Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Written by John Scalzo  on May 09, 2002

Review: "STTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAARRRRRSSSSSSSS" here be too obvious?

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By the third entry in a series, you know what makes it great and unique. You also know what makes it less than stellar. And in the back of your mind will most likely be the phrase "third time's the charm." Resident Evil 3 may not be the magical third time charm, but it's not really a third time out either.

Going into Resident Evil 3, all of the familiar pieces are in place to instantly make this recognizable as a Resident Evil game. The story is very familiar with a slight twist. It's 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2 and the zombies have just begun their assault on Raccoon City. Jill Valentine has escaped from the horror that was the mansion in the original game. She is preparing to leave town when the zombie horde overwhelms her. Zombies and an unstoppable killing machine engineered by Umbrella called Nemesis who has a taste for S.T.A.R.S. agents.

The style of the game is pure Resident Evil. If you're a fan, you know the drill by now. The game still centers around fetch quests of very strange objects to solve obscure puzzles. You name it: jewels, medallions, bronze statues, they're all used to open doors in this game. There is the fun Resident Evil control scheme. To move through the pre-rendered environments, you have to hold up to move in the direction you're facing. This makes sense considering that every time the camera angle changes the definition of Up will change, but that doesn't make it a good system. It's frustrating to new players and fans of the series, such as myself, only tolerate it because there's nothing better. All of the action buttons are easy to use, but moving Jill through the mean streets of Raccoon City is, and probably always will be, a chore. Although ranting about the control scheme is tired at this point. Everybody's done it and there's nothing new to say.

Capcom also saw fit to include every other piece of the Resident Evil formula as well. The bottomless item boxes that replicate your items inside every item box you find are here. The ink ribbons to save your progress are here. Zombies, dogs, and giant spiders, oh my. All of the badass weaponry including the flamethrower, machine gun, and grenade launcher at your disposal. Magical herbs that do more than just give you the munchies. Everything that made Resident Evil the series it is today. But wait there's more. Resident Evil 3 introduces Gun Powder mixing. By finding different types of gun powder and mixing it together you can create all sorts of interesting ammo. Creative killing at it's finest.

I think my major problem with Resident Evil 3 is that the game is almost two big. Now before you get all confused about someone complaining about a game being too long (especially in this age of the five hour Bouncer), let me explain. The size of the game brings out the Resident Evil series' biggest flaw, too much backtracking. Having the whole city to explore will force you to go across the same piece of land countless times to find the latest weird key that goes in the latest weird lock. It almost made me wish the zombies would start appearing out of thin air. Anything to break up the monotony of running back across empty streets for what seems like the tenth time. Taking away the isolation of a barricaded building doesn't help either. Small cramped hallways will always be creepier than wide-open streets.

Having the unkillable Nemeis chase you through the whole game was a very cool innovation. It certainly gave a sense of dread that at any moment Nemesis might pop out and it's go time. But most of the time I never really thought that. Most of the time I was just walking through the deserted streets popping an occasional zombie. Most of the time Nemesis was just another member of the undead. Although I will admit I did sit up and take notice when I ducked through a door thinking I had left Nemesis behind and then he followed me through the door. That was cool. I also liked the "Live Selections" that would pop up occasionally, the screen would go gray and you could decide which path you wanted Jill to take next. Like Nemesis, it's a good idea that's just not taken far enough. It becomes just another gimmick that could have bought us a reprieve from the usual Resident Evil routine.

Graphically, Resident Evil 3 proves that even though buildings are creepier, the great outdoors can look sharp. The pre-rendered backgrounds feature some serious detail this time around. This is saying a lot considering that each individual street is given it's own identity. Before the walls would all have the same pattern because it was the same building. Everything looks terrific and you really get a feel that this is an abandoned city just waiting to blow. Characters are fairly detailed as well. A little blocky in this PS2 age, but still light years ahead of the original Resident Evil. I was even impressed by the FMVs and cut scenes. There were just enough to make me think "wow that's a lot of FMV" but they were of high enough quality and spaced out enough so that I didn't get sick of them. Even the voice acting was better than average. The true mark of high quality FMV. Besides the voice acting, the sound is also top notch. A ton of ambient sound effects. I love the ambience of the Resident Evil series. Yes it's all based around that horror movie staple, the jump scare, but I love it. A good jump scare can still be scary, regardless of what Roger Ebert says. Then top it all off with the best load times of any PSone game ever. Gotta applaud that.

Ultimately though Resident Evil 3 is a lot like The Lost World. Do you all remember The Lost World? Of course you do. Everyone saw The Lost World, but two weeks down the road do you remember telling any of your friends "hey you gotta see this Lost World movie, it's great." No you don't, because everyone that saw The Lost World had the exact same reaction. They saw it, thought it was great, and then never mentioned it again. Resident Evil 3 garners the same reaction from me and a lot of Resident Evil fans. We've all played it. We enjoyed it. But then when it comes time to recommend a game to a friend nobody says "what about Resident Evil 3?" Nope, it's always, "dude Resident Evil 2 is the greatest game, you have to play it." And that's Resident Evil 3's problem. Just like The Lost World it couldn't escape it's big brother's shadow.