I have unsurprisingly mixed feelings on the divisive REmake 3. As the stars indicate, I still liked it a lot on balance, but truthfully, not without serious reservations that probably make this more of a 4.5 star-game that I’m rounding to 5 and is for me the weakest of the remakes thus far. Further, a lot of my disappointment has to do with things that simply could have been better or fell short of my expectation rather than the game just looking, playing, or feeling bad. While that’s not the worst thing in the world, it is more than a little disappointing for a big budget remake of a game I quite loved. I find that games I’m conflicted on tend to end up being very long reviews and I expect this will be no exception and it’s one reason it’s taken me so long to get to getting my thoughts down.
This remake stands out to me among the others in that the remake is much looser in its adaptation. REmake mostly touches up graphics and adds on to the underlying game without changing anything significant. REmake 2 is a reimagining, but one that still sticks fairly close to its source material with a lot of its design, especially of the RPD and general story beats. At the time of this writing, we also have REmake 4 which changes a lot of the tone and tweaks some things, but is fairly faithful in a broad sense with how the story develops and keeping many of the environments and routes the same. This title on the other hand keeps the same general idea of the original game while changing and cutting many elements quite significantly. For instance, Carlos goes to the RPD instead of Jill, the clock tower is reduced to a background during a boss fight with a very different form of Nemesis, and the final stages of the game have similar themes but are also quite different. There are further changes of a sort that to me feel like modernizations that are aiming at the same themes of the original put into new contexts. For instance, the cinematic and lifelike cutscenes really evoke the B-movie action horror flick aesthetic more than the other games. This is quite different, but aligns parallel to the feel of the original RE3: Nemesis and how it stepped up some of its story and cutscenes from its predecessors. Similarly, this game implements a dodge roll that REmake 2 lacked, much like RE3: Nemesis added one its predecessor (and later games) lacked. Granted, the dodge mechanic is far easier to pull off consistently in the remake and gets downright overpowered once you get the hang of it.
Some changes however, I struggle to appreciate. For one, the areas and routing have been changed a ton and while I certainly don’t mind that in theory (and some of the city sights are welcome with the visceral feel of the graphics), I feel this was generally done to the game’s detriment. I thought the clock tower and the park were great in the original and they’re boiled down to a fight outside the clock tower and the park is cut in full, along with its corresponding boss fight. While I’m normally okay with some content being cut or changed, this is pretty drastic. The emphasis on switching between Jill and Carlos (not quite to the point it’s 50/50 but far closer than the ratio in the original) results in kind of awkward pacing, especially moments like the section post-cable car wreck in which you wake up as Jill, climb a couple stairs, fight a big Nemesis boss fight, then are already Carlos again. While Carlos is a better character in this version, and I don’t mind him getting more screentime or playtime, this pacing cuts against the game at parts like this. I also think the RPD section was a real missed opportunity in which Jill could’ve reflected on her former life for more of a character moment plainly foreshadowed by the game’s opening. Instead, we just get Carlos’ removed commentary on the state of the building that loses much of the potential emotional import. On that note, I really liked the opening of the game at first. While the series later delved into it a bit more (though still not enough imo), one criticism for these early games with recurring characters is there’s very little exploration of the severe trauma and PTSD they must be experiencing. The opening definitely signaled that with the more grounded tone of the REmakes, we were going to actually explore some of that. Unfortunately, the moment the action starts, this subplot is almost completely forgotten, only to arise briefly in a nightmare around the 80% mark, which may have been more of a fever dream borne of Jill’s infection than a callback to this otherwise-dropped thread.
Nemesis also feels quite different with a graphically-better, but somehow less imposing redesign not only in appearance but in mechanics. The original really sells its tension with how Nemesis feels like he could jump out at any moment and serve a real threat as a serious pursuer enemy that pulled off the concept exceptionally. Somewhat ironically, this design philosophy is pretty much what they applied in redesigning Mr. X in REmake 2 when originally he was totally scripted but is now free-roaming. The roles are reversed with Nemesis instead now feeling like the totally scripted monster that Mr. X originally was. Further, Nemesis is a total pushover. He’s fast, but he’s not hard to dodge and there’s little reason to as you don’t really need to waste much ammo to take him down. Even on higher difficulties, a grenade or two will take him down, granting you goodies that are more than worth the expense. The boss fights—which I’ll talk about in a bit—with Nemesis are quite good, but the other encounters really neuter such an iconic monster.
I feel quite strongly about these issues and definitely think the worst thing about the game is so, so many missed opportunities. While there are times such things make sense when seeking other goals in the remake, I simply don’t feel any of the above needed to be changed or cut to achieve the game they went with. In fact, much of this material would’ve lengthened and improved the game, pre-empting most of the harshest criticism the game received for being too short at roughly 4 hours for a first-time playthrough. For me, it’s okay if the game is short, but the reason why it’s short and how much could have been still bugs me. The reason all this doesn’t affect my score more tremendously is because what the game could have done is a somewhat weird metric to judge your experience with what’s there by.
And in my opinion, what’s there is still pretty damn good in its own right. The opening city segment is far and away the best part of the game. It promised a strong follow-up to REmake 2 in that it took some of what was great about that game and expands it to a more open city environment. The map layouts are interesting and highlight evocative buildings and dwellings with callbacks to the original like the diner and gas station while making for an effective layout for the gameplay loop. The routing and item puzzle bouncing back and forth is very well laid-out and plotted for a satisfying experience. I think if they had included another section or two of city exploration like this in another area, many complaints about the length would’ve been much lighter. The later parts of the game don’t quite live up to the first areas, but are not bad in their own right. The RPD is okay, though it feels a little too rehashed from REmake 2 rather than the super brief callback it was in the original. The hospital is pretty good and probably is the second-best area of the game for me, even though I still sort of wish it was primarily a Jill segment.
The boss fights I’ve seen some complaints about, but I don’t really get the hate; I think they’re real highlights for the most part. The first major Nemesis boss fight is fittingly challenging and imposing and displays important aspects of his threat profile, namely that he’s totally capable of operating weaponry like a flamethrower. The clock tower fight is a little silly, but uses the game’s mechanics quite well to make for an exciting encounter that lets you really play with the game’s tools and still requires some mastery of the mechanics you’ve been learning so far. The final boss fights can be a little frustrating (especially on Inferno, UGH), but are also designed to be pretty unique and challenging in their own right. While I found Nemesis underwhelming during the outside-arena encounters, I thought the boss fights make up for it pretty well.
Lastly, while I don’t love all the changes, I think the story is on balance improved in a lot of ways. RE3: Nemesis to me felt like a big step up in the cinematic storytelling of the early series. While REmake 2 already did a good job with its cinematic story and characters that came to life so much better with the modern graphics and production, this game feels like a further step up. Despite the game’s many critics, I think this is some of the best characterization and performance we’ve gotten for Jill, despite the several games she’s been in. To use a cliché found on far too many YouTube longplays: the cutscenes feel like you’re watching an actual well-made movie in addition to getting to play the game. While I liked some more things about the original story such as its branching nature, this game really executes its premise quite well for what we get, other than the big caveat I mentioned above about foreshadowing the PTSD subplot only to immediately drop it.
As you might have noticed, so much of this review is couched in terms of how the game was remade and comparing it to the original. This is odd for me and is one reason I feel so conflicted: because in general, I’m relatively friendly to remakes and enjoy them in their own right regardless of how faithful they are (or aren’t). And perhaps that’s why I can still rate it so highly despite some significant gripes and disappointments. For whatever reason though, this game is a different situation for me and I have a hard time not missing the things I loved so much about the original. I’m glad I was still able to enjoy it quite a lot, but it’s certainly a weird game for me in that I give it 5 stars (or 4.5 rounded, whatever) and yet I totally understand both people who despise it and those who totally love it.
My other Resident Evil reviews:
