Holy shit, I am late to this one!
Last year, the Resident Evil 2 remake took me completely by surprise, becoming one of my favorite games of that year. And this is coming from the guy that utterly despises horror games. So, after that pleasant surprise, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on the RE3 remake! Finally, my boy Nemisis would get the HD treatment he deserves!
Cause god knows he didn’t get that in Marvel VS Capcom: Infinite.
Let’s not waste any time. Today, we’re going to reawaken a several-month-old question: is this game any good? Or should it just have been DLC for RE2? Let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2020’s Resident Evil 3 Remake.
Story: The Most Persistent Stalker of All Time
Don’t even try to tell me when this game takes place in regards to RE2. Frankly, I don’t care. I don’t even want to think about it.
As the zombie outbreak begins in Raccoon City, STARS officer Jill Valentine finds herself pursued by Nemisis, a seemingly unkillable monster determined to murder all the STARS officers left in the city. Just as it bears down on her, she’s rescued by Carlos, a member of a mercenary group sent in by Umbrella to rescue civilians. Now Jill must work with them to escape Raccoon City while avoiding her oh-so determined murder stalker.
There are two big problems here that spoil the story for me: the length and the villain. In total, the story is only about three or so hours long, maybe even shorter if you don’t suck like I do. Because of this, it doesn’t have the same wonderful pacing we got in RE2. It all feels way too rushed, like it’s just trying to get it over with.
The second is the villains. Nemisis starts out cool and terrifying, but he only gets less so the longer the game goes on. By the end, he was so boring that I struggled to stay awake whenever he was on-screen! As soon as he gets down on all-fours and becomes a monster, he loses everything that makes him so damn cool!
And Mikhail just… he’s just the fucking worst. His motivations are plain and stupid and they still don’t make sense! Like, he’s only out for money, but he keeps making decisions that slash his profit margins! This dude has no fucking clue how to make a quick buck! And he comes across as cartoonishly evil, as if he’s from a Saturday morning cartoon! I’m amazed he didn’t start laughing at any point!
Fuck, maybe he did! I don’t even remember!
Now, to be fair, all the other characters are pretty good. Jill and Carlos are the obvious stand-outs. The two have such great chemistry and they both have pretty fun character arcs. Jill learning to trust Carlos and Carlos learning that his team wasn’t exactly sent in with noble intentions make the story much more interesting and engaging.
The dialogue is pretty good, too, with the exception of the villains (seriously, who wrote those dudes?). Espcially between Jill and Carlos. Their dynamic is so fun and charming that it never failed to make me grin.
Which might be a problem, considering that this is a horror game.
Presentation: Horror Has Never Looked So Real… and Boring
I’ll say it every time: style is more important than graphics. Which is why, as good as these games look, I can never really care that much. Sure, it’s dripping with atmosphere… most of the time. But you can only play so many photo-realistic games before you just… get… so… bored… *snore*.
Honestly, the only real improvement over RE2 is the facial animations. They look far more natural, real, and smooth. Aside from that, though, everything is pretty much the same as before. The environments are detailed, the enemies all look just as good as the characters, so on and so forth.
As for the music… meh? Honestly, the only track I even noticed was the save room theme! It all just went in one ear and out the other. For a while, I thought they didn’t bother putting any music in the game at all!
Yeah, I honestly really don’t care for how this game looks. It’s just yet another ultra-realistic looking game. Look guys, that was impressive the first time! But fucking Christ am I sick of them!
Gameplay: I Can Dodge Now!
Is what you’ll be saying for all of five minutes before you realize you hate the dodge mechanics.
This game plays almost exactly like RE2 Remake, with a few cosmetic changes. For one, you no longer have to place every item into an inventory slot immediately after picking them up; if you have space, it just goes right in there. And like I mentioned above, you now have a dodge roll move; time your dodge just right and you’ll avoid all damage.
Which you might need, cause zombies don’t flinch as easily as they did before. But hey. At least the knife doesn’t break anymore. Cause all you wimps kept whining about the durability mechanic.
While the basic gameplay formula is fine, there is one problem that kinda drags the game down. And what’s worse: he’s supposed to be its defining feature!
Nemisis gets so fucking annoying to deal with in this game. Not in the same way as Mr. X, mind you, where his presence was terrifying from start to end. Nemisis only shows up in the same way he did once in the game, and not even for that long. After that, he only shows up for scripted chases and boss fights.
Neither of which are fun. No joke, I think the Nemisis fights in this game might be my least favorite part. They just get so damn repetitive and boring and can I fight literally anything else now, please?!
If you enjoyed the basic formula of RE2 Remake, you’ll have plenty of fun with this one. But it does lack a few things that made that one so terrifying and fun. It’s still fun… most of the time. But if you’re looking for a scare, you might be disappointed.
Don’t believe me? Tell me what is less frightening than a point defense mission. Go on. I’ll wait.
Conclusion
I wanted to like this game so badly! I loved RE2 Remake to death! But this one? I honestly don’t think I’ll be revisiting it later. It’s a game that I like less and less the more I think about it.
Still, if you were just head over heels for RE2, you might get a kick out of this one. But definitely don’t buy it at full price! This game is not worth sixty bucks! Wait for a discount. Wait for it to fall around the twenty or thirty dollar range. Anything more than forty is a robbery.
And no, a multiplayer mode that literally no one in the world played does not make up for it. Seriously, did anyone bother touching Resistance? I bet none of you did!
Jonah's Daily Rants 