Resident Evil 3 Review
Let’s get this out of the way: the original Resident Evil 3 isn’t as good as you think it was.
What sticks out most to me about Resident Evil 3 (both the original as well as the 2020 remake) is this nostalgic reverence fans hold for it. It seems to hold this weight as one of the best games in the series and that’s something that I absolutely disagree with. I’m not saying it’s a bad game; I’m simply saying that it’s fine.
I’d argue that what people are fond of is Nemesis, as both a character and a mechanic. We already experienced the terror that was Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 and in the pantheon of tyrants in this series, he really was the least terrifying in the original trilogy. When you take the seemingly indestructible nature of Mr. X and implant it onto a gruesome looking flesh pile that relentlessly stalks and chases you throughout Raccoon City, you’ve hit something really special. Nemesis broke the rules. He wasn’t just indestructible; the motherfucker could OUTRUN you. Another big rule he broke was the sanctity of the save room. When you reach a save room in the Resident Evil games, you were safe. You had a moment to breath, relax, and regain your composure before going back out to fight the monsters roaming outside of the door. That’s what was truly memorable about that game. Other than Nemesis, I don’t really remember shit about the original entry.
Jill takes center stage in this entry as she tries to escape an overrun Raccoon City
This all leads me back to the 2020 remake. It seems people were disappointed in it, not for being bad but for not being as good as the Resident Evil 2 remake. My argument to them is this: if the source material was just okay, why would you have such wildly inflated expectations for the remake? If the answer is about how the Resident Evil 2 remake is one of the best ever done, then you must also acknowledge that the source material was also widely considered one of the best games to ever release. The pedigree and the formula were already baked in for success.
Another thing you have to factor in is the turnaround time. This released almost exactly one year after the Resident Evil 2 remake. So unless there was concurrent development, there wasn’t exactly enough time to reinvent the wheel and expand upon the original too much.
This probably also led into the Nemesis encounters being much more scripted compared to the original game. If you consider the scale of this remake and recreating Racoon City in such a modern engine, there’s no way that you can have a free roaming Nemesis in an open world environment without adding months, if not years, onto the development cycle. I get the fans’ disappointment in that aspect. To say that it ruins the remake and doesn’t respect the source material is disingenuous though. The original game was never great. You have on nostalgia goggles and it’s time to recognize that Resident Evil 3 just may be one of the weakest mainline entries in the entire series.
Chickenshit Vickers is back. Wait, chickenheart. It’s chickenheart.
With all of that out of the way, we can still appreciate the fact that this game, much like other releases put out on the RE Engine, looks phenomenal. It’s still mind boggling to see classic areas and landmarks re-done from the ground up, which gives veteran players a sense of familiarity as they fight there way through the zombie hordes. It makes me hope that the entirety of the series eventually sees this remake treatment.
The controls should be familiar to those returning from the Resident Evil 2 remake, although the one complaint I still hold onto is with the dodge mechanic. I never got used to it in the original version of Resident Evil 3 and the remake doesn’t make the concept any easier for me to grasp.
This may be my overall lack of recollection coming into play here but I actually didn’t mind the shorter length of this game. On my first play through, I managed to make my way through the main story in about 7 hours, which is an acceptable amount of time to play Resident Evil 3 for. Anything longer and you risk realizing that there are better games in the series that you could be playing at that moment.
Should you buy it, wait for a sale, or skip it?
Even as a Resident Evil fan, I’d say you’d be better off if you wait for a sale. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, but unless you’re a mega-fan, there’s a much better remake you can play if you haven’t already. If you have played that other remake, there are also better original Resident Evil games that you can play today. This is still worth playing, but not essential.