Resident Evil 3: Remake - Game Infinite Review

I am new to the Resident Evil franchise, and only just got around to 2020's Resident Evil 3 Remake. This is one of those that interested me, but I didn't get to in time for the Top 10 2020's end of year event. Had I played it at release, I think it could have been a Top 10 contender for sure.

2019’s RE2 Remake was my first entry in the franchise, and despite never finishing it, I was intrigued by the franchise. It wasn’t until Resident Evil 3 Remake that I really fell in love with the franchise. Because of 3, I feel motivated to go back and finish 2, and I am very excited for the recent look at upcoming Resident Evil Village.

I just finished Resident Evil 3 Remake last night as of beginning writing this, and I realize that some fans were disappointed with the length. I will say that I share the desire for it to be longer, The campaign only takes 4-6 hours depending on difficulty, how quickly you discover items, solve puzzles, and progress locations. If ai did a second play though, I could probably cut that time in half now knowing all the locations and solutions. I am not the tupe of gamer that directly corelates game length to the overall quality. There are only so many hours in my day, and sometimes I feel like I’d qI would have liked a longer story only because I was enjoying the experience so much and wanted more.

I see the reasons that RE2 received more critical and fan praise than 2, but for me I enjoyed 3 even more. I enjoyed the focus on narrative more than puzzle solving. Resident Evil 3 is clearly a narrative story with events happening, where Resident Evil 2 is much more a “haunted house simulator” where you must over come lack of supplies and random puzzles to simply progress to different parts of the building you spend the game in. Where the combat in RE2 focuses on avoiding fights and running away, Resident Evil gives you more powerful weapons and enemies earlier on. I felt free to shoot my way through RE3 where RE2 seemed to punish you for using your weapons. RE3 is more zombie shooter and RE2 is more survival horror, and I just preferred the experience in 3 more.

I also enjoyed how much more open an diverse the locals are in RE3. RE3, while not “open world” and still very much linear, felt more open and sees Jill travel across multiple locations in town, where RE2 feels more claustrophobic being secluded mostly to a single building for the first main bit. It felt less of a puzzle ridden chore to travel to the next location, and opens up sooner and more often. I also enjoyed the lesser importance of back tracking that seemed excessive in RE2.

In my playthrough of RE2 I played as Claire, and I just felt like Jill in RE3 expressed far more personality. She is funny, sarcastic, and her on going war with Nemesis gave me major Alien vibes.

While Resident Evil 3 is admittedly too short for the value expected in original 60$ price tag, so I must only recommend it in the 20-35$ range. It does come with a free “mode” which while installed as a separate game is essen a multiplayer mode that does offer more on going value, but I will review separately. If you enjoy shorter but quality story experiences, and dont mind it if a game clocks in 4-6 hours than I recommend it highly. If not, than wait to hit hits a big sale, as it is admittedly hard to justify at 60$ even with the free multiplayer mode.