RESIDENT EVIL REMAKE
Racoon City blues
When I first encountered the Nemesis in Resident Evil 3, a monstrous bio-weapon sent by the Umbrella Corporation to hunt and kill protagonist Jill Valentine, I felt my pulse rise. This towering stack of ugly muscle can move alarmingly fast, snag you with a pair of slimy tentacles, and even use weapons, including a colossal rocket launcher. You can outrun the Tyrant in the Resident Evil 2 remake fairly easily. Wait for a gap to open up, then slip through it. The worst he can really do is give you a firm slap. But running can’t save you from the Nemesis.
It stalks you relentlessly through the zombie-ravaged streets of Raccoon City, and always feels one step ahead of you. Seeing something that big and scary move so quickly is really unnerving, and for this first hour or so, I was starting to think this might be the scariest Resident Evil game ever.
At this point I assumed Resident Evil 3 would be one long, tense game of cat and mouse against a dynamic and unpredictable enemy – and I think that’s what lots of fans will have been expecting going in. But, sadly, that’s far from the case. That first run-in with the Nemesis is not only more scripted than it first appears, but basically a one-off set-piece in disguise. And for the remainder of the game the creature is promptly relegated to cutscenes and pedestrian boss battles, which is deeply disappointing. All the dread built up by that first encounter quickly dissipates.
WHAT IS IT?
A loose remake of Resident Evil 3
DEAD WRONG
Replay that initial meeting with it, and you’ll notice that the Nemesis always appears in the same places at the same time, which swiftly shatters the illusion that this is an intelligent killing machine with a mind of its own. It feels like it’s always one step ahead of you because it literally is, set to spawn when you reach certain parts of the level. Every time you approach a certain gate, it appears at the top of it – even if it was way behind you just a moment before – which just feels disappointingly clumsy. I wasn’t expecting Alien: Isolation levels of reactive AI from Resident Evil 3, but I’d have liked at least something to chew on. It’s frustratingly half-baked and so, unfortunately, is the rest of Resident Evil 3.
The streets of Raccoon City have a very different feel from the claustrophobic corridors, polished floors, creepy statues and grand hallways of Resident Evil 2’s police station. There are a handful of larger, more open spaces here, connected by alleyways, apartment blocks and sewer tunnels. The city is illuminated by an explosion of neon signs, which make it feel more like Las Vegas than smalltown America, but it looks cool. I like that I occasionally find myself using the larger space to reposition zombies, luring them down one staircase to escape up another.
Raccoon City is a nice change of scenery, but it’s short-lived. Later environments are dingy and artistically uninspired – particularly the Spencer Memorial Hospital, a location you visit towards the end of the game. Compared to the visually striking, architecturally rich RPD building, this maze of samey corridors and wards is totally forgettable. There’s no interesting backstory to uncover, no arcane puzzles to get your head around, no eccentric survivors to meet. And it’s somehow less interesting to look at than the hospital in the original game.
Speaking of which, this is a remake of Resident Evil 3 only in the loosest possible sense. The plot, locations, and characters are vaguely similar, but it’s a departure in so many other respects that it might as well have been an entirely new game. Whole locations are missing, including the clock tower, even though its exterior features in a
scene. And those sections where the action stops and you have to make story-altering decisions have been cut entirely. I could list more things that didn’t make the cut, including the Grave Digger boss, but I’d soon run out of space. It’s a shame to see all this left out, especially after the Resident Evil 2 remake strived to include so much.
FLAT PLANS
Resident Evil is best when you’re lost in a complex, labyrinthine space, forced to make a mental map as you play, unlocking more of the sprawl by solving puzzles and finding curiously located keys. But Resident Evil 3 has hardly any of this, and is actually stiflingly linear. You’re frequently funnelled down a prescribed path to the next cutscene, and it doesn’t help that the story is lean to the point of nonexistence, with onedimensional characters and a narrative through-line so flimsy I kept forgetting what I was doing or why.
I do like the way it connects to Resident Evil 2, though. The story takes place 24 hours before Leon and Claire arrive in Raccoon City, and you’ll witness events that provide additional backstory to stuff you saw in the previous game – including how Marvin ended up bleeding all over the lobby of the police station. There are a few fun set-pieces in here too, including a fraught, chaotic siege straight out of a classic zombie movie, and a darkly hilarious homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark’s boulder chase scene. There are definitely sparks of creativity here, even if they’re few and far between.
But man, what happened to the combat? One of the most surprising things about the Resident Evil 2 remake was how it made slow, shambling zombies exciting again. Its undead were brilliantly physical and clumsy, tripping over each other, tumbling down stairs, flopping into comical ragdoll heaps. But here they seem strangely disconnected from their surroundings, and shooting them just doesn’t feel as satisfying. It’s like the physics that govern them have been severely simplified, or removed altogether. Even the Hunters are underwhelming, having been transformed into giant crab-like creatures that leap clumsily at you and constantly clip through scenery.
Zombies hardly react to the limp, rattly assault rifle (a new weapon), and even popping them with a pistol has less of the crunchy feedback that made Resident Evil 2’s combat so enjoyable. At least the shotgun still packs a punch.
This reduced fidelity may
Resident Evil 3 rarely gives you a chance to soak anything in.
be a trade-off for having more zombies on screen, but it wasn’t worth it. You don’t even have as many ways to deal with them, thanks to the removal of the system from Resident Evil 2 where you board up windows with planks of wood to manage the flow. Why does a high profile sequel like this have less in it?
CORPSE RUN
There are two playable characters, but only one campaign, and there’s no real difference between Carlos and Jill besides the weapons they use. There’s no Mercenaries or equivalent. No New Game+ mode. It’s an incredibly slight package, and the bundled 4v1 multiplayer mode Resistance – where a player-controlled ‘mastermind’ lays traps for three other players – isn’t good enough to make this worth its hefty price, with stripped-back combat, cramped maps, and repetitive objectives. It’s even less replayable than Resident Evil 2 thanks to lack of a remixed alternate campaign, and how heavily scripted the Nemesis sections are. I’ll probably never play it again.
And before you know it, it’s all over. Resident Evil 3 rarely gives you a chance to soak anything in before it fast-tracks you to the next story beat. There’s nothing wrong with a short game, but the pacing here feels off, like it’s hurriedly shoving you to the next location just as you’re starting to get comfortable – and before its ideas get a chance to fully form.
It’s ultimately an extremely shallow game, with lavish production values failing to mask just how rushed and unambitious it feels. This is undeniably a handsome game, at least technically, with detailed, expressive character models and superb lighting throughout. And it plays great on PC too, benefiting from the added precision of being able to aim with the mouse.
After the imaginative, traditiondefying Resident Evil 7, and the sublimely polished, satisfying Resident Evil 2, this is a massive leap backwards for the series. The Nemesis is wasted
– a bit-part player in its own game, neutered by its chronic lack of purpose. There are barely any puzzles and you’re rarely given the chance to wander off the beaten path. At one point Carlos visits the police station of Resident Evil 2, but you’re confined to one tiny section of it, which only highlights just how limited the exploration in this game is. After this section, I just wanted to replay the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Resident Evil 3 is essentially a chain of action set-pieces, threaded together with a paper-thin story and too many cutscenes. This is the direction the series started to take post-Resident Evil 4, when it seriously lost its way and we ended up with the abysmal Resident Evil 6, and I’d hate to see that happen again. I still believe in Resident Evil, and I’m eager for more remakes, but if Capcom falls into the trap of bashing out a lesser game every year, people will lose faith in the series again. Maybe they could develop a remake of this remake a few years down the line? Then the Nemesis might finally get the game it deserves.