Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

What happens when you take the mini-game component from Resident Evil 4 and 5, mash them together and give them a third dimension? You get Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D by Capcom for the Nintendo 3DS. As Capcom’s second 3DS title, RE3D is another visual showcase for the handheld along the lines of Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition.

The first thing you will notice upon starting the game are the very stunning graphics. The game looks amazing in 2D or 3D modes, though I would have liked a touch more depth for the farther distances. Switch the game down to 2D mode and a anti-aliasing filter gets applied to the screen to reduce the jagged appearances of the characters. Not that the game really needs it, the models look very close to their console counterparts. The frame-rate never stutters no matter how action packed the scenes get, though the game does have an odd way of keeping everything seemingly smooth. Enemies that are near you look and move great, but anything not directly next to you moves in a rather odd looking frameskipped way. This does not affect your ability to successfully kill said enemies and when using the rifles, enemies in your sights all move as they should.

Sadly, the audio doesn’t impress as much as the visuals. The music in RE3D is a decent but forgettable mix of upbeat tunes to go along with the action but the sounds are a very mixed bag. Gunfire and explosions sound great as well as the enemy sounds, all taken from Resident Evil 4 and 5. The voice work, however, leaves a lot to be desired. In both acting quality as well as the audio quality itself, the voice work of the characters sounds literally phoned in. Quite a shame as these are the same actors from the Resident Evil series reprising their roles, they have done much better.

RE3D plays very much like the mercenaries mode of Resident Evil 5. You have to kill as many enemies as you can within your allotted time and bonus points are given for chaining kills into lengthy combos. This time, however, the game is broken up into separate missions, though the objective is mostly the same. You are usually tasked with eliminating as many enemies as possible in the time given or defeating one of the various boss enemies. Time bonuses may be collected to extend the limit and those skilled enough to defeat enemies with a melee attack are rewarded with a five second extension per kill. Difficulty quickly increases as the player progresses through the 21 main missions, whom are split into 5 mission levels with an additional 8 missions for the EX mission.

Grades are given at the end of each mission you survive and based on your scores, you may unlock one of the many skills and characters you can choose from. Each character has their own unique weapon load out and hidden player attributes such as health and melee strength. Thankfully Capcom has included the ability to mix player load outs so you aren’t stuck playing a character you don’t like if you just want their weaponry. These alternate load outs can be purchased with the Play Coins you earn on your 3DS by carrying it with you in sleep mode. I hope to see more game developers take advantage of this function of the 3DS as it’s nice to be able to buy unlocks with a universal game currency instead of the usual unlock progression most games force upon the player. You can also earn many skills that you can equip your character with to make them do stronger melee attacks or increase the effectiveness or healing items or weapons handling.

Not all is perfect with the gameplay, however. While you can choose your player load out from a few presets, most load outs don’t include a melee weapon. This makes breaking open an ammo filled barrel or crate impossible if you run out of ammo for your weapons. Keeping an eye on your ammo can be a pretty difficult task as you are routinely surrounded by about a dozen enemies at any given time. Gameplay additions like the ability to move and run while reloading, aiming and picking up items do a lot to streamline the controls, but those who didn’t like the controls from the prior games will still not enjoy the presets given in RE3D.

Players are able to play both offline local and online in the majority of the missions. Multiplayer scores are tracked separately from single player but stages can be unlocked for play in either mode. The gameplay is surprisingly lag free in all the sessions I played, including a few cross-country. It has to be noted that occasionally, the game would not connect to the online servers even after a few tries. Once connected, the game worked great, but sometimes it took over five tries to connect. There is no player communication aside from a few commands you can give and they can not be heard if the player is not within earshot.

RE3D’s gameplay is not for everyone. As a full price 3DS title with no story mode, it might be asking a bit much for a game that’s an expanded version of what was considered a mini-game for a full console release. While I really enjoy the game, many players might be frustrated with the intentionally stiff controls of the Resident Evil series. Since the game does not allow you to delete your save game, it’s also hard to recommend this as a rental or used purchase. If you enjoyed the Mercenaries modes in Resident Evil 4 and especially Resident Evil 5 then by all means get this game, you’ll have a lot of fun especially if you play online. For those unimpressed with those modes or new to the series, you might be better off skipping this game and waiting for Resident Evil Revelations.