I played through Resident Evil 2 last year several times. If you’re not familiar with that installment of the horror franchise, there are two character options at the start of the game which have different story lines. Leon Kennedy, the new Racoon City Police rookie who arrives to find the city overrun with zombies, and Claire Redfield who is trying to find her brother, a member of the RPD. After you play through both of these character’s stories for the first time, you unlock yet ANOTHER play through with additions to the story and also a few bonus vignettes games. Suffice it to say, it may be a short game, but there is a LOT of game to go back for.

Which is why I had not started Resident Evil 3 yet even though it had been sitting on my hard drive for just as long. But with Resident Evil 4 coming out this month, it felt like it was time to check this one off my list.

I’m 68 minutes into the game and IT IS BRUTAL! The game starts with Jill Valentine, who survived the events of Resident Evil 1, having nightmare and then Nemesis appears and it’s just RUN AWAY!!!!

Perhaps because Jill is a survivor and the situation is less shocking and more frustrating means there was no need for that slow build. Leon and Claire spend the start of the game trying to understand what happened to the city, but Jill already knows and she is pissed. She was working to take down Umbrella and now their paramilitary troops are swarming the streets along with the zombies and the bio-weapon clad in leather (or pleather? Look, I don’t know where Umbrella’s ethics begin and end, so maybe I shouldn’t assume).

RE3 also embraces the ammo management right off the bat – I had one pack of bullets and made the mistake of taking the tutorial pop ups advice and attacking the first zombie but I should have been hoarding it from the start. A basic mistake that didn’t seem like a problem until the terrifying bug zone that came up a few minutes later, with a giant spider creatures stalking Jill in a dark hallway… I don’t usually have a problem with bugs but this section almost made me quit the game. It was just disgusting. There’s like a range of bug sizes that bother me, tiny bugs not so much, but once you get to be larger than a cicada, I’m grossed out… but a giant Shelob doesn’t scare me as much either. But these bugs were in that middle range and just… **shudders**

I’m on Standard mode at the moment but if these fast and furious scenes keep coming at me, I might be forced to take it down to easy mode to just enjoy the story and survive without getting frustrated. I have no idea if RE3 has multiple play through options, but if I had to do that bug zone again, I am NOPE-ing out of that and just going right to 4.

Or…I guess I should play Village which is ALSO waiting in my downloads…

Did you play Resident Evil 3? Where does it rank in the series for you? Did it feel more difficult or did I just lose my mojo after taking a 5-month break from RE land after I finished 2?

Let me know in the comments!