Resident Evil 3 review

I applaud the efforts of the folks at Capcom to bring the Resident Evil series to mobile platforms. Even though it does not seem like it is yielding the results they want, I respect the determination of trying something--anything--other than re-inventing different ways to shovel around garbage that no one actually wants. And, even if it is not creating success for their bottom line, Resident Evil 3 shows that Capcom has honed their chops at bringing its beefy console experiences to smaller screens, as it is easily the most competent port they've done to-date.

As a caveat to what I'm about to say: I have not played the original 1999 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. With that out of the way, it may or may not surprise you to learn that this remake (originally released in 2020) bears more than a little resemblance to the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2. This could be because the original games also felt like they were cut from the same cloth, but I bet it has more to do with the fact that these two remakes were developed concurrently and have more-or-less the same setting.

Provided you aren't a hair-splitter, there's an argument to be made that Resident Evil 3 just feels like another chapter of Resident Evil 2. Large swaths of these games share the same DNA, though there are minor tweaks to Resident Evil 3's systems, weaponry, and enemies, all of which work to push its feel away from survival horror territory and more into the realm of action thrill ride.

It's hard to praise any Resident Evil game for its story as they are all ridiculous and barely coherent, but Resident Evil 3 may take the cake on just how fast-and-loose you can get with it. I'm sure some mega-fan die-hards have some explanations as to why some characters have complete control over the uncontrollable monsters destroying all of Raccoon City or why bad guys would turn into good guys with no explanation except some of the bad guys stay bad guys and betray them (among other things), but that's never really been a set of particulars that have mattered, to me, anyway.

Resident Evil has always really been more about a balance of action, horror, and puzzle-solving with a solid underlying combat system to support all of those things. Resident Evil 3 does this to some degree, though I think I can count on one hand the number of times things were spooky or puzzly. The balance here is almost all in favor of action, and--as a result--the action gets pretty intense (read: you really gotta play this thing with a controller). This is all to say I would prefer a more balanced approach (which I'd say Resident Evil 2 has perhaps the best), but I enjoyed what Resident Evil 3 had to offer nonetheless.

I've reviewed every Resident Evil iOS port that has come out, and this is the first one I played through that where I did not encounter some kind of bug or crash at any point. Visually, everything looks the way I'd expect it to if I fired it up on a console, as well. I won't go so far as to say Capcom didn't have to make any compromises here, but this release certainly passes the eye test.

As with all the previous Resident Evil releases on mobile, Resident Evil 3 is free-to-start, which does any prospective players the favor of allowing them to try out whether they want to play a beefy game designed for controller use on their device of choice ahead of committing money to the venture. There's more than enough to do in that trial to get a feel for the game and if it's worth plunking down $9.99 to unlock the whole thing, and the price tag feels incredibly reasonable for what you get in return.

Resident Evil 3 probably isn't my favorite of the remakes, but it is the best mobile port of them by a mile. For that reason alone, I hope Capcom keeps pumping out console titles onto the App Store. And, uh, Capcom--if you're reading this--how about Monster Hunter next?