Resident Evil 3 on the Mac review: it's time to meet your sworn enemy

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You must give it to Capcom, because the company certainly puts a real effort in the publication of Mac versions of its games – or at least the Resident Evil series anyway. Resident Evil: Village was the first in the series to be released for the Mac, in 2022, although it is in fact the eighth game of the long series. Since then, Capcom has followed with Resident Evil 4 and 7 and 2, in this order. Fortunately, the order does not matter too much because most of the Resident Evil games have their own individual stories – which is just as well, because the last game of the series to arrive on the Mac is Resident Evil 3, which was initially launched on PC in 2020 (although it is in fact a remake of the original game of 1999).

This time, you play as Jill Valentine, a special agent sent to Racoon City in the American Mid-West to investigate the hatching of the `Zombie virus '' which emerged for the first time in Resident Evil 2. Jill and his colleagues suspect an umbrella, a large pharmaceutical corporation that has developed a pharmaceutical business. In most Resident Evil Games, this is the point where you start to shoot a wave of zombies not very intelligent, but Resident Evil 3 has a new tip in its sleeve in the form of nemesis, a kind of intelligent super-zombie developed as a secret weapon by Umbrella.

See all the games that we enjoyed playing on the Mac in our tour of the best Mac games.

Namesis run the tables and shakes the traditional resident Evil formula by transforming Jill from the hunter into a hunt. Instead of making your way through hordes of zombies, you are now on the rear foot for a change, because Nesis is always on your path, you hunt as you try to escape Racoon City. In fact, that makes a welcome change to see that you are on the defensive from time to time, often running and trying to stay alive rather than exploding zombies with casualness.

It is a shame that dependence on the cutting scenes sometimes breaks the game, but Resident Evil 3 could always be a good starting point for Mac players who are new in the series, because the fight is not as relentless as in certain other games. Capcom recommends using a game controller, but I grew up playing games with a mouse and a keyboard and I didn't have much trouble playing the game this way.

Foundry

It is also a good option for older mac owners, because the age of the game means that it does not require a high -end Mac to manage its 3D graphics. The Mac App Store indicates that the game will run on any Mac with a M1 or later processor, and MacOS 13.0 or later – but not on Intel Macs unfortunately.

We tested the game on a MacBook Pro with a M2 Pro chip and it works well at any time, even with hordes of zombies that cross the screen (although it is a shame that there is no image frequency meter integrated into the game to precisely measure the performance). The game also provides a number of graphic presets that allow you to prioritize the quality of performance or graphics, depending on the speed of your Mac. We were also happy to see that you can download a demonstration version of the game to see how it works on your Mac before paying the full version.

Foundry

The bad news – as is so often the case with Mac games – is that the Mac version of the game is currently only available on the Mac App Store, so if you have already bought the game on Steam or another online store, you will always have to buy the Mac version separately. There is a certain consolation, however, because the Mac version also runs on the iPhone 15 or subsequent version, and the iPads which have an A17 or M processor, so the purchase of the Mac version will also allow you to play it on your mobile devices.

If you buy Resident Evil 3

The zombie shooting formula can quickly become a little too familiar if you have played other Resident Evil games in the past. However, Resident Evil 3 shakes things a little by using Nèmesis to get back on your feet for a change, and the requirements of the game system for the game – and a free demo – make it a good affordable choice for any new person in the series. Now, if we could simply have a word with Capcom on the dogma games of Monster Hunter and Dragon….