, I have confirmed your evacuation signal, preparing to land at LZ E95070 ETA two minutes out."
"Carlos... can you hear me...over?"
"Loud and clear, Jill, I heard the bell ringing from here. Guess that means the chopper is on the way over?"
"Yeah...how are things on your end over?"
"I'm at the hospital, no sign of Dr. Bard so far over."
"Well, keep looking...ugh...that vaccine research is invaluable...over."
"What's wrong Jill? Are you injured over?"
"I'm fine...hiss...it's just a scratch over."
"I'm coming back."
"No, you need to find Bard and his research and get him back here. Don't worry about me over."
"Jill...alright hang in there. As soon as I find Dr. Bard, I'm coming straight back and we're gonna have you looked at."
"Sounds like a plan, see you soon over and out."
"Roger over and out."
Jill staggers down the stairs and out onto the terrace. She hears the distant beating of the helicopter's rotors and looks up to see the helicopter in the distance flying toward her.
"We did it," She smiles knowing that even if she doesn't make it out of the city, hopefully, the vaccine will.
"Delta Platoon, this is Helicopter Delta, I see the Clock Tower, requesting confirmation that LZ is secure over."
Before Jill can answer, a flying object overhead streaks towards the helicopter. It's a stinger missile. But Nemesis is still pinned to the ground by the minute hand. The pilot attempts to evade but the missile follows striking the helicopter's tail rotor and sending it spinning out of control.
"Mayday, mayday! This is Chopper Delta, I've been hit! I've lost the tail rotor! I'm going down!"
"NOOOOOO!" Finding the strength to run, Jill races for the Clockwork Storeroom. She pushes the door open and makes it to the stairs just as the helicopter crashes into the Clock Tower. The impact sends her tumbling down the stairs. Outside the clock tower falls from the building into the courtyard burying the still trapped Nemesis in the rubble. Back inside, Jill tries to get to her feet. Unfortunately for her, the fall combined with the virus setting in leaves her too weak. She has just enough strength to press the call button on her radio.
"Carlos...h-help."
"Jill, Is that you? Jill! Jilllllll!"
In the steeple of Saint Michael's Church across the Street, a figure lowers a Stinger missile launcher. It's Nicholai.
"Farewell Miss Valentine, You were almost a worthy opponent." With a smug smirk, he sets the launcher down and disappears out of frame.
And that's the second half of the Clock Tower. I like to think it offered a new experience while pulling the necessary nostalgia strings. Next time we return to Spencer Memorial Hospital, visit Saint Michael's Church and pay our respects in the Graveyard outback. Until next time.
Choosing to search the second floor leads to the Curator's office where Jill finds the bodies of the Mercenary and the Woman. She gets a call on the radio, that consists of Carlos shouting in Portuguese accompanied by bursts of gunfire. Jill heads downstairs to the ballroom in time to see Carlos drop a chandelier on a group of zombies. The room falls silent. Carlos slumps back against the wall and slides to the floor. He is clearly physically and emotionally exhausted.
"Carlos?" He turns and points his rifle at Jill, then lowers it.
"Jesus Christ, don't you know better than to sneak up on a guy when he's fighting zombies?" Jill looks out at the expanse of the ballroom. Bodies litter the floor in pools of blood. Mercenary and civilian alike.
"My God," Jill gasps. "What happened here?"
"Looks like they were sheltering survivors." Carlos answers. The layout of the ballroom is strewn with emergency beds, boxes of food, and cans of water. Jill sits down next to Carlos.
"God damn it!" Carlos rages. "I'm f*cking sick of always being too late to help."
Jill looks away from the carnage and spots a stuffed Mr. Raccoon down by her feet. Its fur is coated in blood. 'Are we the only survivors left in this city,' She wonders to herself.
Suddenly the radio crackles to life. It's Tyrell, he's still alive and heading for the hospital. When Carlos declines his offer for backup, Jill interrupts and tells Tyrell that Carlos is already on his way. Carlos protests leaving Jill alone in the Clock Tower.
"I won't leave you alone with that monster roaming around outside. It's suicide!"
"Carlos, you just said you were tired of not being able to help people. Well, now's your chance. That vaccine could save thousands, millions. We can't afford to lose it."
"You're...you're right Jill," He concedes reaches. "I'm on my way, over." "He looks at Jill one more time. "If anything happens, anything at all, you call me or Tyrell right away. If I don't make it back, ring the bell, get on the chopper, and get the hell out of Dodge. Got it?"
Jill shoots him a faint smile. "Got it."
Now that we've covered the divergent paths, it's time to discuss the puzzle elements. One of the categories RE3 Remake falls short of is the number of puzzles and their simplicity. The Clock Tower was famous for its puzzles from the music box, to the clock portraits. We're going to fit them all in here.
Now the two main Clock Tower keys return from the original but both play very different functions. The Winder Key is used to unlock not just doors, but also drawers, clocks, and music boxes. The main gimmick with this key is you don't just turn it in the lock, you have to 'wind' it to unlock. Each lock has Roman numerals engraved on it. It doesn't tell you in the text when examined so you have to know your Roman numerals to get it.
The' Bezel' in the Bezel Key is functional and can be adjusted on the examination screen. The locks it opens are 'time-sensitive' Which means the key's teeth won't fit unless its bezel is set to the same number on the lock. Like the Winder Key, these numbers are in Roman numerals. However, the Winder Key's numerals are between one and ten, while the bezels are between one and sixty.
Both keys are combined together with the Chronos Chain to form the Chronos Key.
Next, we move on to the gears. In the original, the silver and gold gears had to be combined to form the Chronos gear. Here, however, it's a bit different. First, the gold and silver gears are gone, and in their place are the past, present, and future gears. Second, the Chronos gear they form is not used to ring the bell, instead, it is used to open a clockwork gate at the top of the U-shaped stairway that leads to the roof. Third, all three gears are kept inside the clock paintings in the Curator's office.
The third puzzle we visit is the goddess statues and the Amber, Crystal, and Obsidian Balls. Like the original, the balls are placed on trays at the bottom of the clock paintings. Here however the solution is to open all three to collect the gears. Before that, however, we need to find the statues which like the ones holding the medallions in the RE2 remake are scattered throughout the Clock Tower. One is in Foyer, another is in the Art restoration studio, and the third one is in a third-floor storeroom accessible by a stairwell in the curator's office. The statue is way in the back behind piles of old school desks and supplies.
You can't take the balls like in the original, however. The statue's hands are closed. Each one has a plaque on its base with a keyhole depicting two sets of Roman numerals. One simple, one complex. The simple one is for winding, while the complex one is for adjusting the key's bezel. Ex: Simple= 5 Complex=5:30.
To open the statue's hands, you must first adjust the bezel, then turn the key the correct number of times. Once you have all three, head back to the curator's office, and let's figure out how to open those clocks. In the original, the solution was to use place the balls in such order that the hands of the middle clock would stop at midnight. This version however requires us to stop all three clocks at the right time.
Each clock has a different 'solution' and each ball affects all three differently depending on both the trays they are placed in and the order in which they are placed down. Thus the solution is to determine which ball goes in which tray and find the correct order of placement to stop the clocks at the correct time. Once this is done the hands of all three clocks will spin and the faces will open revealing the gears. Once you assemble the Chronos gear, place it in the gate and you'll be able to access the clockwork storeroom. This is a save room with a lot of ammo and healing items. And we all know what that means.
Once you step through the doors and onto the rooftop terrace you are greeted by the Nemesis. The rooftop's architecture is like something straight out of a gothic horror novel. A wide-open area resembling a castle rampart, decorated with gargoyle statues, battlements, and spotlights. It's also under restoration, which means there is scaffolding, red barrels, portable generators, and electrical wiring. These items are the key to winning this battle. You need to catch Nemesis off-guard, by first blinding him with a spotlight, then using the objects in the environment to damage him. You've got the usual red barrels, but you also got cords you can throw into a puddle, scaffolding you can shoot to collapse, and my favorite hanging gargoyles to drop on his head. Like in Downtown Nemesis learns quickly from your attacks and will destroy any you've already used. (Ala Mr. Freeze in Arkham City.)
Once he's down for the count, he'll stumble over to the edge and tumble over the battlements, leaving Jill free to enter the Clock Tower proper. But before that, if you look just across the street from the Clock Tower, you'll see a church. That is Saint Michael's Church, and it will be playing a part in a bit.
Once you enter the clock tower you'll find yourself in the machinery room. This is a high room with multiple floors connected by wall-mounted L-shaped staircases. Reaching the second to the top floor we find the Clock Tower's bell, conspicuously not installed in the belfry. Heading to the top, we find out the reason why. In place of a bell, we have a PA system designed to play the sound of the bell ringing. This is our final puzzle, in order to play the sound, Jill needs to have collected a series of plugs from music boxes scattered throughout the clock tower. She needs to place them in the proper order in a nod to the music box puzzle from the original to get the correct sound. once this is accomplished the speakers will play the chiming.
Suddenly the Nemesis crashes through the clockface knocking Jill to the ground. She rolls out of the way of his next attack and fires a mine round into the floor near his misshapen feet. It explodes staggering him back toward the edge but before he can fall he throws out one tentacle to grab the minute hand of the clock tower and wraps the other one around Jill's leg. Jill only has a few seconds to fire a grenade at the remaining part of the clockface before she is pulled out and dropped to her death.
"Your time is up!"
The grenade blast breaks the minute hand-off and sends Nemesis plunging down. Jill feels a stabbing sensation in her leg just as Nemesis releases it. In an ending worthy of a Hammer film he falls to the courtyard below and is impaled through the chest by the minute hand destroying the restraint device on his chest. Jill looks down at her leg and sees one of the monster's projectile spines sticking out. The horrifying realization that she is likely infected sets in.
The radio in her ear crackles to life with the voice of the helicopter pilot. "This is UBCS Helicopter Delta, I have confirmed your evacuation signal, preparing to land at LZ E95070 ETA two minutes out."
"Carlos... can you hear me...over?"
"Loud and clear, Jill, I heard the bell ringing from here. Guess that means the chopper is on the way over?"
"Yeah...how are things on your end over?"
"I'm at the hospital, no sign of Dr. Bard so far over."
"Well, keep looking...ugh...that vaccine research is invaluable...over."
"What's wrong Jill? Are you injured over?"
"I'm fine...hiss...it's just a scratch over."
"I'm coming back."
"No, you need to find Bard and his research and get him back here. Don't worry about me over."
"Jill...alright hang in there. As soon as I find Dr. Bard, I'm coming straight back and we're gonna have you looked at."
"Sounds like a plan, see you soon over and out."
"Roger over and out."
Jill staggers down the stairs and out onto the terrace. She hears the distant beating of the helicopter's rotors and looks up to see the helicopter in the distance flying toward her.
"We did it," She smiles knowing that even if she doesn't make it out of the city, hopefully, the vaccine will.
"Delta Platoon, this is Helicopter Delta, I see the Clock Tower, requesting confirmation that LZ is secure over."
Before Jill can answer, a flying object overhead streaks towards the helicopter. It's a stinger missile. But Nemesis is still pinned to the ground by the minute hand. The pilot attempts to evade but the missile follows striking the helicopter's tail rotor and sending it spinning out of control.
"Mayday, mayday! This is Chopper Delta, I've been hit! I've lost the tail rotor! I'm going down!"
"NOOOOOO!" Finding the strength to run, Jill races for the Clockwork Storeroom. She pushes the door open and makes it to the stairs just as the helicopter crashes into the Clock Tower. The impact sends her tumbling down the stairs. Outside the clock tower falls from the building into the courtyard burying the still trapped Nemesis in the rubble. Back inside, Jill tries to get to her feet. Unfortunately for her, the fall combined with the virus setting in leaves her too weak. She has just enough strength to press the call button on her radio.
"Carlos...h-help."
"Jill, Is that you? Jill! Jilllllll!"
In the steeple of Saint Michael's Church across the Street, a figure lowers a Stinger missile launcher. It's Nicholai.
"Farewell Miss Valentine, You were almost a worthy opponent." With a smug smirk, he sets the launcher down and disappears out of frame.
And that's the second half of the Clock Tower. I like to think it offered a new experience while pulling the necessary nostalgia strings. Next time we return to Spencer Memorial Hospital, visit Saint Michael's Church and pay our respects in the Graveyard outback. Until next time.
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