Resident Evil 3 Remake Review

 

As someone who has never played a Resident Evil game, Resident Evil 3 is pretty good. It's short (Steam says I've played it for 7.6 hours) but there ain't no fluff, and that lack of filler is a rare thing nowadays, considering every big budget game promises well over twenty hours just to complete the campaign. I'm not one of those gamers who enjoys ticking off every single check point on the map; sure, I did it for the Witcher 3, but very few games are able to maintain the Witcher's level of quality after sixty plus hours (Cyberpunk 2077 apparently failed in that regard). So if a survival zombie action game thrills me while only taking about a week or two to play (I game about 40 minutes to an hour five days a week roughly), that's great. That being said, I think RE 3 would have benefited from some expanded sections. The opening stage in downtown Raccoon city begs for more areas to explore. Still, the relative brevity of RE 3 improves its schlocky narrative (it's good schlock, though) because it really feels like Jill Valentine and Carlos (your two player characters) are in a race against time. There's no fiddling around collecting cosmetic items or beating frivolous challenges; this is a story-driven action game, with a big game zombie called Nemesis frequently poking his hideous head into your business like a classic horror villain who just refuses to die. I do think he loses some of his effectiveness after he mutates into a bestial fleshy xenomorph, but he's a constant presence, although you'll always know when he's about to drop, due to the level design opening up and filler enemies clearing out (with the one exception of the downtown stage). An impressive amount of terrible creatures are out to eat Jill (and Carlos), including nasty rape spiders that ram parasites down Jill's throat (gee, I wonder where they cribbed that trope?) and pale naked zombies that resemble the monster from Pan's Labyrinth. Jill, a former Raccoon City cop who's on the run from Nemesis, looks almost lifelike; indeed, it's more than a little disturbing to watch her get thrown and beaten by the aforementioned beasties. We're approaching real-life fidelity in games, and certain questions are raised when your abused protagonist actually resembles a living human being and not a bunch of pixels. So is RE 3 torture porn? I don't think so, but Carlos, a hunky special ops soldier with ridiculous hair, never gets a mutant proboscis shoved down his throat. All that being said, RE 3's mix of bullet scrounging, awkward controls (both Jill and Carlos move like they're drunk), and light puzzle solving makes a tense, tight action game that I recommend, if you can get it for about twenty or thirty bucks. Apparently, this is a much condensed remake, and several sections were cut from the original game, but if you care about that, then you probably know already whether or not this game is for you.