Resident Evil 3 Remake PS4 Pro Review

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Available now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Version tested: PS4 Pro

The remake for Resident Evil 3 has finally arrived and hopefully it will be as good as the last remake Capcom did!

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If you have never played Resident Evil before the story is pretty simple, a pharmaceutical corporation Named Umbrella managed to develop a virus that turns humans into zombie like monsters. In Resident Evil 3 you take the role at the beginning as Jill Valentine but the zombies are the least of her concerns!

Jill is one of the last remaining people in Raccoon City to witness what Umbrella has done, Umbrella to try and stop Jill leaking out what they have done unleash their own deadly weapon… Nemesis!

Nemesis is an unrelenting force you don’t want to be anywhere near!

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In Resident Evil 3 Jill’s main issue beside the constant threat of zombies trying to chew her neck is a god like creature called Nemesis, get ready not long after the game starts to encounter this gigantic beast and he will make plenty of appearances after this so don’t ever think you are safe!

The one negative to Nemesis is he always feels rather staged and at a few points I actually expected his appearance before he arrived through a wall as I approached it. This isn’t to say he isn’t scary as he is guaranteed to make most of you feel completely terrified as your trying to pan the camera around to check how close he is. Out in the open in these small staged events he is as bad as you would expect but it’s these moments that just don’t happen enough.

While he is massive and you would expect him to be slow hes actually very agile which adds to the terror, if you manage to bring him down for a few seconds and make an escape, be aware he will sprint or jump to your position when you least expect and smash you down! He has plenty in his arsenal as well to slow you down with tentacles to trip you as well as other things later on that I won’t mention for the sake of spoilers.

The immersion was killed with him on a few occasions, once due to him not being able to enter a safe room. I managed to take a wrong turn during one mission and had to backtrack on myself to get to the right place, every time I crawled out from under the shutter to exit the room he would run around the corner, I would then just walk back and under the shutter for him to just disappear. I still had to make it back past him though which was tricky as I was in the wrong place and it was pretty intense to say the least!

It is a shame he wasn’t used a little more freely as I really feel they didn’t use him to his full potential and as time went on in the game I was getting a bit repetitive, even to the point where your left thinking oh great not again as you know you will either escape him for a few more minutes or have another boss battle with him after some cut-scenes.

Take down or dodge zombies is a choice you will have to make with dwindling resources in mind

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The other zombies and enemies you encounter as far easier to escape or even kill. The zombies will take multiple shots to bring them down but don’t always think when they are down they will stay down as they do tend to get back up again later, usually after you have explored somewhere and on your way back out and least expect them to be there!

It is always a difficult choice to either take them down or try to get round them as it clears the area for you to explore more freely, the downside with taking them down is the fact you will be using your dwindling ammo, keep an eye out for exploding items like barrels or electric boxes to take down multiple enemies with one shot, saving resources for when you really need it!

Killing enemies isn’t always the best way as it uses priceless ammo, although ammo is fairly well scattered around the places, once it’s gone it’s gone! More can be made with set ingredients such as two lots of gunpowder combined but again finding enough can always be a struggle, running out though leaves you with your not so trusty knife which is very much up shit creek without a paddle!

Make every shot count as ammo will soon go!

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Your trusty knife is about as much use as a chocolate teaspoon when dealing with the zombies especially more than one! Jill is far better using he dodge ability to avoid contact but timing is key and if timed wrong you are guaranteed at least one bite! This also if performed at exactly the right time will execute a slow motion roll giving you time to get back up and have a slow motion accurate shot.

There is no HP gauge of such but entering the inventory will show a graphic in the bottom left corner with the condition your character is in, this is also shown in game by the character limping and holding wounds while the screen gets darker and blurry.

The herbs are back here and will heal fast but only a certain amount where as first aid spray will heal completely or even mixing red and green herbs to make a special mix will also completely heal your character.

Carrying all these items to mix and combine is a huge problem but there are a couple of solutions, store them in the storage boxes in safe rooms, don’t forget to save while you are there as well. The other is increase the amount you can hold, finding hip pouches increases the amount of slots your character has, allowing you to carry more.

Keep inventory organised to carry as much as possible

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Inventory management is something that will be a constant pain but if you keep on top of things and always make sure guns are loaded and only take what you need with you there should be plenty of room for new items.

The inventory will show certain items that you will no longer need with a trash can next to them, this is great as some items like bolt croppers you may still thing you need but you don’t and can free up an extra inventory slot.

Items can be moved around in the inventory to utilise space and then weapons and items can be given shortcuts and assigned to a certain D-Pad button, this is helpful if you need to change weapons fast which will be the case as some of the later enemies will require a certain weapon to deal maximum damage!

Guns start either with just a pistol and knife on normal difficulty or assault rifle as well if you choose the assisted option that also helps with some aiming and makes enemies a little less deadly.

Don’t forget to save at each safe point on the typewriter

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Each safe point will have a typewriter somewhere that you can use to save progress incase you do die, it’s always good to save as you never really know what is around the next corner of if your Nemesis friend is going to make an appearance.

The levels are set in a fairly open way, allowing you to go back to areas you have been and unlock items you may have missed, some missions will bring you back there anyway and it’s pretty hard to miss anything.

I got the shotgun a little earlier than I was meant to by going straight there when I got the bolt cutter but this did prove a bad thing later on as I didn’t have the shotgun shells when I needed them later!

Levels hold plenty of secrets and things to explore and find, one clue don’t miss the boxes with yellow tape on them as they tend to hold crucial ammo and supplies. There is no real clues given to you so they can be easily missed.

As well as these boxes there are plenty of collectables to get and these give rewards like concept art that fans of the series will be really interested in.

Great story and voice acting

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The characters and story worked well and constantly had me coming back for more, Jill and Carlos being the two main ones are really well done with great but sometime cheesy voice acting and some really good facial animations and detail.

Although RE3 comes after RE2 you won’t really miss out on anything if you haven’t managed to play the second game, there are a few locations and characters that make appearances that you would recognise but nothing that you will miss if you haven’t had the chance to play the previous masterpiece so there isn’t any need to play it before you play RE3 but RE2 is definitely well worth playing through if you haven’t already.

Previous fans will recognise some locations and characters

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Carlos is a second playable character and some will recognise him, it’s great to see both him and Jill express themselves showing some of their skills. Jill is more than capable of surviving with her hard as nails approach and taking on the Nemesis whenever she has to, after a while you would just always expect her to survive because of her attitude.

Most of the level designs in RE3 seem to be outside in the streets rather than dark and dingy corridors which seem more enclosed and scary, while the streets are good I did feel slightly more vulnerable in RE2. The attention to detail in the levels is fantastic though and Capcom have done a great job when it comes to the games looks!

The map is a great way to keep track of everything and where you are meant to go next.

The whole game was played on a PS4 Pro and ran perfectly throughout with no FPS drops at all.

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If gore is your thing as you would expect RE3 Is full of it! Nemesis looks revolting and zombies will lose lumps of flesh as you shoot them. RE3 has more than enough gore for any horror fan out there!

The story while not majorly long in just over 6 hours to completion did seem to lose it’s way a little, it was also frustrating to get to a point where you move to the next area in the game only to find out you can’t go back to the previous area and continue to find it’s secrets. The game feels strong and keeps you hooked at the start only to feel like it peaked a little early and drags a bit towards the end.

After completing the game some new feature will be available like a shop that will let you buy new weapons and costumes to name a couple of things that you can use on your next playthrough of the game if you wish to do so.

Aside from the nightmare difficulty I can’t see much appeal to go through the game again unless you want to explore what you have missed on the first play-through and go through it with items you wouldn’t have had originally.

Aside from great voice acting the last thing I want to mention is in that category and it’s sound. The sound in RE3 was spot on and more than immersive enough, constant horror sounds will keep you on the edge of your seat and the loud thud you hear as Nemesis is running behind you is sure to make anyone feel uncomfortable! I personally hate being chased in games so this is a far from comfortable thing for me!

Verdict:

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Resident Evil 3 is a solid scary horror game and will offer just enough to fans but I do feel like it could have been slightly more, Nemesis isn’t really used to his full potential and feels far to staged although running from him can be utterly terrifying especially with some of the things he can do.

Jill and the other characters have plenty of personality and voice acting was superb, visually the game was fantastic and gore levels are where you would expect them to be in a Resident Evil game!

Dwindling ammo and supplies will be a constant problem and inventory management will be required to keep your character alive! There is little in the way of replay value here but some will want to go back through and find any secrets that they may have missed.

Score:

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8.1 / 10

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