An episodic nightmare of evil (pro)portions!

Review

Played on: Xbox One
Released: 2015

The Resident Evil franchise spans so many titles, it's confusing. As such, I'll only focus on the spin-off series, Revelations, here. The previous Revelations, which launched on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012, received an upgraded version for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in 2013. I played the latter to bits on my 360, and it's still a game I warmly recommend and love, read my review here.

Why I enjoyed Rev1 so much, was mostly due to the more atmospheric and creepy focus, much like the original RE titles, only with modern third person shooter controls. A stark contrast, to the action games RE4/5/6 have become. Strangely enough, Capcom decided to make a Revelations sequel and I was initially excited. However, the end result seemed somewhat low-budget and the reviews were mixed.

Luckily, I caved later into the year and purchased the complete box set of Rev2. This complete version contains all four episodes, plus two extra ones and all the DLC that was released in episodic form digitally. While I'm not a huge fan of episodic releases, this particular box set works just like a full title, so it doesn't affect my view. All episodes have since been bundled and retailed collected at a fair price digitally. There's a lot of value for money here.



Rev2 kicks off in a familiar cheesy RE fashion, depicting a TV advertisement for the anti-bioterrorism organisation called Terrasave, what a name, which the two main protagonists are connected to. Namely, Claire Redfield from RE2 and Barry Burton of original RE1 fame. Although this laughable intro is actually intended to be overdone and sarcastic, its joke falls flat.

Not only is the following cutscene full of classic RE dialogue awkwardness, but all the prejudices for bad storytelling throughout the RE series overshadow the developers intention. Let it be noted, though, the dialogue is slightly better than previous instalments. Conversations sound casual and believable.

The gameplay begins when you wake up in a prison cell as Claire, together with Barry's daughter, Moira. Here you're introduced to it's mechanics and character swapping feature. Be it with another person, or on your own. Strangely, Capcom seem to have been pushing for you to play with two characters since RE5, well actually RE:0, but that's another story. Unlike previous attempts though, in Rev2 it works surprisingly well.

How this "play two characters at once" feature somehow works better for Rev2, is much to do with the them having different natures in their skills and abilities. Claire is the offensive player, with weapons to kill zombies, while Moira is the defensive one, with a torch that can find hidden items and slow enemies down. I found this difference in gameplay style for the two characters refreshing. I also appreciated that you need swap between them to progress. Items and ammo that you pick up are easy to manage and swap between each other.

One could argue that playing the second character, which only has defensive abilities while the other player has all the guns, could be boring in coop. Understandably, both players wants to shoot enemies. But for those looking for a coop adventure with something different, perhaps where one player doesn't feel comfortable with third person shooting, then this is a perfect solution. In essence, it's what makes Rev2 unique and memorable.

I ended up really enjoying my playthrough, together with my wife in coop. She preferred to be the defensive character and left the shooting to me. Knowing this divide in gameplay, before purchase, is essential for those with coop play in mind. Local coop has a neat feature too: simply drop in or drop out of the session and it switches on the fly between full screen and split screen! Great for those wanting to just test out the coop and then continue on their own. Be warned though, there is no online coop for the campaign.



Technically, Rev2 is rather simplistic with no bells and whistles. The graphics, while I truly appreciate the 60fps decision, look lower budget and it could be mistaken for a last generation title on the 360/PS3. I don't want to think what this game looks like on last-gen, with the high framerate and resolution missing. Luckily, I'm playing the Xbox One version, which apparently has the best performance on current gen consoles.

The visuals do their job though and, in the organic nature areas they shine through as quite pretty. Sadly, there's a lot of repetitiveness in the indoor locations in the first two chapters and little actual interaction with them. There are crates you can smash and boxes that can be moved to reach places higher up, but they stick out like a sore thumb screaming that there's something you can interact with. The rest of the environments look stale and often have this barren look to them.

What Rev2 lacks in visual flair, it compensates in great gameplay. Allowing you to beef up your character with new skills and stats. There's just a smooth, mechanically animated, precise control to the shooting that's criminally overlooked by Capcom themselves. Rev2 plays better than all of their other RE titles. 

Variation is great in objectives, every episode feels distinctly different and throw a lot of new ideas in for each chapter. It moves along at a nice pace and keeps the players interested with new areas and tasks throughout.



I went from a "this should be an okay purchase for a cheap price" to truly enjoying my playthrough with my wife. Granted, we thought the story was stupid at times, however the ending and it's tense build-up was very exciting. We appreciated the diversity in each episode and the introduction to new enemies and puzzles keeping us at our toes through it's 10-12 hour lifespan. There's almost no filler here either.

We also enjoyed the locations, which I won't reveal as it's a spoiler and the many creepy areas. Artistically, it reminded me a lot of the Silent Hill games, with dark, worn-down and abandoned buildings. It's perhaps the RE game that strays the most away from previous instalments when it comes to environments, but in a good way.

When I think more about the scary atmosphere and messed up looking enemies, the comparison to Silent Hill is actually quite spot-on. Just don't expect the unnatural and psychological side of SH to make an appearance, this is a RE game after all.

It must be mentioned, that I loved the small references for RE fans in the dialogue too. Like Barry's comment about Jill's lock picking skills and legendary sandwich conversation from RE1. I even ended up being hooked to the Raid mode yet again, much like in Rev1, with it's addictive levelling and weapons upgrade system.

Raid mode pits you against a certain number of enemies in increasingly difficult missions. They take place on smaller maps, some are even from RE6 and Rev1, where the goal is to traverse through them and simply survive. Bonus points is given for finding and killing all the enemies.

It's a fun addition, that I would've loved to try out in coop and strangely enough this mode, unlike the main story campaign, is available for online play. Raid mode showcases the excellent gameplay mechanics as they really shine here.

Overall, a surprise title that really should be played for RE fans and coop players alike. While it lacks substance in it's story and visually could have done with more polish, it proves that great gameplay is what makes a title last in the long run.

Warmly recommended and one of 2015's finest moments in my, pleasantly surprised, opinion.