Before I get to my review of the main game itself, I just want to get this out of the way real quick: actually trying to finish this game was an absolute nightmare in every way imaginable, though not all aspects were because of the game itself. I played this game via emulation and at first I started with dolphin but it had major sound issues and even instances of dialogue cutting out, so then I tried Duckstation. Setting up Duckstation was a huge hassle and on top of that Duckstation absolutely refused to recognize my controller so I had to ditch that entirely as well. I tried Redream and at first it worked like a charm and was easy to set up…until I realized the game didn’t actually save my progress and I had to restart the game twice, so then I finally looked into fixing the sound issues on dolphin and got the game running on it again. Eventually dolphin is what I settled on but that STILL had issues, mainly images in your inventory not showing up or being replaced with other item’s images altogether which made item management a bit more confusing. And even still I had to restart the entire game AGAIN due to getting softlocked a good chunk into the game, unable to access an earlier save and getting stuck in an unwinnable situation because I managed to miss one particular item and couldn’t go back for it. Needless to say that trying to finish this game was WAY more frustrating that it should’ve been, though of course not helping things is…the game itself, so let’s jump right in shall we?
Resident Evil 3 adds quite a lot to the core formula of the classic games. For one, well, the main one is Nemesis, the main antagonist of the game. He basically acts somewhat similar to how Mr X acts in the 2018 RE2 remake, though obviously not as extreme. Honestly though for something released in 1999 this was executed really well. It has its limitations of course but for what it’s worth when Nemesis shows up it gets pretty tense, especially since he can chase you through multiple rooms and loading screens. You basically always have to be on the run from him and I find that great, you even get some nice rewards if you manage to temporarily put him down. The game also sort of has this, what I can only describe as this “choose your own adventure” style feature where during specific events you get to choose options on how to react to certain events happening in a split second, and those actions end up impacting events later on in the campaign. I don’t think it adds a whole lot to the experience but it’s kinda fun seeing all the different situations you can choose. The game also gives you the ability to turn 180• in an instant. Executing it is awkward and not as fluid as how it works in the RE1 remake but it does the job it needs to and honestly I’m glad it’s there at all, makes turning around with clumsy tank controls a lot more manageable. Also new to the franchise is gunpowder management. Essentially you get to fumble together different types of gun powder to craft whatever ammo you want. This is a very nice feature but ammo is somewhat plentiful as is and having to manage all different types of gunpowder (none of which stack which, makes sense but still fills up inventory quick) as well as needing the mixing tool in your inventory to do any of this means a whole lot of back and forth from item boxes just to craft ammo, neutral on this option all around. The puzzles I feel aren’t as satisfying to solve as the ones in RE1 but they aren’t as braindead as the ones in RE2 either so they strike a good balance I feel.
So that’s it right? It’s another classic Resident Evil game with a few interesting spins to help separate and make it stand out from the others, all around well made game, right?
…right?
Wrong, sadly. Unfortunately this game manages to drag hardcore in so many other areas that my overall playthrough was an immensely frustrating slog. First off, the level design. It’s a confusing barrage of narrow hallways and tight corridors, no location is memorable and for your first playthrough you end up running around in circles figuring out where you’re supposed to go or what you’re supposed to do because the game isn’t clear about where to go next at all. The city is a chore to traverse through, it’s too big to comfortably get from point A to point B and there are a lot of instances where you need to go from one point of a lower area to another at a higher one, not fun at all. Second a lot of the enemies just plain suck. Hunters in particular can pin you into a corner and get tons of cheap hits repeatedly which really take a toll on your health, they’re immensely frustrating unless you always carry high power weaponry with you at all times. Shout outs in particular to the 2 Hunter Gamma in the hospital that flank you on both sides so that it’s near impossible to avoid taking damage. The game attempts to create a couple of mechanics to circumvent this but it all ends up falling flat.
Another mechanic alongside the 180• turn around is the ability to dodge incoming attacks and shove enemies off of you if they get too close. Here’s the thing though: they don’t work. At all. The mechanics are poorly explained and confusing but even when you ATTEMPT these actions they just sort of only work when they feel like it. It’s inconsistent and not reliable to pull off, but the issue is that it almost feels as if the game WANTS you to use it to avoid damage, as a ton of enemies (especially annoying high damage enemies later down the line) are just spammed all over the place later on in the game. It’s almost like the game wants to be an action game so badly but then conveniently forgets that it’s still trapped within the confines of a clunky slow claustrophobic horror game.
You want to talk about frustration incarnate though? Look no further than the Gravedigger boss encounter. You face this thing once early on in the game where you need to clumsily press switches and avoid his attacks to escape, but here you need to confront and kill it, and it is an absolutely abysmal fight. You’re confined within this cramped narrow U shaped area and you basically just need to pump a crap ton of damage into him while avoiding his attacks as he pops up from underground, and it was infuriating. Unless you have a ton of freeze or acid rounds on hand you aren’t putting a dent in this thing, and if he gets close you’re basically guaranteed to take damage because, again, the game expects you to avoid damage by using a broken badly designed mechanic. Oftentimes when he goes underground and pops up I’ve had him pop up behind and go under quickly, incentivizing me to quickly turn around and get behind him to run towards the area with more space, but then he just decides “nah lol” and pops up in front of me and cheap shots me anyway. It was easily the most frustrating thing I’ve had to deal with the entire game, by a long shot.
Despite being only 6 hours long or so, this game doesn’t really know when to end. Granted this is probably because of how long I’ve been playing with how much I’ve had to restart the game, and my final play time mounted up to be a little over 4 hours long, but this game FEELS much longer than it actually is. It starts off kind of ok but it ends up dropping the ball so hard further in and towards the end of the game that I got sick of it very fast. The tank controls only serve to make encounters and navigation more frustrating, the new mechanics added often don’t even work, the bosses are horrible, the enemies are annoying, the world is irritating and a chore to traverse through, and while Nemesis is a cool edition that adds a ton to this game’s personality, it’s not enough to save the game from feeling like an utter slog.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis? More like Resident Evil 3: Ne-ver play this game…esis. Yeah let’s go with that.
Resident Evil 3 adds quite a lot to the core formula of the classic games. For one, well, the main one is Nemesis, the main antagonist of the game. He basically acts somewhat similar to how Mr X acts in the 2018 RE2 remake, though obviously not as extreme. Honestly though for something released in 1999 this was executed really well. It has its limitations of course but for what it’s worth when Nemesis shows up it gets pretty tense, especially since he can chase you through multiple rooms and loading screens. You basically always have to be on the run from him and I find that great, you even get some nice rewards if you manage to temporarily put him down. The game also sort of has this, what I can only describe as this “choose your own adventure” style feature where during specific events you get to choose options on how to react to certain events happening in a split second, and those actions end up impacting events later on in the campaign. I don’t think it adds a whole lot to the experience but it’s kinda fun seeing all the different situations you can choose. The game also gives you the ability to turn 180• in an instant. Executing it is awkward and not as fluid as how it works in the RE1 remake but it does the job it needs to and honestly I’m glad it’s there at all, makes turning around with clumsy tank controls a lot more manageable. Also new to the franchise is gunpowder management. Essentially you get to fumble together different types of gun powder to craft whatever ammo you want. This is a very nice feature but ammo is somewhat plentiful as is and having to manage all different types of gunpowder (none of which stack which, makes sense but still fills up inventory quick) as well as needing the mixing tool in your inventory to do any of this means a whole lot of back and forth from item boxes just to craft ammo, neutral on this option all around. The puzzles I feel aren’t as satisfying to solve as the ones in RE1 but they aren’t as braindead as the ones in RE2 either so they strike a good balance I feel.
So that’s it right? It’s another classic Resident Evil game with a few interesting spins to help separate and make it stand out from the others, all around well made game, right?
…right?
Wrong, sadly. Unfortunately this game manages to drag hardcore in so many other areas that my overall playthrough was an immensely frustrating slog. First off, the level design. It’s a confusing barrage of narrow hallways and tight corridors, no location is memorable and for your first playthrough you end up running around in circles figuring out where you’re supposed to go or what you’re supposed to do because the game isn’t clear about where to go next at all. The city is a chore to traverse through, it’s too big to comfortably get from point A to point B and there are a lot of instances where you need to go from one point of a lower area to another at a higher one, not fun at all. Second a lot of the enemies just plain suck. Hunters in particular can pin you into a corner and get tons of cheap hits repeatedly which really take a toll on your health, they’re immensely frustrating unless you always carry high power weaponry with you at all times. Shout outs in particular to the 2 Hunter Gamma in the hospital that flank you on both sides so that it’s near impossible to avoid taking damage. The game attempts to create a couple of mechanics to circumvent this but it all ends up falling flat.
Another mechanic alongside the 180• turn around is the ability to dodge incoming attacks and shove enemies off of you if they get too close. Here’s the thing though: they don’t work. At all. The mechanics are poorly explained and confusing but even when you ATTEMPT these actions they just sort of only work when they feel like it. It’s inconsistent and not reliable to pull off, but the issue is that it almost feels as if the game WANTS you to use it to avoid damage, as a ton of enemies (especially annoying high damage enemies later down the line) are just spammed all over the place later on in the game. It’s almost like the game wants to be an action game so badly but then conveniently forgets that it’s still trapped within the confines of a clunky slow claustrophobic horror game.
You want to talk about frustration incarnate though? Look no further than the Gravedigger boss encounter. You face this thing once early on in the game where you need to clumsily press switches and avoid his attacks to escape, but here you need to confront and kill it, and it is an absolutely abysmal fight. You’re confined within this cramped narrow U shaped area and you basically just need to pump a crap ton of damage into him while avoiding his attacks as he pops up from underground, and it was infuriating. Unless you have a ton of freeze or acid rounds on hand you aren’t putting a dent in this thing, and if he gets close you’re basically guaranteed to take damage because, again, the game expects you to avoid damage by using a broken badly designed mechanic. Oftentimes when he goes underground and pops up I’ve had him pop up behind and go under quickly, incentivizing me to quickly turn around and get behind him to run towards the area with more space, but then he just decides “nah lol” and pops up in front of me and cheap shots me anyway. It was easily the most frustrating thing I’ve had to deal with the entire game, by a long shot.
Despite being only 6 hours long or so, this game doesn’t really know when to end. Granted this is probably because of how long I’ve been playing with how much I’ve had to restart the game, and my final play time mounted up to be a little over 4 hours long, but this game FEELS much longer than it actually is. It starts off kind of ok but it ends up dropping the ball so hard further in and towards the end of the game that I got sick of it very fast. The tank controls only serve to make encounters and navigation more frustrating, the new mechanics added often don’t even work, the bosses are horrible, the enemies are annoying, the world is irritating and a chore to traverse through, and while Nemesis is a cool edition that adds a ton to this game’s personality, it’s not enough to save the game from feeling like an utter slog.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis? More like Resident Evil 3: Ne-ver play this game…esis. Yeah let’s go with that.
3 Comments
THAT’S EVEN WORSE LMAO
IKR LOL
Reddish
1 year ago