Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Review

It began life as a spin off and never entirely stops feeling like one. The city streets are a real advance on the mansion and the police station, and the fires and the wrecked trams give Raccoon City a sense of a place actively dying rather than one already dead. Nemesis is the reason to be here. He talks, he carries a rocket launcher, he follows you between rooms, and the first time he crashes through a wall the series briefly becomes something predatory rather than architectural.

The dodge and the gunpowder press are smart additions that reward playing aggressively instead of hoarding, and the random enemy placement gives replays some teeth. The problem is that most Nemesis appearances are scripted set pieces you can outrun, the live selection choices are shallow, and the campaign is short enough that the escalation never arrives. It reuses a great deal of the previous game, including whole rooms, and it knows it.