While a great game in its own right REmake 2 shits the bed in some pretty important parts. The tone is really different and the music has been flat out deleted (unless you pay extra), but worst of all, the original's defining innovation, the zapping system, has been completely neutered. Mr X is there from the beginning. There is no incentive to do another playthrough since they don't overlap and even contradict each other. But that's how you know this game is DAMN good. Even with no incentive, I still did scenarios 1 and 2... On every difficulty... And speed ran them... Multiple times. For every fuck up it adds something new to the table. It really is a close call and I can never decide which on I prefer, but that's a good problem to have if you ask me.

Wow how'd you fuck that up? A third of the game is missing, no choice system, Jill's most iconic scene is completely ruined, back in the sewers, back in the underground lab, and oh yeah the monster the original game is named after is barely in the fucking game. Nemesis looks more goofy than scary now and he's only in it for like 30 minutes total. You can blame REmake 2 a bit for blowing the stalker load too soon but I was thinking RE3 would elevate it to new heights to accommodate for that fact, not drop it all together. This also has an effect on Jill's character too. I'm the original Nemesis was exactly that, Jill's Nemesis, and he pushed her (and by extension you) to make tough choices in the moment that would challenge her and make our connection with her even stronger. The fear was so much stronger since unlike the previous 2 games, we know the character were playing as and we know she's survived monsters before. So if JILL is struggling with Nemesis, then he must be a serious threat! REmake 3 fucks this up so badly it's a wonder if they even knew what they were adapting. Jill seems way weaker in comparison to her PSX counterpart, but she gets the absolute shit kicked out of her blown up and bitten, so it seems like nother hurts her. What are the stakes? They took out the story choices so I might as well be a guest on a fucking sight seeing tour. It sucks because this game gets so much right, I love the cast and the opening halfish hour in the city had great promise, but they fell asleep at the wheel halfway through and completely soured the whole experience. Don't even get me started on that gross ass throat thing. I think I hate this game, but I played it like 5 times so it can't be all that bad. But fine, I'll throw you a bone REmake 3, I'll give you a star for every hour it took to complete you...oh wait.

I grew up with this game and have a lot of love for it, but man is it rough. While the atmosphere here is stronger than the rest of the series, thus making Dante's goofy personality more of a relief, that's about the only thing this one has over the others. Have you played this one I mean really played it, the original on the PS2? The button layout is atrocious. And this being a Hideki Kamiya game there's no way to change it to something good. There's a second button layout which is actually worse but I'm certain Capcom had to hold Kamiya at gunpoint to make it happen, likely kicking and screaming. While I actually kind of like the story being pretty minimal in this one, leading to the game feeling more lonely which fitting for this chapter of Dante's life, the cutscenes kinda ruin it. The acting is bad, and not in the funny RE way and not in the intentionally over the top way of later instalments, it's just wooden and bad, kinda killing any emotional weight the story could have. I often hear the series has cringe story and performances and I think this game is mainly to blame for that reputation. Add on top of that repeated boss fights (and the only one not repeated is a bad SHMUP) stupid Kamiya mingames (I swear I love the guy, his game are just frustrating sometimes), and no level select and you have the least exciting competent DMC game. I know I've been hard on the game and that's probably unfair since this was the very game that raised the bar so high in the first place. If we're talking when it first came out it's an easy 4.5 out 5, but these days it's a little difficult for it to keep up. Play the new version on Steam of switch or whatever, and you'll see it's actually quite good. (The Nelo Angelo fights are 10/10)