Resident Evil 3 (2020)

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Resident Evil 3 (2020) for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[RinseWashRepeat]

Is this the 1999 version or the 2020 one?

[Nupraptor]

In 1999, I played Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and I had a good time, but it felt like a weaker experience when compared with the sublime Resident Evil 2. in 2020, I played the Resident Evil 3 remake and I had a good time, but it also felt like a weaker experience compared with the sublime Resident Evil 2 remake.
The problem extends to the relentless Tyrants in the two games. In 1999, the titular Nemesis always felt like a weaker rehash of Mr X to me. Yes, they were doing more with him, but when we saw those tricks with Mr X, they were so much more impactful because of their novelty.
In the remake, they have gone In a slightly different direction. While Mr X was woven directly into the gameplay of the police station section of the Resi 2 remake, Nemesis is used more for set pieces and boss battles. It's fun to fight Nemesis, but it means that he actually feels like less of a real, relentless threat than Mr X did.
Resi 3: Nemesis and it's remake are good games and are fun games, it's just unfortunate that they were released in such close proximity to superior games.

[JCVanDan]

I missed Resident Evil 3 back in the day as it came out shortly before the Dreamcast, which I picked up on launch, and I was dreaming of Code Veronica's amazing (i.e. drab and grey) 3D environments. This means I have absolutely no nostalgia for the game as I did with the stellar RE 2 remake (which is my favourite in the whole series). However, I think even with nostalgia I'd recognise what a lump of total mediocrity this game is. I'm writing this just after I've put my controller down in frustration and boredom halfway through the game. I managed to persevere up to the hospital (another bland and small environment) but once the 'protect Jill' horde mode section kicked in I thought "nope, that's enough of this".

Gone are the iconic puzzlebox environments like the mansion and the police station where you spend a large chunk of the game. Gone is the creeping dread and sheer terror of those environments as you inch your way around with hardly any ammo, waiting for the next horrid thing to jump through a window. Instead we now have lots of ammo, grenade launchers in the first hour, machine guns, and lots of running around spraying bullets like I'm playing Gears of War.

The only bit that had me tense were the Tyrant sections, and I hated them. The game kept forcing me to try and run past him in alleyways and on staircases where I couldn't fit past, hoping that when he hit me the damage animation would take me past him. Combine this with the fact that you really don't want to waste ammo on him, and you're in for a horrible and frustrating time. I compare this with Mr X in RE 2, who had me absolutely shitting my pants as he pursued me around the police station. Never really in danger of getting hold of me, and easily lost, but still there all the same and making me feel unsafe.

There are other unfavourable parallels that can be drawn with 2, such as the sewers. The sewers in 2 are a horrible place that made me feel sick with fear, particularly the red room with the lovecraftian-esque heaving monstrosities. In 3 I genuinely laughed aloud when I saw the Hunter Gamma for the first time, then shrugged when I killed them all in one or two shots with my overabundance of grenades and flame rounds.

You can probably tell, I don't really like this game. I do have one positive to say though. Technically, this game is a masterclass on the PS5. But everything else? Pants.

[ratsoalbion]

Is this the 1999 version or the 2020 one?

2020 - we already covered the original:
https://caneandrinse.com/resident-evil-3-nemesis/

[Ben77000000]

The first thing I did after beating Resident Evil 3 was buy the PS4 version of Resident Evil 6. Rather than inspiring dread or tension in me, the Nemesis encounters in 3 made me miss the Ustanak from 6. I don't mean to imply that 3 is such a bad game that it made me yearn to play the critically derided 6, because it's a fine game, it's just entirely unremarkable compared to the unpredictable absurdity of the latter.

The trappings and encounters of 3 are so tame that the core gameplay loop of unlocking 3 doors, picking up 9 items and then bumping into Nemesis quickly became routine. In 6, every Ustanak set-piece was markedly different from the one before, in terms of both setting and the means by which you had to engage the massive fiend. In 3, the character models are brilliant and the controls smooth, but the only memorable moment from the experience was firing the railgun at the climax, by which point my investment in the game had long since faded.

[Gingertastic01]

After the superb Resident Evil 2 remake I was excited to return to Raccoon City so I bought this day one and played it over the weekend. Much like Resident Evil 2, the production values are of a very high standard with the visuals and sound being a real standout. Enemies are suitably disgusting and slimy, whilst guns feel satisfying to fire.

What I love about Resident Evil 3 is the pace of the game and the drive behind escaping Raccoon City. It is in stark contrast to the previous game where you where exploring the police station. From the very opening to the final credits it just feels relentless. Whether it is the subtle pulsating score or the pace in which you are navigating the city and finding new areas, it always felt that Jill was continuing her mission to get out of dodge. As a result, the game can be quite linear in places but they sprinkle in just enough classic Resident Evil exploring to get the balance just about right for what they are going for.

Jill is my favorite Resident Evil character and I was not disappointed with this new depiction of her. She has some great lines throughout the game and was a total bad ass. The big bad Nemesis takes the form of an evolving set piece boss battle as opposed to the stalker enemy we had seen in the previous game. I loved seeing Nemesis transform throughout the game with the final form being subtle epic. I know many players were disappointed that Nemesis wasn’t handled in a similar manor as Mr X. However, I am not sure replicating Mr X’s stalker behaviour in this game would have been the right fit for the scenario, it might have taking some of the pace out of the game.

It is hard not to compare the two games having come out so soon after one another but as a Resident Evil fan am just happy we got both these remakes and they are both great. As much as I love Resident Evil 2 remake I have not revisited it that much due to the stress inducing Mr X. The same cannot be said for 3, where I have put in a silly amount of time trying unlock new weapons, short cuts and trying to finish it on the hardest difficulty. Although I wouldn’t recommend trying to beat it on Inferno difficulty as the last boss fight is controller breaking. (

[Tibble_n_Bits]

I imagine one of the more frustrating aspects of the Resident Evil series for fans is how wildly different each main installment in the franchise is from each other--be it in tone, setting, design, or gameplay style. I am writing this when we are only a few short months away from the release of Resident Evil Village, a first person gothic horror game, while this forum post itself is regarding the remake of Resident Evil 3, a linear, third person chase game that leans far more toward action than pure horror. While some fans may find this lack of consistency game-to-game irritating, I find it exciting.

I do agree with much of the criticism surrounding Resident Evil 3 Remake. Nemesis, the title character of the original version, isn't in the game nearly enough and is underwhelming compared to the Tyrant in the Resident Evil 2 Remake. I haven't played the original version of Resident Evil 3, but I still know about the content that was cut and changed, and most of those alterations were for the worse, most notably the areas where you play as Carlos and the removal of the Clock Tower section from the original version.

But the game works for me as a whole. The short length of the game contributes to the relentless chase tone of the game even when the game design itself fails to do so. Carlos' weak gameplay segments at least flesh him out as a character and serves his surprisingly effective chemistry with Jill. Speaking of Jill, her fantastic performance by Nicole Tompkins carried me through the whole game. Jill is easily my favorite character in the series now. I still even found Nemesis memorable thanks to a series of fun boss fights against him, all of which were better than any of the boss fights in Resident Evil 2 Remake, a far superior game otherwise.

I guess it is only fitting that Resident Evil 3 shares the same fate as its original version: a structurally and tonally distinct action-horror game that, thanks to clearly not having enough time in oven, ultimately fails to escape the shadow of its predecessor.

[Steve Arran]

Resident Evil 3 was the game that taught me never to pre order anything ever again, such was my disappointment in the latest Resi instalment. I do not think this is an inherently bad game, rather it is just a bad remake of a decent game, and most of the negative press the title has garnered comes from the weight of exceptions rather than any intrinsic flaws. If this game was its own IP it would be a totally acceptable- if somewhat short- B tier action game. Instead, the disappointment one feels is compounded by the fact that it is an ersatz imitation of the original and holds up exceedingly poorly in the light of the previous years Resi 2 remake. The latter is a game I have played to completion multiple times, the former was a ‘one and done’.

The main reason for my disappointment was the lack of tension arising from the way that Nemesis is used. Put simply, the lack of random encounters results in a lack of scares. If you encounter an enemy almost exclusively during a series of set pieces it ultimately negates any threat that enemy creates as you know you will beat them and move onto the next specially curated set piece. If the nemesis was stalking you as he did in the original these boss encounters would have packed more punch, but by using him almost entirely in this arena match up context (after the games opening act) Nemesis lost all sense of terror as he was just an obstacle set up to be knocked down to progress the game. Ideally the player wants to feel as if he is actively impeding you from progressing, not that he has to be encountered in order for you to progress.(I hope that makes some form of sense). Ultimately this lack of dread really hampered what in many other respects is a fine game.

I didn’t come away from the game completely burned, however. As disappointed as I was Resident Evil three taught me to look at games in much the same way as we look at movies: sometimes you’re going to experience some middle of the road fluff- schlock that is over and done with quickly- and isn’t really a bad thing, just a question of managing expectations. In that sense I feel that Resi 3 would have fared better had it been an Uncharted Golden Abyss style ‘add on/side quest’ to the Resi 2 remake (and priced accordingly) rather than its own stand alone game.