Replay Value
Resident Evil games have always been on the shorter side, especially the original trilogy, and the two remakes are also definitely short. However, the bulk of the fun of the Resi experience comes from replaying these games over and over again, trying to unlock everything, playing the higher difficulty levels, and beating the game as efficiently and quickly as possible.
Both RE2 and RE3 are fantastic speed games, but in different ways.
Resident Evil 2 perfected the whole speed formula by offering both variety in content, and S+ ranks for players who wanted to go above and beyond, and really give themselves a challenge. With four different campaign routes, players could challenge themselves to get the S+ ranks with all four by playing on Hardcore, under two hours, and with only three saves and no bonus items. It’s harder than you might think, but it offers a very fun challenge for players who wanted to play as fast as possible.
Not only that, there were plenty of other speed opportunities in the extra modes that Resident Evil 2 offered: Fourth Survivor and Tofu Survivor. These were way more challenging, and you could even unlock different Tofus as you get better at that mode. Plenty of reasons to keep going back and replaying these modes over and over again.
Resident Evil 3 falls a little short in that regard. With only one campaign, there isn’t a whole lot of content to go through in the first place. Because Resi 3 doesn’t have different routes like 2 does, there’s not a lot of variation in gameplay either, especially since the remake doesn’t feature live selection like in the original game.
Past that, there are no additional modes to challenge yourself with. Yes, we know Resident Evil Resistance is a thing, but that’s not really the kind of additional content we’re looking for in this category.
Resi 3 does offer a couple of other things, though: two more difficulty levels with Nightmare and Inferno, as well as a shop where you can purchase bonus items with points you’ve accumulated. Here’s the thing: there’s very little incentive to buy all the items in the shop if you’re not really motivated to replay the game in the first place.
In addition to that, while the two extra difficulty levels are incredibly challenging, the S rank requirements for them are also fairly lenient. Aside from the strict time limit, players are free to use bonus items from the shop to make them extremely easy, and that wouldn’t affect their ranks at all.
There’s no S+ rank to differentiate the players who did and did not use bonus items, and that’s a huge step back from how Resident Evil 2 handled it.
Winner: Resident Evil 2, in almost every aspect. Nightmare and Inferno are great, but Resident Evil 2 just nails it in every other area.
Winner: Resident Evil 2
Even back in the 90s, Resident Evil 2 was largely seen as the definitive RE game, and nothing else came close, except for maybe the original game. Resident Evil 3 definitely has its merits, but we can’t help but feel that it’s just a little lackluster when standing next to its much more accomplished sibling.
