Ha, Capcom. If there’s one stable developer out there that we know that have some quality titles under their belt? Then it has to be them. You could call them one of the grandfathers of the horror genre when they introduced us to Resident Evil, rebranded from Biohazard. Introduced to us back in 1996, this franchise came in like a mothertrucker (keeping it PG yo… And god damn I’m getting old! I still remember seeing it in the shelves on release date… What?). The Resident Evil franchise isn’t one to be taken lightly! With, get this guys? 28 games under the RE umbrella (get it?) spread across multiple platforms, and a 29th iteration on it’s way? You just know that Capcom has created this universe into something special. Okay, granted. Not all of these are noteworthy titles, but you be sure as hell that they’ll do anything to keep it alive! Or dead… Depending from which angle that you see it.
Resident Evil 3: remake takes you back into Raccoon City, a few hours before Resident Evil 2 happens. You play as Jill Valentine. Together with Carlos Oliveira, a hunk of a man that doesn’t take “no” for an answer! He’s the kind of marine you’d wish to have by your side when shit goes down!
In this brutal battle for survival you’ll be pitted up against all kinds of baddies and ghoulies. From your regular Undead to zombie dogs, lickers, those things that love to put their babies in your throat,… and ofcourse Nemesis himself!
Are you ready to go on this brain-eating, necrotic smelling adventure? Then get ready for our review of… Resident Evil… 3…
What we liked!
- Visuals: It has to be said guys, when the RE2 remake came out? I was amazed by how gosh-darned good this game actually looked! The way the zombies have their own vibe among themselves, how the character models gleam and shine when they’re wet. Heck, even the fire looks hella good! So obviously, I thought that they couldn’t really improve that thing. Was I wrong! Even though it’s only just been a year since RE2 remake came out, RE3 looks amazing! With deep vibrant colours that pop out in the neon-lit city streets? Raccoon City does its best to make you believe that it had life in it, and that it was a successful and populated town. Another shining moment for the engine, is the fact that there is 0 difference between cutscene and in-game action. Everything runs smoothly, except one point in the game. But that has to be as expected since it, well, tries to overrun you with zombies. Though there is one issue that I am going to talk about in the mixed feelings section, I got to commend them for creating this amazing engine! This thing has some serious power and I am really looking forward to what it will bring in the future! Keep improving this one!
- Quality of Life updates: For those who have played the original, will know that it had a dodge mechanic. While this could get you out of a hard situation? It was very finnicky. Most of the time it didn’t help at all and ended up in you just shoving the zombie away. Other times it would fail and still ended up in you getting bit in your tender bits. This is no more! With a simple press of a button, you do a dodge move. Time it right? And you’ll get a slow down effect for a second or 2. Making it possible for you popping off a shot or 2 in your attacker’s face!
Another QoL update is most undoubtably the fact that the game does it’s best to make item pick-ups very smooth. No longer will, if you already have let’s say “handgun ammo” in your pack, the game show a pop-up that you just picked up another packet of handgun ammo. Now it’ll automatically add it to your inventory, just like it should be. So no more interruption of your in game flow! - Some decent voice acting; I got to say, some of the in-game voice acting is amazing! While it doesn’t really fully extend to every single character in the game? Almost everyone hit it on point! They do their best into making their respective character believable and tend to show quite a bit of emotion in their voice.
- The big guy: Ofcourse, we couldn’t really let this review pass without talking about our big baddy that’s the proverbial Elephant in the room. That’s right… Jimmy… I mean Nemesis! This guy will hunt your ass down just like as if you stole his bike and he wants it back. With his obvious S.T.A.R.S line and his incredible strength? You will surely have an enemy that’s worth running from. But, wait a second. It’s not because you can’t kill this guy. That it’s not worthwhile downing him. Why? He has a drop-chance for loot! Yup, you could be getting goodies when you down him. So, run, or waste some ammo and hope you get something worthwhile? It’s your choice compadres!
Somewhere between
- Turn up the light: … I know that Resident Evil is a dark game, but, oh come on… I don’t need to have to crank up the light on my television that much, that I get the feeling as if I’m staring into a miniature sun! Though the game does give you some light options? It’s not appropriate enough! I actually had to turn up my television ‘s brightness settings. I mean… Hmm! That’s a big NO NO guys! So, next time? Give us a 1000Watt LED flashlight with our purchase OR just tune that setting a bit more, okay?
- Controls: You know, the game in itself is absolutely amazing on its own. And if we’re being really honest? The controls from the original vs. the controls in this remake are a HUGE up! BUT! That doesn’t excuse it from still having quite stubborn controls at times! Things like item pick-up pop-ups that had me doing a dance before it finally came up? Come on! This shouldn’t really be happening in Anno 2020…
- A.I.: Yeah, I know you might say that the game ‘s A.I. not being on point is kind of normal, since these enemies are mostly braindead. But… Trust me… It can get pretty bad at times. Sometimes you’ll see a zombie try to to shamble towards you, but get stuck behind a piece of scenery. While other times they would navigate around it? Sometimes they just get stuck there. Even our big guy Nemesis had this issue! While he can get himself “unstuck” with his jumps, it’s still sad to know that you can thwart his approach by running past some parts of the surroundings.
- Do NOT run and gun: Don’t be like me. Don’t run and gun everything down. Even though the ammo may look like there’s plenty. And even though you’ll build up an arsenal. Do NOT! Run. And. Gun. I actually did this, I felt like a I was a walking death machine bringing a second death to anything that I came across. Until I reached the end. And I ended up getting STUCK because I had no more bullets left. Just my trusty knife (which doesn’t break by the way). Yeah… That really sucks guys. So, a word to the wise? Just run past zombies that you can, conserve ammo! Most of these shamblers are just annoyances anyway!
What we disliked
- Length: If you’ve played the original, you’ll know that Nemesis wasn’t that lengthy of a game. BUT you had multiple endings, so you could choose different routes and get a different end. Which made playthroughs fun and ended up giving you a long game anyway! Now? Well, first off, they took out the multiple routes, and gave us a replacement “one ending”. To off-set this, they extended Carlos ‘s parts, giving him a more dominant role in the game itself. Length of the total game? 5-6 hours… I mean come on. If you’re going to bamboozle us by taking stuff out of the game, at least make it longer then this! Sad part? I’ve already seen speedrunners complete this on Hardcore difficulty with no weapons at all being used… In one hour. 1! WHY! Sure they’re experts at what they do but COME ON!
Adding stuff to the game should be a thing… Not take parts out and give is a nice make over… A failed opportunity in my opinion, and one that will result in the final score…
Score: 80%
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Remake is an amazing game with some certain key features that makes it a nice addition into the franchise. But it does do some things wrong in this day and age. Like, video game length. Sure this was thrown at us within a year from Resident Evil 2 Remake. But I mean, it’s not as if it would’ve been hard to add a bit more stuff in the game, and release it a year later, right? And okay you might say, but Alexis, it does come with one huge add-on … Resident Evil: Resistance. Which I will be doing a separate review for, so be on the lookout for this one as well because, it’s a doozy! In my opinion? Resident Evil 3: Nemesis remake is a worthy buy for any fan out there, but you might want to hold off on the purchase until it gets a “on-sale” price tag. While I truly adored my adventure, I couldn’t feel the horror tension that the other resident evil’s gave me, and at times even laughed at the glitchy A.I. patterns. It gets my approval, but only just slightly as it feels as if this is an unfinished product that got torn to shreds just to make it possible for an early release date!So, guys? Get ready for resistance soon! And, get your freak on with Resident Evil 3 if you want! And try to keep safe and healthy out there, alright people? This Corona disease isn’t a joke. Keep following your guidelines and we’ll make it out! … I wonder… Is Umbrella behind this? … Oh no…!