Resident Evil 3 was released last week Friday for PC via Steam, Ps4 and Xbox One and was the follow up remake game to last years Resident Evil 2. Lets take a closer look and see how this remake fared up!
Resident Evil 3 concentrates on main protagonist, Jill Valentine (S.T.A.R.S aka RPD), as she tries to escape Raccoon City. The story does take shape before and after the events of Resident Evil 2, so if you would like a refresher, give RE2 a go before diving into RE3. Jill teams up with Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.) Carlos Oliveira as they both try to make sense of what is going on and battle to survive in and among all the chaos that the Umbrella Corporation has rained down on Raccoon City.
Shifting focus to the actual game play that Resident Evil 3 infects our systems with. I am reviewing this from my game play experience on PC. The game starts off in Jill's apartment and introduces a dark and weird atmosphere from the get go! It is not long before this masked Villian smashes through the wall to greet Jill, just after receiving a phone call warning her to leave ASAP! The scene is really well created and the heart pounding race starts right here! The cut scene/game play experience in the intro is absolutely exhilarating and something else to experience, especially considering the game has hardly even started.
Once I landed in the actual city, the first thing I really was impressed by is how much more ammo and crafting materials were laying around in the general city environment compared to what I experienced in RE2. So glad they kept to this from the Demo version. There is a new mechanic that you can try right from the beginning and that was the dodge ability. If you time this well, you can dodge enemies and counter attack them. This may not seem like a lot, but believe me it is a very necessary ability to have to try avoid our Biological Experiment Buddy Nemesis. They have also introduced a combat knife that does not break, but you do not use it in the same way as you did in RE2 where it would stick in Zombies and you would retrieve it afterwards. This time around it is a lot less effective in those situations.
Puzzles, Puzzles and Exploration is a very common aspect to the game play of Resident Evil games and this one is no different. I did feel there was a lot more puzzles to figure out and a bit more mystery to them in RE2, but the exploration time for me felt very similar which was great. There is collectables scattered around the city for you to find like records and notes as well as Charlie Dolls.
Furthermore, you get various weapons to use either as playing as Jill or Carlos throughout the game. I really liked how you played as both characters in the game and each one having their unique weapon setups. Their individual items in the storage containers for example did not carry over so it forced you to look around for further ammo and crafting goodies. Carlos has a high tech Assault Rifle, while Jill has a bad ass Grenade Launcher, Combat Shotgun (Once upgraded) and of course Mag Hand Gun. There is also upgrade parts that can be found in the city to aid you in your journey when you play as both characters. There is also pouch packs scattered around that allow the player to increase their inventory stash and every time you find one it is like the lights from heaven shine down upon you, well at least for me.
Moving on to the Boss fight sections of the game. As we know, Nemesis is hot tailing Jill throughout the City and there comes various stages in the game were you get to take on this Biological Weapon in various Boss fights. There is four main fights that you take Nemesis on and each one getting more challenging as you progress further on.
Nemesis starts with various weapons from guns to its bear fists to take on Jill and it also has a weird tentacle that can grab you and reel you back in. Throughout the game Nemesis keeps changing forms, which was absolutely fantastic as this gave way to new boss fight encounters. Just as you thought "No ways, this thing has got to be dead now" it would appear again, bigger and better than the last time. Nemesis also has incredible moves that you need to counter and speed to make matters worse.
The performance of the game was surprisingly really well done. I was playing the game in 1440p with pretty much maxed settings and when I say "pretty much" there is certain settings that could be pushed higher at the expense of VRAM of course. I was using a 2080 Ti and the settings I had on were using up about 7GB VRAM, I will try push it more on another play through, but during my entail play through the game ran butter smooth. I believe they gave a lot of settings options to play around with so players with lower spec systems should not have an issue finding the settings that work for them. They did trim the edges a bit more graphics wise with RE3, but still looks very similar to RE2 as it is built on the same Engine format.
In concluding this review for Resident Evil 3, it was an overall great experience playing through the game. I really enjoyed the new mechanics that were added, even though there was not a lot of them. The weapons felt great and there was a variety to choose from and I loved the exploration process around the city. The boss fights are seriously in true Resident Evil style and Capcom just knows how to create a great Boss fight experience. The only real downside to the game for me personally was the length. The game can be finished rather quickly and there was a lot cut out from the original game unfortunately. So if you are not one to take your time exploring or achievement hunting, it might feel rather short and to the point.
Resident Evil 3 Remake is available on PC via Steam, Ps4 and Xbox One.