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)

Not the best in the series...

The Good
It's Resident Evil! Jill's back from the first game! Zombies are still loose in the streets of Raccoon City! If you liked the first two games, what's not to like?

Oh, and still heaps more story... RE3:Nemesis happens roughly simultaneously with the events of RE2 (Jill even visits the police station where most of RE2 occurs, in fact), but THIS time, she's being hunted by the Umbrella Corporation's relentless inhuman assassination machine -- the Nemesis, a sort of tentacled undead Terminator thing, who pops up periodically in the game to kick the living poopie out of you as you try to escape the doomed city...

The Bad
What? Only one character? The previous two games let you play either of TWO characters. True, at one point you do get to play Carlos (the Umbrella Corporation mercenary who helps Jill out occasionally), but it's not the same thing.

The puzzles, which were loads of fun in the first game, and only slightly out of place in the second, now become remarkably intrusive. Why does the downtown park fountain in Raccoon City operate on a gear puzzle? First the mansion from the first game, then the police station and sewer in the second game, and now the entire downtown area is based on puzzles? What the hell? Is Raccoon City infested with puzzle freaks, or what?

The game's creator, perhaps wishing to add more complexity and depth, introduced an element where, by using a loading device and "gunpowder A" and "gunpowder B", you can make different kinds of ammunition for your various weapons. It's an unnecessary complication, really, and a waste of space and memory that could have been used better.

Despite being a considerably newer game, the graphics haven't gotten any better, since this was the last RE game created for the original Playstation... sigh

...and since it's a PS1 port, get the gamepad peripheral out if you want to play this one on the PC. Otherwise, you WILL have control problems.

The Bottom Line
Third-person zombie shoot in downtown Raccoon City. The original RE was largely a horror movie... whereas this one goes more for the action/shootemup style, sacrificing any last vestiges of spooky atmosphere for the kind of scares you get when something horrible leaps out of the closet at you. This isn't necessarily bad... but it's not what made the first two great, either.

Windows · by Dr.Bedlam (55) · 2002

Boring!

The Good
I refuse to write anything here, it would defy my existence as a human being.

The Bad
Um... where to start. There's so much bad about this game I could throw up. It's fascinating how Capcom can make a game series so much worse with each game. The voice acting is still horrible, and is actually worse than the prequel. The storyline... oh, I really don't want to even mention it. Read my review about the prequel, read what I said about the storyline there and multiply it by ten, then you got my opinion about the storyline in this game. The tradition of insanely simple puzzles is enforced very well, it's now more crappier than ever and has now descended to the level of being mere open-door-with-key-"puzzles". It can now truly be called a mere action game, you start with an M16 which was seen as a super powerful game in the prequel (where which you only had the weapon in the last moments in the ending) which is absurd thinking that a revolver in the first game was blessing to have. And the zombies are now everywhere, but they just go down like flies.

There's more bad things to mention, but I don't see the point, a bad game is a bad game, simple as that.

The Bottom Line
Okay, in the two last prequel's review I said the games could be enjoyable to a degree. That has completely ended now. This is no game which you could enjoy all in all. Yes, there is actually some very few good points, the music isn't bad, the new costumes you can get through a secret is cool, and the graphics isn't that bad. But that's it. There's absolutely no other nice thing about the game. It's crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, and utter craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap! The wierdos who loved RE1 and 2 to death and see Resident Evil as a religion will perhaps like this game. All other persons should scream at sight with this game, and eat all copies of the game so no one can behold how completely awful this game is. There's no word in the dictionary which can sufficiently describe how much I hate this game.

PlayStation · by Kate Jones (416) · 2001

Something of a disappointment, but nevertheless addictive

The Good
RE3 continues to create the same atmos-fear generated by its predecessors. The first time you play the game, you will feel totally on edge by the time you get to the Train. Zombies burst in from windows and out of abandoned cars. Crows smash through crashed bus windows. Many-armed creatures that I never bothered to learn the names of drop from the ceiling and race to embrace you in their death grip. RE3 also sees the return of the Hunters of the first game, leaping great lengths to swipe your head off. The variety of mutated creatures gives a challenge to even the experienced Resi player. The arsenal has also been up-dated - as have the methods for upgrading weapons. Instead of merely being given add-ons for your weapons, you now have to assemble them from parts dropped by the Nemesis everytime you defeat him. Prizes include two parts for the Desert Eagle handgun, two parts for the M37 shotgun, and infinite ammo (extremely handy). The arsenal now includes your near-useless knife, a Berata pistol, an M35 shotgun, a grenade launcher with four different kinds of ammo (Grenade, Acid, Flame, Freeze), a Magnum, and a fully automatic machine gun. Towards the end stages of the game, it is also possible to add a rocket launcher to your inventory. Also, instead of being handed over infinite weapons upon completion of the game, the lifespan is increased somewhat by the unlockable sub-game, in which you may play as any of the three mercenaries and must get from the Train to the warehouse saveroom, saving as many civilians as possible and killing all varieties of monster in order to earn extra seconds to complete the subgame. Cash is earned each time you play, and the prizes can be used the next time you play by the main game: Infinite Machine Gun, Gattling Gun, or Rocket Launcher, or Infinite ammo. Another plus point of RE3 is the ability to create ammo using the Reloading Tool and various gunpowders. This is an extension of the mixing system used in Dino Crisis, and adds another dimension to the game. Finally, there are more high-resolution FMVs in RE3, adding a cinematic characteristic that makes the game more beautiful. In my opinion anyway.

The Bad
Now for the bad. Although the atmosphere is still fantastic, essentially there is nothing new in this game. The storyline differs little from the previous titles, and the epynonomous character, the Nemesis, is little more than a rehash of the Tyrant-103 of RE2. Where the game differs is also its downfall. RE3 uses "Live Selection", wherein you must make a decision in a set amount of time, or something worse than either option will happen to you. There are several of these, and whilst replaying the game, you may be disappointed to discover that choosing different options does not change the gameplay much. Finally, the difficulty settings are irritating. Choose from Hard or Easy - seems fair enough, doesn't it? Only, in the Easy version, you are given infinite ink ribbon, a fully-loaded machine gun with two extra cartridges, 250 bullets for the Bereta, the Shotgun + 56 shells, the Magnum with 18 bullets, and a full pack-of-three First Aid Sprays. Forgive me for being an action junkie, but where the hell did the action and fun go?! On the other hand, the Hard difficulty is devilishly difficult, and I felt that this didn't allow someone playing it for the first time to have a decent overview of the game.

The Bottom Line
Die-hard Resi fans WILL be disappointed, but if you are new to the series, it may be the best game to start on.

PlayStation · by Gaz Whyte (5) · 2004

[ 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 20, 2024.