Those of you that know me well know that I am a huge Resident Evil fan; it is one of my favorite franchises. You may also be aware that I wasn’t ultimately won over by last years” Resident Evil 2 Remake. I enjoyed it but not as much as I’d have hoped to, and it wasn’t a patch on the original, at least for me.
When a remake of Resident Evil 3 was announced, I didn’t find myself too excited. I was even less enthusiastic when seeing the new design for Nemesis, as he just didn’t come across as terrifying as he did in the original.
With all that said, I was never not going to at least try the game. Thankfully, I’ve had a chance to try out this week’s demo and am here to bring you my thoughts.
For many people Resident Evil 3: Nemesis remains a strong contender for the best game in the series. It brought a scary villain who has lasted the test of time as well as introducing slightly more action-heavy moments to the series.
I’ll spare you the history lesson and move on to the remakes demo. For the purpose of this, I played on the PlayStation 4 with a headset on while sat in the dark. Is there any other way?
The demo starts with Jill, Mikhail, and Carlos on a subway train. They all want to get the train moving again because yadda, yadda, yadda.
There are posters in the subway that advertise the actual release date for Resident Evil 3, and I found that to be a charming touch.
Once again, the RE engine absolutely shines, and everything looks gorgeous. I would say at the moment Jill doesn’t feel like Jill to me. She comes off as cocky from the moments of story I’ve seen here, and that doesn’t feel in keeping with her character, this is a new sassy version of Jill.
Gaining control of our heroine, I make my way above ground to the streets of Raccoon City, and it is not long before my progress is halted by what is effectively a fetch quest. Fire block way. Find hose. Classic.
As I begin to explore the streets, I’m still very impressed with how everything looks. By default, the game is dark, but that just adds to the atmosphere and did cause me to get grabbed by zombies a few times, leading to a frantic bashing of the X button to get free.
I found controlling Jill to be quite different from maneuvering Leon or Claire in Resident Evil 2. The movent feels slower and plodding. This made the transition from movement to aiming feel slightly odd to me. The more I played, the better it all felt, but at the start, it was strange. Not bad, just bizarre.
All the classic features from the original Resident Evil 3 (and some other games) seem to be here. There are red barrels to explode, gun powder to mix, and the good old dodge move.
With zombies that seem faster, the 180 turn and dodge mechanics felt invaluable. Dodging a zombie at the last minute feels great but also brings me to a gripe I have with the game.
For some reason, when you score a critical headshot or pull off a perfect dodge, the screen will flash in celebration to indicate you have done so. I don’t like this. It may just be me, but I feel it takes away from the tension and is just silly. I’m really hoping that it can be turned off in the full retail release.
Speaking of tension, the early part of the demo had this in spades and made me hopeful the full game will have it too. Not knowing when Nemesis might show up is great and did make me scared. The worry I have is that he’ll become a Mr. X style annoyance, instead of a genuine terror. I hope that’s not the case.
Obviously, good old Nemmy does make an appearance in the Demo, and he’s doing something odd with the Zombies that I look forward to exploring more next month. His entrance wasn’t as good as what I’ve come to expect from the original, but he did come out of nowhere.
Trying to run from the beast caused him to grab me (Jill) with his tentacle and drag me towards him, making it difficult to escape. I only had a few bullets in my pistol and couldn’t fight him. I’m hoping that this move isn’t over-utilized in the main game as it will get boring fast.
The demo itself is relatively short, but I did have fun. There’s also the incentive to go back and try and find all the bobbleheads, which I shall be going back to try now.
I’m much more excited for the full release now than I was a few hours ago, besides the few things I’ve mentioned I didn’t see any real issues, I just hope that Nemesis doesn’t become a bore as he deserves better. He needs to be a random threat and not Mr. Everywhere.
If you enjoyed last year’s remake, you should enjoy what’s on offer here.
Let us know your thoughts on the Resident Evil 3 demo when you’ve played it and stay tuned for our full review next month.