Your post as a whole is very reasonable and well thought out. For the quoted part, let's take these one at a time ("C" is for classic and "R" is for remake):
"All the gun models are unique" -- You mean like the literal icons in the item screen? Because, otherwise, Jill gets: a handgun (which both Leon and Claire get in RE2C), a shotgun (and actually, even less capable, since Leon's gets an upgrade about 2/3 of the way in RE2C, Jill's doesn't get any upgrade), a magnum (same as the shotgun), and a grenade launcher (Claire's weapon in RE2C). So the standard weapons that Jill gets are all Leon/Claire weapons from RE2C. Now, to be fair Jill does get the Mine Thrower and the handgun/shotgun that Nemesis drops when you defeat him. And the freeze rounds are pretty damn cool. But, again, the main weapons are all Leon/Claire weapons from RE2C, and serve pretty much the same purpose. Oh, forgot about Carlos: he gets the machine gun, which behaves similarly and serves the same purpose as the RE2C machine gun.
"All the enemies models are unique and the zombies even have completely different AI than RE2 (not true in the remake)" -- Yes. This is good and bad. The zombie models in RE3C actually seem like a
downgrade from the ones in RE2C. They all have this uniform, lower textured look than the ones in RE2C. And of course the AI
needed to change -- RE3C is a faster, more action oriented game than RE2C. So if they left the AI the same, it wouldn't work. And in some cases the zombie AI in RE3C comes down to: "go turbo, or don't go turbo." As for the "not true in the Remake" part: Parasite heads have different AI, RE3R has Pale heads (which are not present in the main RE2R campaign, they're in the Katherine Warren "Runaway" DLC I think), Hunters -- several different/additional enemies in RE3R than RE2R.
"The classic RE3 includes unique features like multiple endings/story paths" -- As a huge fan of the RE3C, I've thought a lot about this. And while I love the feature, and it's cool, and it does indeed add to replicability, it's... overblown. Because at the end of the day, the decisions don't matter that much -- the one that truly matters is the one right before the dead factory (whether to push Nemesis off the bridge, or to jump off). But, does it really matter if you fight Nemesis or run away from him at the police station? Does it really matter if you first meet Carlos at the newspaper office or at the diner? Does it really matter if you electrocute the zombies or use the emergency escape at the substation? Not really.
"Randomized item and enemy locations" -- This is also overblown. OK, so you can get either the magnum or the grenade launcher at the RPD. You can get some red herbs in this one fixed place, or at this other fixed place. Items are not
that randomized. In any case, RE3R also employs this feature, where the Nightmare/Inferno difficulties have item placements that are different from the other difficulties.
"the most in depth ammo crafting system in the series" -- Zero argument there, this is very, very true.
"It is even one of the only RE games that doesn't end in a lab" -- Also true. It's a very subjective matter but I thought the Dead Factory was the
weakest part of RE3C, and I'm glad it got replaced with NEST 2, even if the latter is kind of short.
In my mind, the true omissions in RE3R were:
- The Clocktower: This one is probably the one that hurts me (
) the most. To see the inside of the Clocktower in this engine would've been amazing
- The Park: Another area I was really looking forward to seeing, although it wasn't that extensive in the original game
- Mercenaries: This mode which became a staple of many later RE's was born in RE3, yet it's not in the Remake.
To me, almost
everything else about RE3R was done very well -- Raccoon City looks great, Nemesis is amazing and threatening, boss battles are great, the redone Jill/Carlos/Nicholai characterizations are really well done, and we have a dodge feature that actually works this time (and is exceptionally satisfying to perform -- whoosh!). In fact, it works too well, and I would argue that the Inferno (hardest) difficulty
requires a good handle of this gameplay mechanic.
Well, there goes my "In Defense of RE3 Remake" thread I was gonna create, LOL.