Resident Evil 3 Remake, which I’ll call R3make, is in the same vein as the RE2 remake – it takes the original story and lore and updates them for a modern audience with cutting-edge graphics, while trying to maintain the spirit of the original.
Whereas RE2make was successful in this endeavor, I say trying to maintain the spirit of the original because R3make misses the mark by just a hair.
The easiest thing to compare are the graphics. R3make and RE2make are mostly on-par with each other, although because the camera is pulled out a bit in this title to emphasize combat and action, and generally has a much faster pace, you don’t get nearly as much time to stop and appreciate the tiny details. Unfortunately, the “tiny details” will be a point that will become much more important later on.
The largest change between RE2make and R3make is the pacing of gameplay and action. The original RE3 was much more action-heavy than its predecessors, and this remains true here. However, it introduces new bits of lore and enemies that make the player slow down and contemplate their next move a bit more than the original RE3 did, so this is not a heavy lean into action ala RE5 or RE6. Because I absolutely love a challenge and had replayed RE2make 4-5 times prior to R3make’s release, I threw the game on hard difficulty out the gate. And this is likely why my opinion on this game is a bit different from some other reviews.
Playing this game on hard mode forces the player to slow down and presents very interesting and scary challenges. There are some areas that have been expanded upon, such as the power station (which now gives off Alien vibes – be warned, there is a questionable scene in this area) and the hospitable, which now up-plays the introduction of the hunters. I found these areas to be difficult and terrifying, although the power station did expose an interesting technical limitation in the game. For some reason, enemies seem to phase out of existence after they are too far away. This is common to game design in general, but in R3make, you can visually see the enemy’s framerate drop into what seems to be single digits once they are too far away. When you are swarmed by zombies at the hospital, it doesn’t take long to notice that most of the zombies are a static, much less-detailed cut-out that cannot be interacted with.
While there are areas that R3make expounds upon, there are also those that ie neuters.
The graveyard (and thus the Grave Dinner boss, which was always my favorite), clock tower (and all associated puzzles) and dead factory are all missing. Interestingly, you can see the clock tower and even engage in a boss fight right outside of it. At first glance, you might think that this means that the developer cut this area due to time constraints. However, no-clipping into the area with an untethered camera shows that it is completely empty. At no point was the clock tower being designed with gameplay in mind. There is a soft stand-in for the dead factory, however. This is overall a very disappointing change, especially given that RE2make retained all of its major areas and reimagined/remixed them.
Speaking of reimaging, we can’t review R3make without mentioning one of the most glaring issues: Nemesis. In the original RE3, he is semi-scripted – he won’t appear or follow you in certain areas, but can appear at any time elsewhere. His appearances often present the player with a timed option, such as choosing to jump out of the train or not. Not only are these options completely missing in R3make, but Nemesis is also 100% scripted. You will often find yourself running down a hallway to escape him, with no indication that you can turn around and fight – and, frankly, not much incentive to do so. Even on hard mode, the game can be completed without his drops.
And now for the other big L – fans of the original game, please take a seat for this one.
There is no Mercenaries Mode or additional gameplay mode.
R3make comes packaged with RE: Resistance, which is a multiplayer game that falls in line with all of the other online adventure in the Resident Evil franchise: average at best due to its overall jank, and frustrating at worst. That being said, R3make emphasizes replayability more than RE2make by adding in more difficulties…but this, coupled with the changes in gameplay, makes this title feel much more arcade-like.
Overall, R3make is a fun game with some very interesting changes, but it lacks the attention to detail that RE2make presented. I mentioned “tiny details” before – there are small things in RE2make, such as there being a staff mantra written in tiny letters on a statue, that show how much love went into the game. This sort of thing is completely absent from R3make. There are areas that clearly show a burst of inspiration, but overall, the game feels like it was created by a side-team who was somewhat familiar with the original iteration and enjoyed it, but didn’t necessarily love it.
And it turns out, the game was developed by M2, not an internal Capcom team.
RE3make is worth picking up on sale, but does not have the love or staying power of the other remakes in the franchise. I have some of RE2make’s tracks on Spotify because they stayed with me. I do not remember a single track from R3make. And that’s…pretty much true of the entire game.
VERDICT: Recommended, but only on sale. Fans of the original will not enjoy it as much as new fans.
Note: This review was originally published on my Steam profile.
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