Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Review

Resident Evil 2(1998) is one my favorite sequels and games of all time, the game added so many refinements to what was already a solid foundation and then added more with the A and B scenarios.

Now enter Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, it has to follow up a game I consider to be a masterpiece and it already has a lot to live up to.

How was it? I'd say RE3 is a "good game" but it just isn't as big of a leap forward as RE2(1998) was to RE1(1996). That is by far the biggest issue with the game, at best it's still the same enjoyable RE gameplay you have come to expect but at the same time, RE3 never feels like it ever gets out of the realm of being an experimental expansion pack to RE2 than a full fledged sequel.

I'll start with what I liked, everything I liked about RE1 and 2 is in 3. The inventory management, the powerful feeling guns, the backtracking, and the interconnected maps are all here, and just feels as good as ever.

I do like at least on paper RE3 offers some innovation with the exploration where you explore an entire city as opposed to an isolated location or multiple isolated locations like in RE2. So if you wanted an RE game with an even bigger map then before, the Raccon City portions of the game might be something you like.

The guns in some ways I do think in some ways is better than RE2, if you defeat Nemesis twice or get two handgun parts from him, you'll get a handgun that is even more satisfying is even better than the base handgun you get at the start of the game. The shotgun still feels as awesome as ever, and since RE3 has even more enemies on screen by comparison to RE1 and 2, that means more satisfying headshots when killing zombies.

The ammo creator is an idea that is a rather mixed bag for me, on the one hand I love how I get to fire more shots for my cool new guns and it helps counteracts the increased enemy count RE3 has but at the same time, I was rolling in so much ammo even by the late game that it almost feels it's impossible that I am barely scrapping by with ammo. RE2 you could argue suffers from this but in RE3, I had hundreds of handgun rounds and it makes me wonder if I did somehow found the series "scary", wouldn't this just break the tension in half?

The stuff I don't like is that while I like the idea of an open city map on paper, I dislike how there is much more to keep track of now, and where in RE1 and 2, I didn't mind the lack of a REmake style map where it marked areas of interest, now since RE3's Raccon City portion is much bigger, I want this since there is more to keep track of. If your memory is better than mine you might not mind, but I did have to look up a guide a big more by comparison to RE1 and 2. Then you got the later parts of the game which are much more linear and small compared to how big Raccon City was so if you liked the Raccon City sections more than me, it won't last throughout the game.

I dislike the procedural generation and by extension the "choices" the player makes too. The prodedural generation just feels like a gimmick where it barely adds much since you are getting a slightly different experience than someone else, but then there are times where the game will spawn some snake leeches or full on Hunters, which is weird, one enemy I can avoid while the other is harder and might require ammo.

The choices effect the narrative very little and just feels pointless, some of them have you fight Nemesis or some of them have you defeat him outright, if you have a guide, this doesn't add much to the game then slightly different scenarios.

The dodge is welcome but it's too contextual and unpredictable to be consistently reliable, either give me or dedicated command or don't bother.

Now my biggest issue with the game, Nemesis himself. Tank controls are the biggest point of contention regarding older RE, and while in RE1 and 2, I didn't mind, Nemesis is where it gets pushed too far. Simpily put, Nemesis is too fast for the tank controls, best comparison is that you are Robocop and Nemesis is the Flash. Nemesis moves fasts, hits hard, can grab and can kill you super quickly. My hands started to hurt with how much mashing to break out of Nemesis's grips, and the fixed camera can make you lose your sense of direction. Nemesis can pick you up in one camera angle and send you flying to another. Predicting when Nemesis will hit you and or if he will miss is a 50-50 guessing game. So when he did pop up it was an exercise in frustration.

But contary to popular belief and to the game's credit, Nemesis does start lay off for certain parts of the game and thanks to this I was able to beat it at all. If it wasn't for this I would've dropped the game sooner.

Overall, I complained a lot, I do think RE3: Nemesis is a good game, but at the same time, I am not sure if the game really benefitted from being called "Resident Evil 3" and is more a "Resident Evil 2.5" or an expansion, a decently made an expansion but one that shouldn't be a full sequel.