REVIEW – Returning to Raccoon City is always good news, and more seeing Capcom in recent times. Now it is the turn of the review of Resident Evil 3, a video game with more ups and downs than its predecessor, but highly recommended. An action adventure of which, unfortunately, we see few.

Following the fantastic success of Resident Evil 2, released early last year to critical acclaim and support from fans in the form of sales, Capcom wanted to repeat the formula for success by adapting today’s machines to the fantastic third installment of the Serie. The video game, launched in 1999 in Japan and America and in 2000 in Europe, also occupies an exceptional place in the hearts of fans. With a faster pace than the second part, and also with a much closer approach to direct action, the so-called Resident Evil 3 Nemesis offered at the time a brief experience, but of maximum intensity.

And there are two words, and their synonyms, that we will see most often repeated in this analysis. Brief and intense, two terms that seem almost inseparable for a video game of these characteristics. In the next lines I will try to describe the positive and negative things that both words entail, logically, but what I can tell you is that even with them it is a fantastic launch. A truly remarkable tribute to the legacy of a classic title and that, like its predecessor, is characterized by being a transfer to new times of a risky project for all the love that the original accumulates.

The Japanese company, with more or less success, have fully caught the tone of the times. And it is that they again make clear their ability to understand the essence of their franchises. And they do it by demonstrating it with, remember the remake of a game with a whopping 20 years behind them. With its strengths and weaknesses, it has tremendous merit.

Returning home

Despite the change in perspective. Although the gameplay has been adapted to the new times. Even with that fleeting movement of Jill to get away from the attacks of the enemies with dizzying jumps… All in all, Resident Evil 3 Remake continues to give sensations very similar to those of Resident Evil 3 Nemesis from 1999.

Resident Evil 3 likes to shake us up and builds harrowing gameplay. And, it does so from the get-go. The campaign does not take prisoners, and practically from the first minute it has had my heart in a fist. The motives for moving forward have been unrelated to the argument at this point, obviously. Firstly, because it is not the greatest strength of the series and, secondly, because, at this point, we all know what it is about. Jill and Carlos battle as the last resort of the human race to try to survive the zombie threat that a dangerous virus has unleashed in the city of Raccoon City. Then betrayals are unleashed, the true intentions of the Umbrella Corporation are unmasked and, above all, one of the most memorable nemesis (with a small letter) in the history of video games is born: Nemesis (with a capital letter).

In the end, the whole adventure revolves around the avatars of Jill Valentine to stand up to such a formidable enemy, in a situation that has always reminded me a lot of Terminator. In the first place for the female heroine, not too common for that time in our world (and not in the cinema either); and, secondly, also because of that invincible status that a colossal and inhuman villain who has to end the protagonist with a sick obsession and brutal force.

If you played the original video game you already know that, but Resident Evil 3 is much more action-focused than its predecessor from last year.

It is a duel of the titans with some very shocking moments, and with the rewriting of some very powerful situations. The start of the game has the same essence in the classic and in its review 20 years later it has a correct and surprising approach here. When it offers us these revisited sequences in a different but correct way and, also, when it “crosses stories” and gives the player winks, it is when the best moments provide us with the work of Capcom. But in the end, it all comes down to him and her. Around this beautiful-beast confrontation arise the best moments of the video game that suffers something more to keep our attention when it is Carlos that we control.

Resident Evil 3 likes to shake us up, and thus builds a harrowing gameplay in which zombies are mere obstacles to overcome and the real challenge is those clashes with Nemesis. Sometimes posed as small challenges (dodge their attacks while running away), other times as tests of agility (escape through a building under construction, for example) and others, directly, as if they were confrontations with final bosses. Thus the thing keeps us in tension, and the title achieves a greater variety than what it would offer to rely mainly on a playable experience closer to the action than in the previous remake.

Face the Monster

The presence of the puzzles is much smaller and of lower complexity. Think about the 2019 Resident Evil 2 and its careful balance between action and puzzles. Never too much ammunition or too many enemies in the first part, and also nothing excessively complex or that robbed us of much time in the second part. It is also true that, if you know the third instalment, you will already be aware that here originally everything was much more focused on action. The remake follows that line closely.

When we play Jill, the formula is somewhat more similar to what we were seeing in the previous game, although the presence of the puzzles is much smaller and they are significantly lower in complexity. Everything is replaced by Nemesis and its unhealthy fixation with the protagonist. So none of the riddles will give you a headache, and if at a fork you find that the right door is closed, surely by crossing the left you will find a way to open it. In the parts where the stage is shared with the second instalment, you will already know that there are some physical and temporal links between the two games, the video game even replicates the puzzles of the previous game, so if, for example, you get choked by a numerical padlock on a locker, which is quite a lot difficult, you can always go over it and reuse the solution you used then.

The video game is a frantic experience loaded with action and tension. The only respites are to manage inventory in secure areas.

It is simple and direct, but that is not necessarily bad, of course. Personally, I prefer a better balance between the parts than what I see here, and in that sense, it gives me the feeling that last year’s remake was much finer. There is much more action here and, especially, in the parts starring Carlos, given his weaponry and the large amount of ammunition he has, he noticeably changes the feelings that the video game transmits.

Without going into spoilers, I predict controversy among fans due to the absence of some emblematic scenes and moments from the original, which have been overlooked. My assessment of one and the other would enter into an analysis full of argumentative guts in which, of course, I will not enter; but I would like to make one thing clear. I miss some that in my opinion were very valuable, but I can also confirm that cuts others seem to me that they favour the experience. So, uneven result in this regard. The release replaces some of these moments with the extension of others that already exist, however even so it ends up being slightly shorter than the original video game … which was not in itself too long. So we have a duration of more or less about 4-5 hours for the first time we finish it, and footage that will be reduced on subsequent occasions when we finish it to gradually approach that hour and forty-five minutes that we are requested to obtain the best possible rating. Of course, with the subsequent occasions in which we finish it, we will be releasing costumes for the characters, 3D models of these to examine or artworks. There is no New Game + mode itself, but there is a store where we can exchange coins obtained throughout the game for different advantages or the mentioned aspects.

If you played last year’s title, you’re already familiar with the dynamics of the newOn the other hand, and for the more action-oriented formula to work, Capcom has relied on what had already performed fantastically well in the previous game. We talk, of course, about how much the title takes care of everything related to the action. If you played last year’s title, you are already familiar with the dynamics of the new one as they remain virtually unchanged. It is a fairly traditional third-person shooter in that sense, but with the particularity of incorporating a special movement for each character. An elusive in the case of Jill, and load melee in Carlos’s. Two actions that make the game win in versatility and fluidity, but at the same time take away some strategy from our positioning in each combat. Basically, the line that the program follows in almost any aspect of its approach.

The Resistance factor

When Resident Evil Resistance was introduced there was no lack of suspicion from the moment of its announcement. We had already suffered rather discreet proposals such as Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City or directly forgettable as Umbrella Corps , as if to know that the multiplayer factor was not being dominated by Capcom , precisely, regarding this saga. And I have to tell you that this addition to Resident Evil 3, surely designed to extend the life of the program due to the short duration of its campaign, also did not resonate with the force it should for a franchise of its importance.

There are different challenges and some unlockables to try to keep our interest in Resident Evil Resistance. It’s enough?

Online there are two sides, the survivors on one side and the infected on the other. The most curious and novel thing in a mode of these characteristics, although we have already seen it in more successful formats in games like Left 4 Dead, is that the villains are controlled by a single player who acts as a Brain. Thus, an asymmetric multiplayer is constituted in which he acts as Master of the Dungeon, and he sows traps and enemies the path of the rest of the players to try so that they cannot fulfill their objectives in the expected time. Every time they kill an opponent or overcome a trap, they gain a little more time within this approach to fighting the clock.it has the mode, and when they suffer damage, they have a penalty. If it reaches zero the villain wins, if they meet all the goals in the predicted time, the survivors win.

In fact, the Brain part, with its limitations, is the most interesting. We can move through the map quickly by rotating between the different security cameras that cover the entire stage, and although there are only four maps, it is true that at the beginning of each game he can make some changes in their general arrangement. In addition to, of course, distributing the zombies, traps and other threats to the survivors to their liking and, at specific moments, taking control of most of them. The great point in favor of this is the maximum character that can be summoned and that is associated with the Brain profile that he chooses among the five that are available at launch (for example, Tyrant / Mr. X or his own Nemesis). There is still work ofimprove the balance of the games , since his presence is currently too decisive to decide the victory / defeat of each other, and the possibilities of handling or facing him are quite limited … which ends up reducing his interest.

In the end everything becomes a work of wear / resistance . The Brain is trying to scratch the survivor’s health as much as possible and making them spend their green herbs as soon as possible so, when the game is on their side, summon a supervillain and try to finish off the game. The survivors, meanwhile, will pass the tests into which each map is divided, very simple, and trying to equip themselves as much as possible at the beginning of these with everything that allows them to regenerate health to endure a longer time. Invites from the other player. Not the most interesting way to build an asymmetric multiplayer, of course, because there is a lack of depth to maintain interest, and something could have been improved with the use of more varied or profound abilities in the survivors (each of them has their own), but even in that sense the fun does not rise much in a way that many fans will take a fleeting look and surely will not try again.

RE Engine to power

If you played Resident Evil 2 Remake last year, you already know more or less what to expect from the new video game in graphic terms. The RE Engine, one of the great discoveries of Capcom in recent times, has already demonstrated its benefits in Resident Evil 7 and now it does the same in the remake of the third installment. Resident Evil 3 shows off fantastic work on every imaginable aesthetic front of the show.

On the console versions there are specific moments in which the game suffers a bit to maintain the FPS. Especially with fire or explosions.

The models of the characters are a real spectacle. The protagonists are very detailed as you can always expect in a third-person blockbuster in which you will be in visual contact for as long as the hero you are handling. The animations, in turn, are fantastic. On the other hand, the same positive conclusions can be drawn from the enemies who, in addition, show off that gore brand of the house that was so spectacular already last year and that is even more polished this time in certain actions, but also I find it noticeably lighter in others.

The stages show the excellent artistic direction that characterizes the Resident Evil saga since its inception, and that has been projected very well in these remakes. As we have previously commented, there are some quite emblematic places that I have missed this time, but there are others that have grown exponentially with very interesting results. What is clear is that the careful lighting does a lot in the sense of creating atmospheres, and that is tremendously important in a game of these characteristics. As you can see from the images and the video review that accompanies the text, the game complies with note, and we have hardly noticed any slowdown on the console under very specific circumstances, such as the presence of fire.

As expected, the engine also exhibits a formidable adaptation to PC in terms of optimization, graphic quality, handling and configuration options – in line with what was seen in Resident Evil 2, of course. It is true that it uses the controversial Denuvo anti-piracy system, so even if it is not too demanding in this regard, it may stress your processor on some occasions. At least, it manages to compensate for this with many amenities to get the most out of the graphics card. The general balance between quality and fluidity is quite generous, but if you have to choose between one and the other, you will be covered from the first moment.

If you prefer to adjust the parameters manually, you will find images that illustrate each optionThe first thing you find when entering the graphics tab is a drop-down menu with several auto-configuration options that automatically adapt everything according to your team and your preferences: you can choose if you want to prioritize the fluidity, the graphic quality, a balance, a personalized set that respects your video memory or maximize everything, without more. If you prefer to adjust the parameters manually, you will find that they all have images that illustrate how each option is, and also bars that try to measure the impact these have on quality, VRAM and FPS rate.

It also has menus to customize all the controls; Graphic options ranging from “low” to “maximum (ultra)” and interface handling in and out of the game feel comfortable and natural on both keyboard and mouse. It’s true that Capcom has a good track record with its latest PC installments, but just in case you doubted it, yes: RE3 lives up to expectations and you won’t need more than 2 or 3 GB of VRAM to make it look good. even in the most modest graphics that the game supports. Illustratively, the minimum requirements include the GTX 760 (2 GB) and the recommended ones, the GTX 1060 or the RX 480 (3 GB).

To finish the audiovisual part, we have to settle what is related to sound with a few quick brushstrokes. Good music, with some interesting tribute to the classical scores, great sound effects and the game arrives dubbed into our language with the usual level that Capcom exhibits in the productions that it translates entirely into Spanish.

Worth to return to Raccoon City

It is true that the general feeling that Resident Evil 3 leaves me is that the remake of the second part was rounder. I was expecting some more work around Nemesis and there are some parts of the original that are missing and that would have been useful to extend a duration that Resistance cannot complement. But overall, the title is downright fine, and the sense of anguish and tension from the gigantic chase his campaign turns into are brilliant. Just to feel those sensations again, a new walk through the turbulent streets of Raccoon City is worth it.

-BadSector-

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Publisher: Capcom

Developer: M-Two, NeoBards Entertainment, Capcom

Genres: Action, Adventure, Survival

Publication: April 3, 2020