

It turns out a lot is, with the remake offering a more streamlined experience that forgoes the branching paths of the original and skips out on some areas in favor of fleshing out others drastically more. I still enjoyed the original RE3, but it took me way more of a refresher to really think about what was different this time around. This fact put me at an interesting crossroads while playing through the remake, however, because I didn't have nearly the same level of nostalgia fueling me as with RE2.

How these characters fit into the bigger picture of the story has been drastically improved, but not at the expense of fairly major changes to the flow of the game as fans of the original may remember it. As expected, the rest of our cast is also more fleshed out with solid designs and acting across the board. On the subject of characters, our updated Jill and Carlos are both a hit and have great banter throughout their journey, and their new looks are great too. He does not let up and Jill's dialogue directed at that fact almost always matched what I was thinking at the time, expletives and all. Simply running away and staying ahead is mostly impossible, forcing the player to duck, dodge, and everything in between to get to a destination. X was anxiety-inducing for you (thanks in no small part to the fantastic sound design behind the music and encroaching footsteps), Nemesis won't even give you a chance to feel that way before the intensity kicks in. The iconic monster really lives up to its name in this remake and is every bit as relentless as advertised. What's new, however, lies in what this team has done with the RE Engine to create intense scripted action sequences, primarily involving Nemesis (which shouldn't come as much of a surprise). Most of the great things about last year's remake are true for this one, from the beautifully gruesome visuals to the vastly improved characters and story. While there aren't any massive leaps forward from RE2 to this game, combat additions such as dodging, its perfect dodge counterpart, and environmental elements add some extra layers and fluidity to the experience.
