Resident Evil three Remake overview: Are we prepared for pandemic nostalgia?

• The Nemesis creature from the Resident Evil series. Exactly what we need in these dark times.

  Capcom

• You can stop it. But you cannot contain it.

  Capcom

• Sir, Jill is currently unavailable to answer your call.

  Capcom

A few months ago, Resident Evil 3 remake sounded like a slam-dunk idea for a good video game. Take everything that made Resident Evil 2 Remake a wonderful, haunting surprise last year, and then sprinkle a shot of RE3's exclusive, frightening "nemesis" character into the formula.

Of course, no one could have predicted how RE3's action, derived from the 1998 PlayStation 1 original, would feel at the beginning of spring 2020. As in: Viral zombie outbreaks from previous games that mostly explode on the streets in classic settings such as villas and police stations. A city is panicking. A government answers.

Hmm.

We know this is a decades-old series about zombies and kitschy actions, and dialogue classics like "The Master of Unlocking" mean that we should always take the "moral problems" of the RE series with a grain of cultural salt. But it's part of the critical question at this point: are you the type of coronavirus trap who craves pandemic-related content? (Netflix says you're not alone.) Or would you prefer to put more "escape" into your escape?

I'll go into that along with the more timeless question of how good (and how short) Capcom's latest horror remake game has become.

A good remake was followed by a closer remake

A quick refresher: Resident Evil games revolve around slow, creepy walks through cramped environments where players have to solve mild puzzles and fight a series of undead horrors. (The series' cinematic horror endeavors mean that this is usually done in the view of a third person with limited ammunition, as opposed to Doom-like gunshots.) This has been the case since 1996, and has expanded and expanded during "next-gen" versions Different series principles have been redefined, the essence of terror remains the same – and the last two games have been good enough to show that Capcom doesn't have good Resident Evil ideas yet. This made us optimistic in this regard.

Last year's RE2 remake in particular moved between tricky and familiar in a mostly successful way. Every core system of the original game (graphics, sound, controls) received a top-to-bottom remake, which corresponds to all consoles of the current generation and runs like a dream on modern high-end PCs. Playing the game was very familiar, however, as players were forced through narrow corridors by mostly known enemies and fear of jumping (recycling or remixing the environments of the original PlayStation game).

My biggest RE2 remake complaints were about two things: you had to manage a tiny inventory system, and you had to retread some ground to hum a little. "Get the key from room C and run all the way back to room B." extends.

• This is an actual screenshot, which is great for a few reasons. One of them is the lack of GUI text, unless it is urgent, such as during a shootout.

• The number of ammunition is only displayed when you aim or tap a quick view button.

• If you have an HDR-compatible TV or monitor, you can take advantage of some incredible contrast options offered by Capcom's RE Engine.

• Jill is rendered pretty incredibly in cut scenes.

• Turn the camera towards her face during the real-time action and you still have a lot of fidelity.

• While it can be difficult to take good screenshots of a virtual character from real-time editing scenes, RE3 Remake makes this a little easier with some incredible Jill moments.

• Avoid this loafers.

• Show that smolder.

• To your six.

• Carlos wears some of the best virtual hair that can be seen in a video game of this generation. Laugh at anything you want, but it's not a small compliment. Virtual hair in real time is difficult!

• In RE3 Remake you will come across some well-known sights. The Raccoon City Police Department appears to have been almost completely canceled by the RE2 remake.

• Yes, Carlos, we have to go to this room to get a key.

• Do you want zombies? You have zombies.

So imagine that every RE2 remake highlight has returned. This year's RE3 remake is a visual insanity when it comes to increasing every imaginable real-time effect from the previous game by one level. It is an audio pleasure as it paints a frightening, unforgettable 3D soundscape around the players' ears. The modernized control system has returned with a cool new maneuver: a quick evasion step that gives players the option of either timing, with perfect timing Escape a monster's claws or aim a perfect round of fire at their undead faces.

Even better is that my two core complaints were addressed last time and are somewhat in line with each other.

The original RE3 broke the series out of its classic villas and shifted its action to streets, sewers and other buildings. But in 1998, this change was just window dressing. In each scene, 3D characters ran over and around pre-rendered backgrounds (similar to the PS1 Final Fantasy games). In this case, Capcom swapped one pre-rendered set of environments for another. The actual gameplay didn't feel very different, and the required back tracking and key collection still felt clumsy.

While in RE3 Remake, this classic emphasis on open environments means a lot more forward dynamics and a lot less tracking. A few times in the game, your main character (either Jill or Carlos, which changes depending on the chapter of the game) is stuck in a region where puzzles have to be solved and keys have to be collected to overcome a critical barrier and run into the next crazy region. But as soon as you leave an old zone, it is gone. No back tracking, no excessive padding.

• We love a good PC graphics menu as much as the next person, so we were happy to see so many setting options in the PC version. The graphic settings are to be switched here.

• Divided into four pages.

• Many of the settings include handy thumbnails to show a visual example of how each selection can affect image quality.

• FidelityFX CAS is new to us.

In addition, each zone drops more monsters, more dangers, and more reasons to use your weapons than in RE2 Remake, including some harrowing run-and-shoot sessions. An early, panicked part makes it clear that the game alternates between overstocking and blowing through all of the supplies just to live. This means that the game's limited inventory system puts pressure on players to make huge sacrifices: what should you keep at a given time? Maybe you put the shotgun away to make more space in your inventory for requirements like keys? What is the minimum combination of health and weapon supplies that I may need as the tension increases, which I can only replenish once I have survived the next Nemesis chase?

The resulting urgency goes well with the most dizzying grotesque images this series has ever seen. At best, RE3 Remake reaches some memorable levels of horror intensity.

Brevity and a match with current events

The biggest victim of this approach is unfortunately the length of the game.

Capcom has decided not only to increase the number of in-game environments, but also to optimize how quickly you can go through some of them. As I indicated earlier, the 1998 RE3 was the first game in the series to spur the fight as a series tentpole, rather than encouraging players to put down their weapons and run, run, run from different enemies. (Although this is still an option in different sections of the RE3 remake.) This time a variety of super-powered zombies and beasts appear, and this remake is happy to use those moments as a replacement for the old "Find Five Items to Unlock One. " Door "chains from earlier.

RE2 Remake was wise to shuffle its original content in the name of his storytelling. The classic story of Claire and Leon evolved in a cool new way, including a remix intro sequence that stretched from a gas station to a rush through a city until it settled in the old police station. RE3 Remake does something similar with its opening sequence, which is undoubtedly an improvement over the confusing introduction of the original RE3. It creates a sense of place and introduces the Nemesis monster in a much more dramatic way. But it also misses the mark of RE2 Remakes' interesting missions – Leon and Claire, who are about to join just before a forced, terrible breakup. Jill Valentine, the star of RE3 Remake, emerges as a lonely figure of panic, and when she collides with Carlos, the results feel hokey (although again they're not as bad as the 1998 original).

What we have left is a game that ends after 6.5 hours with little incentive to retread – I'll leave an explanation with spoiler tags in the comments below – and certainly less than RE2 Remake's hearty "second quest" options . (My backup file was 5.5 hours, which was replenished with roughly an hour of saving and reloading due to difficult situations.)

Enlarge /. Too early, man. Too early.

Capcom

Let's come back briefly to the real events of 2020 so that you can make up your own mind. RE3 Remake begins with a completely reworked, unplayable introduction full of real newsreels of panic on the streets. It is told with the news of the fictional world of the day: while a viral pandemic is spreading in Raccoon City, the government is lining up and throwing quarantine orders and the panic of the population with unclear orders. The players then have to control Jill Valentine alone in their home through a nightmare sequence where they watch her break out into visible viral symptoms. I have to measure myself against you, reader: if you're struggling with the recent headlines, you may want to make a cup of soothing tea before you start those first 10 minutes.

Luckily, this angle melts as soon as Jill hits the monstrous, seemingly invincible Nemesis creature. At this point, most of the game resembles a classic zombie movie rather than an uncomfortable passage torn from the headlines. The problem occurs because the game is quite short. The exceptions – a poster about vigilance in the face of fever symptoms or a diary entry about a hospital where there is no more room for patients – are all the more striking. As small as they are, they make up a noticeable percentage of the short runtime of RE3 Remake.

Timeless enough, but not much time

I am not coupling any points from the game for this short but difficult correlation with my own life that is hiding in my apartment for the foreseeable future. Resident Evil has dismantled this "virus outbreak" motif for decades, including conspiracies that reconcile corrupt governments, secret private researchers, and tragic consequences. I may always remember the uncomfortable timing of this game when it started in April 2020, but not so much that its content cannot be enjoyed in a timeless fashion.

My bigger problem is that RE3 Remake is taking advantage of the options available to zombie video games. The game's most intense action sequences are exactly the same as the original, but we have very little opportunity to observe the connection between the main characters of the game during and between firefights, taking advantage of the story-telling opportunities that multi-hour video games offer. If you want an unforgettable action video game, RE3 Remake will deliver – if only briefly. If you want to combine this action with cheesy, assignable humanity, RE2 Remake is a better choice, if not a jump into your favorite zombie TV series.

The good:

• If it was good in Resident Evil 2 Remake, it is better here: stunning graphics, haunting sound design, responsive action.
• RE2 Remake's worst time padding issues have been resolved in a satisfactory, action-oriented manner.
• Some killer boss battles underline the incredible design and horror of the Nemesis creature.
• Capcom's zombie AI has never been so scary and her body has never tickled so satisfactorily.

The bad:

• Sorry, Capcom, but your timing is not good. Some brand new storylines are too nasty to ignore, even if they're easy to remove.
• The story isn't as painfully cheesy as the 1998 version, but Capcom drops the storyline too much in this short remake.

The ugly:

• Boy, does this game end too soon?
• Play on Xbox One X? Wait for a patch.

judgment: It's good, but it's not good $ 60. Rental fee.

Listing image by Capcom