Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Published by Capcom
Developed by Capcom
Platform: GameCube
Released - 30th May 2003
Price : £29.99

May 30th 2003 will be a memorable day for fans of the Resident Evil series on GameCube. Not only will it see the release of Resident Evil 2, it will also see the release of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Unlike Resident Evil 2 though, Resident Evil 3 added a few new aspects to the Resident Evil gameplay and the game has a much quicker pace to it than any of the previous titles.

The game is set just before the events of Resident Evil 2 and sees the return of Jill Valentine as the leading character. The game is only set a couple of hours before the events of Resident Evil 2 though, so Raccoon City is still Zombie infested and it's up to Jill, who was originally intending to leave Raccoon City for good, to once again sort the horrific mess out. You don't get to control Jill all the way through the game though as she becomes infected and knocked unconscious. At this point you'll have to control Carlos Oliveira who must seek out a cure for Jill.

So what's different this time around then? Well as the title might suggest you have to deal with an awesome enemy known as Nemesis. There are quite a few parts of the game where he will be in pursuit of you and you have to be really careful not to get caught by him, unless of course you're heavily armed. There are now 10 different types of enemies and some of these will even come back to life to create an even more challenging game. You now have a dodge feature that allows you avoid an enemy's attack by pressing the R button, useful if you're out of ammo. Ammo can be made with gunpowder that you'll come across in the game using the reloading tool. The herbs that you find can now be mixed too. To add that extra bit of drama to the gameplay there is even a feature called Live Selection. In certain parts of the game you'll come across a situation where you'll have to choose your path. One is usually more dangerous than the other. If you don't choose quickly, the choice is made for you but it won't always be the safer option that is taken if you don't decide yourself.

The game still contains the usual Resident Evil puzzles where you have to find keys etc. You still have to hunt for an ink ribbon to be able to save your game at a typewriter. As with the other games in the series you get a choice of easy and hard difficulty. Begin the game on hard difficulty and you'll receive a handgun with only a handful of bullets and health recovery items are few and far between. Choose to play on easy difficulty and you'll be given an assault rifle, loads of ammo and you'll come across a lot of health recovery items and you'll also have easier opponents to combat.

Just like Resident Evil 2 this is a port of the earlier PlayStation version and therefore the game looks nowhere near as good as either Resident Evil or Resident Evil Zero. This isn't a problem with the cutscenes and the pre-rendered backgrounds though as these look OK. The characters look very dated but as we said with Resident Evil 2 the quality of the graphics doesn't stop you enjoying the gameplay and it's better for both Resident Evil 2 & 3 to have come out as they have rather than not have surfaced at all and leave a big gap in the series on the GameCube.

We didn't expect the cutscenes in Resident Evil 3 to be subtitled after the three previous games weren't subtitled so we weren't surprised when we found this to be the case here too. Once more it's a disaster, of that there is no denying, but it doesn't mean the game can't be enjoyed as in every other way there isn't a problem. Even the new Live Selection choices appear on the screen in text so you'll be able to choose which path to take.

As we bring another Resident Evil review to a close it's a familiar story. Resident Evil fans will love the game and overlook the unsubtitled cutscenes. Nevertheless though it does rob deaf gamers of the story and puts a significant dent in our rating of the game. The game has loads of replayability and there are various bonus incentives for playing through at least half a dozen times, something fans of the series will greatly appreciate.

Overall Game Rating: 6.0/10
No subtitles on the cutscenes once again but Resident Evil fans will definitely want to pick this up, particularly if they haven't played on another format.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Following the story is difficult as the cutscenes are not subtitled but there aren't any problems otherwise.