Resident Evil 3 made a deliberate choice to start shifting the series to an action focus, and the remake continues that trend, dialing things up. The dodge system (which is more like a modern parry and less wonky than it was in the original) also fulfills that same oddball touch of making you feel more tense in the moment. His looming doom is impactful in this remake where he could be lurking around every corner, sometimes in a comical Looney Tunes-like fashion. He was, and still is, a perfect horror schlock amalgam, much like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. The Nemesis is a large reason why RE3 has so much personality: an indomitable force that’s always present, or makes his presence felt if he isn’t physically around. I was pretty much alone at the time, but over the past two decades and hundreds of speedruns later, some people are coming around to it. I’ve always been of the mind that in many ways, the original RE3 is a better game than the initial release of RE2.
I’m not so sure Resident Evil 3 is going to have that same warm reception.
But it did come out, and it was universally beloved. It feels like forever ago when a Resident Evil 2 remake was just a pipe dream: a mere Facebook post that ran on a hope and a prayer. The point is, Resident Evil is pretty much always relevant, and the RE2 and RE3 remakes are only proving that assertion: though the latter makes a slightly weaker case than the former. That’s to say nothing of the co-op refinements of RE5 and the many virtues of RE7. I’m not forgetting a mainline entry, am I? X and had the Nemesis stalk the player while randomizing items and providing small narrative choices, and RE4 brought the series into a more action-oriented direction and shook the industry to its core. It’s insane to think about how each entry has brought something new to the table: Resident Evil defined survival horror for many years and gave us the memorable mansion setting, RE2 boldly went with the dual protagonist route, RE3 dialed-up Mr. I still recall the first time I played the original: where I was, what my room looked like, how it felt to finally finish that last stand finale.īut my appreciation for the franchise only grew from there. Resident Evil is one of my most-played series in my three-decade-long gaming career.