Resident Evil 3 Remake

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/1212460/Resident-Evil-3-Remake-LEAKS-PS4-Nemesis-appears-on-PlayStation-Store

It got leaked ahead of time on the PSN-store, featuring a cover. Both Jill and Carlos are on the cover with the titular Nemesis. There's also an image about a Z-Version of the game, probably referencing more DLC for us to spend our money on. We'll probably get a reveal soon.

Interesting. I wonder how they're going to deal with free aiming AND dodging against slow moving zombies.

Didn’t think we’d get info so soon. Really curious about certain design decisions that will be made here.

>Z version
Doesn’t this just mean an uncensored version for Japan? If it is a DLC version then that’s garbage.

> Sebastian avatar
I heavily approve.

> info
Capcom is set to reveal three games at Jump Fiesta soon iirc, so we should see more things there. It's probably one of those games, there's also some leaked gameplay screens but they don't show much, just Jill's head. Still not a big fan of their actor-choices, would've prefered to see Julia Voth reprise her role as Jill. Carlos looks like he got the stereo-type upgrade haha, sweet hair.


> dodging
I hope it is in it to begin with. With such a quick reveal I'm feeling it might just be a glorified expansion pack to RE2make. I mostly hope the ammo-powder makes a good return, as well as the multiple paths and freedom in exploration. This could be the dream game.

Yeah I wonder if this game is just RE2.5, even if different teams worked on each game this feels too soon.

>multiple paths and freedom in exploration

I have a feeling this will be stripped away, wouldn’t want the new players getting lost.

And it begins....

https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1204416046947418114

The Dodge returns!

Didn’t expect this so soon. Beginning of next year is looking to be crazy for me.

>dodge returns

Awesome, hopefully Nemesis is handled well.

HELLLLLL YEAH

Yeah early 2020 is going to be nuts for me as well. Vanquish, DOOM Eternal, DOOM64, RE3make. Lots of choices to make.

>early 2020

Yes to all of those, plus FF7R and Nioh 2. Could be an insane few months for good combat.

Original costume is pre-order? FUCK OFF.

The same was true with the previous remake iirc. Sad state of affairs, but such is modern gaming I suppose...

Good thing I got RE2 on clearance. Gave it to my bro for Christmas. Definitely won't be touching this until I see a similar discount.

Utter pricks.

More details are coming out:

• Nemesis will use an improved version of the AI ​​developed for the Tyrant of Resident Evil 2 Remake.
  
• Sound will be very important in a city like Raccoon City, you will have to rely on it to anticipate dangers lying in wait around the corner.
  
• Confirmation that we will visit the streets, the shops, the Stagla petrol station, the Raccoon Press offices, the hospital.
  
• Nemesis was created in real life to be able to be scanned via photogrammetry.
  
• Mercenaries mode will not return.
  
• The mutant worms will be back.
  
• Carlos will be playable.
  
• There will not be the action choice mechanism as in the original, which could give different sequences of the game afterwards or an advantage over a danger.
  
• There will also be no more endings. It will therefore be interesting to know who will fly the helicopter at the end of the game and whether Nicholai will survive or not.
  

Source: Playstation UK Interview


Honestly, this is turning out to what I feared. Nemesis being a beefed Tyrant and probably lacking motivation to fight him, complete removal of the choice system that fueled replays and routing so much, no more multiple endings that will no doubt also wreck the established lore. Really feels like a skin-job of REmake2 at this point, but we'll have to wait and see.

Some people are making notes on Reddit saying "hope the ammo crafting system returns from RE3", who are being downvoted because "it was already in RE2make, so of course" - forgetting that the systems opperate completely differently (sadly).

So yeah, not great news imo.

Another bargain bin deal if I bother at all. At least the devs won't profit.

https://www.siliconera.com/resident-evil-3-demo-will-let-your-bff-nemesis-catch-up-to-you-sooner/

Demo coming soon. Footage makes it look very much like RE2make again.

Game looks pretty cool though, the return of the dodge looks sweet. Kind of bummed by the lackluster Nemesis coverage, as in, the enemy. Lots of talk about 'he's unstoppable', while the whole point was that he COULD be beaten every time you saw him. Wonder if that's still the case or if he's still as binary as Mister X in RE2make i.e. you can only run away.

Will definitely try out the demo!

What's with this slowmo dodge shit? It better be hard to do. I want the casuals to be screaming.

It's just the same dodge as before iirc. Only difference is that, unlike before, it now has a dedicated button. The 'quick dodge' is still done by aiming iirc.

PSA: the shotgun has proper knockback rather than being that limp noodle from RE2make. I repeat, the shotgun has proper knockback, this is not a drill.

You played the demo yet Infinity? How is it?

It’s basically RE2.5, but some small changes already make it slightly better in my eyes. The dodge seems good for getting away from the zombies’ stupid homing grab, the shotgun actually has its utility back, and there’s even music in the save room!

Played it last night. Got destroyed by Nemesis.

There are quite a few little side paths leading to goodies in the street which were nice. Got the shotgun like this.

>dodge
Wasn't the dodge different per enemy in the original?

Played the demo. First impressions are positive to an extent. If you enjoyed RE2make, you'll love this, but it also has the same problems for me.

It's good, it's a mystery that games like this still have an audience. The core combat is interesting, the loot is good, but it of course suffers from the general streamlining games like these have experienced.

My most overal notes:

- the knife is super good paired with the dodge. If you do a perfect dodge you get a free uppercut slash that deals good damage (might be 10x multiplier since I nuked a single zombie hard with it).
- shooting zombies in the legs is a good way to kill them. The reason is that, without a leg, they'll crawl. And if they crawl, they can't touch you if you're behind them. So I just shot out the legs and walked behind a zombie to knife him. Efficient, fast, safe.
- shotgun is really good, knockback seems 100% and OHKOs most zombies with a regular shot to the chest.
- for some bizarre reason the default setup is that the run button is a toggle, which really messed me up at first.
- exploration is neat, but it also strangely feels 'gamey' in that a lot of doors are just un-openable.
- nemesis is pretty threatening, but also not. You can perfect-dodge most of his attacks and I got him to crouch a few times. When I 'killed' him he just spider-man's out of there, no reward. Guy has a crap ton of health mind you. You can stagger him by shooting his heart, hit it too many times and he's stunned for a bit.
- Nemesis revives killed zombies and changes them into 'super zombies' or whatever their name is. Very dangerous, could also lead to runs being dull.
- there's a ton of NOW I AM ALIVE moments for zombies. A zombie will be lying on the ground, knifing them will do nothing, and then later they revive. It's tired, it's old. I hate that shit.
- gunpowder seems identical to RE2make so far.
- the dodge is super wonky, massive start-up frames that don't have i.frames, hard to trigger the perfect dodge too. It also stales, so the first dodge is best, second is bad, third is barely a dodge.

> dodge @birdman
It was, sometimes. But usually it was just a sidestep or roll.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Played the demo. First impressions are positive to an extent.

...Please don't make me buy this at launch?

Royta/Raeng wrote:
- there's a ton of NOW I AM ALIVE moments for zombies. A zombie will be lying on the ground, knifing them will do nothing, and then later they revive. It's tired, it's old. I hate that shit.
- the dodge is super wonky, massive start-up frames that don't have i.frames, hard to trigger the perfect dodge too. It also stales, so the first dodge is best, second is bad, third is barely a dodge.

Oh, thank God. You almost had me there for a second!

No Mercs, no 60€.

Did some more derping, you need to do psychic-dodges. If you do a dodge on reaction, you get hit or grabbed. You have to anticipate, which is wack but whatever. Game is pretty solid but - though I tend to hate this statement - also doesn't feel like a full-price game. It looks, plays and feels like a piece of DLC for the original game.

The dodge is certainly weird, I wouldn’t mind the lack of iframes(I personally don’t feel that every dodge/dash in a game needs iframes) if it wasn’t for the short range and startup. The roll in classic GoW has very few iframes but covers a ton of ground that also matches the length of the blades, and that kind of detail is missing here.

I haven’t played RE2make on normal since my first playthrough but zombies here seem to have a lot less health. The “shoot the leg and run” strat is bound to still be the go-to with speedrunners though. And as someone who really liked the defensive item system of RE2, it’s disappointing to see it gone.

Also...what is up with Jill in this game? She got the tired strong woman treatment it seems.

Jill got nerfed in terms of personality it seems, very cardboard cut-out, not really a badass anymore imo. I do like her 'stance' if that means anything, reminds me of Leon's from RE4 and her stance in REmake.

I know somebody who got an early copy of the game and, uh... maybe keep your expectations in check. Especially my fellow classic RE fans. From what I've heard this amounts to little more than a glorified standalone RE2make DLC which leaves out a lot of the original content. There's no Clock Tower, for example.

Wait, no Clock Tower? How does that even work? The forum has a spoiler-box, feel free to put things in there, curious to read the details. Or have a link where I can find more?

I don't have that many details at the moment, sorry. No link, just somebody I know who got an early physical copy on account of the whole lockdown situation.

Spoiler:

Please keep in mind I haven't independently verified any of this, so take it all with a grain of salt. I'll update if and when I learn more. Just wanted to pump the brakes in case some of you were hoping for a super-faithful remake and that Capcom had learned from some of the mistakes they made with RE2make.

If that’s all true then ouch. I hadn’t planned on getting this at launch anyway but that’s still a huge letdown. The game being out so soon after RE2 isn’t really a good thing either.

Managed to snag this post before everything got deleted online. There's already full pllaythroughs online, I watched one for a bit but it is now already deleted. Here's notes from someone who watched a whole run.

The difficulty modes sound very fun imo. Not a fan of the Hopsital getting more use, never liked that area honestly. Unlockable strength and defense buffs makes me throw up a little, but on the flip side we have unlockables again instead of DLC. The only clip I could find that is still online is this one:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uK4CpsS1xI_5inY1HEUQ-M_6gc0HMhjk/view (Hospital playthrough with Carlos and later Jill, also showing an unlockable outfit.

So far the game really looks like more of an action game, don't mind it but ... weird. Does feel a tad phoned in. I might still get it.

So I've pretty much seen footage of the whole campaign, as well as gathered some other information that wasn't there. Here's what I have (keep in mind I'm purposely leaving out very specific details on most of the points I'm making):

-There's a LOT more creative liberties in this remake compared to RE2 Remake in that the sequence of events happen very differently. Some of the major story events still happen, but how it's structured is entirely different. How the game is designed/structured is also generally similar to RE4. I say RE4 specifically because like that game there is still exploration and places to go back to, but it's a more linear experience compared to the OG. (This is the MOST important point to keep in mind before the game comes out)

-There are 3 difficulties from the start (Assisted, Standard, Hardcore), and then you unlock an extra hard mode called "Nightmare" that remixes item and enemy locations. There's also another difficulty called "Inferno" that uses Nightmare as a basis, but with less typewriters.

-There's a LOT more cutscenes & dialogue between characters compared to RE2 Remake

-There's many callbacks/references to RE2 Remake

-Hospital has been massively expanded

-You get to explore the RPD a bit more compared to the original RE3, and only play as Carlos instead of Jill (which makes sense for gameplay reasons)

-The Clock Tower is in the game, but is mainly used as a boss arena

-You get to explore Jill's apartment room

-There is a new laboratory section known as "NEST 2" that is way bigger than NEST in RE2 Remake (It also replaces the Dead Factory as the final location)

-There's a large faculty area you go into right before going into NEST 2

-There's no fast-travel system (The publication that reported on it either lied or got confused about a puzzle you do early on in the game)

-2 enemies return from RE2 Remake (ie; Pale heads & Lickers)

-2 enemies were "cut" (ie; Giant Spiders & Crows)

-The Drain Deimos & Brain Suckers have combined into one enemy, and is more spider-like with fairly unique properties

-1 boss was "cut" (ie; Grave digger)

-There's 4 mandatory boss fights with Nemesis, instead of the 3 you get in the OG

-Nemesis has more forms/transformations than the original game (They are also very different compared to the ones in the original)

-It was already confirmed, but yes Nemesis does drop stuff when you down him.

-Jill's S.T.A.R.S outfit is in the game

-Jill's Samurai Edge is in the game as an unlockable

-New characters are introduced, like Dr.Bard who is an umbrella scientist

-There are challenges that can unlock coins for you to upgrade your defense and attack (ala, RE7)

-Unlocking costumes and special weapons are done through a point system (ala, RE5).

-There's a sequence in the game that is very similar to the cabin moment in RE4

-Instead of a dodge move like Jill, Carlos does a counter-attack (ie;Haymaker) on enemies

-The intro of the game is fairly unique (something they haven't done since the original RE1)

-The start of the game is pretty much a playable version of the intro to the original RE3 in a sense, as it's more from Jill's perspective

-When you finish the game, you get your usual ranking, but there's a clear time & a play time (not sure what the difference is exactly)

-Also for anyone wondering, yes gore has been toned downed for Zombies, mostly because of it's load management for the RE engine optimization. Since there's more zombies, more colors and detailed environments on screen compared to RE2 Remake, it meant losing the small details of gore and manipulation of Zombies following death (You'll likely understand why when the game comes out).

Game is also apparently very short, initial runs clocking in at around 4 hours.

Hmm, some good bad it sounds like. 5 difficulties is great but 4 hours on a first playthrough as well as cut content is a dealbreaker for me I think.

I think with a game as this, we need to see it as a seperate title. There's also a lot of other content in stead of the clocktower (which was never that long). One thing that worries me, slightly, is the nerf to Nemesis. He never did appear much in RE3's original game, but apparently he only appears randomly in the demo area, which kind of sucks. Can't confirm though, it's what I heard.

Another bargain bin special just like RE2.

So.
It is short? It's what they said in 1999. Similar to 20 years back, huh. That's integrity.
Did anyone crack yet and got this?

Played this for a bit last night. Seems alright. It has most of the same issues as RE2make, now with less of an emphasis on routing. The combat just feels so hollow to me in a lot of ways.

Finished my first playthrough. Playtime of...3 hours and 49 minutes. Yeah, it’s really that short. The game has “meant to be DLC” written all over it. I thought I was getting to the point of the game where it would pick up, only to find out I was entering the lab, which we all know is the end point of any RE. Going to give a detailed write-up later.

Looking forward to it. Because most complaints tend to be about length, which honestly I don't really mind. Just give me a good game. Let me know how the mechanics hold up!

So I played on standard, and I’m nearing the end of my hardcore playthrough. Will do Nightmare after this. Here’s a bunch of randomness:

-Elephant in the room: no, the stupid random health pools of enemies are still here. Sometimes enemies get killed in two shots, sometimes they don’t even fall down until 9 shots in. It’s utterly insane.
-The weapons are an extremely mixed bag. The handguns are basically trash imo, the random health and hitstun they deal make them extremely unreliable, especially considering the environments here are actually smaller than they were in RE2, you usually don’t even have time to put a dent in them before they get to you. The shotgun finally has knockdown but the spread is abysmal, and doesn’t seem to do a lot to bigger enemies(so still nerfed from RE2). The assault rifle you use as Carlos is mostly horrible, an entire magazine can’t down zombies sometimes and it can take 10 bullets to even deal hitstun. The dreaded “shoot in the leg and run!” seems to still be dominant here.
-The grenade launcher is very confusing. They removed ice grenades but added mine grenades. Not sure what the point of this was, we already have explosive rounds and frag grenades, so now we have three explosives, and frags can’t be used as defensive items so that just gives them even more overlap. By the time you get the mines there’s really not that many mobs left as Jill anyway.
-Some weirdness going on with flame and explosive rounds. Explosive rounds are “easier” to make (A+A explosives) but are almost always better than flame rounds with which are more expensive(A+B explosives). Explosive rounds actually have a good AOE and knock zombies down, usually keeping them there. Flame rounds still have an awful AOE and require DOT for a kill. But here’s the real kicker: flame rounds don’t even phase hunters, yet explosive rounds smack them around. Makes no sense to me. Flame rounds are Nemesis’ “weakness” and kill gammas in one hit, but they’re only in one area.
-The game throws weapons, ammo, health, and upgrades at you so fast you don’t even have a chance to properly use them. The game feels like too much is going on yet there’s no opportunities to use anything.
-With the small environments, increased enemy counts and addition of a dodge while still having the inconsistency of RE2, the game truly feels like it doesn’t want you to fight or experiment unless it’s how the game wants you to do it. It wants you to use the shotgun on zombies. It wants you to use flame rounds on gammas. It wants you to throw a frag at nemesis.
-It’s almost always easier to just dodge than actually fight. Why risk bullets when you may not even get granted hitstun, when you can just mash dodge near a zombie?
-When you get your second attachment for the handgun, it takes up two inventory slots. When you get your second shotgun attachment, it only takes up one slot. What?
-Drain demos and gammas only appear in one area, aside from a one-off gamma that appears a while later. The game is severely lacking in enemy depth and variety, and having two entire enemy types only in one area each is a waste. There are also only four dogs in the entire game.
-the game introduces this “parasite” mechanic when the drain demos show up, basically if they grab you then you can use a green herb to get rid of the parasite inside of you. This happens in one 5 minute area and never shows up again.
-The 2nd and 3rd bosses are pretty one-note and they really want you to strike them at a certain time. I’m not sure if you have to do it this way, but I went out of my way to fight the 2nd boss how I wanted to, and blew almost all of my ammo, including the pickups in the room. The final boss is horrible imo.

I kind of saw all of this coming with them basically recycling everything from RE2. Maybe some of my opinions on the weapons will change as I play, but I doubt it. They seem to have very similar properties to their versions in RE2 and they were all some of the worst versions of the weapons we’ve seen in the series.

Should also point out the game only has one true classic RE style level, and that’s the hospital. Even then, it’s only about 1/2 of what the RPD was in the last game. Routing is really not a part of this title.

I guess I’ll throw in some praises:

+it looks nice
+the shotgun works much better than the last game
+the game controls wonderfully
+the dodge is a nice addition, even if it does turn the game into a running simulator again
+having a multi-ammo weapon is cool
+there’s some neat throwbacks to RE2make
+unlockable difficulties

I’m going to give this at least a couple more playthroughs, I’ll add more here as I go.

Now THAT's a review. Pure mechanical info.

Good notes! The enemy locations might change, as I recall the game remixes enemies on later difficulties. Wonder if foes like the Gammas and Demos appear more commonly afterwards.

The dodge really makes this weird though. It was a cool maneuver in the original game, balanced around the larger enemy count but with a harsh punishment (good damage taken) and the recovery was pretty wild too. You couldn't just spam it, had to be smart about it.

Things like the removal of certain rounds of ammunition and the balancing around it being off doesn't surprise me one bit. The game screams rush-job. That said I'm more and more disappointed how little emphasis is given to the detailing of these games lately. This has been on a downwards slope since RE5, where the game basically only offered OHKO tools or just straight up damage tools instead of utility or utilizing unique weaknesses. RE5 at least had the Freeze rounds, but afterwards it mostly has been shoot-shoot-bang-bang. You also saw this with RE2make ditching the most interesting elements from the Grenade Launcher.

Really shows just how novel the Crossbow from TEW and TEW2 was.

Yeah I’m reserving judgement until I play Inferno, which I know has different enemy compositions. The thing with the dodge is that the game seems like it’s actively encouraging you to not engage in combat even though it showers you with ammo. Despite the high ammo counts the weapons just fall flat in a lot of ways.

>ditching utility tools for damage

Yep, these were mostly gone in 6 to push melee and RE2make had basically nothing but flash grenades. If you’re not using shotgun for decaps or blowing magnum rounds, battles with zombies devolve into dumping ammo. I don’t really know what the “weakness” is for hunters but it seems that most things are ineffective except acid/explosive rounds and magnum shots.

>crossbow

A majority of the bolts don’t deal any substantial damage(most deal 1) so they have a more inherent creative utility to them, plus they deal with the game’s unique handling of fire(in the case of TEW1) and max upgrades give completely unique properties in TEW2. There’s multiple kinds of traps, traps that work different depending on the enemy, damage bolts can stun even bosses, a couple play into the light stealth, some are better than others depending on the environment, etc etc. There’s just so much going on and so much to consider compared to here where most of it is “take aim and fire”. It also helps that all bolt types aside from harpoon have a good AOE which opens up possibilities where only 2 of the grenades here have any kind of AOE.

Rambles inbound:

Can pretty safely say the weapons are just a giant waste. The handguns will rarely stop zombies before they reach you thanks to the RNG attached to damage and hitstun and they do nothing against bigger enemies and bosses. On Nightmare and Inferno you’re always facing mobs with sped up animations and super lunges so you might as well throw the handgun in the garbage until the final boss(the only time it’s worth a damn). Outside of shooting generators and barrels it just wastes inventory space. Also, shooting off one arm does nothing to stop zombie grabs, yet shooting off a leg prevents standard movement. Makes no sense.

The shotgun seemed promising at first but once you get to Nightmare and enemies come almost exclusively in groups of 3 or more you might well throw it in the trash too. Very little spread and low damage means you’ll either be going for decaps again or close range knockback, too bad that two zombies side by side won’t get affected by the knockdown if you decide to aim in the center to hit both. It takes 6-8 shots to down a gamma hunter even though one flame round does the trick. Incredibly unsafe and unreliable against hunters due to their insane agility, grenade launcher is the way to go for them. Potentially the best use for it knocking down pale heads but it’s inconsistent, it seems like if you go to shoot them from the side they’ll just eat the shot and move on. Almost any aspect that seems useful about the shotgun is done better through explosive rounds.

Explosive rounds are actually quite nice, good AOE, damage, can knock pale heads around, and takes care of those stupid plaga wannabes(more on these disasters later). Whenever a mob shows up you can almost always do one explosive round to clear them out. It is bizarre how in a game so full of gimped weapons this one is so powerful and so low effort. On the other hand, acid rounds seem like crap from what I’ve seen. If you’ve played RE2make they’re pretty much the exact same, only thing they’re really good for is hunters(one acid round+magnum shot will kill). I did get a couple kills on the plaga zambies but I don’t know if it’s because they were damaged already or not. Flame rounds have the same issues as last time, abysmal AOE and you really don’t have time to wait for the DOT to kick in on Nightmare/Inferno when the environments are so cramped and enemies home in on you. The game really pushes flame rounds for the bosses, and they all become flame round->shotgun/magnum the weak spot->rinse and repeat. Outside of gamma hunters(one hit kill) and bosses they’re not so good. Mine rounds are solid but overlap a lot with explosive rounds, and now we have three explosives(if you count frags) but no freeze/stun variant.

What REALLY bothers me about the grenades is the cost of them. Explosive rounds are the best, yet take two common components(explosive A), while acid rounds are almost never worth making yet take two rare components(explosive B). This basically makes explosive B worthless, since it makes the two inferior grenades and any flame rounds you find you’ll just be saving for bosses.

The magnum is fine but don’t expect anything on the caliber of the true TPS spook em ups. The collateral damage is nice and being able to stun a pale head is great when in a tight spot. It’s still not very powerful though, takes 3 shots to down a hunter and 2-3 to temporarily down Nemesis. No knockback of any kind(RE4/TEW style torpedo affect is absent). Still one of the better options.

The assault rifle is just awful. Absolute crap. Has even less reliable hitstun and delimb potential than the handguns, and does about as much damage as a wooden spoon. Almost two full magazines to take down a licker or hunter. No stopping power whatsoever. All of the ammo you find for it will be spent just getting pumped into zombies torsos, since headshots, leg shots, and arm shots(oh wait, these enemies don’t have weapons...) do almost nothing.

The plaga zombies really show how little this team understands enemy design compared to the folks behind RE4. They not only have roughly double the health of regular zombies but their range is ludicrous, they have little tell on their attacks, and they can do their long range attack while on the ground. The thing that struck me is that in RE4, a plaga enemy was stuck in a walking speed, to make up for the fact that they have increased health/range/power. The ones here will lunge and home in on you just like any other zombie. When you see the clowns you have to just bust out a mine/explosive round and ground them asap, just like most enemies in the game you’re encouraged to not actually fight them.

Nemesis is about what you’d expect, does the anticipated reskinned Mr.X song and dance, except now he can lunge in front of you and block you in whenever he wants. On higher difficulties it’s all about just doing dodges if you don’t have grenades. Inferno really likes to throw hordes of zombies in your path while Nemesis is chasing you which always just encourages a grenade toss or shot. He does drop weapon parts when you down him at certain spots but you probably won’t bother on Nightmare/Inferno.

Can’t help but feel that the developers saw how popular RE2make was with speedrunners and based Nightmare/Inferno around that entirely, most of the game becomes the 4th survivor/Ghost Survivors stretched out to an entire game, hordes of enemies in such small spaces with extreme attack properties that force you into certain gimmicks(pop a grenade, dodge spamming). There’s a ton of areas especially in the first half of the game where engaging in combat just isn’t viable. Speedrun strats are actually the way to approach combat and it’s jarring and mostly one-dimensional.

Final boss is the epitome of RE boss lameness, there’s bright weakpoints all over him that you’re meant to shoot with the handgun, take them out and he gets stunned, during this time you activate power switches to fire up the rail gun for a cinematic kill. It’s as simple as point and shoot with the occasional dodge(his attacks are pretty badly animated and telegraphed which doesn’t help). Nemmy 2 and 3 want you to light him on fire so his weak spot pops out, where it becomes shotgun time. Both fights have a “hit him while he’s about to pounce from up above” gimmick which also opens him up for damage. Nemmy 3 has mobs in the mix which have you picking them off quickly with a magnum round or explosive round before going in for shotgun blasts.

Defensive item system was removed in favor of mashing to minimize damage taken from grabs but this obviously reduces the decision making involved with carrying these weapons(obviously you’re going to mash, there’s no reason not to, whereas you may have saved your last grenade in RE2 for the upcoming mob instead of reducing damage from one zombie bite). The amount you have to mash on Inferno is absolutely insane, I can mash buttons fast as hell and I can almost never get it(the kind of bite varies the timer). There’s obviously no “mash hard and kick enemies heads off” like RE4.

Overall for all of its weaknesses I still somehow like the game. It runs and plays really well, some neat details involving zombies, it’s nice to see hunters come back, when the game actually lets you experiment it can be enjoyable(until it starts railroading you again). The dodge is goofy but kind of fun to mess around with, you can do three in a row and I’ve been messing around with using just one to bait zombies and then use the second as the “perfect” dodge. Basically all non-gameplay is skippable like RE2 and it was kind of fun to see the differences between difficulties. To anyone on the fence, I’d say wait for a $20 sale if you like the series.

First off, thanks for the write-up. Can safely say that with how our opinions tend to align I'll not purchase this game. As I was reading your post I kept thinking "it really sounds like they are aiming to please the niche speedrunning audience even more", and voilda you mention that too haha.

Sounds very optimizable to a degree, just wish there were more viable options. Surprised to see Explosive Rounds rock so hard, and that the utility rounds once again bite the dust. Just goes to show that raw-damage will see you through here.

> mashing to avoid damage
Something my controller will love for sure.

> despite my 3 page essay on it being horrible, it's fun
I admit I did not see this conclusion coming haha.

So still try it you say?

>appease the speed running audience

Yeah, Nightmare and Inferno are seriously the Hunk/Tofu scenarios for the whole game and every encounter will be you just using whatever tool lets you escape the area the fastest. I’m not exaggerating when I say that non-explosives on the high difficulties require RNG for you to survive. You have to just pray the game will let you stun a zombie or pop off a limb, because if not you’re getting grabbed. It’s the exact same thing that happens with RE2make and why everyone pushes the “one shot and run” strat.

>very optimizable but lacking in options

There’s a bit of promise at the end when you get to NEST and see almost every enemy type in the game, along with some opportunities to wreck enemies with mines, but it’s over too soon and some weapons never redeem themselves.

>try it?

I say wait for steep sale, like 60-70% off. I got it at 33% off and I feel like I should have saved my money. I think the game is slightly better than RE2 in some ways(combat potential) but worse in others(routing and removing defensive items). I think I just appreciate how the game lets you skip all non-gameplay shenanigans, and it does have potential. But, I can’t necessarily say it’s a good game, if that makes sense.

I’m going to finish my Inferno run and then try to do some more experimenting, if the experimentation leads me no where I’ll probably stop playing. It can get super annoying trying to find new ways to play only to be met with a game over screen every time I want to something speedrunners aren’t doing. I’ll let you guys know if I find anything noteworthy.