3.5/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Resident Evil 3.

5hrs 15m Capcom released the RE3 remake the following year after the successful RE2 (2019) and there’s a general feeling that the game felt very rushed, as would be evident by the short run time and amount of content cut from the original game. Significant locations such as the clock tower, Racoon City Park and the graveyard were removed. With this comes the biggest change as the majority of puzzles were found in the clock tower originally, with very little now being found anywhere in the remake. For this reason and the linear structure as opposed to the labyrinth style of the first two games, it feels more like a FPS than a classic survival horror. There are also characters such as Barry from RE1 that no longer appear as well as enemies like zombie crows and the Gravedigger worm. The game begins with the first live action intro since the very first Resident Evil in 1996, and it’s fair to say it’s substantially better. Throwing me off slightly with an introduction playing in first person before quickly changing to the typical third person over the shoulder the series has maintained. We continue the story of Jill Valentine, one of the survivors of the Spencer mansion discovery who finds herself immediately thrust into being prey to the tyrant Nemesis whilst Racoon City spirals into chaos around her. RE3 changed the trajectory of the franchise and steered away from the survival horror it established in the first two games into something more action orientated and linear. With this, however, comes some combat improvements. The dodge mechanic is introduced which when timed perfectly will result in Jill lining up a perfect head shot or with Carlos punching a zombie in the face. Another feature introduced to the series was environmental damage in the form of electrical generators that shock and stun anything nearby when shot. For new enemy design, the Hunter Gamma appear as does the Drain Deimos, a bug that injects its spawn into the mouth of others to grow. I thought this was really underused and also found it a strange design choice to have the remedy be to eat a green herb and vomit them when the blue herb has specifically always been used for poisoning. Making their first ever appearance in a main game, “Pale heads” feature since they first appeared in RE2 remake DLC. They are regenerative enemies that require a heavy weapon to fully destroy the brain before it repairs. The biggest feature of the game and even the poster boy for it is a Tyrant called Nemesis that is sent by Umbrella to kill all surviving S.T.A.R.S members as they could expose Umbrellas secrets discovered at the Spencer mansion in RE1. Partly due to its linear style rather than labrynth map, Nemesis does not stalk you throughout as Mr X did in RE2. Instead of him constantly being somewhere in the map and continuously having run ins with him, you will just face him in scripted sequences, eventually evading him by fleeing a chase sequence or defeating him in a boss battle. This takes away a lot of the tension RE2 achieved with the constant anxiety of being hunted. He’s still incredibly powerful however and interestingly is capable of using weapons meaning just keeping him at distance isn’t enough. Despite it not being you’re typical looping the same area uncovering items scenario that the previous instalments had I still had fun with this game. I did miss the puzzles but when you just enjoy it for a zombie action game it doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets. I never played the original but have watched videos explaining the differences and it is fair to say that the content cut from the game makes the remake feel half baked. I loved being able to visit the RPD station again although I would have liked to play missing locations like the clock tower, with one boss fight against Nemesis involving him running across its building front feeling like failed fan service. RE3 Remake gets a lot of criticism for its cut content and I guess if I had played the original I would feel stronger towards this. I did have a good time with it although I don’t think it improves on the RE2 Remake the year prior. As for the source material, RE3: Nemesis was the first game in the series to ditch the concept of 2 individual campaigns to choose from the start in favour of a longer single story that rotates characters, with the hospital sequence as Carlos up there with some of the best in this game. One of the most gripping moments was when we see Marvin, the RCPD officer you meet in RE2 bitten by a colleague, facing a difficult decision as S.T.A.R.S officer Brad (the helicopter pilot from RE1), attacks him as a zombie. There is a brief moment where Brad repeats back to Marvin “sorry” and Marvin has a moment of reflection of wether his friend is still inside there before he chooses to pull the trigger. This proves fatal for him as he is attacked and bitten and leads us into how Leon finds him as the games timelines begin to overlap. Overall, I think I would be more annoyed by RE3 remake if I’d played the original but as a stand alone game I had a fun time with it. It doesn’t match the survival horror or puzzle challenge of RE2 and Nemesis doesn’t have the suffocating AI of Mr. x but I really enjoyed seeing Jill’s strong character development, loved Carlos as a supporting character and thought the game itself was an interesting angle to see Racoon City fall into despair in contrast to how we find it in RE2, an important part in the overall story.