Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

aka: Biohazard 3: Last Escape, Biohazard: Gaiden, RE3
Moby ID: 3321
PlayStation Specs
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Description official descriptions

Resident Evil 3 takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2. The midwestern town of Raccoon City is in ruins, having been overrun with the undead creating T-virus thanks to the wacky hijinks of William Birkin and Umbrella Inc. The player must guide Jill "master of unlocking" Valentine (one of the two main protagonists of the original Resident Evil) out of the city alive. Along the way, Jill will interact with and receive help from (or be hindered by) three Umbrella mercenaries who are also stranded in Raccoon City. Standing in the way of your group's last escape are a horde of flesh-eating zombified citizens, homicidal mutants, and a relentless killing machine known only as Nemesis who is determined to hunt down and kill the survivors of the original Resident Evil, including Jill.

A dramatic improvement over Tyrant/Mr. X/G from the previous games, Nemesis can run (faster than Jill, in fact), use firearms (a rocket launcher), dodge attacks, and even move through doors and from room to room in pursuit of Jill. On top of that he still possesses the nigh indestructibility we've come to know from Umbrella's ultimate bio-weapons.

Like its two predecessors Resident Evil 3 is a third-person action-adventure game with polygonal characters on pre-rendered backgrounds with cinematic camera angles, a technique originally pioneered by Alone in the Dark. Although the game uses the same basic engine and gameplay as the previous games, the gameplay is improved by features such as auto-targeting, a 180 degree spin, and a new dodge move that allows Jill to avoid enemy attacks. Another addition is Jill's ability to create different kinds of ammunition by mixing together three different types of gunpowder found throughout the game. The game include a randomization feature, which changes the location of certain key items and ammo. Another noteworthy feature is that at certain points in the game, Jill is faced with two choices for a situation, each will affect later story, and even the game ending. The zombies have also been made more diverse.

The number of polygons in the character models has also been increased, along with the possible screen resolution and color depth for the PC version (up to 1600 X 1200 at 32 bits, from a maximum of 640 X 480 at 16 bits for Resident Evil 2). Another addition in the PC version is the ability to skip cutscenes as well as the door loading animation.

The PC and Dreamcast versions includes all eight of Jill's possible costumes, as well as the mercenary mini-game Operation Mad Jackal which allows you to play as one of the three Umbrella soldiers. On the Playstation version, these special features must be unlocked by beating the game with a high score.

Spellings

  • Обитель зла 3: Немезис - Russian spelling
  • バイオハザード 3 ラストエスケープ - Japanese spelling
  • 惡靈古堡3 - Chinese spelling (traditional)
  • 生化危机3 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (PlayStation version)

137 People (120 developers, 17 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 63 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 183 ratings with 9 reviews)

A Stalker's Best Friend

The Good
I can't ever imagine why Resident Evil 3: Nemesis truly redefines the series all because of one thing: Mercy! The game is incredible with fantastic cut scenes, scary intense gameplay, and my personal favorite is when Jill Valentine ditching her old S.T.A.R.S. uniform into a sexy blue tube top, white sweater, and black mini-skirt outfit. A perfect homage to Le Femme Nikita and James Bond. Jill is ready for action and so does her appearance in Marvel VS. Capcom 2. The outfit rocks because it is way better than Lara Croft's gun-totted tank top. You can also choose a weapon of your collection and a rocket launcher to slow down Nemesis and kill him. But you have to beat the clock in order to escape the city.

The Bad
The camera angles are less sharp if you don't know where you are going because you have a whole arsenal of zombies and monsters to attack on so many courses. I was having a hard time moving with the 360 degree turn. The timing of the game was perfect except some difficult choices whether you fight with Nemesis or run for your life. That's why the new features aren't supposed to be introduced.

The Bottom Line
This is for the fans that doesn't have a Playstation in the past and now it's worth a lot of money if you didn't play an instant classic. RE3: Nemesis is one of the best games since the first Resident Evil game that started it all. If I was working in Raccoon City, I just want to keep an eye on my peers if I want to relive the incident all over again and try to stay alive. It's one of the best games you should buy before you die. The 90's will never be the same.

PlayStation · by Kadeem Gomez (31) · 2011

It's cool to play on the Gamecube, but nothing new here!

The Good
The cool thing about this game is, it really fills in the story from Resident Evil 2, and we all know what an excellent game that was. The one thing I really liked was the choose your own destiny type of scenario, at certain points in the game, two choices will come up, and you need to decide which you will go with, or it screws you over, but if you choose one of the choices, you will usually have to fight nemesis, or, run like a scared baby. Another cool thing with this Resident Evil is the gun powder mixing, you can combine a whole lot of varieties of gun powder and make yourself a whole lot of ammo, like me. I saved all the gun powder till the end of the game, and I mad so much magnum ammo, nothing had a chance. And this wouldn't be a Resident Evil without a bonus mini game in the form of Mercenaries: Operation Mad Jackal. In Mercenaries, you play as Carlos, Mikhail, or Nicholai, all ranging from easy to extremely hard(Nicholai). After choosing your character, you must go through Raccoon City with a bomb hidden somewhere on your person, taking out zombies in a chain of combos, and saving hostages. After accumulating points, you can buy weapons for the main game, such as an infinite assault rifle, an infinite rocket launcher, and infinite ammo. The last great thing about this game is the 180 turn mapped to the c stick, this is extremely helpful when fighting a whole horde of zombies, and you don't have the time to manually turn around.

The Bad
There isn't much not to like about his game, except for the fact that this is almost the same version as the Dreamcast Resident Evil 3, there are the same graphics, the same controls(except for the 180 degree turn mapped to the c stick), and the exact same game in general, no new rooms, no new enemies, not even a gallery mode. As much as I love the Resident Evil series, after the phenomenal Resident Evil remake, I think fans would have liked to see them do the same thing with this game, so, I guess what I'm trying to say is, sometimes sh... anyway, I really loved this game, but with the lack of new things all around, I can not recommend the buying of this game at the price it is set at. For anyone who wants to play this game, I suggest you buy either the Playstation or Dreamcast version, cause this is just not worth the price.

The Bottom Line
This is yet another great game in the Resident evil series, but, at the price they charge for this game, you could buy the Playstation or Dreamcast version at a third of the price.

GameCube · by Joshua Price (24) · 2006

Average sequel

The Good
This sequel has some replayability features I liked. The structure is less linear than its predecessors, so you have a wider range of tasks to complete and paths to go through. Also, you get the chance to make choices when you face dangerous situations, and the choices you make will affect the direction of the game. The ammo and goodies you encounter and the type of enemies you face will vary, their distribution in this game is random (but tending to be balanced). Jill's ability to create different kinds of ammunition by mixing different types of gunpowder also adds some versatility.

The graphics are on and off, but overall they are an improvement from the previous games. The scenarios tend to be atmospheric and well drawn, but in some places you see backgrounds that are blurry and artifacts with a pixelated look. Good thing is that the screen resolutions have increased.

The cinematic cutscenes are quite good, energetic and very well done; I was impressed (talk about those facial expressions!).

The sound effects are decent and the voice acting is competent. But the music score, although effective, is less impressive than in the first two games.

Gameplay wise, here we have some improvements too. While the gameplay system and the menu interface from the previous games remains the same, now your character can dodge or escape enemies and turn 180 degrees with these new combo moves. If a zombie grabs you the desperate keyboard tapping becomes actually useful!

The puzzles have a different tendency here. They are not so intrincated but are still challenging. They require you to think a little and not to spend too much time looking for keys and strange artifacts to open doors. This game is a little more action oriented. I approved that.

And "Nemesis", well, he is the big bad guy. An improved version of the Tyrant monster, this big boy is faster, nastier and with enough intelligence to mouth the word "Stars"… and to chase the hell out of you. "Nemesis" will appear during the game in several situations, and while he is normally easy to avoid, it's advisable that you learn to kick his ass, because when he dies he leaves some nice goodies for you to pick up (which is quite an incentive).

The Bad
Thing is, after the first installment the suspense and the style has gone trite. The plot is not very involving. The script is lazy. The characters have no interesting personalities, they lack development (and not to mention, good one liners). The voice acting is acceptable, but in no means superb (not much to do with such shallow characters anyway).

It lacks originality. I mean, nothing that much new under the sun here. We have a familiar game engine and the same camera annoyances that pissed me off in the previous games. The enemies, aside from the main bosses, are not very innovative nor too much of a challenge. The zombies are weak and their AI is uneven, they are not as threating as they used to be. The weapons are almost the same, not much of a new toy to kick some zombie ass here.

And what happened with the lickers? Those were bad asses.

You will find some annoyances. This game sometimes feels rushed and messy. In the PC version, while playing a game, if you want to quit and load a saved game, you have to let your character die or quit the game entirely (the F9 key now quits the game instantly!) and then run it again just to access the main menu. And the 15 second prologue that opens every time you load a game is unnecessary and is non-skipable. The controls for the new moves are uneven; for example, the dodging is confusing and sometimes difficult to perform correctly, which makes the game harder than it deserves. The little bugs here and there can actually freeze the game in certain parts.

The Bottom Line
Worth trying if you liked the previous games.

Windows · by Czar Husk Qi (27) · 2009

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

Book

A book adaptation of this game was published under the same name in 2000, the fifth in Pocket Books' Resident Evil series, written by S.D. Perry. The novel featured a preface by Perry stating that it was not canon with her other novels, as changes she had made in the previous novels would have prevented Resident Evil 3 from taking place.

Development

Resident Evil 3 began as BIOHAZARD Gaiden, a side story based around escaping Raccoon City. When the PS2 was announced Hideki Kamiya's BIOHAZARD 3 was changed to a PS2 title and renamed to BIOHAZARD 4 (This would later become Devil May Cry), while BIOHAZARD Gaiden was renamed to BIOHAZARD 3 and given a more important place in the overall Resident Evil story. Jill and the Nemesis were added to the game after this point.

German index

On May 31, 2000, the English version of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.

German version

In the German version, there are a number of changes (the cutscenes are not affected): * Zombie blood was coloured green * Killed enemies disappear almost instantly * Limbs can't be cut off and heads don't explode * In the Mercenary mode, unlocked after beating the game, no time bonus is rewarded for kills (except for animals). This makes it impossible to get a good ranking and unlock bonus content

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Movie

Carlos Oliveira, Nicholai Ginovef, Jill Valentine, and the Nemesis can be seen in the film Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Carlos, Jill, and The Nemesis are mostly the same as their game counterparts, but Nicholai was rewritten from a scheming combat veteran into a greenhorn with a hear of gold.

Sales

According to publisher Capcom, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has sold 3.5 million copies worldwide since its initial release (as of June 30, 2016).

Title

Producer Shinji Mikami was originally against calling this game Biohazard 3. He felt that Biohazard Code: Veronica, which advanced the story more than this game did, was the "true Biohazard 3" and that Biohazard 3 should've been called Biohazard 1.9.

-Source IMDB.com

Information also contributed by Emepol, NightKid32, Pseudo_Intellectual and Xoleras

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kasey Chang.

PS Vita added by GTramp. PlayStation 3 added by Shaun Dunham. GameCube added by Kartanym. PSP added by Sciere. Dreamcast, PlayStation added by Matthew Bailey.

Additional contributors: Alan Chan, Matthew Bailey, Unicorn Lynx, John Chaser, tarmo888, Foxhack, Xoleras, DreinIX, —-, Paulus18950, CalaisianMindthief, Patrick Bregger, Lain Crowley, Victor Vance.

Game added February 13, 2001. Last modified March 14, 2024.