I didn't. I already knew they're going to go hard on the whole this is a rookie cop and a civilian perspectively. The trailer pretty much emphasized that. I tempered my fears and expectations.
Yeah, but Capcom didn't have much goodwill with me anymore after the 7th generation. And considering the 3rd person perspective it would've been easy for them to fall into an
RE4/5/6 design philosophy. The fact that they were able to merge modern game sensibilities with the more hardcore item/enemy management of the classic games is frankly a miracle.
Don't forget about Carlos. He's better in the remake, than he is in the original. The remake of 3 has a better handling of the characters.
My only main problems with the Remake is the complete removal of defense items, Nemesis not chasing you as much (outside of scripted encounters), and the hunters having a one hit kill move that you're not going to see coming in your first play through. I know some people hated the removal of the clock tower section, but that part didn't bother me. Another sore point is that Jill never goes to the RPD. They cut that out do the timing and rushing it out. Otherwise, I find it a decent game.
I feel there's a clash in this game between being an action game and being a management game, but doing neither very well. The camera is too close and the levels too confined to properly support the action mechanics, and the item management is... well, it might as well not even be there.
The intro is so, SO bad. I know cinematic sequences are typically looked down on, and a developer like Naughty Dog is sorta looked down on for having them, but
RE3 Remake's opening shows how good Naughty Dog is at making them and how atrocious Capcom is when they try it. This is Nemesis' introduction and there's zero sense of threat since there's practically zero gameplay. Contrast that with the original game where he shows up in a cutscene to immediately kill Brad, and then he's just there in the gameworld coming after you. There's ofcourse the choice to opt out of fighting him and hide in the police station, but it happens in a snap, you're not forced to awkwardly walk through a bunch of hallways while he's "chasing" you.
Nemesis overall was such a letdown mechanically, he just didn't work. Mr. X worked so fucking well, but Nemesis was just trash. There's also only one good Boss fight in the entire game, and it's the first one against Nemesis on the rooftop. All the beast form fights... blegh.
And yeah, Carlos was pretty cool. I think I liked almost every character in this game to some degree, but Jill and Nicolai... *cheff's kiss*