Any die-hard fan of the Resident Evil franchise will likely jump on the opportunity to dive straight into RE3 Remake, and we can safely say it’s worth every minute. Resident Evil 3 Remake takes advantage of the highly sophisticated RE Engine, which players will likely be familiar with from both RE2 and the original Resident Evil that launched a couple of years back. Anyone who loves a good jump scare or two, with plenty of action to keep you immersed in the dark and corrupt world of RE3, will most certainly enjoy the highly anticipated remake.

RE3 Remake centers most of its attention around the finer aspects of the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, acting more as a highlight reel of the more critical moments and allowing new players to follow along with the compelling narrative. This doesn’t rob the devoted fan base of any experience but rather, provides a well-scripted overview of the events that took place with Jill and Carlos, as they both work together to discover the truth behind the T-Virus. The game itself isn’t very long and most players who are familiar with how to tackle zombies and boss battles will likely complete the game around 7-8 hours. That being said, however, there’s still a lot to enjoy and if you’re looking to collect every item, discover every secret, and replay the game for its extra bonuses, then RE3 Remake is a justified purchase.

Jill had been attacked and nearly killed in her apartment by Nemesis-T Type, which was the major turning point for Jill to take actions into her own hands.

Jill eventually meets up with U.B.C.S. mercenary Carlos Oliveria who has been tasked to uncover the secrets behind the sudden influx of zombies that have plagued Raccoon City, and deal with the ongoing threat that is Nemesis T-Type. The two then work together to get in touch with the right people in order to uncover more of the truth behind the deadly T-Virus, and also put an end to Nemesis-T Type’s murderous rampage.

One thing that immediately stands out is the visuals in Resident Evil 3 Remake, as it takes advantage of the fantastic RE Engine and really brings all of the characters to life. From incredibly detailed facial expressions, fantastic special effects, to spectacular cutscenes, RE3 Remake lives up to its expectations and delivers with the greatest of ease. We reviewed the game on the PlayStation 4 and we barely ran into any performance issues, albeit a couple hiccups during very visually intensive scenes like a lot of explosions happening simultaneously.

Other than that, the game ran very smoothly from start to finish and captured the Resident Evil essence exceptionally well.

Once again the RE franchise delivers on its invitation to fear, throwing players into intense moments of uncertainty, with sweat-inducing sound effects and heart-racing jump scares. While Resident Evil 3 Remake felt more like an action game than its Resident Evil 2 brethren, that felt more slow-paced and calculating, the overall experience still reminded us of how unforgiving zombies can be at any moment.

From their freakish moaning to the more obvious noises like scratching on doors and knocking on windows, zombies are quite intimidating with the great sound performance. Even other aspects of the game such as walking through a dark, disgusting spider-infested nest sends shivers down your spine, as you never know what lies behind any corner. As you get toward the end of the game however we honestly feel that much of those initial scary moments get overshadowed by pretty flimsy gameplay, and the overall pacing, which took away much of the frightening aspects and left us with an action movie instead.

While it’s certainly safe to say that RE3 Remake was a great game to experience, it did come with some pretty glaring issues that need to be addressed. The first one is the camera movement and how poorly constructed it is, especially when in the midst of a heated battle and you’re surrounded by a plethora of enemies. Without going too deep into the story and spoiling any significant moments for new players, we’ll describe the scenario with less focus on the narrative but just the sequence themselves.

For example, battles with Nemesis in RE3 Remake are quite irritating because one, Nemesis is quite large and many times when it runs around, the camera has a hard time keeping up with it. Sure, you can auto-correct the camera by pressing X but it still doesn’t solve much of the issue, leaving you having to manually work with the camera to ensure you don’t die. It became increasingly more annoying when you had to not only deal with Nemesis but also other zombies who wander around you at the same time, trying to attack you.

The flimsy camera work just robbed us of very impactful moments leaving us feeling more frustrated than actually scared. Speaking of impactful moments, Resident Evil 3 Remake, while doing an outstanding job of piecing the narrative together for the new generation, still left out some integral moments from the original which left us a little disappointed.

Moments like the Clock Tower scene were cut out and we assume that’s likely to have the game release in its appropriate release window, but what it did was effect the overall pacing of the game. We managed to clear the entire game in 7-8 hours which is quite fast when compared to the more fleshed out RE2 Remake, but like we said earlier this game felt more like a highlight reel than anything. That’s certainly not a bad thing by any means since it does entice the newer players to want to dive deeper into the original, but for those who were coming into the game hoping for a richer experience, well... the pacing speaks for itself.

The overall difficulty as well felt a bit easier than most Resident Evil titles, as the flow felt more like a game of tag than a game of calculated risk-taking and survival. With enough common sense and awareness, most players will be able to blast their way through the hordes of zombies, and rid of Nemesis in no time, granted they save their ammo. Towards the end, everything just felt rushed and while it did manage to explain the narrative in a good way, we would’ve loved to dive deeper just a little bit more.

So is RE3 Remake a worthy purchase? If you’re a fan of the series then, of course, there should be no hesitation at all. For a new player coming into the series, we’d also like to say yes because it does a good job of not overwhelming you too much with plot, and gives you the chance to have fun shooting everything in your path. Just be mindful of the flaws that we pointed out and try to enjoy the game for what it is, in spite of how short it can be. As for RE Resistance, we'll save that part for another article! Until next time!