Resident Evil 3 Remake Review
Jules turns his hand to Capcom's latest redux...
[DISCLAIMER: A separate review for Resident Evil Resistance will be published at a later date]
With the phenomenal success of the Resident Evil 2 Remake which graced our consoles and screens last year, Capcom achieved something pretty incredible; they managed to change the discourse on what the best Resident Evil game was.
For years that title was held pretty firmly with consensus that Resident Evil 4 was the top of the body pile, but with this reworked, retooled and really scary smash hit, Resident Evil 2 Remake was suddenly clawing at its heels.
And with this success inevitably came expectation and thoughts turned to what would come next.
Where would Resident Evil 3's Remake place? Would it topple both? Or would it be another case of Operation Racoon City again?
Wonderfully, Capcom has delivered another incredibly strong hit with RE3's Remake, but it's possibly not going to please everyone. It's still a refreshing, blisteringly paced and ultimately powerful piece of survival horror, but one that maybe deviates too much from its source material to truly be regarded as a classic.
However before we get into the Good, and The Bad of this title, we must surely address Big Ugly himself, Nemesis. Because by God is this creature brilliant?!
After seeing the trailer and demo footage I knew I was in for a treat going toe to tentacle with this monster, but nobody could have expected how many ways he was able to deal out the damage. From his Mr X power stance swipes, ability to jump in front of the player, drop from the sky, infect other zombies to become tongue-whipped foes, use of flamethrower, rocket launcher, a scream which renders you vulnerable to attack, and of course THE ABILITY TO F**KING RUN, this is easily one of the most impressive enemy AI to come out since the Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation.
Whenever Nemesis is on screen, the entire tone of the game changes, forcing you into situations of pure animalistic survival. It will not stop, and neither must you. It was an utter joy to find ways to outwit him using Jill's quick-step style dodge or by using the environment to stun it, and I am so pleased that Capcom managed to take the concepts introduced with Mr X in RE2 and move things forward immensely.
And of course this bin-bag toting powerhouse is only Nemesis' first form and throughout the game you will witness some truly grotesque body horror that only the Resident Evil games can pull off, all of which is brought to life by the phenomenal RE Engine.
The environments that have been rendered with this kit ooze with style and deliberate care. Debris is strewn all over the streets, painting a city in the agonizing throes of death. Zombies and other enemies are far more numerous than the previous Remake and each still carry enough differences that you'll never see the same model twice. Facial animations are stellar and you can now appreciate Jill's sarcastic quips and smirks in brilliant detail, and trust me one of her final expressions at the very end is honestly one of my favourite moments.
However the real star of the show is how much work the dev team have clearly put into their fire physics. Firstly, it's everywhere! From burning cars and buses through to raging infernos caused by Nemesis and its new flamethrower, the lighting it creates infuses palpable tension in every screen. In short, bar some twitchy enemy animations when they are too far away from you, this game looks fantastically disgusting (just how I like it and just how you should too!)
However, you might not get much of a chance to appreciate the scenery when playing Resident Evil 3 because the pace of this game is absolutely blistering, and this unfortunately is something of a double-edged sword. As a positive, the focus on action is very in keeping with the original game's shift towards action and away from trudging puzzle solving reliance, but as a negative it means you are never in one place for long enough to establish a real connection.
It feels in places like Resident Evil 3's Remake is a greatest hits album but without any build up, and it can leave some sections feeling rushed or lacklustre.
A great example of this actually concerns Nemesis itself, as when in Racoon City's streets he's a persistent threat, constantly inserting himself and ruining an already bad day. Yet it shifts to its second form way too soon and with it the game removes the ability for it to show up at random, meaning you only get to fight it at the scheduled boss encounters. This felt like huge wasted potential and while those encounters were still fun, I wasn't on my toes as to whether Nemesis would appear again.
It also means that characters come and go with such speed that emotional connections are rarely built and a mid game heroic moment is left feeling a little underwhelming, a statement which also speaks of how little time you get to explore the RPD when you return. I know this is well-trodden ground but we barely get a glimpse before the action is shifted once more. It's not even down to level sizes which are still pretty generous, it's more due to the fact that there are barely any puzzles or fetch X to open Y scenarios and players can blitz through without ever really firing up those grey cells.
It's lucky therefore that the game plays phenomenally well.
Shooting is as tight as it was before, enemy placement will have you constantly having to re adjust your plans, and the variety of ways to be killed means that you're balancing weapons and items at all times. And balance has clearly been at the forefront of development as while you now have a quick-step style dodge or a straight punch to evade enemies, you don't have the benefit of support items meaning that if you're grabbed there's no get out of jail free card to use.
I for one love this because it makes you more cautious about engagement and means you have to get used to dodging if you want to make it out alive. Hardcore mode returns to absolutely punish players and I noticed a considerable difference between this and the normal difficulty which was refreshing as ammo was in abundance
However, not all changes are as welcome as these improvements to the gameplay. For some reason there are some QTE segments in the game which are completely pointless, literally requiring you to hold up on the thumbstick, yet a few minutes later you watch a fight scene play out that would have been perfect for player interaction. I don't mind QTEs in Resi, just look at how well the Krauser fight was pulled off in Resident Evil 4, but this was just very strange.
With its short runtime, players are likely going to be expecting a slew of modes similar to Resident Evil 2's Remake to challenge their speed and skill, however I was quite stunned to find that completing the game offers ZERO new modes, not even the Mercenaries mode which was a brilliant inclusion in the original. All you get instead is a shop which allows for gameplay altering items such as dealing double damage or being able to dodge quicker. These are fine and do change the feel of the next playthrough but when you consider the previous remake had 4 Scenarios AND the 4th Survivor mode, this does feel pretty anaemic.
It's clear that Capcom would rather push you towards Resident Evil Resistance, their multiplayer offering, for replayability and while this is commendable that it's a free inclusion, it's possible it comes at the detriment of what many people consider the main event. If you're not interested in online gaming you might be left disappointed until some possible DLC comes to flesh things out further.
I truly enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 3's Remake, whether it was sprinting away from Nemesis or expending my last clip in a desperate wave style defence, and I'm glad that Capcom took a risk and delivered a foe like Nemesis.
However I always felt like my experiences fell just short of greatness in a few places due to the pacing and lack of post game content. Regardless I feel as a short standalone experience this will be warmly accepted by the fanbase, but maybe not enough to see it challenging for the crown.
Rating: 4 Stars