Resident Evil Twentieth Anniversary Series Review - Resident Evil 3

-Aaron "Aeecee" Clark
Reviews Editor

Sometimes whenever you have an individual movie or game that is considered awesome by many and an impending sequel is on the way the thought of how will it turn out is usually the most common. And I personally find that the three most likely answers to that question are either it will be just as awesome if not more in some ways or it will be  mediocre to  terrible and will destroy all expectations and last while not as good as its predecessor it will still greatly satisfy. Resident Evil 3 best falls under that third one while at the same time continues to make some slight improvements to its overall formula to try and keep things fresh. Despite its shortcomings the game still has some memorable moments that give it an undeniable mark on the franchise. For the next installment of the Resident Evil Twentieth Anniversary Series Review let us look at the game that was responsible for one of the most memorable monsters in all of gaming history.

Story:

Taking place at the same time as the events of the second installment the game manly focuses on one of the survivors of the mansion incident form the first game Jill Valentine in her attempt to escape the zombie infected hellhole that is Raccoon City. What we learned from the previous game is that William Birkin an executive scientist for Umbrella had finished his development of the new virus he was research called the G-Virus. He despite the risks then decided to keep his new research finding to himself and so Umbrella sent in special forces to retrieves the virus from him by force and was mortally wounded in the process of trying to defend his newly born virus. Before he died he injected himself with the virus and turned into an unspeakable nightmare and then killed off most of the special forces who were carrying samples of both the G-Virus and the T-Virus the virus responsible for the mansion incident. After the attack the monster consumed the samples of the G-Virus while the samples of the T-Virus that had spilled during the attack were then ingested by rats and infected the world supply of the city. And now all of Raccoon City is an undead jungle when both the local police and the SWAT team unable to fight against the swarms of zombies and those who remain alive has only one thought on their mind escape.

Like with the previous two games the story revolves around two main characters Jill Valentine and newcomer Carlos Oliveira who works for an elite private military owed by Umbrella and was told that he was sent into the city to rescue civilians. Although after Jill tells Carlos that Umbrella was responsible for the outbreak he joins forces with her in order to help them both escape and hopefully expose Umbrella for their crimes. Of course escaping will not be easy and not just because of all the zombies and other monster roaming the streets it also because of an overgrown nuisance simply known as Nemesis. Nemesis is an unusual type of Tyrant monster created by Umbrella that can be used to carry out certain requests and in this case his mission is simple find and kill any the remaining member of STARS. So to matters worse Jill also now has an oversized monstrous assassin on her tail as well chasing her wherever she goes and showing up at the most inconvenient of times and he will do whatever it takes to get at her. The story is pretty good although not the best in the series and at times it can fell trivial in ways although it does end with an enormous bang and yes both puns and spoilers were intended there.

Gameplay:

Once again the game plays exactly the same as its predecessors with no serious changes to the overall formula with the exception of some new features. The first is the much needed and very useful ability to make complete 180 degree turns that generally makes the gameplay smoother. The second is the ability to perform quick dodges against oncoming enemy attacks although I personally found them hard to execute.

Another new addition is the creating of ammo with different types of ammo powder that you will find throughout the game. These different powders can be used to create only one certain type of ammo or can be mixed with other powders to create new types of ammo. This new ammo powder system makes the game at times slightly more action focused than the previous games.

​Of course the biggest new feature to the game is the regularly recurring STARS hunting tyrant monster that is Nemesis. There are several moments when this menace will be after you and you have the option to either fight or run with the latter being the most wise. But if you do manage to drop him he will just come back later although you do get some bonus items for your effort.

Design:

Although the new ammo powder system gives you more action then before the overall survival horror experience is still there. Being conservative at times is still the key to making it through especially if you choose to bring down Nemesis. And of course looking for numerous keys and items and solving simple puzzles is still here and it is all done well just as before.

The weapon selection is about the same as before with some new additions like the assault rifle and gatling gun both with infinite ammo the can mow down waves of enemies within seconds. These new weapons can by unlocked by playing through the new Operation Mad Jackal minigame which is unlocked after you beat the game. In this new minigame your goal is to get through the streets while gunning down as many enemies as you can before the time runs out.

Enemies such as the cerberus dogs and the vicious hunters return with new ones including brain sucking giant fleas and overgrown blood craving millipedes. New bosses include an incredibly large burrowing worm and multiple encounters with the always in pursuit Nemesis. Although some of his appearances can be skipped as mentioned before if you make the choice to run away.

Presentation:

​The music is still pretty good and like the previous two has an elected few that are pretty damn memorable. The voice acting is not half bad for its time although I personally wonder if some of the foreign accents such as the Russian of Nikolai or the Latino of Carlos are both just too thick. And the overall writing is pretty decent although with the exception of Nemesis constantly saying Stars there is nothing here that is quite unforgettable like the first game had. Graphically the entire game looks pretty much exactly the same as its precursor with some enhancements. And like before going through the game again with new weapons and costumes that you can unlock will give you some decent replayability.

​Final:

Resident Evil 3 put itself at being an appealing game in many ways despite still falling short of its highly acclaimed predecessor. Its keeps the survival horror train rolling while at the same time tying up quite nicely some of the events from Resident Evil 2. It might not be an abundant fan favorite as with some of the other installments but it is still pretty good and worth the play.

​Rating: 4/5