Solid game, not my favorite resident evil entry, but it has its peak moments...
It was the first RE with tank controls i've played, and i gotta say, man that control scheme was pretty terrible.
Its so frustrating to simply trying to run the other way or aim in one specific direction... in a fight with nemesis on the clock tower and also the grave digger fight, i almost dropped the game, i don't even know how i passed it to be honest but I was extremely enraged...
but when you get the hang of it, its actually well balanced..
the parts where you can choose what Jill should do, are interesting too.
Good game.

I used to like-not-love the combat in this one. Once you realize that the game expects, if not requires, you to learn the dodge mechanic, it handily becomes the most mechanically engaging and fun RE of the tank-controls era. 2d artwork, level design, all the important pieces are right at the same tier as RE2, but Idk. It lacks that certain intangible something that makes RE2 so perfect. Some annoying item management moments, as well as the length and the lack of the two campaigns set this one down a peg. Also the final boss design is just so lame and phoned-in; reminds me of the boring fish-meat tentacle enemies from the Nightmare in Bloodborne.

En Japón este juego se llamó "El último escape" y con mucha razón. Volver a recorrer las calles de Raccoon City pero con Jill Valentine (quien no veíamos desde RE1) mientras somos perseguidos por el enemigo mas reconocido de toda la franquicia es una experiencia fantástica.
La cantidad de RNG que tiene este juego, la toma de decisiones que afectan el gameplay, las rutas opcionales, los mercenarios, todo esta en su peak en este juego.

Los locos dijeron, como podemos hacer un juego que sea tan bueno como RE2 pero que sea lo suficientemente diferente?
La respuesta fue esto, and they did not miss.

Resident evil 3 é um jogo peculiar e muito amado da série, sendo ao meu ver a transição do terror para a ação da franquia, contudo, ele ainda tem muito dos elementos tanto de terror quanto de ação.
A grande novidade da vez foi que a ideia de um stalker que amendrontasse o jogador foi polida nesse jogo, e posso confirmar com toda a certeza que o nêmesis mais do que cumpriu o seu papel, na verdade ele deu tão certo que até virou um ícone dos videogames de tão marcante e memorável que ele é... Quem nunca se cagou quando escutou aquela música tema e uma voz grossa falando S.T.A.R.S, aí do nada vem misseis na sua direção.... De fato nêmesis é um stalker que bota impotência e além do mais o jogo é extremamente trágico e pessimista, tendo a história sendo contado no meio da cidade de raccoon city e no auge de seu apocalipse zumbi, se não bastasse todo o chãos da cidade, ainda tem o stalker mais memorável da série pra te encher o saco, que em 80% dos encontros é extremamente retardado de lutar contra e ele vai te encher o saco, inclusive encher o saco o nêmesis faz com maestria, a ponto de ser insuportável.
Esse jogo teve aprimoramentos na parte de Gameplays, tendo a esquiva quando você aperta R1 na hora que é atacado e objetos q vc pode atirar pra causar algum dano extra aos inimigos.
Há 2 personagens jogáveis sendo eles Jill e Carlos, e inclusive há uma química MT fofa entre os 2, Carlos é MT foda pqp ele literalmente sacrificou sua vida indo em um hospital com as tartarugas ninja da deep so pra salvar a jill... Eu shippo os 2..
A OST é marcante, principalmente a do nemesis.
Há o sistema de pólvora que é muito interessante e também uma vasta quantidade de inimigos diferentes pra um jogo tão curto.
E esse jogo é o que provavelmente tem a maior dificuldade dos Resident evil que eu joguei até agr.
Porém, não dá pra falar só das qualidades desse jogo, irei comentar sobre os defeitos...
Eu acho que a quantidade de inimigos + os cenários não contribuem muito pro jogo, sendo em grande partes lugares extremamente apertados que você vai ter que matar todos inimigos pra passar, porém os inimigos vem normalmente em quantidade maior de 5, o que torna inviável a usar armas como as pistolas em grande parte do jogo.
O Level design é um downgrade se comparado ao 2, porém ele abrange mais áreas, o que torna o jogo mais interessante.
O sistema de RNG pode ser algo que incomode muitas pessoas.

Então é isso a Review, sinceramente eu tive q forçar barra pra falar os problemas desse jogo já que eu gostei muito dele.
Nota final 9/10.

(Played on "Hard" mode which I think is just... the normal one?)

I think I prefer how the Nemesis encounters are handled in the remake, but there's no denying he is MUCH scarier in his original incarnation, and I think as a game this is much more fleshed out than the remake which feels like a(n excellent) DLC expansion for 2.

The only thing holding this game back are the boss fights, which are pretty meh across the board, especially the fights against Nemesis which I'd argue are almost bad.

The larger scope of Raccoon city compared to the setting of the first two games is a cool change and revisiting a small section of the RCPD from 2 is VERY cool. Also the expanded crafting system allows for dynamic difficulty (there were times where I would come back to an area after dying and gunpowder I'd gotten the first time would no longer be there) which has become a series staple.

Excuse me if i get too personal with this review. Resident Evil 3 is the only game of the franchise i played when i was just a kid (9-10 years old) and the reason of more than a couple of nightmares. This review won’t be exactly an attempt of being objective and It also won’t be just an account on my experience during this recen gameplay. Actually, most of my appreciations in this review will be extremely biased by what i felt while playing this game as a child

My personal history with the genre is essentially the same as my history with horror in general. I wasn’t a horror kid while growing up mainly because my parents kinda forbid me to. They were ok with action films, but i guess the kind of splattery violence portrayed in horror films were just too much for them. It didn’t helped that the few exposures i had to horror came with nightmares. Funny enough, one of those experiences was with this franchise: When my parents bought me my PS1 for christmas (I’m guessing i might have been 10 years old as much), one of the games that came with it was RE3 Nemesis. I was blown away, it was a completely different experience for me. I had never played a game before that transmited such despair and hopelessnes. And when the moment of Brad’s death came, i guess i was kinda traumatized in a way. Sadly my parents decided that i shouldn’t be playing this kind of games anymore. That didn’t stopped me from becoming really interested in anything related to the Resident Evil lore up until that point (Resident Evil Zero and the RE1 remake were on the works). So as a i child i was very well informed with anything related to the franchise without having completed any of the games. And then when teenage came, i just stopped being interested in videogames at all.

The constant bullying of Nemesis is enough of a reason to consider this game as the scarier of the classic ones, if not the scarier of the whole franchise. This is not a random jump scare of a dog crashing through a window or some licker coming down from the ceiling. This time is Nemesis, the most powerful enemy of the game, who’s chasing you throughout the entire thing. And the truth is that, for most of the game, you have no chance against him. You might hurt him a bit but he’ll eventually come back for you. You just can’t win. So RE3 is not just a worthy contender at being the scarier of the franchise, but also the most pessimistic and hopeless for sure. And is not because of Nemesis and the constant feeling of impotence at fighting him, is because of everything: The FMV introduction sets the tone like no other game in the series. RE2’s intro is amazing, surely, one of the best of it’s times, but there’s a big difference compared to RE3’s intro. RE2/s intro is more action-packed, you have the cool mimbo Leon, and he’s not alone because he’s joined by qt petite girl Claire, and there’s a truck exploding and essentially you know that, no matter which character you picked first, you’re not alone on this trip. RE3, instead, show us that the zombie plague has grown to such a massive degree, that even the military forces can’t fight against them. The final sequence where the mercenary is cornered by a bunch of zombies despite shooting at them, was definitely something else. As a kid, i’ve never watched something as apocalyptic as that in videogames. And once the intro is done, you’re there with Jill, completely alone. You find some people in the first minutes of the game: The man who lost his daughter and decides to keep himself closeted in a safebox – even as a child i could definitely see how depressing that idea was – and Brad. And when it seems like Brad is going to be your buddy, then comes the biggest shock of my childhood gaming days: Nemesis does quite a jump-scary introduction, and kills Brad in an incredibly gory and messed up way. Following that, you’re faced with a negative screen showing you two choices, which comes as a total shock because this is a completely new thing in terms of gameplay, and is even more upsetting considering how Nemesis is rapidly getting closer. So there you’re, alone again. And in the middle of a fight you just can’t win.

Holy shit that moment when Nemesis kills Brad... For an adult familiar with 80’s and 90’s horror flicks, that scene might look campy, even funny. I know it because i am that kind of adult right now. But trust me, that sole scene was the reason for many nightmares as a kid. So yeah, i guess finally coming back to this game and finally beating it might count as some kind of Jungean-like way of dealing with something that is not essentially a trauma, but kinda looks like one. Nemesis is, by far, the best boss of the whole franchise. In terms of concept is just so coherent and almost natural that Umbrella’s constant struggle in developing the ultimate biological weapon eventually led to this point: This creature that, while being kinda flawed, is faster, stronger, and even more inteligent than any boss you had encounter yet. In terms of design, Nemesis is one of those horror faces that will forever stuck on your subconscious. It’s actually interesting, for me, to think Nemesis within the frame of not just horror games, but actually horror media in general, mostly 80s and early 90s horror films. The aesthetic influence of Hellraiser, particularly the Chatterer –The Sharp-teethed cenobite who appears alonside Pinhead in the first two films of the franchise – has been pointed out already. Nemesis could be some kind of buffed-up cenobite. But also, i think the role that Nemesis plays in this game is more akin to a classic slasher film, and i can’t help but thinking that there is even some Michael Myers resemblance here, for two reasons: motherfucker never dies, and also, he’s obsessed in chasing someone in particular, so Jill pretty much plays the final girl role kinda like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween.
Now, finally talking about something related to the actual gameplay: During a big part of the first half of the game, is useless trying to fight Nemesis. Forget about fighting him in the police station. And probably you shouldn’t even consider fighting him at all –despite the few times when there isn’t any other choice- and i mean it for a few reasons: First of all, it takes a lot of tries and practice to beat him down, wasting a lot of resources in a process that is not really fun, specially during your first couple encounters, where you just don’t have proper weapons to fight . Technically, it is possible to beat him down using only the handgun but that would definitely make for the most boring and frustrating gaming experience imaginable. Second of all, despite the fact that Nemesis leaves some goodies as a bonus for every encounter where you succesfully beat him down, you’ll find out that they’re not really worth it. I actually got three bonuses: both parts of the Desert Eagle, and the Medikit bag. They are very cool for sure but i can hardly say that they were really necessary to get through the game. Third, and probably the most important reason: Fighting Nemesis isn’t nearly as fun as just escaping him. The game was designed mostly to feel the thrill of being chased by a monster as if you were the final girl from a slasher film. WIth the exception of the encounters where you have no other choice than to just fight him, i mostly decided to escape from Nemesis. Out of the three times i decided to fight him, two were basically free (The kitchen blowup and the clock tower electrocution). So the only time i actually fought him as my own choice, was right before meeting the Gravedigger, on my way to fixing the train.

I think there are some interesting design choices here when it comes to the map and the gameplay. First of all, the game is divided in two: Once you take the train, there’s no possibility of backtracking. In a way every game from the original trilogy was essentially divided in two, with a transition in between. It’s always the iconic scenario in the first half – Mansion in RE1, Police Station in RE2, the whole Racoon City in RE3 – with some sort of in betwen scenario – mines in RE1, sewer in RE2, Clock Tower/Hospital/Zoo in RE3 – leading, in all of the cases to, well, a lab. And of course, an explosion in the end. It’s almost laughable, but still it works great. RE3 is a little more linear than it’s precursors. And somehow, to me, it felt more convoluted in terms of layer design. It is pretty confusing, for example, to find your way through the police station during the first section, given how mazey that part of the map is. I also have to say that the music during this part is by far the most opressive in the entirety of the original trilogy, it truly adds to the mood, and it enhances the feeling that you’re playing the least enjoyable game –in a good way – of the franchise up until this point at least. And this whole uncomfortable mood is in a way increased by the new “randomization”. Of course, i’m aware this is technically just a randomization between A or B, but still, it makes it even harder to study the map and think of strategies.

There’s also new mechanics here. The auto-aim is glorious, a necessary addition for sure. The fast spin is also pretty useful but not so easy to get right. And then there’s the dodging, which is just broke, really badly implemented. As a concept is great, it is pretty satisfying to get it right, but your chances to do it are pretty much the same as your chances of getting it wrong. And also the infamous gunpowder system, which is interesting but kinda messy, and also kind of an attempt to delve more into RPG territory. The manual you get right at the beginning is pretty much a fail: It never explains that the C gunpowder is made up by mixing the A and B type, which is far from being a minor detail considering that the C type is the one you need to make the most powerful types of ammo. So that’s how i played the entirety of the game wondering how come i could never find a single C gunpowder, and also how come i’ve only found two Magnum rounds and only one Freeze Grenade rounds (the one that Carlos gave me in the train)

One last problem i’d like to point out is concerning to the live selections. Of course they always come during extreme situations and of course they add a lot of intensity. Overall they are a great addition given that, for the first time, Resident Evil decided to explore the fear underlying the simple act of choosing an option, which to a grander extent implies the fact that you have to face your destiny. During my gameplay, i loved them, the rush of adrenaline was just fantastic. But once i finished and i took the time to explore the different incomes of these choices, i came to realize that the potential of this concept wasn’t fully realized. I can understand that the technical limitations of the PS1 made it really hard for a more complex branching (after all, these choices didn’t affect greatly on what happened next), but at least, they should have put more effort in the different endings. See, this selections always made me think of negative consequences such as other characters dying. But the truth is, at the end, the game just have one ending. Of course, they are three, but they’re only slight variations of the same ending. So you forced me to choose during the game, you made me really overthink about the consequences of my elections, but at the end, it didn’t really matter, because everything would be alright and i wouldn’t have to pay for anything. I would rather had the possibility of more tragic incomes. See, a classic example of simple but good implementation of choosing is shown in Metal Gear Solid 1. In fact, this is a great example of tragic dilemma shown in ancient greek drama, implemented in video games. If Snake cannot resist during the torture scene, then Meryl will die. But if he does succeed in resisting, then Otacon will die. So no matter which choice you make, all of them will have a negative income. Of course, Silent Hill explored this like no other. Clock Tower already pionered this kind of branching. Heck, even Dino Crisis has some of this. So is kinda unforgiving how poorly RE3 managed this thing: live selections were just a way of adding a cheap thrill in the end, and that’s it.

In conclussion, RE3 is a masterpiece, althought a flawed one. Yet i can’t rate it less than 5 stars. Of course i can definitely see how, objectively, RE2 is the best of the trilogy, but what RE3 does good, it does it like no other game in the franchise. Plus, my personal bond with it is just something else, as i told early in this review. It feels like a perfect closure for an unforgettable saga, almost like George Romero’s trilogy of the dead. So i guess i’m essentially rating 5 stars to the whole PS1 saga, and that’s it.

Primeiro jogo que zerei por conta própria sem nenhuma ajuda quando eu tinha por volta de uns 6~7 anos. Esse jogo tem um lugarzinho muito especial no meu coração, e, até hoje, é meu resident evil favorito da série inteira! Recomendo forte a versão original do jogo que, ao contrário do remake, tem um replay value muito maior por conta do sistema de decisões dinâmicas e o modo de jogo extra do Mercenaries (coisas que eles não implementaram no remake).

Um fun-fact aleatório é que até hoje eu fico meio chororô quando começa a tocar a música de créditos, esse jogo só me traz memórias boas de forma geral, enfim, amo ele de coração e bato ele pelo menos uma vez por ano pra relembrar e curtir novamente! ♥