Resident Evil 3 is four dollars right now. Less than a large latte. And 14,775 players are online proving that price can move units — even for a game the fanbase has spent six years calling the runt of the remake litter.

Capcom’s Steam Spring Sale, running through March 26, has slashed RE3 to $3.99, a 90% discount and the title’s lowest price ever, according to its Steam store page. That’s enough to land it at #6 on Steam’s Top Sellers and #2 in Specials. The numbers look healthy. The reviews tell a different story.

The Remake Gap

RE3 sits at 82% positive from over 71,000 Steam reviews and a 77 on Metacritic. Respectable in isolation — until you line it up against its siblings. The Resident Evil 2 remake scored 91 on Metacritic, according to GAMINGbible. RE3 isn’t just the weakest-reviewed remake in the trilogy, it’s in a different tier entirely.

The complaints haven’t changed since launch day in April 2020: the campaign is short, the Clock Tower section from the 1999 original was cut entirely, and Nemesis feels scripted compared to RE2’s unpredictable Mr. X. According to GameRant, the game “offers a more streamlined experience, with a stronger focus on action and cinematic storytelling” — polite language for a title many fans felt was trimmed too aggressively.

The Length Debate

Here’s the counterpoint: user data from How Long to Beat puts both the original and the remake at roughly seven and a half hours for a main playthrough, according to GAMINGbible. Completionists actually get more from the remake — an estimated 20 hours versus 13 for the 1999 version. The perception of brevity may owe more to RE2’s shadow than to RE3’s actual runtime.

At $3.99, the value argument is settled. But six years and a rock-bottom price tag haven’t moved the needle on RE3’s reputation. Some games just can’t discount their way out of a comparison they were never going to win.

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