Its predecessor was my favorite entry of the series so the excitement around Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was quite high for me, but I was also broke back then. I ended up renting this game a couple of times but never beat it until this year. I may have also played the demo that came with Dino Crisis; it’s hard to remember for sure. What I do know, though, is that with the Resident Evil 2 remake having impressed, the buzz about RE3 getting the same treatment makes it the perfect time to talk about a game that was almost completely different.
Most know RE3 originally started off as a side project. It was almost an adventure featuring Hunk on a cruise ship—the ship part was an idea that was revisited a few times at least—but maybe he’s just not leading man material. Even after some re-tooling, the title was going to star a different character, but the announcement of the new PlayStation 2 and some other contractual movements pushed the team and their project into the main series, leaving Code Veronica for the new platforms, and keeping the first three main RE titles on the PS1.
Players went from what felt like this huge zombie epic that featured two characters, multiple playthroughs, with fun extra modes across two discs, to a story featuring a single protagonist in a shorter outing with a simpler plot—survive. RE3 had something to prove when it was thrust into the main series, so Jill Valentine was selected since many of the others had been given their own adventures and director Kazuhiro Aoyama took his concept and expanded upon its ending to fill out the title. It might have felt shorter or smaller in comparison, but was still important to the overall lore.
This tale of horror takes place before, during, and after RE2 with a familiar police station in the beginning. A new bio-weapon, lovingly called Nemesis, has been sent to wipe out the remaining S.T.A.R.S. members after the team’s incident at the Spencer mansion in RE1. The best thing it does is give Raccoon City more life. It looks great, colorful, cluttered, lived in, and ravaged—it’s a city of the dead that the player is being hunted through and the atmosphere is palpable.
It was known as Biohazard 3: Last Escape in Japan, but I’m glad we got the better title in Nemesis. The game had a big marketing campaign but the thing I remembered the most was that a friend of mine had the novelization of the story written by S.D. Perry. I need to see if I can find that again.
RE3 was meant to be experimental early on and tried to change things up even more when it needed to stand out as a bigger project. Aoyama wanted to expand more, have up to three playable characters and include the ability to run and shoot, but even without time to implement these things, there were still several new features.
Players have to make their own ammunition by finding and mixing different types of gunpowders, allowing some choice in what weapons they want to rely on. This is a benefit, but also requires an extra item spot for the reloading tool. This will come in handy as the developers figured out how to have up to nine enemies on screen at one time.
Being able to interact with the environment more by shooting explosive barrels and other items helps with crowd control, but there are other new features that help more. Not only can Jill perform a quick 180-degree turn now, but she can also actually dodge incoming harm as well without just having to outrun attackers. Performing the quick dodge well is awesome and makes me feel like a god when I don’t mess it up, but it isn’t always consistent and happens on accident more times than I’d like to admit. On the other hand, when it happens in succession it makes Jill look way more nimble and combat capable than her cohorts, being able to avoid the restless dead efficiently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2c_AvxgtNo
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One of the more unique things about RE3 is its choice system. Certain events would trigger two selectable options that usually revolved around fight or flight and path decisions. Poor choices here can result in having to fight more enemies or receive different cutscenes. There are three slightly different endings that are also affected by a couple of the decisions made. I’m honestly surprised this feature has never appeared again in the series.
“I wanted to introduce a new kind of fear into the game, a persistent feeling of paranoia. The Nemesis brings that on in spades. When it disappears after the first confrontation, you live in constant dread of the next attack. The idea is to make you feel like you’re being stalked.” – Shinji Mikami
Nemesis was a new version of the Tyrant enemy type put in to help amplify the tension and action in the game. The development team had a new focus in trying to keep excitement levels up and the players moving, so what better way than by having a giant monster with tentacles and a rocket launcher chasing the protagonist. If that weren’t bad enough, he runs a bit faster than Jill and is good at cornering the player. My favorite part though is when he attacks other zombies. It didn’t happen often, but I laugh every time.
Most people will choose to run away from this crazy construct, but fighting him on hard mode grants weapon parts and doing it again on another playthrough can give a firearm unlimited ammo. I hate that the boss fights are my least favorite sections of the game. Trust me that Nemesis is not always easy to hit: he is aggressive, multiple fights with him are in small spaces, and recovering before he attacks again is a pain. As someone who likes tank controls, I can say this is where they hinder the most.
I managed to dumb guess my way through most of the puzzles and only had to ask my wife how to do one of them. Don’t judge me; this is her favorite entry in the series. The real survival horror element I found here was trying to manage inventory space, but I do find this game full of tense moments and wonderful narrow escapes. Perhaps it helped that I didn’t know this entry as well of course.
After the game is beaten there is a new mode, The Mercenaries: Operation Mad Jackal, which is a tough trek across the city but the weapons unlocked here can be used in replays of the game. Completionists will find even more to do here as unlocking absolutely everything will require eight total playthroughs at least on the hard difficulty level. I like the game more now, but maybe not enough to do that.
Though RE3 certainly has its hardcore fans, it is often remembered as the weaker of the first three entries or simply forgotten. On the other hand, the game garnered good critical reviews. It had a few ports that weren’t much different, but the Dreamcast and PC versions have better character models and more alternate costumes that are unlocked from the beginning. Though unique in some ways, this game didn’t get a huge rub like some of the other gems (nothing will ever have more ports than RE4), but it is still very much a Resident Evil title through and through.
There are still some very cheesy moments in here that fans expect from the earlier games and the voice acting had me laughing at times. On the other side of the audio, the soundtrack is great and helps with the dark atmosphere. Parts of the writing is good, even though it was penned by someone who knew nothing about the series and had to play the first game just before writing the story to familiarize himself.
For an inexperienced team who were handed a big responsibility, they certainly turned out a memorable and fun game that does the Resident Evil name proud.
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