Resident Evil 3 (Remake) feels a little like one of those side-games you get while waiting for a mainline sequel rather than a marquee entry in the franchise. Kind of like a Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, a Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, or even something like The Walking Dead: Michonne. What I mean when I say this is not that I think the game is bad or anything like that, but more-so that it just doesn't feel like a mainline game.
Resident Evil 3 feels like a side-game. Exploration is much weaker in this entry, with what feels like a lot less focus on the areas that you end up exploring. In a way RE3 felt a lot more linear than I was used to from RE2, with much less optional exploration content and a very A-B flow to the game.
Following on from that, gameplay also felt a lot more action based. Where I felt Resident Evil 2 shined in its slow and methodical approach with constantly building tension; RE3 felt more like a mainstream action movie with slick dodges and a plethora of cinematic combat scenes.
Another strange thing is that this game is very short. Now I played Resident Evil 2 and that game wasn't exactly long. Even accounting for the dual-campaign I still spent around 7 hours on my Leon hardcore playthrough. In contrast it only took me 3 hours to finish RE3 on hardcore... that's less than my Claire playthrough!
I will say though that the story was quite interesting and the characters were great. Jill is a very charismatic protagonist and I was very interested in going back and giving Resident Evil 1 a try (I'm currently holding off on it due to the camera angles). Carlos was also a great deuteragonist, routinely feeling just as important as Jill while never taking away too much of the spotlight. There was also a nice layer of banter and chemistry between the two -something I think RE3 did much better than RE2.
Despite my misgivings though, RE3 was still a fun entry into the Resident Evil franchise. I appreciated callbacks to RE2 and even the few RE1 callbacks that I understood through context. While yes maybe it felt a little bit lackluster compared to RE2, RE3 still shined at what it attempted to do and never once overstayed it's welcome.
3.5/5
PS: This Nemesis guy needs to get a life.
Resident Evil 3 feels like a side-game. Exploration is much weaker in this entry, with what feels like a lot less focus on the areas that you end up exploring. In a way RE3 felt a lot more linear than I was used to from RE2, with much less optional exploration content and a very A-B flow to the game.
Following on from that, gameplay also felt a lot more action based. Where I felt Resident Evil 2 shined in its slow and methodical approach with constantly building tension; RE3 felt more like a mainstream action movie with slick dodges and a plethora of cinematic combat scenes.
Another strange thing is that this game is very short. Now I played Resident Evil 2 and that game wasn't exactly long. Even accounting for the dual-campaign I still spent around 7 hours on my Leon hardcore playthrough. In contrast it only took me 3 hours to finish RE3 on hardcore... that's less than my Claire playthrough!
I will say though that the story was quite interesting and the characters were great. Jill is a very charismatic protagonist and I was very interested in going back and giving Resident Evil 1 a try (I'm currently holding off on it due to the camera angles). Carlos was also a great deuteragonist, routinely feeling just as important as Jill while never taking away too much of the spotlight. There was also a nice layer of banter and chemistry between the two -something I think RE3 did much better than RE2.
Despite my misgivings though, RE3 was still a fun entry into the Resident Evil franchise. I appreciated callbacks to RE2 and even the few RE1 callbacks that I understood through context. While yes maybe it felt a little bit lackluster compared to RE2, RE3 still shined at what it attempted to do and never once overstayed it's welcome.
3.5/5
PS: This Nemesis guy needs to get a life.