Review: Bask In the Horrors of RESIDENT EVIL 3 and RESISTANCE

Coming off the heels of the strong success of Resident Evil 2 last year, Resident Evil 3 brings a powerful story, gripping gameplay and terrifying moments that made me nervous every step of the way. Resident Evil is one of the original names in video game horror, and Resident Evil 3 does not disappoint. Just about every moment was felt with strong tension and fear as I walked through Raccoon City. Even though there were some missteps in changes from the original and general length, Resident Evil 3 still gives a lot of the same thrills and chills as the original along with some well made updates and modifications.

Jill is just as strong of a protagonist as the original, if not much better. The character shows off her skills in killing, solving puzzles and having more whit while being in far more appropriate clothing for a zombie apocalypse. This revitalization of her character rounds her out, makes her more relatable, more powerful and just a much better protagonist to get behind. The story that she pieces together, trying to escape the city and the unstoppable Nemesis, is not new or really that amazing, but entertaining and gripping nonetheless. This is thanks to the more advanced and desperate gameplay.

Running around the city, looking for keys, clues, items and turning on switches could have been bland, but every encounter with an enemy felt tense and life threatening. This desperation comes from two elements, the way the zombie interacts and the limited supplies we have. Zombies would hobble and meander so much that it felt like walking on eggshells around just about any of them. Each zombie could make a few basic attacks and kill you, they’re movements, lunges and death status were so unpredictable that I had to take time to thoughtfully approach each zombie. And this is all just about the basic zombies, we’re not talking about the variety of horrifying and creepy creatures, bigger nasty zombies or Nemesis himself. I felt on edge dealing with just about every enemy, and that made gameplay feel impactful, exhilarating and engaging, even if my reason to fight these guys seemed bland at times.

Fighting these creatures with Destiny or Halo amounts of ammo would be somewhat scary and intense, but because players need to literally count their bullets and sacrifice items to make room for others brings the horror survival elements to the next level. I was impressed with how well ammo and items were spaced out. On normal difficulty I always had barely enough ammo to get past an encounter, wishing I had just a few more rounds to feel safe. This drought of resources forced me to be more careful with what I had while never being annoying or unbalanced.

Nemesis felt very good in this game for me personally. I was happy (scared out of my mind, but loved it) to see him in certain places and then have breathers and focus on other elements of the game. I could see that he isn’t as daunting as Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 last year, but I felt that he was still well-paced throughout and still just as terrifying and strong. There were some encounters with him where I would be stuck and I’d just have to dodge roll through/past him a bunch until I could get away, but overall things were good.

The game as a whole is a great experience. It will keep players on edge with white knuckle gameplay, fantastic atmosphere, sickening sound design and characters that you are genuinely hoping won’t die. There are some less than ideal changes from the original, and the length may feel a little short, but every minute playing will give players serious scares and challenges.

Resident Evil: Resistance

These are just my personal thoughts on the asymmetrical multiplayer mode that comes with Resident Evil 3. My impressions of Resistance do not affect the score of Resident Evil 3 just because they are separate entities and Resistance feels very much like it is tacked on in order to get more money through microtransactions. It is a fairly fun game, don’t get me wrong, but it feels incomplete. The variety in levels, characters, and mastermind tools is very slim at the beginning and doesn't offer too much later on either. I understand that this is done to allow players to learn and understand the surprisingly (and sometimes not good) complex ideas and gameplay elements.

Playing as a survivor is interesting and fun, feeling like a bonus Resident Evil 3 set of levels, but trying to win without solid communication or coordination is almost impossible. Playing as the mastermind, on the other hand, is loads of fun. Setting up traps, taking control of zombies and separating and killing the other four is very entertaining as well as challenging. Capcom has said that this is more of an experiment and want to see where the community goes with it. But it also seems like another pretty easy way for them to justify micro-transactions without having to work too much harder. Overall this game mode can be fun with some friends or as an evil mastermind, but there isn’t too much reason to play longer than a few hours.