Resident Evil 3 Nemesis Review

The third and possibly the final Resident Evil has landed on PlayStation with a resounding thud. No, not with the flopping sound of failure, but the thud of evil, a giant lurking, dogged personification of evil. Think your little brother is a pest? Hate that math teacher who always singles you out? Still can't beat Tomb Raider 3? Hah. That's nothing compared to the ongoing battle you and your star character Jill Valentine face in Resident Evil 3 Nemesis. Whether you're a new fan or an old expert, this new iteration is solid stuff, a deep, more action-reliant adventure game, complete with the creepy mutants and undead of the past, and new ones to torture your dreams.

Story
SPOILER Alert -- If you don't want to know the full story, stop reading here.Titled Biohazard: The Last Escape in Japan and fit into one disc, Resident Evil 3 Nemesis (in the rest of the world) continues the saga of the poor souls who live in the once peaceful Raccoon City. Beleaguered by an over-powerful company called Umbrella, Raccoon City resident suffer from the deadly, man-made T-Virus, which slowly kills its hosts (usually, but not always, people), and then transforms them in to tortured, flesh-eating zombies, hungry for only one thing, fresh, lovely -- and almost always human -- blood.

In this episode, Capcom drops us back into Raccoon City in a kind of prequel/sequel. The time frame takes place in between Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 2, and stars Jill Valentine (from RE) and newcomer Carlos Oliviera, a renegade Umbrella military personnel, who turns to the light side of the, er, force, as it were. Just hours after the end of Resident Evil, Jill -- who has retired from Stars -- begins to head out of town. But, trapped in town by a new surge of zombies, she must once again relive the horror. Halfway through the story Jill is rendered unconscious by the Nemesis, and Carlos must keep her alive by finding a vaccine. At this point, players take on Carlos, and follow his quest to help Jill. If Carlos succeeds in his search for the vaccine and saves Jill, players will continue playing as Jill.

But the usual "zombies running amok in Raccoon City" theme isn't central here. Throughout the game, a creature called the Nemesis chases and fights against you. It's an abomination, a T- or possibly G-Virus created monster with one goal, to kill Stars members until they're all dead, and it's he (is it a he?) that lifts this title above rest. The Nemesis is different than other zombies, as you may have guessed. It's intelligent, to some degree, and can wield a weapon, a big, big weapon. The Nemesis carries around a missile launcher. What's worse is that he can run as fast as you and open doors and follow where ever you go. He should have been named the annoying, relentless mutant Ever-ready Battery freak, but somehow that seems to long. "Your worst nightmare" would have been perfect, too. Ah well, the point is, he's a bad-ass, and he's got plenty of surprises in store for you besides just fast feet and a big gun.

The rest, well, isn't quite history yet, but we'll leave it for you to find out on your own.

Gameplay
In all of the essential ways, Resident Evil 3 Nemesis plays exactly like Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. The movement formula is still intact, and it's still a good one. If you were hoping for some entirely new movement scheme, this ain't it. But there are exceptions. Players control their character through wonderfully detailed prerendered backgrounds by using the analog or Dpad, pressing R1 and X to shoot, O to access the menu, Triangle to cancel, Square and Dpad to run, plus a couple of new features, which are little but much appreciated. Now players can instantly access the maps by touching L2. The map is still accessible via the menu system, too, if you want to get to it that way, and it's quick, moveable and much more versatile as a tool than ever before.

Another cool new move is the 180 degree spin. This spin, which debuted in Dino Crisis, is incredibly helpful when fighting Nemesis. And finally, another new move has been added, and this one, just like the spin, is entirely necessary. Players can now duck and dodge almost all of their opponents by pressing R2 while an enemy attacks. This comes in handy against those annoying dogs, but especially against the Nemesis. Without this move, the game would be almost impossible.

Once you learn the movement scheme, the game works -- and well. In addition to the aforementioned modifications, RE has more new stuff that effects gameplay and story. Called "Live Choices," RE3 presents gamers with branching storylines and time-sensitive decisions that affect the outcome of the game, in either short- or long-term ways. For instance, one of the first times you confront Nemesis, the screen flashes and freezes in black and white. Two choices appear at the bottom of the screen, one to stay and fight, and two, to run away. Players must decide quickly what to do or the game will decide for them. In this case, the worst of the two is to stay and fight, and the consequences are short-term, unless of course you die, which is likely at this stage in the game. In other situations, the choices take you to different places in the environment. Either way, the Live Choice is a great modification. It speeds up the pace, increases the tension, and forces a decision that varies the following scene.

As with Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 3 Nemesis presents gamers with large environments, many of which change mid-story, and are unavailable for the rest of the game. For instance (spoiler ahead), Jill must go through an elaborate series of zig-zagging streets to get the proper tool to open up the gas station door. Once she achieves this goal and acquires the proper object, she leaves the station, which promptly explodes in a massive fireball, permanently shutting off all access to it. Of course, the station was at a dead-end, and nothing is trapped in there, so yes, it's cleverly designed. But it also adds a different dimension to the game's environments. It is an excellent addition to the overall gameplay, which increases the game's fun and lessens its annoying factor. First, you certainly won't need anything in that areas again, which cuts down on the inevitably long exploring times, and it also adds a certain level of spontaneity. You'll never really know which areas are going to take damage and be totally altered.

Players also will notice other little modifications, too. Jill can walk up short and medium sets of stairs and porches without having to force you to wait through a load time. The big staircases and ladders still require load times, but even these are lessened because of better programming. Most EA games have still have longer loading times than this.

As for weapons, the basis of the arsenal consists of the standard RE fare. Players access the M4A1 Assault Rifle (an automatic rifle), the S&W M629C handgun (.44 Magnum), the M92F Custom Handgun, the Benelli M3S Shotgun (sawed off, and using 12 gauge shot shells), the HK-P Grenade Launcher, and a missile launcher among others.

What's different about RE3 is that players don't upgrade their weapons as much as they did in the other games in the series. Instead, they upgrade their ammunition. Players combine different kinds of ammo and gunpowder using the new Reloading Tool, to create upgraded ammo, such as flame and acid grenades from regular grenades, and shotgun shells from handgun shells. The system is based on three kinds of Ammo, A, B, and C, and the combination of each in different ways produces different results.

The use of weapons has changed a little bit in another way, too. As in RE2, players may want to run instead of wasting all of their ammo on mere zombies. The reason is two fold. First, the game is harder than the other two, even in easy mode. Second, there are a phenomenal amount of zombies in this game. Big, Fat, skinny, tall, fast and slow, there are all kinds of zombies ready to eat you up for dinner. The count seems to have doubled, and thus the need to conserve ammo. The ammo may be better spent in dire situations, and saved up for the Nemesis.

Finally, the puzzles are both good and bad. Many of them are in line with puzzles you've seen in RE and RE2, and some of them are completely different.Spoiler ahead Many require a phenomenal amount of back tracking, like the stupid wrench-and-gas-station puzzle, the whacked-out moving-medicine-table-on-the-right-white-square puzzle, and the battery-in-the-mayor-statue puzzle, which makes no logical -- or even illogical -- sense. But in the end, there are enough good ones, and enough well-placed ones that you simply end up loving them all (once they've been solved, of course).

Graphics
A simple comparison of past games will show everything. RE3 is much better looking than its predecessors are across the board. The prerendered backgrounds are so littered with detail, it's a little overwhelming. The artwork presented in Raccoon City is truly admirable. Crashed cars, rubbish and rubble, totally destroyed city streets, and scattered broken glass and debris, all are housed in a suburban area that truly looks devastated in the worst possible way. Somehow I felt the city of Raccoon was even more dark and dismal than the streets in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, a true wasteland.

Second, the characters are also much better looking. In classic Capcomfashion, the lead female character, Jill, looks way better. It appears that in just a few days (between RE and RE3), she's grown bigger breasts, and looks thinner and sexier than ever, without losing her "tough" exterior. She also happens to wear a tube top and a mini skirt, just to entice. Of course, sex-obsessed male observations aside, all the characters look better (not just luscious Jill), because Capcom has added dozens of extra polygons to the one-time pixelated caricatures we used to squint at.

Lastly, the new changes appear in little ways, as is Capcom's way. Watch the water and fire. The puddles have amazing looking little waves that ripple through them like real ones. The rain comes pouring down in the latter half of the game and eerily changes the look and sound of things, too. Fire plays a big part here, too. Explosions abound, and dogs, mutant zombies, and others creatures all catch on fire, but keep on coming. The Nemesis, too, catches on fire, and comes running after you after suffering numerous hits. The fires themselves crackle and dance in ways that simulate real fires, with spontaneous flares and a wide pallet of red, orange, and yellow.

The FMV scenes and many cut-scenes help to tell the story. The in-game cut-scenes look really good, but the FMV scenes aren't the best I've ever seen, and weren't as impressive as the intro scenes in Resident Evil 2 were at the time. It appears that there are less FMV scenes in this as well.

Sound
As usual, the sound plays a huge role in contributing to the fear of Resident Evil 3. The footsteps, creaking doors, windows, and overall sound effects, with a dabble of dramatic piano thrown in here and there, work in concert to create an intensely spooky and moving atmospheric. As in the past, the sound of footsteps change depending on the material you step in, whether it be broken glass, water, concrete, tile, or wood, and help to determine what to expect or not to.

Although the translation from Japanese to English has improved in the RE series as the years have progressed, there are still some problems in this new game. Some of it is off base, and occasionally it's funny. Here's just one example: in a dresser drawer in a room on the chapel, the text says, "Someone's made an awful mess in this drawer." Did someone lay a dump, or what? It should have read, "Someone's made an awful mess of this drawer." That's the exception in this game, but there are others, too, that occasionally make one laugh.

The Verdict

All in all, Resident Evil 3 Nemesis is a fantastic addition to the series. It's the hardest and best looking. I still think I like RE2 the best, but I'm going to go through it again just to be sure. Either way, this is damn fine gaming, and a near brilliant third chapter in the series.
As far as comparison between Dino Crisis and RE3, well, the biggest comparisons are obvious. Dino vs. zombies. But I preferred the puzzles in Dino Crisis more than these. They were more original and compelling. Also, Dino Crisis has more wandering -- and running from Dinos, which eventually became boring -- whereas while there is some running from baddies here, RE3 has lots more action. Lots more fighting. Lots more zombies. And in my opinion, more zombies = more good. (Heh) My biggest complaint with Dino Crisis was that it simply wasn't as scary, gloomy, or horrific as RE. And RE3 is as scary as either of the first two.
While the basic setbacks of the original series have been improved -- branching story, better translation, better graphics, better control, collapsing areas -- the game still suffers from some of the same original problems in the first game. The load times haven't been massively squeezed down, the amount of motion in the lead character's aim is still restrained to up, down, and forward, the phenomenal amount of backtracking is still infuriating, and the puzzle logic is sometimes completely ludicrous.
And yet, in no way does RE3 falter or slip below the quality level of the previous two games. If anything it upholds the series' depth and challenge, even though it's still essentially more Resident Evil. The story still wonderfully unfolds in an intensely slow, intriguing way. And the combination of the great story telling and precise style of gameplay is still perfectly blended. If anything, it's a compliment and a message to Capcom that so many similar games (Evil Dead, Galerians, Fear Effect) are currently in the works. The message? Gamers love Resident Evil. And gamers will love RE3, too.