Resident Evil 3 (R) (spoilers)
66/100 [spoilers]
TL;DR: skip it unless you are really, really into Resident Evil.
Synopsis: duo tries to survive in a zombie apocalypse in the face of an unstoppable and unkillable enemy called the Nemesis.
This is the worst Resident Evil game out of the first 4. It’s even worse than the first one. It isn’t as scary as Resident Evil 1 or 2, and it lacks the full shooter action of 4.
They recycled a lot of storylines here — girl/guy meet in zombie apocalypse, get flirty, are betrayed by one of their comrades. They did go for some avant garde moves - I expected Carlos to die at the end, but I guess they let him live, and I also expected Jill to succeed in giving people the vaccine, but she didn’t. I also didn’t expect Nicolai’s mission to be to destroy Umbrella (based?). I also expected the train to take off without Jill at the start of the game, but they didn’t and instead they left Carlos to find a scientist, and waited for Jill to come back.
Regardless, the game also suffers from a lot of “Resident Evil writing”. Why don’t Jill and Nicolai shoot each other? Why can’t you shoot Nicolai through the glass?? WHY CAN’T YOU SHOVE GRENADES DOWN THE NEMESIS’ THROAT WHEN HE’S DOWN???
On the topic of the Nemesis - the part I liked the least about the 2nd Resident Evil was that huge guy who kept chasing you. He was scary at first, but then he just got annoying because he couldn’t actually be killed. For whatever reason, they felt compelled to bring his dumbass back to the third game.
II.
Onto the technical aspects of the game. The graphics, UI, sound , as always are great. The gunplay is good but needs to be more consistent. That said, the problems I mentioned earlier make the game less than the sum of its parts, the latter of which is not bad on paper.
Also, if you want to make the game look really good, set resolution scale to >140% and tone down the rest of the graphics settings (e.g. mesh) that are less important.. This makes the game look much better.
Scoring:
Design (18/20):
Atmosphere: (5/5)
Graphics: (5/5)
UI: (2/2)
Bugs: (2/2)
Sound: (2/2)
OST: (1/2)
Character designs: (1/2) - actually dropped the ball here
Script (16/25):
Character Investment: (4/5) - they brought Jill back, I guess.
Character Realism: (2/2)
Character Complexity: (1/3)
Writing: (5/10) - not as bad is the first, but worse than 2 and 3. Lots of “are you fucking kidding me?” moments.
Ending: (4/5) - pretty good, actually.
Gameplay (22/30):
Skill expression: (8/10)
RNG: (3/5) - head explosions are bullshit. should be autodeath at 5 bullets or one shotgun blast.
Satisfaction: (8/10) - resident evil gunplay is always satisfying, I guess.
Optionality: (2/3)
Novelty: (1/2)
Value (8/15):
Skill: (3/5)
Originality: (3/5) - they are recycling storylines/areas too much
Thematic elements: (2/5) - nothing?
Enjoyment (6/10):
Did I like it: (6/10) - worst resident evil?