Resident Evil 3
Capcom
Anyone who plays video games can tell you that some genres have become much more saturated than others, throughout time. Whereas once upon a time the fighting and racing game genres were oversaturated, nowadays it’s all about first-person shooters and post-apocalyptic survival games/survival horror games—usually with zombies. In fact, the latter has become about as stale as a zombie’s fart.
However, the Resident Evil franchise pretty much kick-started the whole zombie craze, so I always make an exception for any titles that its developer, Capcom, releases. After all, if we were never graced with the original game in the series, 1996’s Resident Evil, we might never have seen the likes of the Left 4 Dead and DayZ franchises.
And Capcom keeps on delivering—the company scored a massive hit with their remake of Resident Evil 2 in 2019. It even surprised me, since it combined the best aspects of what originally made the series great, along with the awesome capabilities of modern-day computing power. Not one to rest on their laurels, Capcom followed up that triumph with a remake of the third Resident Evil game, titled…wait for it… Resident Evil 3!
Timeline-wise, Resident Evil 3 takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2, only the third game’s main protagonist is none other than Jill Valentine. Fittingly, the original Playstation version of the game was titled Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
“Nemesis” is in reference to the uber-powerful mutant-zombie that pursues Jill throughout the entirety of the game—a massive meat tower of unstoppable killing power that was created in one of Umbrella Corp’s sleazy labs. Once again she’s trying to outwit and outmaneuver the Nemesis creature, as well as somehow escape Raccoon City. Both games feature the same plotline.
Resident Evil 2 was much more geared toward storytelling and roaming the various environs to talk to different NPCs, solve puzzles, and fight occasional monsters. Resident Evil 3, by contrast, is more akin to a Michael Bay movie set—the pace is a lot faster and the monstrous entities are much more prevalent.
Luckily, guns and ammo are also much more plentiful, so all of the explosions going off throughout the game is punctuated by plenty of solid gunfights. Also, whereas the main baddy in Resident Evil 2 was Mr. X, who would show up quite frequently, the Nemesis creature in Resident Evil 3 usually makes its appearance in the form of a multitude of scripted events and cutscenes (with plenty of jump-scares as well).
All of these differences are to be expected to a certain degree. The original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis game, after all, was also a more action-focused game that reused certain environmental elements Resident Evil 2. Capcom’s shift into a more action-oriented tonality and design pattern has been mirrored here in the remake.
However, there are also some things that weren’t translated and didn’t make the cut. The original game, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, had several branching paths as well as different endings based on the decisions you made during the game’s various cutscenes. Unfortunately, those elements are completely absent here.
Overall, however, Resident Evil 3 is an entertaining, well-constructed game that brings one of the franchise’s less-heralded entries into modern times. To be frank, it feels more like an expansion to Resident Evil 2 than an entirely new game. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth playing, but it does mean you should know what you’re investing in before biting the bullet.
RATING: 8.1/10
Resident Evil 3 has some pretty amazing graphics that make its survival horror gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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