Better Than RE2? - Resident Evil 3 Retrospective (1/2)
Escape From Raccoon And From The PS1
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was the entry in the original RE trilogy that I haD the most first-hand experience with.
As I’ve said before, my first home console was the Gamecube and since before I was born, my brother had been a big RE fan which is how I was introduced to the series. He would ask me if I was finally brave enough to play RE3, I would of course reply yes and then he’d put it in my Gamecube, I’d begin to play and surreptitiously have my controller unplugged as Jill got grabbed. I wanted to play the game but was afraid of seeing Jill get eaten, so my brother, being 6 years older than me ensured that I’d see just that. Rotten bastard.
In the decades since this game came out, RE3 Nemesis has met with a bit of an unfortunate fate. The original Resident Evil is famed for its Jill sandwiches and for birthing the franchise, Resident Evil 2 winds up in any self-respecting game journo’s top 100 best games list and Resident Evil 4 transcended the franchise to reshape the gaming landscape as a whole; many people prefer Resident Evil 3 to its predecessor and it’s always been looked back on as a great game, however, it’s definitely the middle child of the first half of this series.
So does Resident Evil 3 deserve to be looked over for its siblings? Or is it better than RE2? Let’s find out.
Background
If Resident Evil had opened the door for Capcom’s horror franchise then Resident Evil 2 had pinned the eviction notice to the letterbox, dragged out the previous tenants and sauntered inside to put its feet up on the sofa; in the new millennium, Resident Evil was to spearhead the way for Capcom and for the expanding survival-horror genre.
With the franchise’s exploding popularity and critical acclaim turning anything the T-Virus touched to gold, Capcom set to work on 3 whole Resident Evil projects.
Of these three projects that entered development, the first of them: a Hunk-starring, possible alternative RE4 planned to be set on some kind of ship was cancelled when it became clear the PS1 was about to go the way of the dodo and the actual Resident Evil 3: Resident Evil Code: Veronica was relegated to spin off status and exclusivity for the Dreamcast, this left the most unlikely candidate of the three projects left to bear the Resident Evil 3 moniker; Nemesis was supposed to star an all-new character and be a side game about escaping Raccoon City as an average joe but now it would feature the return of Jill Valentine.
While Resident Evil 4 is generally considered to be the game that put an end to classic survival-horror RE, it was actually Resident Evil 3: Nemesis that was first developed with an action focus in-mind. RE3 takes place mostly outdoors, this was done so that environments and zombie types could be more varied and with the wide streets and longer sightlines, zombies were also made quicker, more aggressive and appear in greater numbers.
A design goal for Nemesis was to introduce a constant sense of paranoia… which is what brought about the inclusion of the titular monster in the first place, inspired by The Terminator and this tonal goal also shaped much of the game’s soundtrack.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was released in Autumn of 1999 in the US and Japan but in PAL regions, Resident Evil came out on the 21st of February 2000: 6 days after I was born. This makes it the closest game I know of to releasing on the day I was born and it’s at this point that some of you may either be feeling very young or very old.
Version Rundown
Today, we’ll be playing the Dreamcast version of Resident Evil 3. So far in this series, I haven’t really been playing the optimal version of any of these games and since one of next week’s games: Code Veronica is also on Dreamcast, I decided to treat myself a bit and to go with this version.
The Dreamcast version of RE3 is a port of the PC version of the game (a process made easier by this console’s on-board Windows CE) and includes that version’s extra costumes along with the Mercenaries mode unlocked by default instead of being a post-game reward like it was on PS1.
To this day, fans debate whether the Dreamcast or the Gamecube version of Nemesis is the most optimal version of the game: this version features absolutely crisp pre-rendered backgrounds and the aforementioned extra PC costumes whereas the Gamecube version, based upon the PS1 original, has higher quality full motion video than the DC and can achieve higher visual fidelity provided you possess the right cables; the Gamecube controller is probably better for most too but I prefer to play with a D-pad bigger than a 5p coin. I chose the Dreamcast version because I don’t own Gamecube component cables and because…
For all my love of the Dreamcast though, it’s by far the console that’s given me the greatest hardware issues so maybe the Gamecube is preferable, I’ve never heard of one of those breaking that easily. I’ve already replaced my Dreamcast’s GD-ROM drive once and even then, my console refuses to load discs unless I give it 5 working days or put a heavy book on top.
For those looking to play the game today, there is a version on GOG which is based upon the old PC port and RE3 can also be played on PlayStation 5 which is an emulation of the PlayStation original. There have been calls recently for the original PlayStation Resident Evil trilogy to find its way on Switch and I’d love to see that happen but for now, it’s wishful thinking and Capcom don’t seem that keen.
Laying Low
This game sort of has 2 intro cutscenes, so I apologise for the initial clip spam.
As an aside, I’ve been watching the Resident Evil films for the first time while playing these games and I loved how they recreated this ending shot in Resident Evil Apocalypse.
Resident Evil 3 takes place in Raccoon City once again and follows disgraced S.T.A.R.S Alpha Team squaddie Jill Valentine, after enduring public disgrace and mockery for coming home alive from a mission that decimated the S.T.A.R.S with nothing to show for it but unproveable allegations against the multinational corporation running the town: Umbrella, Jill goes underground to gather her own proof.
Days before she’s due to leave Raccoon City, Jill gets to say a big fat told you so when the T-Virus breaks out and infects the populace.
With law and order crumbling around her, Barry, Rebecca and Chris already gone and the undead roaming the streets, Jill loads her Beretta and fights her way out of her apartment, saying a solemn farewell to the city and determined to escape once more.
‘Farewell to my life. Farewell to my home.’
Resident Evil 3 isn’t a game about viruses or underground labs like its 2 forebears, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is a game about Jill Valentine.
Stepping back for a moment, if Chris Redfield is Chaotic Good and Leon S. Kennedy is Neutral Good then Jill Valentine is absolutely on the Lawful Good part of the spectrum.
A few people before the 2020 remake released were saying they were happy to see Jill made ‘less generic’ and given more ‘personality’ and I have to say I can’t disagree more. A big part of Jill’s character for me is that she kept the faith: when the rest of S.T.A.R.S had already left Raccoon City (or had no balls like Brad) Jill was the only one left openly opposing Umbrella and refusing to leave her home.
The first few seconds of gameplay in classic Resident Evil 3 are Jill being launched from her home by an explosion, frantically blasting her way through the streets and being shocked that she’s still alive, I connect with that more than…
(Timestamp)
But remake Jill Valentine is a topic for part 2
I’ve spoken a lot about the tone and mood of each Resident Evil so far: the original felt lonely and liminal, Resident Evil 2 felt post-apocalyptic and defeatist; I would describe RE3: Nemesis as bleak and upsetting.
There was a wonderful moment in the first half an hour of this game that really made an impact on me and hammered home the kind of story Resident Evil 3 aims to tell.
I was running through the streets when I heard a woman screaming, seeing a group of zombies shuffling up an alley, I set about saving her; it was obvious the developers were shouting “Look over here!” So, I took the bait. I began blowing off heads on a quest to be the hero and imagined that, like Resident Evil 2, this might be a side-character I’d have a chat with and lead back to the safety of the warehouse. I followed the trail of undead and heard more screaming when I rounded a corner and found a big group of them feasting on something laying on the ground. “Fuck.” I muttered under my breath, my gamer brain kicking in and assuming I’d missed out on something for saving her but once I killed the group I realised this woman’s corpse was part of the static background and Capcom had just sent me a message.
There never really was a chance of saving her. You’re not the hero, you’re not going to save every last civilian, your priority is survival, nothing and nobody else.
Jill’s outfit in Resident Evil 3 consists of a blue crop top, a skirt and a jumper hastily tied round her waist: civilian clothing, just like everybody else she had to run away unprepared and unprovisione, she’s not presenting as a member of S.T.A.R.S or a policewoman, just another survivor with a gun trying to get out.
Moments like this, the internal monologues you get after loading the game and the brief glimpses you get of other survivors made me wonder what my character was thinking.
Does Jill resent the citizens of Raccoon City and regard them as accessories of Umbrella’s crimes deserving their cruel fates? Or would she save them if given the chance and lend a hand to the same people who shunned her and more than likely have put her life in permanent danger so long as the pharmaceutical giant exists? It’s not often a game makes me want to pick my protagonist’s brain, especially not one that’s the same age as me.
Vandalised Art
I’m not joking, my eyes literally went wide when I booted up Resident Evil 3 on the Dreamcast, I’m sure they also look brilliant on the PlayStation but with this console’s higher resolutions and cleaner video output, I was absolutely gobsmacked by these pre-rendered backgrounds.
If you go back a few episodes and look at the first game in the series then fast-forward back here then you can get a taste of how massive this jump in quality must have felt for those who’d been with Resident Evil since the start; these were 2 games on the same console and less than 5 years apart, a player could simply put in a disc and feel a generational leap. I think the last generation where I had this feeling was with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Halo 4 was dreadful but the gap between it and Halo 3 graphically was gigantic.
Along with the backgrounds and pervasive use of some pretty good looking fire effects, Resident Evil 3 features the widest variety of 3D zombie models yet. In the PlayStation version, RE3’s models are apparently lower quality than in RE2, but I’m playing on the Chadcast so I didn’t have these issues.
I do have to say, as much as I loved how every street is covered with scattered debris and destroyed objects I did find it to be a little too unfocused and chaotic visually at times. I had to backtrack a long way and then look up a guide because I missed the fact that I needed a Fire Hose for a fire hydrant on a wall… that I didn’t even realise was interactable because it looked like something that may have been part of the background.
A huge part of presentation is a video game’s soundtrack and I think RE3 Nemesis has the best score of the whole original trilogy.
The music that plays when Nemesis is in the area (but hasn’t spotted you) genuinely had me stressed out when I didn’t have any herbs on me or hadn’t saved my game in a hot minute. They even have this soundtrack override the Save Room music.
Resident Evil 3’s Save Room theme is easily the most melancholy in the entire series. This music doesn’t really make me feel safe or able to take a breather for a moment, rather the atmosphere is crushing; I envision the player down to their last handful of bullets and no herbs, I feel the desperation.
Resident Evil 2 had its own outdoor ambience but the one from this game blows that out of the water. The chilly, late-September wind makes Raccoon feel cold and abandoned, the distant wailing and moaning is both creepy and upsetting, meanwhile the crows: a symbol of death and associated with battlefield carrion, caw hungrily in the air above.
Super Cop
Resident Evil 3 makes a trio of major additions to the classic Resident Evil formula: the quick turn, seamless stair climbing and the dodge mechanic; this is the first version of a game in the classic trilogy I’ve played with the auto-aim feature too but more on that later.
The quick turn, in my opinion is the biggest innovation to the gameplay of classic Resident Evil in its history. In the first 2 games if you wanted to turn around and head the other way then you had to hold left or right on the pad and wait a moment while your character repositioned with all the speed and grace of the Evergreen stuck in the Suez so that you could move forward again once facing the opposite direction; the quick turn makes this a case of simply holding back and tapping the sprint button.
I know a lot of ‘people’ really detest tank controls and can’t stomach playing classic Resident Evil or other survival-horror titles as a result and I’m not saying the quick turn fixes them but it does make the experience a lot better. If the first 2 games do end up on Switch then I wouldn’t be against the quick turn being retroactively put in.
It’s such a small addition but I can just imagine how awful the game would have been without it, especially since there are some seriously detestable enemies and that Nemesis approaches you head on quite often, necessitating a gritted-teethed dodge past his swinging arm or a quick turn and flight.
Speaking of Nemesis… let’s talk about this absolute icon, shall we?
A little while into the game, you’ll enter a building and find Brad Vickers being a massive pussy for a change. He’s already gotten himself wounded and he’s whimpering about something hunting him down, barely thanking Jill for saving his ass from a single zombie.
Follow him just down the street to the steps of a very familiar looking Raccoon City municipal building and this happens.
Nemesis is the culmination of Umbrella’s bio-organic weapons research thus far and the culmination of the series’ boss fight development too.
The first game gave us the Tyrant: a tall super zombie that did some serious damage and took a fistful of magnum rounds to put down. Resident Evil 2 gave the world Mr X: a Tyrant that could appear infrequently to attack the player with more varied strikes; Nemesis has the durability and menace of the standard Tyrant but also unnerving speed and most importantly: a giant fuck off rocket launcher.
Raised on your fallen S.T.A.R.S’ combat data and possessing intellect, Nemesis hunts Jill throughout the game, following the player through doors and burning his voice lines into your brain forever. “Stars! Urrrggh!” The remake made Nemesis a big dumb brute and his design in that game makes him look like he’s covered in black bin bags but classic Nemesis is a rotten, stitched together corpse clad in a huge coat, decked out with giant boots and what look like the straps of a straight jacket. He’s so cool and intimidating.
If cinema’s two big, famous slasher villains are Freddy and Jason then surely for gaming it has to be Nemesis and Pyramid Head? I’ve never even played a Silent Hill game and I know Pyramid Head.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis does have something called ‘Live Selection’ where during certain cutscenes, the action will slow for a few moments and you get to choose what to do, usually boiling down to ‘Flee’ or ‘Do Something Brash.’
But to be honest, I’ve found this to be a feature of the game that’s been sort of overemphasised in popular memory and other retrospectives.
These live selection moments do trigger some branching paths and missed rooms you won’t see without replaying the game and making a different choice but I can’t say that’s a massive source of replay value for me and to a certain extent, these feel like the precursor to Leon running from boulders or Chris Redfield smacking the shit out of them.
Infected Wounds
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis makes some key innovations to the series with the inaugural stalker enemy, the quick turn and more but unfortunately, I’d have to declare it a step to the side rather than a leap forwards because this game can get very tedious and frustrating.
Having now played RE3, I never want to hear anyone complain about Code Veronica’s backtracking ever again.
The trip all the way back from the cable car in Downtown to go and get the Fire Hose from Uptown, only to then find the Fuel Additive… in the back of a pharmacy was drawn out and annoying, especially as the area gets repopulated with zombies and those insufferable crawling things that can poison you, it took me just as long, if not longer than the backtrack to trade the Haemostatic Medicine for the Lighter in CV.
This was a process made even more irritating by RE3’s auto-aim fighting me at every turn. The auto-aim system in Nemesis favours items like exploding barrels over enemies so if you find yourself in a room with both, using a weapon like the Grenade Launcher where you might want to be selective about what you shoot, you might find yourself dying on full health because you’re being spammed with grab attacks while you fight the game… not written from experience, I’ve never died in Resident Evil, honest.
Resident Evil 3 is markedly more linear than its predecessors. If I had to compare the design of this game to another series, I’d compare it to Metroid Dread and that game’s differences to earlier 2D Metroids: like Dread, Resident Evil 3 places a greater emphasis on combat, funnels the player down one path and generally expects you to explore an area once the rest is done, not organically; I prefer the way exploration was handled in the first two but it’s undeniable that the constant forward momentum and having to juggle items you might not get a chance to pick up ever again give RE3 its own kind of challenge and appeal.
I can really see why Resident Evil 3 has so many loyal fans that swear it’s the best, this game doesn’t play like any other in the franchise, its remake included and it’s the only time we ever got to see the classic RE formula taken to a modern urban setting.
Resident Evil 3 is hampered by a mixture of overambition and a struggle against its own identity. It wants the player to feel comfortable using large amounts of ammo and getting stuck into combat but the janky auto aim and broken dodge mechanic (that comes out at complete random while aiming and often not at all when you actually want it to) makes that part of the gameplay feel flat. Capcom at the same time wanted all the puzzling and survival horror goodness fans had come to expect but the outdoor setting and escape narrative turns a lot of the game into running in a straight line on the map, making sure you don’t miss key items before you hit a wall.
The Real Deal
Resident Evil 3’s Jill Valentine was voiced by Catherine Disher, she gave a performance back in the day that makes this, in my opinion, the definitive version of the character.
Alyson Court and Catherine Disher: Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine taking part in an interview. Both alive and well.
I fear the RE3 Remake may have done irreparable damage to the character because that version of Jill is just such a downgrade from Disher’s original. This Jill possesses a stoic, almost cold determination to survive and doesn’t act like a foul-mouthed, emotional G.I Jane with something to prove to the men of the UBCS Squad like in 2020’s version. I love both how this character is written and performed in Nemesis, Catherine Disher’s performance turns Jill’s relationship with Umbrella’s clueless mercenaries into a kind of brothers in arms situation; they barely know anything about each other but she bonds with Mikhail and co. over their shared nightmare.
There’s a great missable moment I was lucky enough to stumble upon in the cable car where Jill lugs a wounded Mikhail onto a seat to recover from his wounds after he refuses to lay still and heads out for some action, in a moment of vulnerability he shares his guilt at his own survival. In the REmake, Jill would have made some chiding comment about his corporate overlords being at fault but instead, she appeals to his warrior spirit and his man’s pride, assuring Mikhail that he’s fought well and can rest easy.
This is my Jill Valentine. Confident, not cocky, sobered not traumatised, emotional but not neurotic. Disher was the perfect talent for this character.
A Blackened Crater
And so, after 3 whole games, we finally leave Raccoon City and the Arklay Mountains for good… until February’s RE Requiem at least.
Resident Evil 3 reaches higher but makes more mistakes than Resident Evil 2, Nemesis refines the gameplay more sharply but can nick the player too; Resident Evil 2 was an orthodox, perfect sequel to the original. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is almost like a rebellious child, it’s more cynical, it wants to do its own thing and it isn’t afraid of making mistakes in the search of something new and fresh.
Tragically, RE3 has always (and thanks to the game we’ll be discussing next time) will always continue to be overshadowed by its better predecessor but while RE2 is a better game I feel Resident Evil 3 is the greater innovator and just maybe, thanks to Nemesis and the game’s introduction of an action-focused vision of RE, it can be argued that it had the last laugh in the end.
Thank you very much for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed today’s post, as always I’ll be happy to chat in the comments below and please like and subscribe to the Journal for more.
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reading this just made me feel old as dirt being a teenager before you were born apparently
im playing RE3 OG alll modded up on my PC right now and frankly i dont even consider anything after tank control era to be true RE, I would have killed for just a graphics remaster with quick turn and ammo crafting but nope, got another shooter steaming pile of shit
These in depth articles about the Resident Evil series are great to read. Never played any of them, but you describe them well, and mix in the facts with your experiences and expertise well. I'm trying to catch up with them, got a few more to go I think.