Reviews VideoGame / Resident Evil 3 Remake

So let's talk about Resident Evil 3 again

I made a review of the original RE 3 a while ago, and also revisited the game in anticipation for the remake, this time actively avoiding all the optional Nemesis fights. The game holds up better with that in mind, but I still feel the original's attempt to blend horror and action got fumbled for various factors.

Not this time though. This game is fucking great.

With plentiful ammo and a more reliable, though still precision-demanding, dodge mechanic, the core gameplay in RE 3 does a much better job encouraging aggression and seriously considering standing and fighting, or at least fighting from tactical positions. Ammo and healing conservation should still be practiced, but where RE 2 would throw three zombies at you and you'd only fight them as much as necessary to open up an escape route, RE 3 has no problem throwing upwards of half a dozen (or sometimes even more!) zombies at you which you're probably going to want to gun down if you're not 100% confident in your dodging skills. Ammo-mixing now separates Grenade launcher rounds from all the others too, so you can more comfortably use all your guns.

Zombies have gotten an overhaul too. The tried-and-true strategy in RE 2 of shooting out a zombie's leg and knifing them doesn't really work here because of higher stagger thresholds on limbs and dismemberment being much, much harder to get. Headshots rule the day once more, hence the aforementioned emphasis on killing them outright. All the revamped enemies are great too. Hunter Gammas are now distinct from the Betas, each posing a unique challenge. Spiders and the Drain Deimos essentially got combined together for all of one segment, but it's still a very memorable and tense bit that's a microcosm of how the remake marries survival horror with action. Even the dread-inducing Paleheads from Ghost Survivors came back, just to make sure you didn't squander your Magnum ammo.

Progression- and narrative-wise, this remake changes a hell of a lot more than 2's remake did, not that I'm complaining. The narrative comes into focus much sooner, ultimately translating the most important story beats prior to finding the UBSC in the original to the opening sequence. Brad still got the justice he deserved, getting an atoning hero's death even if we barely got to know the guy, in contrast to his neurotic and fearful state in the original. I also appreciate how roughly 75% of the story revolves around the cure for the T-Virus; as opposed to it being essentially a Deus Ex Machina of sorts in the original for Carlos to save Jill and then never be brought up again.

Now for the elephant in the room: yes, quite a lot of things got cut. No Gravedigger. No Clock Tower or Zoo. Fuck, not even ice rounds. I don't think the absence of these things ruin the game though. The most important thing about the clock tower was Nemesis infecting Jill, which is still preserved in a fantastic boss fight that capstones the first half of the game. The zoo was even more uneventful and had a terrible design of just go to one side of the area, get a key for one room on the other side of the area, deal with Gravedigger, and then return to the first area and exit. And then Jill wound up at the Dead Factory because plot. At least now in the remake, there's a solid reason why Jill goes to Nest 2, which is partly also to back up Carlos, who also shows more agency than in the original where he just constantly runs off.

I don't see the length as a problem either. With numerous rewards for completing challenges, in addition to the Nightmare difficult which is even tougher than Hardcore, I think there is tremendous replayability in this game to.

To repeat my previous point,I think this game is fantastic. The team took risks in changing so much, but I can see a perfectly valid reason behind each change. And this is while still holding true to the spirit of the original. Totally worth getting, and an excellent companion piece to last year's RE 2.

Now to see if they'll remake Code Veronica...