Game Review: Resident Evil 3 Remake (2020)

What's up, you sweaty grease lords? Today I'm gonna be going over the most recent reboot/remake in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil 3 Remake. Now, I personally absolutely fucking loved the Resident Evil 2 remake, I thought it was one of the best games to be released in 2019, it also pretty much transformed what the general population would expect/want from remakes. In the past, remake just meant the game got HD textures and had the bare minimum updated and changed to finger fuck your wallets for your money. The Resident Evil 2 remake, however, said fuck that, slid some cocaine up its ass and fought the old crusty definition of a remake to death, changing the remake game entirely. There was insane amounts of passion put into that project, and it was just fucking awesome to play through.

So, I went into Resident Evil 3 expecting it to follow in those foot steps and hold its own. Instead, I have to say I was kind of disappointed with what they delivered this time around. Insert sad trombone music here.

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Now, I'm just gonna start this off by saying I'm not going to shit all over this game. By no means is it a terrible mess, or even really that bad of a game. But, it does have its issues. I don't wanna constantly bring up the other remake, so I'm going to try and keep from doing that as much as possible. So, with that lets spread this games cheeks and take a look at what we're talking about here. RE 3 is is yet another re-imagining of the original game, with the same amount of effort and passion put into the game as the previous entry. Graphic and visual wise, everything looks beautiful and well done. Nemesis is another awesome chunk of the game, anytime he pops up things get much more interesting/tense and just better in general.

However, he is underutilized quite a bit. Especially during the boss fight sections of the game. He barely chases you or interacts with you throughout the game. The tyrant/Mr. X felt like a looming threat constantly just a few steps behind you in the 2 remake. But, Nemesis just doesn't have that presence. Maybe he's narcoleptic and just takes a lot of naps, but you never get the feeling he's about to pound on your ass really hard. And, I think that deflates a lot of the tension that could have been in the game otherwise. And, the times you do encounter him it's always for very boring/underwhelming boss fights where he doesn't amount to more than a bullet sponge. It's just kind of a massive let down for one of the greatest Resident Evil monster/villains that the series has created.

The core mechanics of the gameplay are pretty much the same from what we got in the other remake, which isn't a bad thing. Gunplay and combat work the same, albeit the zombies are more tanky in this game I feel like. I think everything functions well and that the remakes have handled gameplay perfectly, without much need for anything to change. One big difference is that while playing Jill, you'll want to upgrade your inventory system asap because this game shits out so many items that you'll want/need that you will just never have enough room for them and you end up missing out on a lot of shit that could be useful to you. The inventory management can just get flat out annoying, even more than any boss fight in the game. But, it's nothing that will make you shove your controller up your ass in anger or anything.

So lets get into the narrative of the game. I personally thought the narrative was pretty decent when I started playing. However, that's only for the first half of the game, to be honest. The first half comes out of the gate running hard with the gameplay and narrative, but loses a lot of its driving force once you hit the middle section of the game and start the second half. The levels get very tedious with what you have to accomplish or fight your way through, and things just slow down. The main villain in the game is terrible, and it hurts the story quite a bit with how lazily done he was written. His actions at the end of the game make no sense, and there's even a piece of dialogue thrown in there where he admits he has no idea why he's doing what he's done. He seems like he's supposed to be Snidley Whiplash, twirling his mustache while throwing peoples scrotums down onto a set of traintracks. Just overly evil to the point of being silly for no reason. So, not a strong narrative thanks to the shit villain and non air tight writing, but not a bad one either.

The biggest problem this game has by far is the length of playtime. Resident Evil 3 Remake is a $60 game when not on sale, and you only get a little over 4 hours of gameplay and story for that $60, which is fucking ridiculous. That 4 hours includes going out of your way to get documents and info of the world and other items that you don't even need. There's little to no replayability to the game to add onto that either. I might go back at some point in the future and play this game again, but there's literally no reason to do so beyond boredom right after beating it. So, I feel like it's a bit of a rip off here on one hand. On the other hand, I would still be fucking annoyed if I paid $60 for a game that had 60 hours of content and 52 hours of that content was just grinding and padding for time. I think the game misses the mark enough, however, where I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it. I'd safely say just grab it when it goes on sale for half off. That $30-40 price point is much more bang for your buck here. At least in my opinion.

Overall, I think if you are a big Resident Evil fan you'll probably be let down a bit by this game. And, if you're new to the series you're probably going to find fault with parts of the game as well. This is not a pile of dogshit by any means, and I enjoyed a lot of the time I spent playing it. There's some clunky things in the game, but they aren't anger inducing or anything. The puzzles are probably some of the worst in the RE games, because they're basically just fetch quests without having to figure anything out. The villain sucks and Nemesis is not used properly and was a bit of a let down. I'm very middle of the road with this game, which blows when the 2 Remake was quite honestly a masterpiece in my opinion. I'd still recommend the game and say I enjoyed it. But, yeah. Just grab it when it's on sale.

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Well, that'll do it, I suppose. Appreciate you checking out my review! Hopefully at least one of you has a high enough IQ to understand this review this was interesting to at least one of you. But, until next time slutterbutts.

Later!