Rock Paper Shotgun Author Nate Crowley Claims Nemesis Promotes “Violence Against Women,” Takes Issue With Jill’s Attractiveness in Resident Evil 3 Review
Spencer Baculi
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With the release of the Resident Evil 3 Remake video game news site Rock Paper Shotgun has published their review of the long-anticipated title, and though the title ultimately received high praise, author Nate Crowley took issue with both Jill’s attractive design and her role as a target of the Nemesis bio-weapon.
In the March 31st review, Crowley begins by reviewing the game’s specific qualities, praising the game’s shooting gameplay, level design, graphics, and atmosphere, while criticizing the game’s inventory system.
Crowley then turns to one of the core elements of the game, the hulking Nemesis enemy and his persistent chase of the protagonists, speaking highly of “his relentlessness” but finding his tendency to develop “bigger and nastier forms throughout the game” to detract from his overall terrifying presence.
However, Crowley’s review then takes a bizarre turn as he claims that there is a ““violence against women” aspect of Nemesis, and of the game in general” simply because Jill is a woman. He also claims its problem with the entire horror genre.
Although he does concede that “in fairness, you play as trigger-happy mercenary Carlos for a good portion of the game.”
“I do kind of want to flag the whole “violence against women” aspect of Nemesis, and of the game in general, as it’s hard to deny it’s a theme, or that it’s presented with at least a little relish. I realise it’s completely unreasonable to single out RE3 for this when, y’know, *gestures at the entire history of the horror genre*. And in fairness, you play as trigger-happy mercenary Carlos for a good portion of the game, so you get to see loads of lingering close ups of a man’s neck getting devoured like a late night burger, too.”
Stating that “there were moments while playing when I just felt uncomfortable,” Crowley appears to take the most issue with the violence against Jill because she is “sexy,” bizarrely framing the graphic and violent Jill-specific damage animations as something inherently erotic.
“But… yeah. There were moments while playing when I just felt uncomfortable. Jill isn’t too obviously a vessel for anyone’s fetishes, but realistic as she is, she’s clearly designed to be sexy. And she spends an awful lot of time being hurled into things, slapped about, grunting in pain, being asphyxiated, and either struggling to force assailants off her, or being graphically murdered by them. There was one particularly rough bit where one of the previously mentioned spider monsters strangled her with tentacles, then rammed a bigger tentacle down her neck to pump her full of parasites. Watching back through my capture footage for screenshots, I could hear myself mutter “not cool, man” into my headset. And it doesn’t happen to Carlos.”
Crowley then speaks directly to the Nemesis and takes many of the character’s sarcastic comments about the creature’s tenacity as serious commentary which contributes to “Nemesis having sleazy dom energy.”
“I wasn’t even kidding on Nemesis having sleazy dom energy, by the way. Jill’s ex-supercop colleague Brad mentions Nemesis having a “hard-on” for her, and when Carlos is introduced – while saving Jill from a mangling at the hands of ol’ bagfists himself – he quips that Nemesis “knows what it wants, and won’t stop till it gets it – don’t you like that in a man?”
“No thanks,” replies Jill, “he’s all yours”.”
Ultimately, Crowley found the game worthy of praise, concluding his review by exclaiming “I liked it! More than I expected to like it” because he “was precisely in the mood for a fairly linear, day-long series of setpieces, and that’s exactly what I got.”
YouTuber Vara Dark of Dark Titan Enterprises reacted to Crowley’s review saying his opinion regarding “violence against women” is “bullshit.”
She added, “This game does not have a violence against women theme. I doubt most people find her being thrown against a car to be sexy. And we know for a fact that the developers did not specifically make these scenes to be sexy because the art director admitted that they toned down Jill’s sexiness. Jill used to be sexy, she’s average now.”
What do you make of Crowley’s claims regarding Resident Evil 3, Jill, and Nemesis?
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