The first Resident Evil tells you to face your fears to survive. This sets up the dramatic arc of the franchise, where the reward for putting on your big boy pants is a catharsis found with escalating action, to the point where you shoot a big dude with a rocket launcher at the end of every game. Resident Evil 3 Remake (It’s worth noting that I can’t speak to the original since I haven’t played it yet) is an odd yet intriguing inversion of that arc, as it is both more action-focused than the remakes of its predecessors, but also questions whether that catharsis was ever worthwhile in the first place.
In Resident Evil Jill fights a Tyrant. In Resident Evil 3 Jill is hounded relentlessly by a nigh undefeatable Tyrant variant. In Resident Evil Jill is betrayed, but comes out on top. In Resident Evil 3 Jill is betrayed and it costs her the mission. In Resident Evil Jill triumphs and escapes the Spencer estate in a helicopter with a celebratory explosion. In Resident Evil 3 Jill fails and escapes from Raccoon City, again in a helicopter, and this time is forced to witness a nuclear detonation that she couldn’t stop. RE3 Remake establishes from its first scene that Jill has PTSD from the Spencer Mansion incident, and while this is not dramatized or followed upon as it should be in a traditionally compelling narrative, it nonetheless contextualizes the events that happen in the story in an interesting way. By echoing the events of the first game and stealing its triumph, RE3 becomes the first Resident Evil to foster an interesting non-literal reading, becoming about how the revisitation of trauma can make it all the stronger.
As a game, RE3 is propulsive and overwhelming. You never linger in any location for long, and while you’re zipping between set-pieces you are attacked simultaneously on two fronts; by the utter collapse of society and Nemesis’ single-minded quest to destroy you. This is a game about being caught on the back foot and pushing forward the best you can regardless, and the gameplay reflects that in turn. It doesn’t always capture these emotions fantastically, mind you, it could stand some more inventiveness and as ever, the script, characters, and performances are unable, perhaps even unwilling, to engage and partake in the more interesting subtext at play. Nevertheless, the Resident Evil franchise is a series of stories about survivors, and I appreciated this entry for showing how even after coming out on the other side, things can take a turn for the worse still, and even then it’s worth finding reasons to keep fighting.
In Resident Evil Jill fights a Tyrant. In Resident Evil 3 Jill is hounded relentlessly by a nigh undefeatable Tyrant variant. In Resident Evil Jill is betrayed, but comes out on top. In Resident Evil 3 Jill is betrayed and it costs her the mission. In Resident Evil Jill triumphs and escapes the Spencer estate in a helicopter with a celebratory explosion. In Resident Evil 3 Jill fails and escapes from Raccoon City, again in a helicopter, and this time is forced to witness a nuclear detonation that she couldn’t stop. RE3 Remake establishes from its first scene that Jill has PTSD from the Spencer Mansion incident, and while this is not dramatized or followed upon as it should be in a traditionally compelling narrative, it nonetheless contextualizes the events that happen in the story in an interesting way. By echoing the events of the first game and stealing its triumph, RE3 becomes the first Resident Evil to foster an interesting non-literal reading, becoming about how the revisitation of trauma can make it all the stronger.
As a game, RE3 is propulsive and overwhelming. You never linger in any location for long, and while you’re zipping between set-pieces you are attacked simultaneously on two fronts; by the utter collapse of society and Nemesis’ single-minded quest to destroy you. This is a game about being caught on the back foot and pushing forward the best you can regardless, and the gameplay reflects that in turn. It doesn’t always capture these emotions fantastically, mind you, it could stand some more inventiveness and as ever, the script, characters, and performances are unable, perhaps even unwilling, to engage and partake in the more interesting subtext at play. Nevertheless, the Resident Evil franchise is a series of stories about survivors, and I appreciated this entry for showing how even after coming out on the other side, things can take a turn for the worse still, and even then it’s worth finding reasons to keep fighting.