3RRDC RE3 Nemesis

S.T.A.R.S!! Here we have resident evil 3: Nemesis, the third game in the
insanely popular resident evil survival horror series. This one tried a lot
of new things, and introduced new techniques to the game. But can
this playstation port bring the series justice on the dreamcast? Why
don't we ask the Nemesis himself.

It's always a good idea to play the first game in the series and then
play the next games in order, especially with resident evil, which is
very much story based as the events in the first game lead into the
next which leads into this one. Nemesis takes place both before and
after resident evil 2. The hero of this game is Jill Valentine, One of the
elite S.T.A.R.S. members from the first game. After the events of the
first game, she now finds herself trying to escape the not so quiet town
of Raccoon city. Due to the horrible outbreak of the t-virus from
Umbrella inc. all the residents of the town have been turned into
zombies. But just getting out of the town won't be her only problem. A
new tyrant like creature, the NEMESIS is hell bent on finding and killing
all remaining s.t.a.r.s. members. With the aid of Carlos Oliveira, a
mercenary working for Umbrella she may stand a chance. But what
grizzly surprises await our heroes? Overall I tend to enjoy the resident
evil plot line. The addition of the super cool nemesis was excellent.
While Carlos may not be the best character in the series, he's not as
annoying as Steve Burnside from RE:CV.

Nemesis is probably the easiest traditional resident evil game. I feel
that more emphasis was put on action than on puzzles in this one. New
gameplay additions to the series were the ability to dodge oncoming
zombies, a quick 180 degree turn to escape zombies, and the ability to
mix ammo by finding gun powders. The other new addition to gameplay
is the "live selection". In certain parts of the game you will have to
quickly choose between two different story branches. Example: two
boxes are about to fall on you while you are dangling over a hole. Do
you jump down in the hole, or climb on top of the boxes. In some
events, some choices will lead you into more dangerous situations
with the Nemesis. It's a really cool addition that is unfortunately
unique to this game.

Besides those additions, gameplay is very much like any other resident
evil. Shoot zombies, but conserve ammo, solve puzzles, find items, heal
with herbs, find ink ribbons, save the game on the typewriter. Store
items in the item box, read in game memos, and some backtracking to
locations you've already been to switch items. A lot of people have
complained about the controls, but honestly I have never seen
anything wrong with them. It was Harvest moon back to nature on ps1
that needed your tears not the r.e. series. Nemesis was heavier on
action than puzzles, which were a much larger part in resident evil 2.

Now you can't go into this game and hope for (back then when it was
released) Resident evil: Code Veronica graphics. This is a playstation
port and it shows. But back when capcom released re2&3 on dc, they
were priced at $20.00 each. Now they have rererereleased them again
on gamecube, with a price of about $40-50 each. I recommend you get
the cheaper dc version. It is my understanding that re3 for dc is a port
of the pc version. So there is higher resolution than the ps1 version.
But even though the graphics are dated they aren't bad. This Re, like
the first two, didn't use real time graphics for the background, so while
not technically as amazing, they still look excellent and feature a good
deal of detail. The zombies look much more detailed in this game than
they did in resident evil 2. Throw in some zombie dogs, crows, and
some new surprises and the undead selection is a hit. When I first got
the game I was let down by the graphics, I was expecting re:cv. But I
had to realize that this one was made before, and it's just as enjoyable
of a game. Also sprinkled across the game are short fmv cut scenes.
The quality of which, has greatly improved since resident evil 2.

Spooky sounds all around in Nemesis. I like playing resident evil games
while putting the sound through head phones. Then you can make out
each zombie groan and know where it's coming from. The music is
mostly the same creepy sad minimal stuff we've come to hear from the
series with a few tense tracks through the more intense situations.
Voice acting is good. Jill keeps her same voice actress from the
original playstation re:1 and all the other characters have decent
voices. I don't know why people always rag on resident evil's voice
acting. After the first game capcom did a better job. It's not the best
voice acting in the world but it's loads better then "the house of the
dead 2"'s voice acting. Note that characters mouths do not move
when speaking. Also all the weapons sound good. But the winner of the
character with the best voice is the nemesis. He looks freaky and
sounds even freakier. Just hearing the guy will have you going around
to your friends and muttering "s.t.a.r.s."

Like any resident evil there's always stuff to unlock. Capcom made it
easier for dreamcast users though. Unlockables from the original
version are made already available from the start such as new
costumes for Jill (some were new for the dc version) and a bonus
Mercenaries mode, where you play as Umbrella members trying to get
a bomb out of you body. My favorite extras are the epilogues. Each
time you beat the game you get a new epilogue, and I believe there are
8 total. They tell what happens to the various characters after the
events of re 2 and 3, and they lead into cv and the upcoming re 4. Right
now I'm working on getting the sixth one. I've played through nemesis
5 times already and now playing it a sixth time! That's more than my 4
times with resident evil 2. The first time you play, it should probably
take you no more than 10 hours to beat the game. But once you've
played through it, you'll be able to beat it in about 5 hours or less. Also
the music played when your looking at epilogues is fantastic. A very
sad piece.

I really liked Nemesis. But where would I rank it in the series? I think I
liked it better than 2, but since re:cv was my first one, that's special to
me. It's better than zero, but not as good as remake, overall though it
is one of the better resident evil games, and because of the nemesis,
one of the most memorable. I think you might wanna play REmake on
your gamecube if you have one first, but it shouldn't be too hard to
figure out what's going on. Playstation graphics aside, this game is
excellent. And don't forget to pick up re:2 and re:Cv on dc!

Review by: Orochi Sonic