Nemesis is the most iconic monster of the Resident Evil franchise. From his first appearance in RE3 20 years ago he has shown up in many places across different media. It was only with Mr. X earlier this year that some other monster could begin to compare. Personally, Nemesis (and RE3) are some of the most enduring childhood memories I have as far as games are concerned, and so I decided to make this thread as a sort of homage to them. What made the Nemesis T-Type so successful? That's what I'll be trying to answer here, so let's dissect this pixelated monster. Beware, there is a lot of T-Virus infected meat to examine here. I'll be looking close to some of the major encounters with him and referencing the game as a whole to find some key aspects that made Nemesis the monster he is. ps: It's important to keep in mind that to understand Nemesis in its full glory we need to imagine ourselves playing the game for the first time way back in 1999, after playing one or both previous RE titles.
So here we are back in 1999 with our recently bought copy of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (technically it should be Biohazard 3: Last Escape). The beginning of the game is not much dissimilar to RE2's. Cool CGI and when you find yourself in control of the protagonist, this time RE1's veteran Jill Valentine, you're thrown into the chaos of a Raccoon City overtaken by monsters. Then you do a "mad rush" towards the RPD. This time, in the middle of our run, we meet our STAR comrade Brad Vickers who warns Jill something is coming:
He is coming for us. We're both gonna die!
I'll come back to this in a bit, but now let's forward to the police department where we finally meet the (not) man himself. Overall, this is a cool intro, but in many ways it's fairly standard. I won't talk too much about Nemesis design, but a couple of words are due: part of it is reminiscent from previous Tyrants, most notably from Mr. X, with the humanoid silhouette and the trench coat. But he also manages, especially with his face and tentacles, set a firm identity to himself. In other words, you know what Nemesis is but you won't confuse him with any other BOW. Back to the intro, the really important thing about it comes only at the end.
STARS
When Nemesis half roars half speaks STARS he is setting himself apart from everything that came before. When it comes to intelligence, in both RE1 and RE2 all monsters and BOWs are stuck between mindlessness and an animal-like intelligence. Zombies would be in one extreme, while Hunters and Mr. X would be in another. Think, for one, of the Tyrant in the original RE. Immediately after being released he loses control and "kills" Wesker. Or Birkin in RE2. He's mental state is deteriorating fast. When Nemesis speaks he is showing an ability that is exclusive to humans. A new level of intelligence that is very clearly communicated to the players. And this human-like intelligence is not just for show. He uses a rocket launcher to shoot down a helicopter, he can dodge grenades and will avoid other types of damage.
But that's not all the weight "STARS" carry. When Umbrella's latest BOW says that, he is telling you something. He is telling you his mission: to kill STARS members. And with Brad already done for that's you. In other words, with Nemesis it's personal. We aren't someone that simply crossed his path, or an obstacle between him and his main objective. We are his main objective. This, like this intelligence, is further reinforced throughout the game. I already mentioned Brad and his warning, but another instance is when you're controlling Carlos:
Nemesis will fight (and possibly kill) Carlos, but his true goal is behind that door. And if you don't do enough damage to him he will break the door and kill Jill. Mission accomplished.
Back to the game, in the aftermath of the CGI intro we are presented with two choices: fight the monster or escape into the RPD. Nemesis is a very tough fight, the odds of newcomers like us to beat him are… slim. So we retreat inside the police station. What happens next is very traditional: Nemesis keeps hitting the door and even with an ominous music playing we feel safe. After all, what can be safer in the RE universe than a door? All is all, the first encounter with Nemesis is memorable, effective and terrifying. But the monster still has some tricks up his bulletproof sleeves. To see them we should look to our second meeting.
There is a lot that can be said about this encounter. First thing that I'd like to note is how well crafted it is. You can listen to the ambient music changing as Jill gets closer to the stairs (don't forget this track by the way) and window being broken. The game is preparing you to what is to come. Yet few things will make you ready to witness a7.25 foot 2.2 meters tall rocket launcher wielding monster jumping through a window. I already mentioned Nemesis carries a rocket launcher, right? I need to delve into this further. Let's begin with reminding how this contributes to Nemesis superior intelligence. No monster before was capable of using a weapon, but this BOW uses a rocket launcher. And the choice for this particular killing tool is significant. By RE3, it had already stablished itself as an end-game boss-killing weapon. But now? Now it's the boss that has it! This might feel not that important, but my first memory of RE3 and Nemesis was a friend telling me the guy had a rocket launcher. It was mind blowing stuff. Literally and not.
Returning to the fight, we had little chance against our pursuer back in front of the RPD, and that, I might add, was a very open area with a lot of free space. Certainly designed to make Nemesis a little less overwhelming. We have even less of a fighting chance here, so we run. When in the next room we feel safe, even if the "Nemesis music" keeps playing. Same thing in the next room, but when we get away we realize a horrifying fact: Nemesis can follow us through doors. This shatters a well stablished safe zone from RE1 and RE2. This is one of the reasons it's so important to transport ourselves back 20 years. What might feel trivial today (even considering only the RE franchise) was a huge deal then.
Last but not least, I want to finish this first part exposing another fact about Nemesis that the player would most likely found out in these two encounters: Nemesis can run. Not only that, he can run much faster than Jill. This is also new. No enemy from RE1 or RE2 ran faster than the protagonist. I know you might be remembering that the Tyrant or final form Mr. X or dog Birkin all had very fast attacks. But I would argue these two things have very different impacts both on the player's mind and the gameplay. Nemesis doesn't simply have a very fast dash attack, he has a new level of movement, closer to the player's than most other enemies' (indeed, can even do a quick turn). And he will be using that with extreme prejudice to hunt us down all across Raccoon City narrow streets and keep us on our toes.
And that's it for the first part. Here I tried to focus on more "psychological" elements that make Nemesis quick in stablishing himself as a big threat. They work significantly well because they mark a rapture with previous norms of past Resident Evil games, which was a fact that I tried to point out a few times. To sum this elements up:
- Nemesis superior intelligence ("STARS"/Rocket Launcher).
- With him it's personal.
- He can run faster than you.
- He can follow you through doors and gates.
Two final notes before moving on. These are very subjective elements and I don't claim to be telling a factual account of how Nemesis affects every player. But I do believe these things shape our perception of Nemesis even if we are not fully aware of it. Second, some of these elements have big implications in the gameplay side of things and not only in the player's mind. And so I want to turn to that now: how Nemesis work as a gameplay mechanic inside Resident Evil 3.
We can divide Nemesis as a game mechanic in two parts: as a boss fight and as a stalker. I want to focus more on the second because I feel it has a lot of nuances that are lost to many players but without which Nemesis wouldn't be as good as he is. Before that however, some words about Nemesis as a boss.
Every time we encounter this BOW we can fight (and defeat) him. But how is the fight itself? For one, it's very challenging. Newcomers like us will have a very hard time against him, especially in the beginning with limited weaponry. Not only he hits very hard and is faster than the player, he is also extremely resilient. For reference, it takes something like 4x times the amount of damage needed to take down Mr. X to defeat Nemesis. Indeed, compared to any previous boss, he has much more health. And you first meet him 20 minutes into the game! His attacks are a combination of punches and grabs with both hands. One interesting aspect of this fight is that Nemesis was clearly designed with RE3's newly added dodge mechanic in mind. That means Jill's dodges which don't work very well with some enemies do work reliably against this recurring boss. Moreover, Nemesis will also try to punish players for bad timing by delaying his attacks, a tactic that feels more like they belong in a Dark Souls game than a RE title. But here it mostly works because the dodge system, as mentioned, works consistently in this case. And I said "mostly works" because I do think some of Nemesis attacks are too fast, so it can be more about luck against some of his attacks. To illustrate some of these points I made a video of the first fight against this particular Umbrella's creation:
In conclusion, Nemesis fight is fun, challenging and doable. You can defeat him reliably every time he shows up, but you will be needing plenty of ammunition and health items. Later in the game you gain access to powerful weapons and can craft more deadly ammo which makes the fight considerably easier, but nothing of this is obvious to newcomers. Finally, after defeating our own personal devil we will be rewarded with peace (for a time), a "sense of accomplishment" and also a physical reward. Which can be special weapons, health items or even unlimited ammo for a weapon of our choosing. Good loot.
Those were the… few words about fighting Nemesis, now let's see how he works when following/hunting the player all over the game. If we mention stalker enemies today, I believe a lot of people will think of the Alien from Isolation or Mr. X from RE2 2019. That's not only because they are great, but also because they are recent and thus took full advantage of modern technology to relentless pursue the player. Nemesis couldn't be like that. The technology (at least for RE) was simply not there. And so the dev team had to come up with a way to make Nemesis not only follow the player but give the feeling of being followed even when he was not physically there. They accomplished that in three ways.
- With the soundtrack.
- With scripted events that depended on player choice.
- With a randomization of how Nemesis would follow Jill.
The soundtrack aspect is very straight forward. That are two main themes that are important here: "Feel the Tension" and "Nemesis Theme". The first will play whenever he is around and able to eventually show up and the second when he is physically present. We already saw in the video of his second encounter how "Feel the Tension" is used to create an atmosphere that communicates to the player Nemesis' presence. Another example is entering a safe room when he is around:
Instead of the calm track commonly associated with safe rooms in Resident Evil, you got a Nemesis track. You are still safe in the room, he can't enter it, but you won't be forgetting he is out there, just waiting for you. All in all it's a simple arrangement, but very effective particularly because of the quality of the soundtrack. Next we have the scripted events. Nemesis will be showing up a lot in the course of RE3. Those encounters are scripted, yet some of them will depend on some choices made by the players. I tried to explain them in these exquisite well made and crystal clear diagrams:
As you can see, there isn't much complexity to this. The only other variable encounter is in the clock tower, where depending on our choices Nemesis will or will not stalk Jill inside that place. Once again whoever we can't forget we are newcomers, we don't know any of that. Imagine ourselves playing the game for a second time because we liked it so much. We decide to not go to the dinner first so we avoid Nemesis for longer. Surprise surprise, Nemesis shows up there this time. That can be a very nasty experience. Furthermore, I must emphasize there elements support and reinforce each other. Even if they are simple in themselves, they contribute to a greater whole. Now to the third and main element: Nemesis randomness.
If you ask people how Nemesis follows the player, my guess is that they will say something like this: "he can't follow you through doors immediately, you have to walk a bit so the door is not framed by the camera and then Nemesis can barge in". That's indeed exactly how it went in our second encounter with him, which we already talked about. But this is just a small part of the story. To fully surpass the technological limitations of the time, Capcom's team would need to do more. And that more is an element of randomness in how Nemesis will follow Jill. I tried to show in the next video in which I'm running in circles how this can manifest:
Addendum Video. Moving foward toward the next objective.
As you can notice, Nemesis will not simply follow Jill from room to room, he will sometimes not show up in an area, and in the next he will appear in front of us. He might be calmly walking or running with terrible malicious intent. And always his soundtrack playing in the background. You know your pursuer is out there, but there are many ways he can show up. And these are not scripted, but random. I want to call to attention the moment at 3:50. This time we don't even have to put the door out of view, Nemesis will simply fall from the skies like an avenging angel (this is not exclusive to this area, you can see it in the addendum video at 3:15 as well. And in the other videos too). I would bet a lot of players might have never seen this particular animation, but other would. And for me, horror games are at their strongest in these small moments that really stay with you. Moments of extreme tension or apprehension can last a long time, but that instant of "Of fuck. Oh Jesus" are fast and hard to forget. And Nemesis can offer a few of them. I made an additional five videos that show the same thing but in other areas, any of these could have been our playthrough.
Nemesis Following after the Press Office 1 and 2. Nemesis following in the Clock Tower 1, 2 and 3.
In the end, I believe Nemesis successfully stablishes himself as a threat that can show up virtually anywhere at any time, even if that's not technically true. Another anecdotal example from my childhood: I remember playing with my friends, walking with a magnum equipped and blowing zombies heads because we were so scared and thought it could have been Nemesis. In hindsight, we were probably safe, but the game managed to convince us otherwise.
To sum all this up, we need to talk about how these two aspects of Nemesis (boss/stalker) dialogue with each other. They achieve a balance that might be the single most important and unique aspect of Nemesis. I already mentioned how you can fight and defeat him every time he shows up. Which means we might always kill him and actually never experience any of that stalking aspect. To avoid that, the developers had to balance Nemesis just right. If he was too hard, it would feel that the option to kill him was there just for show. Too easy and we would be very inclined to always kill him and get that reward. As is, when we run from Nemesis it's because we choose to, not because the game force us. That forges a very particular relationship between Jill and Nemesis. And is a positive factor for the player experience. As we grow both in skill and armament, we can get bolder and defeat Nemesis more times. But I don't think he ever loses the terrifying/challenging aspect. Not to mention that his threat level depends on other things as well. It's one thing to meet Nemesis with Jill on Fine and three First-Aid Sprays, another without any and on Caution.
That about it, really. Or not actually. There were other things to be said like how RE3's theme of an escape contributes to Nemesis effectiveness. Or a closer look into the obligatory fights with him. He is after all the last boss of the game. But I suppose I've written way, way too much already. I'm not even sure I should have posted this, but hey, it's RE3 20th anniversary.
Two things to finish and they are the last. Nemesis is obviously not perfect. I've seen some criticism aimed at him that are not entirely out of place. But here I go back to the beginning. Nemesis is the most iconic monster of the Resident Evil franchise. You don't get to stay relevant for 20 years by accident. So even if everything I said is wrong, it's my own fault. And there is probably a correct analysis out there to explain why he is indeed great. Second, if you read all of this, you have my gratitude.
Note 1: I'd like to recommend four RE3 videos which are not only great but helped me refine/shape my ideas: The Sphere Hunter's, TheGamingBritShow's, Hero's and AcidGlow's.
Note 2: If you think RE3 might look better than you remember, it's because it does. I used this awesome fan made mod that I can't recommend enough: RE3SHDP.
TL;DR: Nemesis is quite good and happy 20th anniversary RE3. Thanks for everyone that made this game possible.
So here we are back in 1999 with our recently bought copy of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (technically it should be Biohazard 3: Last Escape). The beginning of the game is not much dissimilar to RE2's. Cool CGI and when you find yourself in control of the protagonist, this time RE1's veteran Jill Valentine, you're thrown into the chaos of a Raccoon City overtaken by monsters. Then you do a "mad rush" towards the RPD. This time, in the middle of our run, we meet our STAR comrade Brad Vickers who warns Jill something is coming:
He is coming for us. We're both gonna die!
I'll come back to this in a bit, but now let's forward to the police department where we finally meet the (not) man himself. Overall, this is a cool intro, but in many ways it's fairly standard. I won't talk too much about Nemesis design, but a couple of words are due: part of it is reminiscent from previous Tyrants, most notably from Mr. X, with the humanoid silhouette and the trench coat. But he also manages, especially with his face and tentacles, set a firm identity to himself. In other words, you know what Nemesis is but you won't confuse him with any other BOW. Back to the intro, the really important thing about it comes only at the end.
STARS
When Nemesis half roars half speaks STARS he is setting himself apart from everything that came before. When it comes to intelligence, in both RE1 and RE2 all monsters and BOWs are stuck between mindlessness and an animal-like intelligence. Zombies would be in one extreme, while Hunters and Mr. X would be in another. Think, for one, of the Tyrant in the original RE. Immediately after being released he loses control and "kills" Wesker. Or Birkin in RE2. He's mental state is deteriorating fast. When Nemesis speaks he is showing an ability that is exclusive to humans. A new level of intelligence that is very clearly communicated to the players. And this human-like intelligence is not just for show. He uses a rocket launcher to shoot down a helicopter, he can dodge grenades and will avoid other types of damage.
But that's not all the weight "STARS" carry. When Umbrella's latest BOW says that, he is telling you something. He is telling you his mission: to kill STARS members. And with Brad already done for that's you. In other words, with Nemesis it's personal. We aren't someone that simply crossed his path, or an obstacle between him and his main objective. We are his main objective. This, like this intelligence, is further reinforced throughout the game. I already mentioned Brad and his warning, but another instance is when you're controlling Carlos:
Nemesis will fight (and possibly kill) Carlos, but his true goal is behind that door. And if you don't do enough damage to him he will break the door and kill Jill. Mission accomplished.
Back to the game, in the aftermath of the CGI intro we are presented with two choices: fight the monster or escape into the RPD. Nemesis is a very tough fight, the odds of newcomers like us to beat him are… slim. So we retreat inside the police station. What happens next is very traditional: Nemesis keeps hitting the door and even with an ominous music playing we feel safe. After all, what can be safer in the RE universe than a door? All is all, the first encounter with Nemesis is memorable, effective and terrifying. But the monster still has some tricks up his bulletproof sleeves. To see them we should look to our second meeting.
There is a lot that can be said about this encounter. First thing that I'd like to note is how well crafted it is. You can listen to the ambient music changing as Jill gets closer to the stairs (don't forget this track by the way) and window being broken. The game is preparing you to what is to come. Yet few things will make you ready to witness a
Returning to the fight, we had little chance against our pursuer back in front of the RPD, and that, I might add, was a very open area with a lot of free space. Certainly designed to make Nemesis a little less overwhelming. We have even less of a fighting chance here, so we run. When in the next room we feel safe, even if the "Nemesis music" keeps playing. Same thing in the next room, but when we get away we realize a horrifying fact: Nemesis can follow us through doors. This shatters a well stablished safe zone from RE1 and RE2. This is one of the reasons it's so important to transport ourselves back 20 years. What might feel trivial today (even considering only the RE franchise) was a huge deal then.
Last but not least, I want to finish this first part exposing another fact about Nemesis that the player would most likely found out in these two encounters: Nemesis can run. Not only that, he can run much faster than Jill. This is also new. No enemy from RE1 or RE2 ran faster than the protagonist. I know you might be remembering that the Tyrant or final form Mr. X or dog Birkin all had very fast attacks. But I would argue these two things have very different impacts both on the player's mind and the gameplay. Nemesis doesn't simply have a very fast dash attack, he has a new level of movement, closer to the player's than most other enemies' (indeed, can even do a quick turn). And he will be using that with extreme prejudice to hunt us down all across Raccoon City narrow streets and keep us on our toes.
And that's it for the first part. Here I tried to focus on more "psychological" elements that make Nemesis quick in stablishing himself as a big threat. They work significantly well because they mark a rapture with previous norms of past Resident Evil games, which was a fact that I tried to point out a few times. To sum this elements up:
- Nemesis superior intelligence ("STARS"/Rocket Launcher).
- With him it's personal.
- He can run faster than you.
- He can follow you through doors and gates.
Two final notes before moving on. These are very subjective elements and I don't claim to be telling a factual account of how Nemesis affects every player. But I do believe these things shape our perception of Nemesis even if we are not fully aware of it. Second, some of these elements have big implications in the gameplay side of things and not only in the player's mind. And so I want to turn to that now: how Nemesis work as a gameplay mechanic inside Resident Evil 3.
We can divide Nemesis as a game mechanic in two parts: as a boss fight and as a stalker. I want to focus more on the second because I feel it has a lot of nuances that are lost to many players but without which Nemesis wouldn't be as good as he is. Before that however, some words about Nemesis as a boss.
Every time we encounter this BOW we can fight (and defeat) him. But how is the fight itself? For one, it's very challenging. Newcomers like us will have a very hard time against him, especially in the beginning with limited weaponry. Not only he hits very hard and is faster than the player, he is also extremely resilient. For reference, it takes something like 4x times the amount of damage needed to take down Mr. X to defeat Nemesis. Indeed, compared to any previous boss, he has much more health. And you first meet him 20 minutes into the game! His attacks are a combination of punches and grabs with both hands. One interesting aspect of this fight is that Nemesis was clearly designed with RE3's newly added dodge mechanic in mind. That means Jill's dodges which don't work very well with some enemies do work reliably against this recurring boss. Moreover, Nemesis will also try to punish players for bad timing by delaying his attacks, a tactic that feels more like they belong in a Dark Souls game than a RE title. But here it mostly works because the dodge system, as mentioned, works consistently in this case. And I said "mostly works" because I do think some of Nemesis attacks are too fast, so it can be more about luck against some of his attacks. To illustrate some of these points I made a video of the first fight against this particular Umbrella's creation:
In conclusion, Nemesis fight is fun, challenging and doable. You can defeat him reliably every time he shows up, but you will be needing plenty of ammunition and health items. Later in the game you gain access to powerful weapons and can craft more deadly ammo which makes the fight considerably easier, but nothing of this is obvious to newcomers. Finally, after defeating our own personal devil we will be rewarded with peace (for a time), a "sense of accomplishment" and also a physical reward. Which can be special weapons, health items or even unlimited ammo for a weapon of our choosing. Good loot.
Those were the… few words about fighting Nemesis, now let's see how he works when following/hunting the player all over the game. If we mention stalker enemies today, I believe a lot of people will think of the Alien from Isolation or Mr. X from RE2 2019. That's not only because they are great, but also because they are recent and thus took full advantage of modern technology to relentless pursue the player. Nemesis couldn't be like that. The technology (at least for RE) was simply not there. And so the dev team had to come up with a way to make Nemesis not only follow the player but give the feeling of being followed even when he was not physically there. They accomplished that in three ways.
- With the soundtrack.
- With scripted events that depended on player choice.
- With a randomization of how Nemesis would follow Jill.
The soundtrack aspect is very straight forward. That are two main themes that are important here: "Feel the Tension" and "Nemesis Theme". The first will play whenever he is around and able to eventually show up and the second when he is physically present. We already saw in the video of his second encounter how "Feel the Tension" is used to create an atmosphere that communicates to the player Nemesis' presence. Another example is entering a safe room when he is around:
Instead of the calm track commonly associated with safe rooms in Resident Evil, you got a Nemesis track. You are still safe in the room, he can't enter it, but you won't be forgetting he is out there, just waiting for you. All in all it's a simple arrangement, but very effective particularly because of the quality of the soundtrack. Next we have the scripted events. Nemesis will be showing up a lot in the course of RE3. Those encounters are scripted, yet some of them will depend on some choices made by the players. I tried to explain them in these exquisite well made and crystal clear diagrams:
As you can see, there isn't much complexity to this. The only other variable encounter is in the clock tower, where depending on our choices Nemesis will or will not stalk Jill inside that place. Once again whoever we can't forget we are newcomers, we don't know any of that. Imagine ourselves playing the game for a second time because we liked it so much. We decide to not go to the dinner first so we avoid Nemesis for longer. Surprise surprise, Nemesis shows up there this time. That can be a very nasty experience. Furthermore, I must emphasize there elements support and reinforce each other. Even if they are simple in themselves, they contribute to a greater whole. Now to the third and main element: Nemesis randomness.
If you ask people how Nemesis follows the player, my guess is that they will say something like this: "he can't follow you through doors immediately, you have to walk a bit so the door is not framed by the camera and then Nemesis can barge in". That's indeed exactly how it went in our second encounter with him, which we already talked about. But this is just a small part of the story. To fully surpass the technological limitations of the time, Capcom's team would need to do more. And that more is an element of randomness in how Nemesis will follow Jill. I tried to show in the next video in which I'm running in circles how this can manifest:
Addendum Video. Moving foward toward the next objective.
As you can notice, Nemesis will not simply follow Jill from room to room, he will sometimes not show up in an area, and in the next he will appear in front of us. He might be calmly walking or running with terrible malicious intent. And always his soundtrack playing in the background. You know your pursuer is out there, but there are many ways he can show up. And these are not scripted, but random. I want to call to attention the moment at 3:50. This time we don't even have to put the door out of view, Nemesis will simply fall from the skies like an avenging angel (this is not exclusive to this area, you can see it in the addendum video at 3:15 as well. And in the other videos too). I would bet a lot of players might have never seen this particular animation, but other would. And for me, horror games are at their strongest in these small moments that really stay with you. Moments of extreme tension or apprehension can last a long time, but that instant of "Of fuck. Oh Jesus" are fast and hard to forget. And Nemesis can offer a few of them. I made an additional five videos that show the same thing but in other areas, any of these could have been our playthrough.
Nemesis Following after the Press Office 1 and 2. Nemesis following in the Clock Tower 1, 2 and 3.
In the end, I believe Nemesis successfully stablishes himself as a threat that can show up virtually anywhere at any time, even if that's not technically true. Another anecdotal example from my childhood: I remember playing with my friends, walking with a magnum equipped and blowing zombies heads because we were so scared and thought it could have been Nemesis. In hindsight, we were probably safe, but the game managed to convince us otherwise.
To sum all this up, we need to talk about how these two aspects of Nemesis (boss/stalker) dialogue with each other. They achieve a balance that might be the single most important and unique aspect of Nemesis. I already mentioned how you can fight and defeat him every time he shows up. Which means we might always kill him and actually never experience any of that stalking aspect. To avoid that, the developers had to balance Nemesis just right. If he was too hard, it would feel that the option to kill him was there just for show. Too easy and we would be very inclined to always kill him and get that reward. As is, when we run from Nemesis it's because we choose to, not because the game force us. That forges a very particular relationship between Jill and Nemesis. And is a positive factor for the player experience. As we grow both in skill and armament, we can get bolder and defeat Nemesis more times. But I don't think he ever loses the terrifying/challenging aspect. Not to mention that his threat level depends on other things as well. It's one thing to meet Nemesis with Jill on Fine and three First-Aid Sprays, another without any and on Caution.
That about it, really. Or not actually. There were other things to be said like how RE3's theme of an escape contributes to Nemesis effectiveness. Or a closer look into the obligatory fights with him. He is after all the last boss of the game. But I suppose I've written way, way too much already. I'm not even sure I should have posted this, but hey, it's RE3 20th anniversary.
Two things to finish and they are the last. Nemesis is obviously not perfect. I've seen some criticism aimed at him that are not entirely out of place. But here I go back to the beginning. Nemesis is the most iconic monster of the Resident Evil franchise. You don't get to stay relevant for 20 years by accident. So even if everything I said is wrong, it's my own fault. And there is probably a correct analysis out there to explain why he is indeed great. Second, if you read all of this, you have my gratitude.
Note 1: I'd like to recommend four RE3 videos which are not only great but helped me refine/shape my ideas: The Sphere Hunter's, TheGamingBritShow's, Hero's and AcidGlow's.
Note 2: If you think RE3 might look better than you remember, it's because it does. I used this awesome fan made mod that I can't recommend enough: RE3SHDP.
TL;DR: Nemesis is quite good and happy 20th anniversary RE3. Thanks for everyone that made this game possible.
