Last year Capcom released the widely anticipated remake of “Resident Evil 2,” and fans were immediately asking for a remake to “Resident Evil 3.” Luckily, the wait was shorter than anyone expected and “Resident Evil 3” released on April 3, 2020.
RE3 takes place within Raccoon City in 1998 as it is torn apart by the t-virus, a biological weapon that turns those infected into brainless zombies. The protagonist of the game is Jill Valentine, a special forces cop from the original game who tries to escape the city and save civilians along the way.
Jill survived the original outbreak coming out largely unscathed, but now she has PTSD and a target on her head from Umbrella Corp, the company that manufactures the virus. To ensure that Jill and the few other survivors of the first game don’t make it out alive, they send Nemesis: a towering, unkillable brute that regenerates and gets stronger each time he’s “defeated.”
At its start, RE3 is terrifying. After a brief news broadcast about the city’s lockdown, which feels eerily familiar due to current events, the player wakes up in a first-person view of Jill. Jill stumbles her way into the bathroom where she slowly turns into a zombie in a PTSD-induced nightmare. Almost immediately after, Nemesis bursts through the wall and begins chasing her down.
Unfortunately, this tone doesn’t stick throughout the entire game. Once over the initial fear that Nemesis brings, it turns out that he’s actually pretty easy to knock down or even just run past. While Nemesis does make even normal enemies more of a threat, supplies are abundant which reduces a lot of the horror aspects of previous games.
At one point Jill even mocks Nemesis, which highlights how unscary he is.
Overall, RE3 is a much more action-focused game than its predecessors. Supplies start out scarce but quickly become abundant. Having so much ammo that you start throwing it away can really make enemies feel like less of a threat. I got to the final boss with plenty of bullets and healing items despite spending the entire game mowing down just about everything in my path.
Along with the shift away from horror, Jill’s PTSD is largely forgotten. It would have been an interesting aspect of her character to explore, but she’s still a satisfying character through her sarcastic and fearless journey.
There are some changes between the original game and this remake, but I don’t really know most of them. The most obvious for me is a change in Jill’s design, which is honestly for the best. In the ‘90s she wore a miniskirt and a tube top. Now she’s in jeans, combat boots and a tank top, which makes a lot more sense for a zombie apocalypse even though she wasn’t prepared for the sudden outbreak.
Along with a sensible outfit, the game, unfortunately, had several parts of the story removed. While I don’t know how extensive the changes were to the story, this game is very short. It feels concise and complete, but it only took me five hours to beat.
Many RE games are short, but they often have other characters to play which gives you more to do. RE2 from last year had not only two characters with slightly different campaigns but completing one would unlock a more challenging version of the other character’s campaign. On top of that, RE2 had a more random hulking enemy chasing you. All in all, RE3 feels very lacking in content.
While I could replay the campaign for a better score, there’s really not a lot to go back to RE3 for. Nemesis would act the same if I replayed it and there wouldn’t really be anything I haven’t already seen. It was a great five-hour adventure, but it was also $60 so I can’t readily recommend it for the price.
There is an online mode, but I don’t currently have a subscription for online games so I haven’t tried it.
RE3 is short and sweet. While it is a more action-focused game, there are still plenty of scares when going against some of its grotesque enemies. At a cheaper price, I’d highly recommend it, but for now, it might not be the highest priority game release.
Story by: Alex Schilling
alexschilling98@gmail.com
Photos Courtesy of: Capcom
