Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)
"It was Raccoon City’s last chance... and my last chance... My last escape."
Resident Evil 3 Nemesis concludes the PS1 trilogy of Resident Evil games, and what a finale it is! Choosing to set the game at the same time as RE2 works incredibly well, with the crowded zombified streets of Racoon City testing any veteran's ability to juke zombies and save ammo. Jill really grows into her own as a hardened suvivor from the first game. Her assertive attitude & distrust of Umbrella aligning with the player's 2 previous adventures thwarting their schemes.
What I didn't expect about RE3 is how much this game feels like a playable Terminator movie. Nemesis is an ever-present threat, his theme kicking your anxiety into gear as you search for a way out. He's incredibly fast, and can insta-kill you at low health. I'll never forget feeling safe after a loading screen only to have Nemesis bust down the door and throw a haymaker. The downtime without Nemesis only leaves you wondering when he'll inevitably be back. By the time you finish him off once & for all (with Jill's iconic line), you feel the full weight of Jill's determination to make it out of this nightmare alive.
In terms of small things I enjoyed, the short length & branching decisions made the game have less of the usual "back half of an RE game is much worse than the front half" feeling. The pre-rendered background art was gorgeous, with highly detailed environments that sell the idea of a city gone to hell. Also thank GOD this game added a quick-turn. You really need it when navigating all the game's narrow alleyways.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Possibly overtakes the og RE2 for me, if not at the same level of quality. So disappointed to hear from fans how much the remake butchered the og game.
6 replies
I actually played RE3 original this month too. I didn't feel like either were very scary and that both leaned more toward being action experiences. I was pleasantly surprised with the original, but I didn't think either the original or the remake provided a definitive experience.
In the remake, Jill has a much more dynamic and satisfying character arc. You can see she's processing the trauma of the events of RE1 and she's actively investigating the missing STARS members, which provides a bit more buildup to Nemesis compared to the exposition dump you get from Brad on PS1. By the ending, you feel like she's finally faced her demons and won, and I really enjoyed that depiction of Jill. None of that's really present in the original, where she's basically self-actualized as a character right at the start.
I loved the gameplay of the original and being able to use dodging as an offensive tool. It's basically the most fun I've had with tank controls since Onimusha and Outbreak, and I prefer Jill's dodge in the original than in the Remake, where it's much slower-paced.
The Nemesis stuff is probably better in the original, but a few things were frustrating about how he appeared in the original. He has a major weakness in that he's incredibly easy to dodge if you circle around his weaker arm, so he was only really scary to me in cramped hallways, which is where he really shines most. I pretty much thought Nemesis was always stressful in the Remake, despite much rarer appearances and major inferiority to Mr. X in RE2R. In some ways, I actually found PS1 Nemesis easier to deal with than some of the regular enemies in RE1 Remake. I was really frustrated with the PS1 version because I actually beat Nemesis in his first encounter, but then he didn't drop the weapon parts because that's exclusive to hard mode. Why? I beat him fair and square when I could have just taken the other branching path, so I should get the same (or a scaled-down) reward for my trouble, but it's a waste of ammo and you get nothing to show for it.
I've been hearing for years from fans of the original that there's a bunch of cut content in the remake and that the original is so much bigger and expansive, and that's not what I personally observed. I actually finished the original in half the time, and while some areas were cut, the remake adds so much more detail to the stores and streets that stayed it. The cut content also didn't feel especially amazing, like how you can go to the police department as Jill instead of Carlos, but she has nothing interesting to say in the STARS office. Quantity versus quality, almost.
I've also replayed RE3 a few months back and I agree with everything you said.
OG RE3 is one of my favourite games of all time. Tank controls feel a lot more fluid with the addition of both a quick 180° turn and a quick dodge mechanic. And mastering the latter feels awesome! Fighting Nemesis by dodging its attacks at the last second to pound him with more lead is an exhilarating experience that no other RE game managed for me.
The downside is a pretty barebone story with bland characters. Carlos tries to be charming but largely fails because of the weak dialogues and the horrible VA performance. Coming off RE2, which did have wooden performance but at least had a great cast of characters and a good story, it's a let down.
But from a gameplay perspective, it's top notch. It's not just the Nemesis: maps are choke full of monsters, and there's a lot of dynamism in the way zombies burst out of car doors, shopping windows, doors that felt safe until suddenly they weren't, etc... You wonder around and hear (and see) people falling to the undead. There's a constant feeling of being trapped in a city that, hour by hour, loses all hope. Its night and day what I experienced while playing OG RE2, which was mostly a chill experience in a horror theme park (I love RE2! I just never felt scared while playing it).
A shame that the Remake dropped the ball so hard.
Carlos in the original versus Carlos in the remake is like night and day in terms of the voice acting and writing quality.
Remake Carlos is the only thing I enjoyed from that game, but I absolutely loved him.
I don't think I'd ever be able to live in a cold, cruel, Carlos-less world...
That's a good way to put it about RE2's atmosphere, it never feels scary but it's thrilling trying to navigate the various puzzles & obstacles. Honestly have never been invested in a story in a Resident Evil game so my expectations were low, I'm glad the cast was focused on only a couple characters.
I never got the hang of the dodge, but maybe I'll figure it out in future replays. It's so surprising that the RE2 remake seems to have handled Nemesis better than RE3 in terms of mechanics
https://youtu.be/mdJoPZcsZ4s
It's very tricky, but you basically have to press the Aim button (or, if you're aiming already, the Shoot button) moments before being hit by an enemy. If the attack happens while the Aim animation happens, Jill will attempt to roll or push the enemy away (the latter only against standard zombies). Be careful that rolling provides no invincibility frames: you need to actually dodge the enemy! For this reason, it's easier to dodge an enemy in an open space than it is in cramped rooms or near walls and other obstacles.
Counter intuitively, it works better while wielding big weapons, or when giving your back to the enemy, because the Aim animation becomes longer. It's also a LOT easier against most enemies that aren't zombies: you can dodge Nemesis quite easily because its attack animations are long, but to dodge a standard zombie, you need to dodge in the exact moment their attack animation begins, which is a lot trickier.
It's very difficult to master, but it's also VERY satisfying to do so!