Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

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.

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.

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.