Live Selection

Live selection is a feature in some video games in which the player must perform an action within a cutscene to continue the storyline. Two variants are encountered in the Resident Evil games -
 * The "options system" for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis meant that either option would advance the story, but in a slightly different way in comparison with the other.
 * The "button combination system" instead has the player press a certain button or buttons to keep the character alive to continue the scene.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
In Resident Evil 3, you will be asked to make a decision at least eight times, or sometimes nine, depending on the outcome of the seventh selection. If you don’t do anything until the time is up, the game will decide for you, but the outcome will be rather unpleasant. The live selections you will or may encounter during the game are as follows:

1) Nemesis kills Brad in front of the police station. You have two options:

– Fight with the monster

– Enter the police station

If you choose to fight Nemesis, you can run to Brad’s body and obtain his S.T.A.R.S. card to get faster access to the computer. You can also defeat Nemesis, who will drop items on Hard Mode. If you get too scared during the fight, you can still run to the door and enter the police station.

Entering the police station is probably the better option for newcomers. You won’t have to fight Nemesis, but you also have to look for Jill’s S.T.A.R.S. card in the building because you can’t go outside anymore to pick up Brad’s. If you try, Jill will tell you it’s too dangerous to go outside.

If you’re too slow to choose one of the options, Nemesis will attack Jill and it’s up to you whether you fight him or flee.

2 a) Nemesis confronts Jill and Carlos at the Grill 13. This only happens if you decide to visit the restaurant before the newspaper office. Two options:

– Run into the basement

– Hide inside the kitchen

Running into the basement doesn’t really help you, it will just cause Nemesis to damage the water pipes, the basement will get flooded, you’ll have to get upstairs and face Nemesis again. However, it affects the story: You will meet Carlos at the sales office and Nicholai at the gas station.

If you hide inside the kitchen, Jill throws an oil lamp at Nemesis, knocking him out and buying her and Carlos enough time to flee. He will also drop an item on Hard Mode. Nemesis will stalk Jill afterwards, you will meet Carlos at the gas station and Nicholai at the sales office.

If you don’t choose fast enough, Jill and Carlos will have to fight Nemesis immediately. The game will end if either of them dies during the fight.

2 b) Nemesis confronts Jill and Carlos at the Raccoon Press. This is the alternative if you decide to visit this location before the restaurant.

– Jump out of the window

– Hide in the back

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The choice has more or less the same consequences as the one in the Grill 13. If you hide in the back, Carlos will appear at the gas station and Nicholai at the sales office. If you jump out of the window, it will be the other way around, but you will also get access to a backstreet which you can’t enter otherwise, and collect two red herbs.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">3) Jill is haunted by zombies at the power station. Once again, two options:

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Head to the emergency exit

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Increase electricity output

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you do the latter, the zombies knocking on the fence will get a fatal electric shock.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Heading to the emergency exit is basically not a good idea, since you’ll have to fight either them or Nemesis.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Doing nothing is the worst idea, though, because the zombies will break through the fence.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">4) An earthquake occurs on your way back to the cable car, Jill almost falls down a hole, with crates rolling in her direction.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Climb up

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Jump down

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Either way, Jill will not get hurt. It doesn’t seem to have any significant effect on the game, except that jumping down will make your way a little longer and also more dangerous, as sliding worms will attack you in the hole.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you don’t make your decision in time, Jill will fall down and lose a bit of her health.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">5) The cable car is out of control.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Jump out of the window

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Use the emergency brake

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">It affects the point from which you start in the clock tower, and Carlos’ help in the next major fight against Nemesis. If you jump out of the window, you will enter the clock tower through the back door, and Nemesis will have his rocket launcher during the fight. Carlos won’t appear to help you, but will give you some ammo for the grenade launcher when you run into him in the clock tower.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you use the emergency brake, you’ll enter the tower from the front. Carlos won’t give you ammo, but will destroy Nemesis’ rocket launcher so he can’t use it during the fight. The option will be chosen automatically if you don’t decide in the given time, but Jill will be slightly injured after the crash.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">6) Nemesis confronts Jill in the clock tower near the bells.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Use the light

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Use the cord

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you use the light, Nemesis will be blinded and pushed from the balcony by Jill. He won’t stalk her, but she won’t get an item from him either.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you use the cord, an electric shock will knock Nemesis unconscious, allowing Jill to get an item from him without having to fight. However, he will stalk her when he she leaves the balcony.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you don’t make a choice, Nemesis will attack and you’ll have to defeat him if you want the item.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">7) A mutated Nemesis blocks the way to the dead factory.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Push him off

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Jump off

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you push Nemesis off the bridge, Jill enters the factory on the top floor and meets Carlos in the safe room. Nicholai will be killed by Nemesis in the end, and Jill and Carlos will take a chopper to leave the city.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you jump off yourself, Jill enters the factory via the sewers, where she’s rescued from zombies by Carlos. Nicholai will steal the remaining chopper, but Jill and Carlos will be saved by Barry.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you don’t jump off and don’t push Nemesis off either, Jill will be pushed off instead and suffer some damage from the hit and the fall.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">8) Jill versus Nicholai. This live selection only occurs if you jumped or were pushed off the bridge in the previous one. Nicholai attacks Jill with the chopper’s inbuilt guns.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Negotiate with Nicholai

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Return fire to the chopper

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The first option will make Jill try to reason with Nicholai, but he will eventually fly away. This is the easier way to solve this problem.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The other option does just as it says: You have to fight Nicholai until you destroy the chopper, killing him in the process.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you choose none of the given options, Nicholai will send a rocket right to Jill’s face, weakening her before she has to fight him. One way or another, the chopper will be either gone or destroyed in the end, leaving Jill and Carlos to be saved by Barry.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">9) After destroying Nemesis in his third and final form, his remnants will still try to hinder Jill’s escape.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Exterminate the monster

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">– Ignore it and evacuate

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Choose to exterminate the monster, and you can lean back and watch Jill take revenge on Nemesis by destroying him once and for all. Time stands still during this cutscene, so you don’t have to fear being wiped out by the missile in the meantime.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">If you choose the second option, Jill will leave the room immediately, so Nemesis will probably be killed by the missile.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Don’t choose anything and Nemesis will successfully attack Jill one last time before he dies. This decision does not seem to influence anything.