Resident Evil is a franchise greatly revered across the survival-horror gaming community, one of the most iconic games being the third installment, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. The franchise has had its struggles throughout the years hitting a point where fans began getting fed up with the direction they were going with their newest mainline games, it wasn’t until Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in 2017 that the two-decade-old franchise had reformed to its former glory with praise not received since the release of fan-favorite Resident Evil 4 in 2005. It seemed they had finally gone back to their survival-horror roots rather than the more action direction they went for with the fifth and sixth games. With the recent success of their newest installment, they’ve decided to rebuild their second and third games with updated graphics, controls, environments, etc. Since there had already been a remaster for Resident Evil 1 in 2002, the obvious first choice was remaking the second game. The remake for Resident Evil 2 was widely met with approval from old fans while simultaneously bringing in new ones, quickly becoming another iconic addition to the franchise. While the remake did leave out certain mechanics it stayed relatively faithful to the original material. With this newfound excitement for potential remakes, fans were also hopeful for the announcement nearly a year later that a remake of the third game would be released in April 2020. 

The release of the Resident Evil 3 Remake caused many mixed reactions among Resident Evil fans, for it left out many crucial parts of the original game. One of the starkest differences is the removal of the Clock Tower sequence, in the original, it’s a crucial segment to get through for the progression and plot of the game, where the main character, Jill Valentine, has to solve many puzzles and defeat new enemies to get through. Also within the Clock Tower, the player’s point of view switches to the secondary main character, Carlos Oliveira, who takes over while Jill recovers, now the Clock Tower is just there for scenery during a boss fight with The Nemesis. The Clock Tower wasn’t the only sequence cut from the game as many, many areas were also cut like the Press Hall, Graveyard, Racoon City Park, etc. The cut areas subsequently cut many boss fights with new monsters as well. 

Another pivotal cut feature of the game that disappointed many die-hard fans was the lost prevalence of the main stalker enemy, The Nemesis. The Nemesis was one of the most critical assets of the original game, his name was in the title for a good reason. Throughout the game when Jill would be searching for an escape out in the streets of Racoon City there would always be a chance of Nemesis catching up to her and you have to flee from him, with no way of taking him down as he tanks all your attacks, only being momentarily stunned with grenades. In the remake, most of his appearances are scripted, with very little of them within the game overall. It made him seem like way less of the formidable, domineering foe he was in the original where you were plagued with the persistent fear of the 8-foot tall mutated creature backing you in a corner with the only escape involving you pushing your way through hoards of zombies. 

More changes that were made was the loss of being able to make decisions on options given at specific points in the game. Even though these options never had much of an effect on how the story played out in the end, since it isn’t a choice-based game, it does bring different playthrough experiences while adding to the replayability of the game. While many features were removed during the making of the remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, fans, and critics, still agree it has achievements in many other areas. It has stunning graphics and character design, the character interactions and dialogue are also notably quite good, and they’ve even been nominated for a Game Award for audio design. A majority of fans will acknowledge it is a great game on its own, it’s simply not a very good remake.