Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

So much minute-to-minute combat in classic Resident Evil boils down to pressing aim and shooting until the zombie goes down; the main appeal — in theory — is the resource consumption, where every shot counts and evading enemies is often preferable. On its face, Resident Evil 3’s combat focus seems to violate this core appeal, as the increase in enemy counts across the board comes with a corresponding increase in heavy weaponry. Shells for the shotgun weren’t even sparse in Resident Evil 2, and in RE3 you might as well just use it as your daily driver given how lush the ammo haul is. Between that, chokepoints with explosive barrels, the contextual dodge, the wealth of gunpowders,1 and the grace push-downs the player gets if previously bitten in a room, it really feels like Jill is nigh invincible in most regular encounters. With the more claustrophobic corridor design and increased enemy limit per room, there are certainly more times that the game pushes the player into one of these…