Imagine if you had created something long ago, and years later you had the chance to create it all over again, but as intended this time; as an actual sequel, not a spinoff.

After playing Resident Evil 3 this past week, the realization hit me. This game is not a remake. It is a reimagining; a sequel to last year’s Resident Evil 2.

If you think of it like that, you’re going to have a very fun time with Resident Evil 3. Otherwise, if you’re expecting it to be a remake, you’re likely going to be disappointed.

The story as a whole is well-written, and takes you in from start to finish. It begins at Jill Valentine’s apartment, and interestingly, that beginning actually harkens ‘forward’ to another installment in the series. Soon after this we’re introduced to Nemesis, a bioweapon with a directive to eradicate Jill and her S.T.A.R.S. teammates. The big brute is relentless and seemingly unkillable.

Jill then meets the squad of Carlos, Nicholai, and Mikhail, who work for the evil Umbrella corporation, and her journey intertwines with theirs as the hulking, horrific Nemesis stalks her. This loose template remains from the original, but it becomes clear that the game is going to do things with the plot quite differently this time around from the opening few minutes on. The details of that original story are blown apart and reconstructed in new ways to tie more coherently into the lore of Resident Evil as we know it now.

The graphics look fantastic here yet again, thanks to the RE Engine. They really bring out the grotesque look of the enemies and the damage they take. It also makes the big story action scenes into dazzling intense spectacles. As with Resident Evil 2, the lighting is exceptional, from the murky hallways briefly illuminated by flickering lights to the rich and vibrant neon signs glowing amid the wreckage of Raccoon City.

The redone music is also a huge plus, with reimagined callbacks to original tracks such as the ‘Nemesis’ theme and ‘The City of Ruin’, so the tension, especially during one particular location as Carlos, can really be ramped up. The performances are once again of great quality, with the dynamic between Jill and Carlos really selling the melodramatic urgency and chaos of the situation because of the motion-capture and voice work.

The monsters are, of course, the stars of the show, and while many are returning from Resident Evil 2, there’s plenty of new monstrosities to avoid being slaughtered by. For example, the reintroduction/redesign of the Hunters makes for a terrifying addition; they’re ugly (Predator-esque in fact), armored, fast, and if you’re not careful, can kill you in a single grisly blow.

Luckily, a ‘dodge’ mechanic, evolved from the one found in the original game, has your back when facing such deadly threats, and while it can be difficult to time it right, it’s a satisfying moment when the world slows to a crawl, and you pop that headshot, with the greatest satisfaction.

What many are here for is Nemesis and Nemesis is… fine. It bellows ‘STARS’ with that hunger and rage that fans will be all too familiar with, and comes after you like a parkouring Terminator. Yet it was disappointing that there were certain points where you are forced to fight it, and in a few of those situations, the method to beat the hulking monstrosity felt uninspired and underwhelming.

There is one time around a third of the way through where it was fun to beat him like this, especially as he learned how to dodge grenade shots. But further into the game, when it was repeating this ‘event’ in different locations, it just felt forced.

If I go any further I would be in spoiler-territory, but a lot felt more scripted than the original, and it hindered the character of Nemesis as a whole for me. There were barely any surprises seeing him compared to Mr. X, which made the allure of Nemesis so fun. You weren’t sure when he was going to appear in the majority of the original game. Regardless of this being a re-imagining, it would have been nice to have seen Nemesis burst through a door or a window much more often.

The Carlos section of the game takes you to some familiar locations. This is akin to the Ada Wong section of Resident Evil 2, but substantially longer. It’s an enjoyable change of pace, and certain things accomplished during this segment tie in to the events of Resident Evil 2 quite nicely. But in other ways, it’s a shame that the story took precedent here over the gameplay; it would have been nice to have explored a few more familiar areas at this point in time in Raccoon City, rather than be faced with locked doors or furniture blocking the way to other routes.

This is also an issue when locations from the original game are shown, but are inaccessible due to the reworked plot of this game. Some were mercifully welcome exclusions to me in particular, but others were a shame to lose.

Remember in The Simpsons when Millhouse wanted Itchy, Scratchy and Poochie to get to the fireworks factory and they never did? I had a couple of experiences like that in Resident Evil 3, which was unfortunate as I was very curious, even as this is a re-imagining, of what this current generation could have created here. But for the locations that stayed in, they work very well, especially towards the end of the game.

It doesn’t help that the game is quite brief. I was able to finish it in 4 hours on my first playthrough. I then completed it on ‘Normal’ in three and a half. It’s a shorter game than 2, but it really shouldn’t be. This is the only scenario you will be playing too, unlike Resident Evil 2, unless you start again on one of three difficulty settings, and eventually others once you finish your first playthrough.

There’s also a nice treat that I won’t spoil here, but make sure you gain as many points as you can throughout the game to purchase rewards of items and weapons.

It’s telling to me as to why RE: Resistance is launching alongside Resident Evil 3 now. It makes sense, considering the length of the game, but regardless, you will enjoy blasting your way through certain environments over and over again. It is a compelling game, and you will likely be going back repeatedly. The soul of this game was that it was an action game primarily, and the fact that there are far fewer puzzles here than the previous entry gives credence to that.

Here would have been a paragraph on my experiences with RE: Resistance, but there have been issues that have not allowed me to play it to give you my impressions. Those will now come in a separate piece after launch.

Even so, it’s a shame that ‘Mercenaries’ isn’t here. It was a fantastic mode that has been replaced by RE: Resistance. The only remnant of it seems to be this method of ‘collecting points’ through repeated play-throughs of the main game to collect certain items and weapons. It’s welcome, but there is one item that may require six or seven attempts to obtain it.

In ‘Mercenaries’, it was a matter of collecting money by reaching the end in a timely fashion, defeating hunters and zombies to rack up more time. I hope we see a return of this mode as DLC down the line, as the number of characters here and in RE:2 can more than make do for a remake of this mode. 

For those who have been waiting for a remake of the original game, this isn’t quite it. It’s clearly a reimagining, a ‘what could we have done if this was originally a sequel to begin with’ scenario. If you think of it as simply a sequel to last year’s remake to Resident Evil 2, then you’re probably going to have a better time with it. The story is engaging. Nemesis, at least in its first form, is as relentlessly terrifying as ever, before it becomes a repeated boss stage.

It’s at least an interesting, if lacking, reimagining, but it may have been better to treat this as more of a remake, as Resident Evil 2 was. It’s enjoyable, it’s pretty much everything you loved about last year’s entry, but there’s a nagging feeling that it could have been so much more.

Resident Evil 3 review code for PC provided by the publisher.

Resident Evil 3 is out April 3 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.