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Resident Evil 3: Nemesis review

Game: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Platform: PlayStation
Genre: Action (Horror)
Developer: Capcom

Reader review by Sise-Neg

February 19, 2012

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was originally a side project planned to be titled Resident Evil 1.5, but later in development the creators decided it was worthy of being considered a sequel to Resident Evil 2. They were definitely right about that. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is where the franchise truly peaked before descending into mediocrity.

This game is not exactly a sequel as far as the storyline is concerned, nor is it a prequel. It is actually a combination of the two, with the first half taking place before Resident Evil 2 and the second half taking place immediately after. The story looks at Jill Valentine, the female heroine from the original Resident Evil. Just as Jill prepares to leave Raccoon City, a pandemic of the T-Virus causes zombies and mutated creatures to run throughout the place, and it does not help that the Umbrella Corporation, who has caused the whole fiasco, has transported dangerous B.O.W.s to the city to test combat data. Once such creature is Nemesis, and he has been programmed to kill all S.T.A.R.S. members due to their knowledge of Umbrella’s involvement in biological warfare. Fortunately for Jill, Umbrella has also transported mercenary teams to rescue civilians as a cover, and so she will have at least some help in surviving. Sure, the story is not breaking any new ground but I have never understood such criticism. After all, most every Resident Evil game uses the same formula with slightly different twists: characters find themselves in a zombie outbreak, use their wits to complete puzzles and dodge monsters, and then escape a big explosion at the end. That is not to say that nothing new will be learned in terms of the story. Much more about Umbrella’s research into B.O.W.s is revealed and it fleshes out questions that Resident Evil 2 did not really answer.

As this scenario takes place in Raccoon City, previous environments such as RE2’s police station will be explored. However, there are many more new areas and it is great to finally be able to see the full scope of the outbreak in the city. The graphics have been upped from its prequels and the pre-rendered environments look fantastic. Everything is less grainy and the characters in FMVs look much more realistic and human (remember how anorexic Leon looked in RE2’s FMVs?). There is also a larger variety of enemies and their designs show more detail than enemies in previous installments. Blood is also far less pixelated. The sound effects all sound like before, but there does seem to be a bigger variety of zombie noises. The music is absent most of the time. Not as memorable, but still great at increasing the eerie mood when it does appear. Voice acting is a step up as well, though not exactly good. But when has Resident Evil ever had good voice acting?

Most of the changes from the prequels are involved with gameplay. Enemies are much more agile this time around and can even follow you up and down stairs. As if this were not enough, swarms of zombies and other monsters regularly pack environments. Of course, the biggest and baddest new enemy is the Nemesis. Once this guy shows up the tension is increased tenfold, as he can follow you into different rooms and is much faster than Jill. He also takes a large amount of ammo to drop, but gets up once again to attack even more aggressively before finally going down. It does not help that he hits like a truck and can bring you into Danger status quickly, even being able to one-shot kill you with a tentacle going through your head. Though many of his appearances are scripted there are many random moments where you will open a door and he just comes charging after you. I recall one point where I had just escaped him from the top floor of a burned down newspaper office and thinking I was safe began walking toward the direction of a large open street. Suddenly a shadow dropped from the sky and Nemesis landed in front of Jill, startling me so much that I shut the game off.

With the large boost in enemy difficulty from the last Resident Evil games, Jill’s abilities have fortunately been upgraded. A Quick Turn ability has been added that lets you pivot 180 degrees in an instant, meaning no more walking in a slow circle in order to turn around. Dodging has also been added. Unlike future RE titles where dodging was activated with a QTE, this gives you no indication. Instead, by pressing the weapon fire button right before being attacked Jill will duck out of the way, and pressing a directional button with this will allow her to dodge in that particular direction. This is not a game breaker, due to the dodge feature not always working. Sometimes you will still get hit or get hindered by the narrow environment, but it is helpful more times than not. Also, an Emergency Escape feature has been added for those situations that have you cornered. It is somewhat hard to pull off due to having to mash all the controller buttons simultaneously to activate it, but when it works you can shove groups of zombies out of the way and it can be a real life saver. One of the great new additions is the Ammo Creation System. With the use of a reloading tool, Jill can find different gunpowder around the city and mix and match them to create unique types of ammunition. This is really fun and adds a fair bit of strategy in deciding how to proceed and I wish future titles in the franchise brought this back.

People will notice that this game is only one disc, and as such there are no alternate scenarios like in the previous Resident Evil titles. Jill is the central focus, though there is a brief run as a mercenary named Carlos (which I found to be the tensest part of the game). However, to make up for this Capcom added Live Scenario events where the screen will go black and white and Jill will have a short period of time to make a decision between two options. Her choice will affect the following scene and change both minor and major details of the story. Discovering the consequences for everything adds a good bit of replay value, as well as trying to unlock all the epilogues. There is also a randomization of enemies and items so you will not always know what is going to happen. Adding to the replay value is a mercenary mini-game called Operation: Mad Jackal, which allows you to play as one of three mercenaries while trying to reach a check point in time, all the while rescuing people and fighting horrible creatures, much like RE2’s ‘Fourth Survivor’ mode. The rewards for completing it enough times are great, such as an infinite ammo Gatling gun or rocket launcher and it is very addicting.

Although Resident Evil 3: Nemesis did not revolutionize the franchise, it is the closest to perfect that Resident Evil ever became. The new gameplay features, increased enemy difficulty, and especially Nemesis all add just enough action to make the game thrilling and tense, but not so much that it becomes a shooter that lets you pump bullets everywhere you go like in future Resident Evil titles. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis combines fear, tension, and action better than every other game in the series.

Rating: 9/10

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