Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

by Liam Edwards
reviewed on 3DS
Injected (cntd)
There is not much of a difficulty curve either, it is all very much up and down as you make your way through waves of the same revolving cast of enemies as they take turns to take you down. It can feel simple at one point and then the next mission could take four or five attempts before completion; it has a very unbalanced feeling. A variation in enemies provides the difficulty, with the lower Majini enemies from Resident Evil 5 taking less ammo to kill and being more akin to moving meat slabs than opponents. As the game progresses (or whenever the game feels like it) armour-plated-zombie-military fellas from Resident Evil 4 are thrown in and provide a little bit more skill to defeat. Everything about Mercenaries 3D feels copied and pasted; the maps, enemies and weapons all seem to be mass-produced. It’s as if every enemy in the game shopped at the same store, which by coincidence seems to share the same location that the Resident Evil cast have their training missions.
With Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Capcom got their rolling-pin out and flattened the cake that was the Mercenaries mini-game into a large pancake with everything being thinly spread out to look bigger. Although the pancake maybe flat and look larger than it actually is, this does not mean to say that it is not a tasty pancake.
Enough With The Moaning!
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is a prime of example of how developers should be using the Nintendo 3DS' capabilities. There is not anything that screams out at players saying “look at me I am in 3D!”, it is much more subtle than that. The 3D is seemingly integrated into the game and consequently looks and feels better while playing. 3D is something that should compliment the gameplay of a title and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D does this perfectly.
Mercenaries 3D is a fine looking game outside it’s use of 3D too, with it being graphically impressive and being one of the better looking hand-held titles to date. Textures are smooth and detailed, and characters are perfect renditions of their console counterparts. You would mistake the game for Resident Evil 5 if you saw it at a glance and it certainly looks as good as Resident Evil 4. Unfortunately, this praise cannot be said about the animations used, as characters and enemies run at slow and jittery frame rates constantly. Enemies that are placed at a far distance away from the player all look to be running at 5 frames per second and it can seriously take away from the polished feel you get when fighting up close with enemies.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D also disappoints in the sound department. With some absolutely dire voice acting and the sound quality coming from characters mimicking the sound bytes from early mobile phones, it certainly is not one to play loud. The soundtrack is also comprised of the same dull rehashed techno/electronic music repeated constantly, it can drive sensitive ears crazy.
7.0
fun score
Pros
It is Resident Evil on a hand-held. The same highly-addictive gameplay featured in the original mercenaries modes. Graphically superb at times.
Cons
Very low on content, long list of continuing problems. And no variety in missions or modes. Has a hefty price tag for what is available.