Pros:
Characterization - All the characters were superb. I REALLY like Jill Valentine and Carlos - every character seemed real and the lines they have did not feel out of place. Really liked Mikhail - seemed like a good guy and was surprised to find that the voice behind him and character 'Bard' is William Hope (Marshal Waits in 'Alien: Isolation' and Lt. Gorman in 'Aliens' among many others). The intro section of Jill's character was terrific. Brad's part in the game - along with his surprising connection with RE2 Remake - was also very very good, and Carlos is so much better than he was in the original game - hopefully we'll see more of his character in future games. Nikolai is also a particularly well portrayed psychotic bad-guy. They also look the part. I love the realistic look of the characters - Jill in the original game looked out of place.
Environments - Again, I have nothing bad to say here. Playing as Jill you really are in the thick of it with the rapidly decaying streets. I loved all the areas we play in the game. The Hospital and RC streets were my favorite, and it was great to see the RPD again. I love the attention to detail, such as being able to see the RPD in the distance when confronted by Nemesis in the parking garage roof and seeing the streets below when climbing the building under construction.
Enemies - Zombies we've obviously seen before and they remain a persistent threat. I like the introduction of the new Nemesis-infected zombie, and though I wasn't too keen on the look of Nemesis when we saw initial images of him a while back, after playing the game I love it. The Drain Deimos and the way it can infect you was a surprise.
Cons:
Short - I wouldn't necessarily say that it's a short game, but not seeing the interior of the clock tower or the park areas does make it feel that way. The game from train crash onward does feel a little more rushed, as though they had the main elements - the Hospital and NEST 2 (both of which I love) - but lack the parts linking them (clock tower and park). One fights the Nemesis at the Clock Tower plaza, then suddenly you're at the Hospital. There is nothing of the travel to get to it.
Environments - Same as above in 'Short'; over the years I've seen many maps made and people have been able to pinpoint where many areas are from the old game. Google "Resident Evil 3 Map" and you'll see what I mean. With the remake it is more difficult to determine where you are on the map with the clocktower and hospital, it isn't as well thought out as the first half of the game, and instead on the City map you find in Jill's apartment, a chunk of the map is circled as 'Unexplored'. I'm being nitpicky here, but I notice stuff like this because I'm interested in blueprints. I do wish we would have seen a couple of more characters in RPD such as Elliot.
Nemesis: Though I love Nemesis in this game, he seemed to morph into an angry lion on steroids very quickly when it came to the fight at the Clock Tower plaza. I wish we would have seen Nemesis as a humanoid but with more of the tentacles as he is portrayed in the Clock Tower section of the original.
In summary, I really love the game but like Resident Evil 2 remake, going the extra mile would have turned it for me from a 'really really good' game to an 'excellent' game. For instance, it niggled me in RE2 that many of the boss fights are the exact same for both Leon and Claire playthroughs, which wasn't like that in the original. You see more variety in the transformation of William Birkin depending on who you play as, and that me feel like there was a missed opportunity. With RE3, I have the same feeling with the missing Clock Tower and Park areas. What we get is great, but just a little more would have made it feel complete.
I wish they would have devoted the time spent on Resistance on to RE3 instead.
I've seen on some reviews that RE3 has hardly any puzzles compared to RE2 and they are correct. This has certainly more action. I feel that the next logical step would be for them to release RE1 as another remake, and the reason I have is that RE1 had the most puzzles by far. RE2 still has puzzles, but less so and more action, and then you have RE3 with the most action and the least amount of puzzles. RE1 Remake is a wonderful game, but that now is almost 20 years old. It makes sense to re-do it in this new style and will appease those that miss the puzzle aspect. Then, go forward and make another game following on from RE3.
But what the next 'sequel' game following on from RE3 will be is up for debate and whatever form it takes is bound to elate some and tick off others. For some RE4 is their favorite, which is fine. From Code Veronica onward, I personally don't like them anywhere near as much when it comes to their relationship to the first three games. The series began to steer more toward an 'arcade' approach and the later games, 5 and 6, are just so very very different. I never bothered to play 6, I played 5 once and still sits on my shelf, and 7 though it looks great and is back to the scares, it seems far removed from the storyline established in the original games (plus Chris Redfield looks very strange).
15-20 years ago I was expecting to see what happened with Chris, Jill, Barry, Rebecca, Carlos, Leon and Claire as they pursue Umbrella in Europe, but what I got instead was Leon thrown back in time to an amish European village with angry people attacking me with pitchforks and giant trolls from Lord of the Rings. And there were evil monks in castles and an angry short boy that looks sixty wearing clothes from the 1700's. Don't get me wrong, RE4 is a great game and I enjoyed it, but what a tangent. Even RE Zero had a man that wears a dress singing oprah to slugs.
That for me was when I started to lose interest in the series and I'm really pleased I've been able to play RE2 and RE3 Remakes to bring back that enthusiasm with its gritty realism without fantastical arcade characters as I feel it's when RE is at its best. Whatever the next installment is, I do hope it carries on down the path it is currently on.
