Okay, so I'm a newbie to this series, and just finished my first playthrough of the story, so I'm gonna give my first impressions and initial thoughts while they're still fresh in my mind. If I get anything wrong about the series and the original games, please correct me in the comments!
I'll be honest: Before I went into this game, I had heard of a lot of the negative press surrounding it and even saw a gameplay of the original RE3. So I didn't go in with that open of a mind, I'll fully admit. However, I got the game anyway in the "Raccoon City Edition" bundle while it was on discount, because hey, why the hell not? I did wish to see what this game had to offer. And now that it's on discount again, I'll leave my own thoughts for any other new players coming in to see what's up.
The Good
Aesthetics -- Obviously when it comes to these game remakes, they're a massive upgrade in terms of atmosphere. I did really like a lot of the remake's character designs, and Capcom really knocked it out of the park with everything else, too; enemies, sound design, settings, and music all slapped. I adore it.
Characters -- Besides one in particular, I think they were all done fairly well! Tyrell and Mikhail were massive upgrades over their originals, and a bit of a semi-unpopular opinion, but I liked Nicholai a lot in this game, too! I think I'm just a sucker for massively hammy villains. Jill and Carlos also had a really fun dynamic, and I loved seeing them banter with both each other and the other characters.
Gameplay -- I actually liked it better here than the RE2 remake (By only a small margin, but a margin nonetheless). Movement's pretty good (I can't really figure out Jill's dodge but that's my only issue), and all the weapons I picked up in the campaign were VERY fun to use. Carlos's punch was pretty awesome, too! Made my experience in the hospital a lot more fun lmao. I REALLY like what they did with the grenade launcher, especially. Holy hell, I adore it, it's like my baby to me now. I had so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun with both it and the shotgun with the sheer amount of "blow ♥♥♥♥ up" I ended up doing.
Action -- I'll be quick here, but I'll continue my thoughts in the "horror" segment below with how connected the two are here. The action here was so crazy, and I loved it. The enemies stressed me the hell out, and I had a ton of fun with all the weapons in my arsenal. And I'm writing this while not having gotten the OP weapons yet in the shop! If you want a game if you're running from a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of enemies and really, really want to blow ♥♥♥♥ up, this is the game for you.
The Bad
Length -- Yeah, the criticisms here were valid. I went into this game while having a general idea on what was in from the OG, but even still I was pretty surprised on how break-neck the pace was. Raccoon City was essentially cut in half, there were barely any actual puzzles, and I ended up completing the game on Assisted difficulty in 6.3 hours. For context, I'm a very slow player, and really like to explore places before I continue. I was the same while playing the RE2 remake; taking in everything as I went. When I finished playing Leon's A Scenario on Assisted difficulty, it took me 10 hours.
Granted, it might be just a skill issue on my end. I was never really good at shooters.
But I think my point still does stand here: There is so much cut content from the RE3 remake, and it is disappointing to see.
Nemesis -- I mentioned before that there's one character I didn't like, and I think it's pretty obvious now who it is.
I'll be quick here. Nemesis is a whole lot less scary and way more noticeably scripted, and honestly I prefer Mr. X over him. His design's pretty awesome, I'll admit, and I do like it better than the OG's. Unfortunately, though, throughout the game, it feels as though Capcom focused a bit too much on the "big and bad spectacle" of it for me to consider it all that scary, The stage 2 boss fights especially, because Nemesis moving like an overgrown dog was way too silly for me to take all that seriously. And stage 3 I don't have much to say besides "Oh, that happened" because it was so quick. Even with stage 1, he's a lot easier to bring down onto one knee, and I found myself doing that a lot instead of running and praying he doesn't get me.
I think I might just be comparing him to Mr. X a bit too much, I'll admit. But yeah, for a "stalker" enemy, he wasn't very "stalker"-y, you know?
Horror -- Okay, I'll admit, it didn't detract that much from the overall game, but I do believe it is worth mentioning. While the action was great, the horror element sort of fell behind. I mentioned Nemesis already. but I do want to bring up the pacing again, because almost everything is moving too fast for the player to just..."stop and be scared", in a sense. And by the time there were more powerful enemies, I didn't need that intricate of a strategy, because I had better weapons and could just blow ♥♥♥♥ up. The scariest parts for me were the Carlos sections -- a lot scarier of an atmosphere, first of all, and I moved at a lot slower of a pace because I had only an assault rifle, a handgun, and a knife, and I wanted to reserve my ammo. The hospital especially stressed me out because of all of this.
Closing Thoughts:
Ehhh?
It's not as bad as people have said. In a way, it did improve on multiple things, and I still had a pretty good time.
However, it's not perfect. A lot of stuff is glaringly missing that keeps it from being truly great as a horror game.
My recommendation?
If you're someone who loves Resident Evil and is really nostalgic about it or someone who really likes survival horror, this game isn't really for you. I'd argue it won't hurt to play, though.
If you want a quick-paced action horror game where you can take your frustrations out on zombies by blowing them up in multiple different ways, or you're just someone trying to attempt a speedrun or something, hell yeah, I recommend.
My personal advice, though? Get it while it's on sale. Personally, I don't really think that what you'll end up getting is worth $40.
