The Resident Evil franchise was riding high after the release of its second installment. Perfect scores and gaming awards were rained down on the game. Fans were again calling for another game, begging for more monsters and mayhem. With record sales Capcom was happy to give fans what they wanted. 

With Resident Evil 2 doing so well, Capcom could have rested on the formula they’d set. Slower gameplay in a claustrophobic environment has worked well twice now. But just like its monsters, Resident Evil is always evolving and growing with every new entry. 

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was a much larger and more ambitious game than the first two games. The game is action packed and has a larger map than the first two games combined. Could playing with the formula continue the successes of the franchise or did Capcom reach too high with their ambitions? To learn the answer, we must once again enter the world of survival horror. 

(Spoilers for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis 1999 & 2020)

How Horror Switched Things Up

Resident Evil 3 kept the same regular systems from the first two games. Tank controls, fixed camera angles, and item management all come back again, but each tweaked and optimized. The fixed camera gets the least amount of changes with just a few fixed but panning camera shots, and improved graphics taxing the PlayStation’s capabilities. 

The biggest system change is to the tank controls. The movement is still the same, but the new addition of a dodge button changes the way movement and combat are approached. In the older games you planted your feet, took aim, and fired; spacing and timing mattered the most when dealing with enemies. With the dodge button being added, combat is a little less deliberate, giving a chance to dodge a zombie grabbing you or to roll away from an enemy claw. This changes the feel of the game, now being much faster and feeling more visceral and quick. 

With all this new action opportunity, item management needed to change as well. Resident Evil 3 has fewer puzzles than the other games, so juggling keys and cranks isn’t the problem anymore. Now we are given gun powder mixes. Combining these mixes creates extra ammunition that can be used against the many monsters of the game, giving the player the freedom to supply the weapon they like the most. This ammo will be needed, because Raccoon City is much more than just a police station in this game. 

Horror Claims the City

Resident Evil 1 and 2 were rather claustrophobic games, being set in small locations with locked doors and backtracking making up a lot of the gameplay. Resident Evil 3 changes this by giving the player a chance to see all of Raccoon City falling to the infection. From subway stations to city hospitals, even to the city clock tower, the player will make their way across the city slowly working towards escape. 

Resident Evil 3 starts before the start of Resident Evil 2. In the second game we got to see the aftermath of the zombie outbreak, giving us a Raccoon City that has already died. Resident Evil 3 shows us a city still alive and in the process of taking its last breaths. With fires still raging and bodies still being eaten on the sidewalks, we see the toll an outbreak takes on the everyday citizens, well before Leon and Clair come to clean up the mess. 

One Character to Fight the Fear

The first two Resident Evil games are known for having two main characters, giving you the option of whom to play from the start. Resident Evil 3 yet again changes this part of the formula with only one character, the returning Jill Valentine. Jill was a member of the Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team (Special Tactics and Rescue Service), the team of characters from the first game. Many fans wanted to know what happened to the characters once they left the confines of the Spencer Mansion. 

Jill gives us a first hand perspective of the fall of Raccoon City. She lived in Raccoon City, it was her home, and as a member of law enforcement, tried to protect the citizens that are now eating each other. You even find out she was trying to warn people about the T-Virus and the possibility of an outbreak, only to be publicly denounced and blamed for the deaths of her teammates. 

Jill stands out in this game as much more of an action hero. In the first Resident Evil she felt slow and weak, something that helped set a tone of horror. In Resident Evil 3, Jill feels like a zombie-killing machine. She’s had time with zombies and monsters in the Spencer Mansion, and it feels like she knows how to handle them.

Horror Runs You Down

As we talked about before, the first two games were claustrophobic and atmospheric, letting the horror come from the environment and scarcity of resources. With Jill knowing the streets of Raccoon City and how to handle monsters, Resident Evil 3 had to find a different type of horror to feature. 

Constant pressure is the fear creeping in for Resident Evil 3. Something is always pressing you forward. In the earlier games, you always had time to think and plan what you are going to do, but here you are never really given time. The game will always have a large amount of enemies creeping in on you or some kind of timer forcing you to move as fast as you can. 

Fear is the Nemesis

The Nemesis is not just a cool sounding subtitle, but is the most memorable part of Resident Evil 3. It’s a new monster sent to Raccoon City with one goal: kill the remaining members of S.T.A.R.S. by whatever means necessary. This means that this new monster will be coming for you the entire game. He will pursue you through most of the game, even following you through doors to other sections of the map, something that the monsters of Resident Evil hadn’t done yet. 

This constant pursuit not only adds to the constant pressure of the game; introducing a feeling of paranoia to the game. “He’s out there somewhere,” that will be going through your mind most of the game, giving you the feeling of being hunted. This fear is doubled when seeing how fast the Nemesis is, being much faster than Jill. He will run you down if you don’t act quickly. 

Another brilliant choice for this monster was a small amount of intelligence. In the past games, none of the monsters really seemed smart at all, only running on instinct. The Nemesis is much smarter, being able to use weapons, at one point even welding a rocket launcher. He can also speak, saying only the word “Stars” as he chases you, another reminder that he’s only there to destroy you. 

A Simple Story

Resident Evil 3 starts with a literal explosion, a much different start to that past slow build. Jill crashes through a wall from her apartment into a hoard of zombies, instantly putting the pressure on.

Right away the goal is clear, leave the city. The rest of the story is actually very simple. You have to escape the city no matter what, even with the Nemesis tracking you down at every turn. You don’t have to do this all alone though. In tradition with the earlier games, we are given a playable partner character. Carlos Olivera is a UBCS mercenary, a private military group owned by Umbrella and sent to help civilians escape. This is a lie Carlos and his team were told, they are really sent into the city for “combat data,” the same strange objective of Wesker in Resident Evil 1. Carlos doesn’t know how evil Umbrella is, a fact Jill is all too happy to share with him. 

You have to fight your way through Raccoon City while avoiding the Nemesis. This isn’t an easy task, but the amount of weapons and the new dodge button give you a bit of help. The biggest challenge will be the Nemesis himself, always hunting for you, but you can fight him. The Nemesis is fast and dangerous, being able to kill you in just a couple hits, but if you can take him down it’s worth the risk. You may only take him down temporarily, but he will drop some kind of supplies or weapon upgrades. 

At one point Jill is infected, leaving it up to Carlos to save her. He gets his own section of the game, slowly completing puzzles and fighting monsters while finding a cure. He even gets to have his own fight with the Nemesis. Carlos is able to find the cure for Jill. Recovering from this infection takes several days, giving time for the story of Resident Evil 2’s story to take place. 

As always with Resident Evil, you will inevitably find yourself in a secret Umbrella lab. Jill is looking for a cure to save the infected people of the city. When you are close to escaping, a new kind of countdown begins. The government has decided to nuke Raccoon City as a way to contain the zombie spread. You are given a small radar device that tracks the missile as it travels ever closer to the city. 

Finally killing the Nemesis with an experimental rail cannon, Jill has to escape quickly. Once again you are saved by a helicopter, the last helicopter out of the city. You exit the city with Carlos as the bomb goes off behind the helicopter. Jill survives to fight another day, vowing to take down the Umbrella Corporation and anyone that helped with the virus. 

The Lingering Horror

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis started the franchise on a new path, one that wasn’t afraid of action set pieces and spectacle. The success of the game showed Capcom that experimenting with the formula can lead to big success. This has both harmed and helped the franchise along the way, with some future attempts being critical and commercial failures and some literally changing the gaming industry. 

Resident Evil 3 also marked the end of the original PlayStation era of the franchise, with the series moving to different consoles in the next generation of game systems. The franchise was moving on, even atomizing Raccoon City to cement this fact. A bright future looked like it was in store for the series. 

A Lesson of Horror

Resident Evil continues the series trend of perseverance. You can have a very difficult time surviving the trip through Raccoon City. Several boss battles or encounters with the Nemesis may make you continue from past save files. At this point, perseverance is a staple of the series, as trial and error is a constant in the franchise. 

Another lesson that can be learned is from the female experience. Jill is followed by a monster that looks like a male. The nemesis won’t take “no” for an answer, and though he wants to kill Jill, the tentacles coming out of his body definitely have a phallic look to them. A scary situation for any woman dealing with a creep in the real world is intensified to be scary for anyone, giving all audiences a small glimpse into what many women have to live with. 

A Personal Horror

Resident Evil 3 was yet another important experience for me as a kid. Jill was the pretty lady from the first game, and now I got to play as her again. I was excited to see what she was doing and how she would destroy monsters again, and her semi-revealing costume. I was excited for more Resident Evil; more scares, monsters, and zombies. 

Just like with the first game, I wasn’t ready for this type of gaming experience. Resident Evil 3 has much more action and is less forgiving in combat. I hadn’t played a game with these kinds of controls that required me to be that fast. It took me a long time to finally beat the game. I hated Resident Evil 3. I thought it was too hard, too much action, and the Nemesis was too tough. 

Now that I’ve aged and gotten spoiled by many action and horror titles, going back was a joy. As a kid I couldn’t understand what the game was doing. I didn’t know the different kinds of horror that a game can display, I just knew it wasn’t slow and spooky. As I’ve aged I can appreciate the nuances of horror in all its forms, bringing me a new appreciation for the game. 

As of now Resident Evil 3 isn’t my favorite game in the franchise, and isn’t a lot of people’s favorite, but I still enjoy it. I can enjoy the game every time now, and I can enjoy Jill a lot… which is why my wife often cheers for the Nemesis during the battles.

Thank you for reading.