By Sam Coles:
Since 2017 with the release of Resident Evil 7, Capcom have
been on a bit of a comeback with the Resident Evil series. They went back to
the drawing board and realised that fans adore the survival horror genre, after
2019’s Resident Evil 2 Remake I wasn’t expecting a remake of the third game,
but here we are just over a year later. Is this is as good as the Resident Evil
2 Remake? No, but it is still really good nonetheless, as it still captures the
spirit of the original with tight controls and beautiful visuals. Let’s get
into it!
Resident Evil 3 takes place before and after the events of
Resident Evil 2, where we step into the tank top of Jill Valentine who is
having PTSD dreams about turning into a zombie in her apartment. She wakes up
in a cold sweat with a huge bait and switch as it starts off in first person, until
Nemesis breaks through Jill’s wall. She finds out that the infection from the
mansion has spread to the streets of Racoon City. Jill slowly uncovers the
reason why the monster known as Nemesis is stalking her, she finds out that the
Umbrella Corporation wants to snuff out the members of S.T.A.R.S as they
uncovered the experiments they were working on. The story is actually rather
engaging which is saying a lot for a Resident Evil game, the voice acting is
well done where it has weight, but that is not to say there are no hammy
moments from certain characters.
Gameplay takes the foundations that were set by the Resident
Evil 2 Remake, but puts more of an emphasis on combat like the original
Resident Evil 3 did. There is a higher amount of zombies on screen at once,
which is thematically appropriate given the game’s setting within the walls of
Racoon City. Combat feels a bit faster compared to the RE2 Remake, where you
now have a dodge move like in the original RE3, but like the original RE3 this
dodge attack is rather temperamental and decides to work when it wants to. The
hitboxes with the zombies is rather questionable when I was dodging them,
because there were moments where I thought I had slipped past the zombie for
them to suddenly to grab me and bite my neck like a burrito.
Gameplay is overall fun with the same satisfying feedback
with the zombies when you fire a shotgun round into them, as their flesh melts
as buckshot tears through their decaying skin. The emphasis on puzzle solving
has been decreased in this game, as it focuses on the action more and of course
the encounters with the hulking bio weapon that is Nemesis. These encounters
are heart pounding and tense, he can suddenly crash through walls and the
thunderous thumps as he sprints at you full tilt made my heart jump out of my
throat.
However I feel like they have cut down on the Nemesis
encounters in this game in terms of his humanoid form, there are only a handful
of times that he shows up with his firearms and mutates quicker than he did in
the original. Plus they have taken out the choice encounters with him from the original,
where it was this high risk high reward scenario which would grant you weapon
parts, but now they are gone. Not to say the encounters are bad by any means in
this remake as it is a different interpretation, but I feel the element of
choice has been streamlined a bit in this version of the game.
Once again Capcom have shown the capabilities of their RE
Engine, where yet again they can balance both high fidelity visuals and
performance (mostly). The game’s use of photogrammetry makes the world look
believable, coupled with the photorealistic looking character models that
capture every detail and expression. From a subtle smirk, wink or raise of the
eyebrows these are some of the best looking character models I have seen this
generation. The gore effects are disgusting (in a good way) and for a lack of
better words moist, the decaying flesh on the zombies and monsters have
unflinching amount of detail although a bit downgraded from the 2 remake as
there are more monsters and zombies on screen.
Overall I have nothing bad to say about the visuals, but
performance is a different story as it tries to run at 60 frames per second but
it stutters during certain gameplay segments and cutscenes. Now I was playing
this on a base PS4 but I expect it is a lot better on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X,
but it doesn’t make it any less distracting.
I really enjoyed my time with the Resident Evil 3 remake; it
has sharp visuals coupled with great combat and a story that was rather
engaging for what it was. However I feel they cut a few corners, specifically with
some of the Nemesis encounters and the choices you make in the original game.
Great game and worth your time, but if you are a fan of the original you may
see certain things missing.
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