The remake of ‘Resident Evil 3’ is the second remake of a classic ‘Resident Evil’ game that we’ve seen. This, of course, follows on from the remake of ‘Resident Evil 2’ that received worldwide critical acclaim. Can Capcom achieve that success twice in a row, or does this version of ‘Resident Evil 3’ fail to hit the mark?
I think the first thing I should mention is that in this package you not only get the remake of ‘Resident Evil 3’ but also the new multiplayer-focused game, ‘Resident Evil: Resistance’. This pits four players against a player-controlled mastermind as the survivors try to perform tasks to escape, whilst the player-controlled antagonist sends everything they can to kill the players before they can do so. The game is quite good but doesn't really seem to have the legs to be as popular as it could be and I felt as though it was perhaps just added to the release to give the game more value.
The main course, as it were, is the ‘Resident Evil 3’ remake which has now been transformed into a third-person shooter like the ‘Resident Evil 2’ remake. The game looks and plays amazingly, with Racoon City a sight to behold. The engine Capcom used to build the game has really done a great job - I hardly encountered any glitches or pop-in of textures during my playthroughs and the game ran very well FPS-wise.
I think my main issue with the game is the actual content. I know I shouldn't have expected too much, but one playthrough of the game can run anywhere between 4-7 hours depending on your experience with ‘Resident Evil’. This is similar to the run time of one playthrough of ‘Resident Evil 2’ but with ‘Resident Evil 2’ there were different playthroughs with characters and a lot of fun reasons to come back. The remake of ‘Resident Evil 3’ just wasn’t the same. If you are a trophy hunter then, of course, there are reasons to do more then one playthrough, whether that be to speedrun the game or to attempt to complete it without using any healing items and so on, but I just wish that Capcom had taken some artistic license and added new areas and sections to the game.
The actual story and meat of the game are excellent and I'm so impressed with how it has been told. You play as Jill Valentine, trying to escape the Racoon City outbreak whilst being hunted by the lab-created killing machine that is Nemesis. He is similar to Mr X from ‘Resident Evil 2’ who hunts you down throughout the game, which gives you a constant feeling of anxiety. Nemesis, however, is a bit more mobile and deadly then Mr X and will constantly hound you through various different scenarios.
When reviewing a game nowadays it always comes back to length and value for money. The remake of ‘Resident Evil 3’ is a very well-made game that takes all of the good things from last year's GOTY contender and creates a marvellously succinct experience, however, suffers from just not having enough content to justify the price. The multiplayer component of the game is fun but feels like it has been hacked on to bloat out the content. If you love ‘Resident Evil’ then there is so much to enjoy here, but if you are on the fence then it might be better to wait for a price drop.
★★★☆☆
Hannah Read
