Resident Evil 3 (Remake) review

    I feel like I've missed the boat on being part of Resident Evil 3's remake reviews. While I normally don't pay much attention to those sorts of things, I was a pre-order and really sunk my teeth into the game--or tried to. A lot of what I felt about the game has already been shared and is basically repeated ad nauseum. Which, to me, means it's true. I overall liked the game but felt that it did suffer from some pretty glaring flaws that impacted the experience.

Nemesis has some good scenes but gets his butt kicked a lot.

    The premise of Resident Evil 3 is that it is an adaptation of Resident Evil: Nemesis that I didn't quite grok was the "official" third game until years later. I always thought of Resident Evil: Code Veronica as the superior of the two released roughly around the same time. Jill Valentine is trapped in Racoon City during the outbreak of zombie-ism brought about William Birkin. Her goal is to escape the city but she's on the run from a mysterious creature known as the Nemesis. Along the way, she teams up with a Umbrella Corps merc named Carlos.

    Actually, this is not entirely true as the plot is significantly changed from the original. Well, sort of. Specifically, there's a few subplots about Jill wanting to try to save a bunch of civilians and stop the destruction of Racoon City by the US military. It's not a spoiler to say that she does not succeed in the latter. However, it does change Jill's motivations significantly as she's no longer driven by pure survival but something more heroic. Also, it makes the game darker because this is one of the few games where the heroes almost completely fail to achieve anything worthwhile. I would have been very interested in following this up actually.

Jill is gorgeous. I mean, the graphics are. Also Jill.

    Unfortunately, the game's much darker plot and willingness to put its heroine through the wringer doesn't have to germinate. It has been commentated many times that Resident Evil 3 is short to a fault. This is true, though also misleading. I finished the game in just under three hours and I'm not some miracle-achieving speedrunner. The Resident Evil 2 Remake campaigns were of a comparative length but both Leon and Claire had different stories despite almost identical gameplay. You play as Carlos as well as Jill but as part of the same campaign rather than two separate ones. As such, RE3 feels like roughly half as long.

    This feels noticeable because there is more plot in the game that could have been dealt with better. When Jill fails to save civilians, how does she feel about that? How does it feel when she fails to save Racoon City? What she think about Carlos and the others in his squad? Is she actually afraid of the Nemesis or it just more of an annoyance? There were only a few intimate character moments in the RE2 remake but they were there with Sherri Birkin as well as the mysterious Ms. Wong.

More Jill. Sorry, it's an addiction.

    I'm going to be honest, I wasn't blown away by Nemesis in this game. I was expecting something like a turbo-charged Mr. X and instead it came off more like Ustanak from Resident Evil 6. Utsanak chases after Sherri Birkin disturbingly hot older self and Jake Mueller, Wesker's son, throughout their campaign. Ustanak is scripted cutscene and boss battle after boss battle where he survives countless explosions as well as an army's worth of ammunition. Nemesis is scary and effective the first few times you face him but overuse effectively makes him feel less threatening. Like Ustanak, you beat Nemesis so many times and escape him with such little effort that he's just annoying by the end.

    Nikolai is the other major villain of the game and is less disappointing but also a bit one note. He acts like an enormous jerk to Jill and is solely motivated by money but he doesn't really engender the kind of hate a really good villain should. I feel like they also missed a great opportunity to tie his backers to the Connections from Resident Evil 7. As such, he seems like another underdeveloped character that could have been much more. Really, I felt cheated we didn't get a boss fight with Nikolai even if it would stretch the limits of believability.

Nemesis is less Jason Voorhees and more Kool-aid Man

    The gameplay feels a bit like a simplified version of Resident Evil 2 Remake with most of the same zombie models, dogs, and other creatures. The zombies are a lot less durable this time around and it feels a lot to take them down. Jill and Carlos also have a dodge ability that makes it easier to get out of their way. Indeed, the final battle requires you to master the dodge mechanic, which I felt made it significantly less fun than the more skill-based ones. On the plus side, I actually did enjoy combat a lot more as the action set pieces were very well-designed. The segments where Nemesis is stalking you through the streets are the best in the game.

    Despite all of my complaints, I really feel this is a beautiful video game. Jill Valentine is redesigned to one of her best looks and I don't mind the tank top as well as jeans look that Lara Croft has popularized. Carlos also looks great. There's some really good levels and while the lack of puzzles is bothersome, I felt like previous games overdid them. As an action game, it strikes a nice balance between RE2 and RE4. Still, I feel like this isn't a must play and isn't nearly as well-balanced as its predecessor. It's just too quick and action set-piece-y to make the game perfect. Maybe two more hours of content or a Carlos campaign would have made it work. I also would have made Nemesis less commonplace as an enemy and deadlier.

7/10