The Resident Evil games have slowly been modernizing their legacy of games with some of the most well-made remakes in gaming.
While it seems impossible to please everyone when remakes do their job properly, there’s no denying that Resident Evil 2 was really well received by fans. However, did Capcom knock it out of the park again with Resident Evil 3 or was this a step in the wrong direction?
The Day Before
Resident Evil 3 sees Jill Valentine return to head this adventure and starts just before the events of RE2 and will overlap by the end of the game. Jill is rudely awoken from sleep as Raccoon City begins to discover the dead wandering its streets.
Her goal is simply to get out until she realizes there’s unfinished business in Racoon City and teams up with Umbrella operative, Carlos Oliveira. Together, they investigate the nearby hospital where an Umbrella-funded scientist has been working with the virus and who may have the cure. However, Jill must navigate streets packed with zombies and a relentless monster—known as the bioweapons or Nemesis—as it hunts her down.
This might be my least favorite story of the Resident Evil game, but Jill in the remake is enjoyable to watch advocate and fight for truth. Carlos is generally pretty tolerable as well, if not a little stereotypically white knight at times.
RE3’s biggest accomplishment in its storytelling is probably the extension of characters in the lore. It doesn’t progress the story, but it increases the players and only amplifies the mystery surrounding Raccoon City, the outbreak, and Umbrella.
But besides that, it’s fairly weak and after playing so much Resident Evil lately, it’s hard not to see what little substance the game offers in this category.
A Straightforward Outbreak
However, we play Resident Evil for the gameplay for the most part, so how is that. Well, it’s very similar to RE2. It offers far more variety in areas to explore but maybe at the expense of much exploration. RE3 rarely has you confused on where to go next and for the most part, the real challenge is the enemies you’ll face—and you’ll face a lot of enemies.
While RE2 was very precise in how many enemies it sent at the player with its carefully designed police station setting, RE3 feels like it’s trying to do the opposite. Arenas are tight and often packed with a variety of enemies. Often, the player is encouraged to fight as ammo and weapons appear to be more plentiful but that may be a result of the slightly more linear structure of the game. It’s hard to overlook ammo when it’s presented to you on a silver platter.
However, the more linear fashion and slightly more plentiful ammo don’t make this game any easier. The hordes of zombies are tough and with the more cramped halls of RE3, you’ll often find yourself a little too close for comfort.
Unlike RE2, it’s much more difficult to juke around an enemy and avoid them altogether. Often, it’s impossible, and you’re better off just sacrificing some ammo. I felt like I had fewer options in RE3 and felt much more pressured to play a certain way based on the level design.
Of course, the thing that gave RE3 its original name is the Bioweapon that’s supposed to be stalking the player similar to Mr. X in RE2. However, in the remake, it seems like that was axed for more scripted encounters. The Nemesis here will chase Jill through the streets, but it’s more of a set piece than an organic encounter.
Now, I’m frankly not the biggest fan of Mr X as his presence encourages a very tedious form of gameplay. I feel like that mechanic was much improved in RE7 and RE8, so if the Nemesis system couldn’t work as well in RE3’s setting, I’m generally okay with the switch.
It does, however, really take away from the scare factor to have so many scripted scenes and this is something I found RE3 does a lot. The player is constantly losing control to watch a cutscene as Jill watches the Nemesis jump through a wall or as she crawls under some rubble. It’s particularly bad in the early hours of the game, too.
The Two Sides of RE
RE3 remake is a different vibe compared with the original. As I’ve stated in the past, I much prefer the slow, methodical approach of games with RE2 and Biohazard. The survival horror factor is emphasized so much more and it has a visceral effect on my gameplay. RE3 Remake, much like Village, is more focused on the chaos and fast-paced adventure of surviving in a zombie outbreak. Nothing wrong with that but it’s not as much my thing, typically.
This is RE2 if it was more action-packed. There’s not much difference otherwise. Though it is significantly shorter compared with RE2 and that will be a good thing for some and a terrible thing for others.
If you are someone who loves to replay these games for those rankings, the shorter playtime will probably come as a relief. I’m someone who gets in a playthrough or two before I put it aside for a couple years, so RE3 felt so deflating.
This is emphasized with the Carlos sections of the game where he is much more equipped to deal with the vast hordes of zombies. The one time has you defending Jill as she recovers in a nearby room and zombies are trying to break into the hospital lobby. Carlos has tons of ammo, explosives, and traps to deal with the onslaught. It almost felt like it was straight out of Dead Rising rather than a Resident Evil game.
I feel like I might be shoving Resident Evil into too small a box, but when the majority of the game felt lackluster and the best parts were action focuses, it can feel like a different game than what I wanted to play.
I don’t know. And while Village had some horror and fun action sequences, RE3 feels much more generic and less polished. If you’re gonna have an action focus, you better do it right and it doesn’t help that one of the most recent releases in the franchise does a really good job at it.
Resident Evil 3 Remake is a beautiful game with characters that are brought to life with great voice acting. Though the plot feels more like a filler episode, it introduces characters that are pivotal down the line. And while it’s not the scariest RE game, it offers a more traditional Resident Evil action game that you can’t get in Village even if it’s not quite as polished. 7/10
The Game Campaign 