The Resident Evil 3 Remake is a strange game. After my roughly 7 hours playing it, I came away feeling one thing more than anything. Empty. Disappointed is another word I could use to describe my feelings, but empty seems to convey them better. Make no mistake, though, Resident Evil 3 Remake is a wonderfully crafted and beautiful game that definitely earns its 60 dollar price tag, however, it just doesn't come close to achieving the greatness that was last year's Resident Evil 2.
Despite my love for the Resident Evil franchise, and all things survival horror, I haven't been able to play/complete a lot of the games. RE3MAKE is just the third game in the franchise that I have completed, with RE7 and RE2MAKE being the other two. I played many of the other games, but I just haven't gotten very far in them for one reason or the other. This is all to say that I never played the original RE3, so I have no way of comparing it to its remake. The same can be said for RE2MAKE, as I never completed the original, but it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the game, in any way, shape, form, or fashion. RE2MAKE is still a masterpiece to me, despite me not being able to directly compare it to the original. I was in the exact same position for RE3MAKE, yet I came away with completely different feelings.
In Resident Evil 3, Jill Valentine makes her return to the series as she tries to make her "last escape". though she doesn't say that anymore, so that joke doesn't work. After some interesting first person sequences, including a nightmare, Nemesis immediately appears. The game throws you right in the deep end from the beginning, and that's where I noticed something was wrong. I never felt scared, even in the early game. There was tension, but nothing like the tension in RE2. I'm not sure why, but Nemesis never felt as threatening as Mr. X, despite being incredibly more powerful. I can't put my finger on it, but even in the earlier game, Nemesis never felt like a threat. This could do with the fact that Nemesis disappears for a lot of the game. When he's gone, he's gone, and for some reason, the player knows he's not going to show up. With Mr. X, I genuinely didn't know when he was going to show up, as there were many times I thought he was gone due to the story moving along, only to find him around the next corner. Nemesis is just annoying. This isn't to say that it's not fun fighting against him, just not as fun as I would have hoped. Even the boss fights feel like a chore, which just sours the whole experience. Luckily, the whole game is so well made, that this souring doesn't kill the game.
RE3MAKE is a beautiful game. I played without any patches on a standard PS4, and I noticed almost 0 graphical glitches. The only noticable thing I noticed is that the audio sometimes got out of sync. Other than that, the audio mixing sometimes sounded a little off, but nothing to jarring. Outside of those few audio hiccups, the game runs near perfectly. The visuals are amazing, outside from some noticably "odd" fire that seemed to move way too slow. Jill and Carlos, as well as all the zombies and NPC's in the game, look great, and all that amazing gore detail is back with a vengence. The RE Engine is amazing, and this just might be its best looking game yet. Everything moves and flows so natural, except for the fier. I even loved the hair. Everything looks great.
Gameplay-wise, the game plays just as smooth as RE2, expect for some new features. Gone is the defense weapon mechanic, where you could select a weapon that you would automatically use if a zombie latched on to you. In it's place is a dodge move that you can time in order to activate a "bullet time" slow mo window, where you can pop off a few shots. The dodge mechanic is great, especially when fighting Nemesis, but I did miss the defense weapons, as zombies had a bad habit of latching onto me at the worst times. Movement feels a little bit smoother than RE2, and the gun-play is much better. This makes sense, considering both Jill and Carlos are trained professionals, while Leon was a rookie cop and Claire was just a regular person. The rest of the gameplay is near identical. Some of the smoothest gameplay that you can find in a video game.
The camera drove me crazy. Most of the time, I didn't have a problem with it, but when it came to boss fights, the camera decided to get way to close to Jill, to the point where I couldn't see most of the screen. This becomes a huge problem as you're supposed to be dodging and weaving Nemesis's attacks, but you can't do that effectivly since you can't see what's going on. If you do dodge successfully, the camera freaks out, and tends to put you in the worst position possible. This lead to me dying a lot in one particular boss fight near the end of the game. This might be the game's biggest flaw, other than the lack of tension. It becomes a serious problem, but thankfully, it's a problem that is brief, as most of the game is not boss fights.
The games crowing achievement, aside from being a wonderfully crafted and beautiful game, is the replayablity, Sadly, at the end of my playthrough, I found no drive to play it again. For those who do find the drive, there are plenty of things to do. There are many challenges, modes, ranks, and unlockables that can be attained through multiple playthroughs, as well as just personal challenges. You can also buy weapons and items to use throughout the whole game, once you beat the main campaign. Kind of like a new game plus. If replayability is what you'r looking for, RE3MAKE is just as replayable as the original, if not more so.
All in all, I'm dissappointed by RE3MAKE. I enjoyed my time with it, but I have no desire to play it again. I did not get a chance to play the multiplayer, though, so maybe that adds more to the game as whole, but as of right now, this is the biggest gaming dissappointment of the year for me. Now, again, this isn't to say that RE3MAKE isn't a good game. It's a great game, but it's definitly not a game of the year contender like RE2MAKE was, but it's still worth your money. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say it's a 7-7.5 out of 10. If you factoring in the replayability, I could see it being an 8. The game just didn't resonate with me. I wish it did. I wanted it to. I wanted to be amazed by it, but I just wasn't. It left me feeling empty in the end, yet I didn't want more, but I don't regret playing it. I just regret that it's not a better game.
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