In such a controversial and sad period, Capcom brightens our days with the new Resident Evil 3 Remake. We have returned to experience the horror in Raccoon City and are ready to bear witness to it.
Version tested: PC
It was the year 1999, still paid with the lira and the album Californication broke all sales records. There were no smartphones, smart TVs, social controversies and so on, and to pass the time there were much simpler and more congenial ways. There were no console wars, since the two queens of the market were PlayStation and the unforgettable Nintendo 64. In this panorama, with a series that had already shown its muscles and decided the market - together with final Fantasy di Nomura -, Capcom released to the world Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. And, exactly in this sad and not very happy period, he did it again, giving us a sublime product: Resident Evil 3 Remake.
After 21 very long years, we are back in the old one Raccoon City, today in a new and beautiful guise, and we lived it with the same lump in the throat linked to the uncertainty of existence and the persistent threat of such a lethal enemy, which never makes us feel small, helpless and - ultimately - useless as in this title. Our only chance of survival, linked to the existence of a vaccine, inevitably does nothing but reinforce the parallelism with our current reality. Obviously not wanted or even planned, but sublime.
"Dress up as Jill Valentine that I do your Nemesis"
Paraphrasing a famous song, what really works in this title is the report between Jill Valentine and Nemesis. It works, it is pressing and perfect. The enemy has disappeared from the game title, and that's it. A move definitely wanted, to ensure that the new generation does not expect such a ferocious and insistent threat within the game. Jill exists because the Nemesis exists, and viceversa. Their lives are so elegantly intricate that it is a pleasure to witness theirs evolution - psychological for the first e physics for the second - throughout the narrative. But let's start with order.
Raccoon City, 27 September 1998. After having a nightmare, STARS agent Jill Valentine is preparing to go to bed. However, a call from a colleague forces her to flee. Not even time to unplug that phone a giant creature bursts into her room through the wall and immediately attempts to kill her. From there begins a daring escape from that entity, and that is certainly the moment when Jill's life will change profoundly.
Already from the first bars you can see how Resident Evil 3 Remake you bet a lot on inspiring anxiety and fear. Our agent's escape from the condo is desperate, claustrophobic, always on the alert with the fear that that monster could grab us and kill us. And during these sequences it will keep marking us, trying to fulfill its purpose, and it really does if we wait or miss a move. He is not a puppet, a sprite or an avatar put there to make us jump out of the chair. He really kills.
Once out of the building, the real thing will begin prologue, where we will be shown the main mechanics of the title. And then he comes back. Just as we are about to make it, just as we are about to leave for good Raccoon City. And he will keep coming back, always. Because it is us that he wants and we are not willing to leave ourselves to him. They are mechanics that work. Whenever that beast appears on the screen, the heart tightens e despair advances. No one knows how to beat him, he seems invincible. It runs after us, and at what speed! We can always and only escape, until certain moments in which we are forced to turn around and face it.
The growth of Jill we find it and live it in these details. She is initially afraid, she - like us who drive her - only thinks about running away, finding a safe haven, where she can convince herself that what she is experiencing is not true. But there comes a time when he gets bored, he can't take it anymore. And only then from prey she becomes a hunter, and we with her. There comes a time when we understand that there is only one way to leave everything behind. And that way is a shotgun with lots of bullets for our giant hunter.
Their relationship ends the opposite of how it started. During the course of the game, fear and anxiety give way to confidence in one's means. Mentally we always think that the worst is over, and this gives us the strength to face even more the new threats that lie ahead. We are no longer afraid, we no longer have the tightness of the heart. Rather, we can't wait to put an end to the miserable existence of a being that is now only the specter of what it initially was.
You couldn't live without me
During the adventure we will get to know other characters, more or less important. FromSTARS agent Brad Vickers to UBCS agents Carlos Olivera, Nikolai Zinoviev, Mikhail Victor e Tyrell Patrick. The beauty of these secondaries and supporting actors certainly lies in their characterization. Each of them - except Brad, but I'll let you find out why you'll play the title - is unique, and unlike many games where secondaries are almost forgotten, they can easily be distinguished based on character traits.
Over the course of the adventure, we will play the role of Carlos Olivera. Sessions with this character are much more action and less survival than phases with Jill, and this difference is only beneficial in the economy of the narrative. This for several reasons, listed below:
- Carlos is an agent in charge of evacuating the city and is equipped with real military equipment, Jill she is taken by surprise and her escape is daring and desperate;
- Jill groping in the dark, Carlos ha Tyrell covering his shoulders and showing him the path, guiding him;
- Carlos he has no living closet that relentlessly tries to kill him on his heels.
Also in this case, their relationship works great. Their alchemy is perceptible from the first moment they meet, and it continues to grow in tone scene after scene. Also the action movie touch given to the cutscenes is perfect, and it is the ideal glue to hold unchanged the quality and the frenzy of the narration. In Resident Evil 3 Remake you never rest. And the sooner you understand it the first you experience the adventure as it should be lived.
Super girl
After making a hat regarding storytelling and protagonists, it's time to take action. Sooner or later a weapon must be held and now is the time. The title offers few weapons, six for Jill and three for Carlos. But each is animated in a unique way. While the second is a specialist in the medium / long range, with a respectable assault rifle, the first has to make do with pistols, a shotgun and a grenade launcher. This difference forces the player to change the approach based on the character they control. More light-hearted with Carlos, more cautious with Jill.
In addition, as you go up in difficulty, la lack of ammunition heavily impacts gameplay and gunplay, forcing the user to study the map and exploit environmental situations that allow you to clean an area with very few shots compared to the choice of shooting one by one at the zombie. The environment, in fact, is a great friend: electric traps, explosive barrels, proximity mines. There is a decent variety of tools and objects to turn to your benefit, just take advantage of it.
A pity that the puzzles can be counted on the fingers of one hand, exactly three safes and two combination lockers. The challenge they present is accurate and forces the player to look around well, and for this reason personally I would have liked a few more.
Il backtrackinginstead, it is wonderful. It's amazing how the game forces you in some stages to retrace your steps to open that safe or unhinge that lock or whatever. And it does it without being heavy. You never get that "Oh my God, he could do other than waste time" effect. Far from it, it seems that the main purpose becomes "wasting time".
La soundtrack is vaguely hinted at, leaving everything in the hands of ambient noises. A choice that rewards, since not listening to music does not make you understand the possible dangerous situation or alienate from the context. You are in a zombie-infested city, you have to survive. The ear - and the heart - focuses on squeaks, footsteps, noises from a distance, squeaks and metallic screeches that announce that enemies are coming for you, and certainly not to greet you.
Raccoon City in the heart
Although the main story is decidedly short, the game doesn't end with the credits. Personally, my first game, completely unaware of the mechanics, I finished it in almost 5 hours. However, the game features a nice challenge system which allows you to unlock items and tricks from a virtual shop. Not only that, the title presents two hidden difficulties, unlockable by completing the game each time at the maximum difficulty at that time possible.
Finally, each difficulty features a ranking from climb to get the S rank, rank that is assigned on the number of saves made and the time taken to finish the game. But you dive so much into it Raccoon City that the first thing that came to me as soon as I completed the storyline was to restart a new game. And as I'm writing, I'm almost at the end of the second - and not the last - playthrough.
In short, the sterile controversy at launch regarding duration was blown away like dust on a windy day, since the title offers so many challenges that you hardly want to give up on the first game as if it were over there, and nothing else.
Online component
Resident Evil 3 Remake also offers an online appendix, titled Resident Evil: Resistance. The same is able to offer a few hours of leisure to those who, between one game and another, want to interact with other players. Its asymmetrical style differs from the standard canons of the series, and is strong based on the idea of any multiplayer: playing with other people.
If others don't play each for themselves, the mode is also fun. Not only that, the ability to control historical opponents of the series such as the Tyrant and others will appeal to a lot of users, and no doubt the idea of playing bad guys will hit the hearts of many fans.
In summary, the mode is nice, but it has to be taken as an appendix. Resident Evil 3 Remake is 99% the adventure of Jill Valentine, stop.
Conclusions
Resident Evil 3 Remake is a title that deserves attention and purchase. The criticisms that rained down on him in the days before the launch were unfair as Capcom offered such a short but well-finished product, with solid storytelling and rock-solid gameplay. Reducing everything to the short duration of the story is not good for either the product or a market that - apparently - seems to be redirecting towards the open world, dropping into an unfair limbo of indifference titles that certain mechanics do not offer to the detriment. than others much more structured.
To make a parallel, Resident Evil 3 Remake offers a similar base life to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and - like the same - it deserves the purchase regardless of the price at which it is offered. Escape from Nemesis it's a bit like running away from problems. You can escape wherever you want, but you will never be free until you turn around and finally decide to face them.
