This article originally ran under a different banner/website in April of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! MY FOLLOWERS, LEND ME YOUR EARS! Now, I can see the long faces and tired eye-rolling. Some might not be excited for another review of a zombie game given the apocalypse is creeping ever closer. Alas, my loyal followers, this is no mere zombie game. This is the long-awaited remake of Resident Evil 3. After the Resident Evil 2 remake was a highlight of 2019, I was filled with anticipation when Capcom announced a remake of the sequel. However, after playing through Resident Evil 3, I will say I have had my fill of these Resident Evil remakes. A surprising turn of events given the praise I gave Resident Evil 2. What could have gone wrong? Gather round all ye faithful, and heed my story of Capcom’s misstep.
Our story begins, a few hours before Leon and Claire’s arrival in Raccoon City. The T-virus is sweeping through the city. Anarchy erupts as terror grips the city. Amidst the panic, we are introduced to our hero, Jill Valentine, one of the few remaining surviving members of the special tactics and recuse service (S.T.A.R.S.) group after the events in the first Resident Evil. Still haunted by the events in the Spencer mansion, Jill is in the midst of leaving Raccoon City as a monstrous brute comes through the wall of her apartment.
“STARS!!!” the creature growls, immediately introducing us to our antagonist. This hulking giant is Nemesis. A tyrant created by Umbrella Corporation with the sole purpose to seek out and kill all remaining S.T.A.R.S. members. You immediately have to escape Nemesis’s grasp, as you sprint down the hallway of the apartment building, ducking into other rooms in the attempt to escape your relentless pursuer. We successfully evade our foe, but not before causing the whole building to collapse on Nemesis. Setting the tone for the entire game.
Resident Evil 3 is leaning away from the horror found in its prequel and leaning more to the action side. Both Jill and secondary protagonist Carlos Oliveira, have a dash move that they can use to hurry out of the way of a hungry zombie lunging to make a sandwich out of Jill. While the move is helpful when overwhelmed, I no longer feel the fear of a zombie barreling down on me. The nerve-wrenching zombies are now just an obstacle in the way. The one moment that I felt fear was dealing with the spider maze in the electrical plant. The thought of those spiders climbing around on the walls and dropping down onto me made my skin crawl.
However, some enemies are frankly miserable to take on. Anger and frustration washed over me anytime I had to fight Beta hunters. These mutated frogs can soak absurd amounts of bullets, can easily dash out of your line of fire, and are capable of one-shotting players. You might try to kite these enemies with your dashes, but that led to the beta hunter landing swipes on your back that appear to take you down instantly; so many cheap deaths were had by this monster. I eventually reached the point of boiling frustration, forcing me to just ignore the hunter and run to my objective. People complain about the Marauder in Doom Eternal, but they clearly have weaknesses. I question whether the beta hunters have any weaknesses at all.
The standard combat isn’t the only place where pace feels frantic. Resident Evil 3 ditches many of the boss fights in tight claustrophobic corridors that were the staple of Resident Evil 2. Most of the boss fights seem to take place within wide-open arenas. While it might not seem like a problem, all the boss fights are against Nemesis, who is capable of closing in on you and decimating your health. It seems like common strategies for these fights are to avoid Nemesis pouncing on you and doing what the encounter requires to stun him. Sometimes it is placing mines on walls and other times it is stunning him by shooting electrical boxes. The boss fights seem to be lacking the creativity found in the boss fights of Resident Evil 2.
Some of the creativity seemed to go into the colorful yet bloody streets of Raccoon City. The neon signs and bright posters still stand out in my mind compared to standard marble hallways in the Raccoon City Police Department. Unfortunately, traversing the streets of Raccoon City is not nearly as enjoyable as wandering the maze-like hallways of the Police Department. Resident Evil 2 rewarded you for knowing and understanding the layout of the police department. Resident Evil 3 is so quick to move you to the next set of streets, that you don’t have time to familiarize yourself with them. Resident Evil 2 allows you to backtrack to different parts of the game. Resident Evil 3 cuts you off from previous streets. I can’t escape the feeling that the game is trying to rush me through the campaign.
However, the changes to the level pacing mean the dynamics of our stalker tyrants change. Once you’re comfortable with the layout of the Raccoon Police Department, Resident Evil 2 introduced Mr. X to the mix. He will follow you around wherever you go forcing you to no longer dawdle. No longer do you have those few seconds to decide whether to take down a zombie or merely try to run past him. For every second you delay, Mr. X is closing the distance on you. I was excited to see how Capcom would take this formula and improve it for Nemesis.
Unfortunately, Capcom decided making Nemesis a stalker similar to Mr. X was not in the cards. You will not hear the thunderous steps of the Nemesis echoing through the streets. Nemesis is nothing more than a set piece. He will only show up at set locations and demand you just flee from him. Since the streets of Raccoon City are fairly linear, you can’t outmaneuver Nemesis like you could Mr. X. I do not seem clever for evading Nemesis when I only had one path forward. During my time with Resident Evil 2, Mr. X was able to break through walls causing me to jump out of my chair. He had been stalking me for a while and I had lost track of him. While it might have been a scripted event, it still startled me because it felt unexpected. When Nemesis does a similar maneuver, I am not startled. He had not been stalking me, so it felt like it was time he entered the picture. I felt like a boss, pacing around my office, wondering how late my employee is going to be in arriving at the office. Do not evoke a feeling of dread especially when one escape scene merely required I hold down the W key.
After finishing the five-hour campaign, I was eager to see what additional campaigns awaited me. Resident Evil 2 received critical praise for having campaigns for both Leon and Claire. The campaigns would also change if you played them in different orders. Naturally, I figured Resident Evil 3 would do something similar. Maybe, the next campaign would start off as Carlos trying to defend citizens from the monstrous undead. I was sadly disappointed to learn Resident Evil 3 wanted me to play the same campaign over again. I can see the defenders of Resident Evil 3 cry out that you can purchase bonuses like regenerating health or additional guns. While this is true, it felt like a complete step back from the content available in Resident Evil 2.
Some of you might retort that the multiplayer is to supplement the lack of content, and while some might want to play the asymmetrical multiplayer, I have no interest. I do not purchase Resident Evil games for subpar multiplayer spinoffs. This multiplayer mode called Resistance reminds me of the last time Capcom tried to turn the Resident Evil license into a multiplayer spinoff: Umbrella Crops. Both are buggy and riddled with microtransactions. To see Capcom shovel loot boxes into this mode, as well, feels sickening. While I will admit, you can’t directly buy the loot boxes, you can buy booster to increase the amount of currency you receive that you use on loot boxes. Honestly Capcom, take the Resistance mode out, make it a free-to-play game if you insist on having it, and use the excess resources to improve on Resident Evil 3’s campaign.
Overall, I don’t hate Resident Evil 3. It reminds me of Dead Space 2. Both games decided to sacrifice little bits of horror in exchange for more action. When both Issac Clarke and Jill Valentine survive falls from great heights, I can’t help but feel like these games are trying to mimic action films like Die Hard. While there is nothing wrong with leaning towards action, I prefer the balance of horror and action within Dead Space and Resident Evil 2. I frankly, can only recommend Resident Evil 3 at a deep discount.
My one concern with this shift to action is it always ends with games becoming unfocused messes. Just look at Dead Space 3. What’s worse is Capcom has been down this road before. It led to Resident Evil 6. Capcom might be eager to remake other older Resident Evil titles, but I would exercise caution. Maybe it is time to hang up the Resident Evil remake business and focus on Resident Evil 8.
