So maybe playing Resident Evil 3 remake right after playing The Last of Us part 2 wasn't a great idea. They could both be considered zombie games but that is about where the similarities end. Where The Last of Us had large environments which offered sheath and flexibility RE3 forces encounters in tight corridors. Normally I'm all for linear games but in RE3 many of the challenging fights left me felling frustrated rather than accomplished. I really wanted to like it; for the most part I enjoyed the remake of Resident Evil 2. Sadly the simple story wasn't compelling enough for me to be worth pulling my hair out for the aggravating boss fights.
Resident Evil 3 seems to take place around the same time as the previous game except from the perspective of Jill and Carlos. Jill is getting ready to escape town when she encounters a giant monster we know as Nemesis. Its not explained why at first but Nemesis clearly only has one target and that's Jill. While Jill is on the run she meets Carlos who tells her Umbrella is rounding up survivors to depart on a subway train. Jill agrees to help Carlos get the train running and meets some of questionable people leading this operation. Despite hitting Nemesis on every encounter with heavy artillery it seems nothing to stop him. Meanwhile Carlos starts to question the intensions of his employer.
Gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect from modern Resident Evil games. This is an over-the-shoulder, third-person, shooter in which resources are limited or at least finite. While often you'll be fairly limited on where you can roam occasionally there will be two to three branching paths that all converge back onto each other. It is extremely difficult to aim well while moving meaning you'll need to find a good position and hold your ground to maximize your accuracy. Often it isn't nessacary to kill every zombie you come across which will save you on ammo. Having the extra munitions is nice for boss fights assuming you can figure out what the game wants from you.
I was trudging along fine for the most part but the gameplay is so heavily scripted that I didn't feel like I personally contribute much to the experience. Then I got into a my second major showdown with Nemesis and after several retries I said "F**k this!". The first phase of the fight was just about unloading damage on him which was equal parts dull and easy. During the second phase he'd run around and you'd have to knock him down when he was high enough to expose his weak spot. It seemed I could only knock him down with my grenade launcher and I didn't take long to run out of ammo. This game that requires you to play in such a specific way that it might as well be a movie or just a series of quick time events. It's too bad the quality of this series is all over the place; I definitely want my time and money back on this one.