Resident Evil 3

There's something to say about brevity. A game that knows how long it should stick around. Resident Evil 3 does that perfectly. You can beat the game in 6 hours if you sort of tool around or 2 hours if you try to do a speedrun. 

I was very excited when the Resident Evil 3 remake was announced. Capcom did us well with the Resident Evil 2 remake, so I had every expectation that running through the streets of Racoon City with new controls and updated graphics, would be a satisfying experience.

The original Resident Evil 3 was my first ever preorder game. I remember standing in my Babbages, watching the Resident Evil 3 intro over and over again the fuzzy 8 inch display on the counter, and handing $60 over to the cashier. (Why would they let a 15 year old preorder a game without a parent?)

I had my mom drive me to the mall the Tuesday of release to pick the game up. I had already cleared out any homework I had. I had important things to do. Put on my mini-skirt and bandolier, and head out onto the zombie filled streets. It was time again to enter the world of survival horror. 

Most people forget everything about Resident Evil 3 except for the titular Nemesis. Well as someone that blew a lot of allowance to secure Resident Evil 3 on the PS1, I know this game very well. I played it enough to unlock every ending. I played it beyond the 9 times you had to play it to get every ending. 

You had a hint of Umbrella having some splinter factions within the organization in RE2. A few rogue scientist, a shady police chief willing to do anything for a paycheck, but RE3 proved it. 

A mercenary group made up of mostly Eastern Europeans and South Americans were hired by Umbrella for cleanup, rescue, and recovery. You found files that suggested Umbrella knew who was loyal, who was expendable, and who was an outright enemy. 

Most of the mercenary group knew they were there to rescue certain targets and help civilians as a secondary objective. But within this mercenary group, some of the members are working for another contingent at Umbrella that are there to gather combat data on the monsters and eliminate problems for Umbrella. 

Capcom updated the layout of Raccoon City in a way that makes more sense. The original RE3 was aesthetically pleasing, but there were a lot of diagonals and zigzagging alleyways that didn't make much sense in a city planning sort of way. There were random garages and store rooms off of alleyways. 

Now we have a modern midwestern town laid out in a more grid pattern with a toy shop, pharmacy, diner. 

The characters also got updated. 

Jill in the original was just a strong woman in a mini-skirt. They didn't address the horrors she saw during the mansion incident. In the remake, we see the affects of PTSD causing Jill great strife. She's also dressed more comfortably and functional. 

Carlos in the original game was constantly assaulting Jill with pickup lines. In this one, he actually treats her like a human, tells her she's doing a good job... ok, there's also an occasional pickup line. His hair went from pixelated parted hair to some sort of poofed out mess.

Mikhail is actually one that is done dirty in the new game. He played a pivotal part in the original game, in this one he's relegated to roughly one scene. Mikhail was supposed to be Nikolai's foil. Showing you that you can see some war horrors and still have a conscience. 

And Nikolai... they took some of his mystery. In the original Resident Evil 3, you knew the bastard was against you, but you didn't now if he was an Umbrella loyalist or a mercenary. In the new Resident Evil 3, guy is all about that money. 

If I had one complaint about the new Resident Evil 3 is that they don't encourage you to explore very much. It's constantly pushing you to the next objective. What I liked about the Resident Evil 2 remake was how you never felt rushed. You were always thinking of the best way around the police station to get you to where you need to go. And you could accomplish that route in a dozen ways. 

Resident Evil 3 has a couple small areas where there's 2-3 routes, but generally, you're along for the ride as Nemesis chases you through the streets. 

But really, it's a small complaint. The ridiculous puzzles known to Resident Evil are still there, but explained in a way where you just think this town is a little eccentric and has too much money. The story beats hit every few minutes. The places you visit are familiar, yet interesting. 

Ultimately, Capcom took one of their most forgotten Resident Evil games and updated it for a new generation of people. I don't know that RE3 set the world on fire, but there's at least a few million new gamers endeared to Jill Valentine. This opens up a world where Capcom could move forward with an alternate universe where in 1998, this game set the world on fire and we continued following around Jill instead of moving on to Claire and Billy in Code Veronica.