Resident Evil 3 is the 2020 remake of the 1999 original. With a short run-time and less grandiose nature, it’s seen as the red-headed step-child of the recent RE remakes. It’s coming to Game Pass for Cloud, Console, & PC, and despite all that I still think it’s well worth a download. Routinely gorgeous, there’s lots of fun to be had here with Jill & Carlos. Of course, it’s not all sunshine and daisies, as your resident Nemesis continually rears his ugly and frustrating head.
Raccoon City: Shortly Before RE2 Takes Place
Resident Evil 3 starts with a bang, literally. From the start, you’ll be taken in by the game’s gorgeous graphics as the formerly titular Nemesis chases young Jill Valentine out of her apartment and halfway across the city. The majority of the early game is Jill trying to get to the Subway and then fixing the local power system so that she and civilian survivors can flee. Raccoon City is under siege from the dead, and Umbrella has sent in their men to “help”.
Carlos is one of those men, and unlike the rest, he’s not a massive piece of shit. You’ll mostly play as Jill early on and swap to Carlos for a bit later. He gets lots of ammo and an assault rifle right off the bat. Whereas Jill can dodge and roll to avoid the biters Carlos will throw elbows as he fights off the zombie hordes. The game is packed full of classic Resident Evil-style puzzles, which always look and feel odd in these close-to-photo-realistic remakes.
You’ll visit downtown Raccoon City, a power station, and the sewers, and go back through RCPD and beyond in this very incredibly short title. I clocked in around 5 ½ hours of runtime and am honestly fine with it. It can be a bit much at full price, though going for 100% completion can net you roughly 20 hours of playtime. As a Game Pass download though, it’s kinda perfect. The story being told here is far tighter than the other remakes, and by the time I saw the end credits roll, I felt ready to be done.
Gameplay, Graphics, and Sound
Resident Evil 3’s remake is flipping gorgeous most of the time. Higher-quality textures than 2 are only hampered by a low distance on high-quality animations. Any zombie 15 feet or further from you tends to animate at ½ or lower frames and it detracts from how beautiful everything else is. Jill and Carlos have top-quality character models with most major characters looking damned good too. The gore on the zombies as you take them out isn’t as high as 2’s remake was but it’s still damned bloody. The Series X|S patch that hit last year is excellent (outside of those animation issues).
When the music kicks in it fits the more Michael Bay mood of the game’s set pieces, and the voice acting is routinely mediocre. Jill and Carlos’ VAs give it all they got, but it’s not as well written as I found 4. There’s an inherent cheese to Resident Evil and 3 feels a bit too serious most of the time for me. I missed Nemesis, whose name was in the original, and his constant “Stars” moans. It always made me laugh back then, and I would have appreciated things being a bit goofier.
Nemesis himself is just an annoyance. Unable to be killed until the story allows it he’s just a nuisance to run to, and the controls (especially dodging zombies) can be a right pain in the ass when doing so. If you get grabbed by a zombie you’ll have to mash A quickly, though that doesn’t avoid damage. You’ll get a sometimes far-too-long animation of being bitten (though not infected) before you fight them off. The title also comes with Resident Evil: Resistance, a 1 v 4 pvp mode that I didn’t like at launch and don’t like now. The GP effect should help with the player count though, so if that mode is for you it might have a far higher player count at least.
Wrapping Things Up
Resident Evil 3’s remake is the weakest of the recent trilogy (2, 3, & 4), but it’s still a damned good time. With it coming to Game Pass I don’t feel bad recommending a download, as its short run time means you can finish it easily enough in a night or two.
Resident Evil 3
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Looks Fantastic (mostly)
- Plays Well
- Doesn’t Overstay Its Welcome
CONS
- Too Serious
- Nemesis isn’t scary, just annoying
This one was originally going live tomorrow morning but an embargo change made me push it now. Super busy week!
Great review.
Really good game for a weekend and also it features some wonderful graphics and even nice raytracing too.