| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 4 | 8.80 |
| Overall | 8.80 |
|
The Resident Evil franchise is in a strange spot these days as Capcom seems to have no idea what to do with the franchise. Should it go back to its roots? Should it stay a shooter? Should it do both? Many fans desperately want a return to the so called survival horror roots that they fool themselves into believing any slight change to the formula is a return to the old school as was evident with the misplaced praise for the first Revelations game. The sad truth is Revelations was not like the old games, and neither is this new Revelations 2, that dream should be put to rest. Instead fans should appreciate the effort made to try some new ideas while paying homage to what came before. Revelations 2 clearly recognizes and respects why the old RE games were so beloved and it celebrates them without copying them. Revelations 2 is an odd mix of gameplay elements taken from RE4/5 and even The Last of Us. For the first time in the series there is a stealth element where the characters can crouch and do stealth attacks on enemies. Combat is the usual over the shoulder fare but the movement feels more loose than ever, lacking the weight and feel of RE4. For the first few hours I hated the way it moves, characters feel like they are on ice skates, it felt like a cheap. Well the truth is this game is cheap, it was made by a small Capcom team on a small budget. It makes it all the more remarkable that they were able to pull off such an interesting game. Once I got used to the feel of the movement everything clicked. Movement is faster because enemies are fast, there is a big difference from Revelations 1 where the enemies were slow bullet sponges, here enemies react much more to each shot. The game is split into two storylines, Claire and Moira Burton (daughter of Barry) and Barry and Natalia. Barry’s story takes place months after Claire’s but you play them in pieces hopping back and forth through time. There is an RE2 like influence system where what you do in Claire’s episodes impact what occurs in Barry, some changes can be major like having a full boss battle appear or not. The pairing system is odd, its not an equal pairing, Claire and Barry are the combat characters while Moira and Natalia are support. You can switch between the two with a simple press of a button and this will be necessary cause the gameplay is built around using the support character to find objects in the environment. Moira can find hidden objects and has a flashlight which can stun enemies then you can switch to Claire and do a follow up strong attack. Natalia brings all sorts of new gameplay elements as she can see enemies through walls and can see invisible enemies. Its odd but it works, Revelations 2 always makes the best use of all the characters abilities to create interesting always changing gameplay scenarios. Revelations 2 was episodic, I disliked having to wait weeks for the next part of the game, luckily now you can buy it all together. It starts off slow but as the game goes on the quality really begins to shine. Each episode has its own feel, the first one is more stealthy, the second one has huge action sequences, the third is amazing as it has the best puzzles the series has seen in years, I wish the entire game was like it. The third episode had big open buildings with locked doors and multiple paths. Items to find, puzzles to solve, bosses all around; it finally felt like a mix of old RE and RE4. The setpieces are well done, never RE4 level but far better than anything found in Revelations 1. There is a sense of love for the series felt throughout the entire campaign. The dialogue for Barry is perfection, with so many cheesy lines that he comes off like a goofy tough guy with a big heart and it works. There are many call backs to past RE lines and moments, it pokes fun at the absurdity of the puzzles while embracing them. I love the self awareness and how it embraces the B-movie like feel the series has always had. Revelation 2 tells the best story a RE game has had in a while, with characters that have emotions who the player can connect with, it also ties into the last big mystery the series had. As a Resident Evil fan this game hit all the right notes for me. While this was a budget release there is an incredible amount of content, the value is incredible. Each episode is is graded and has three difficulty levels and they have loads of secrets to find. They also have optional goals which unlocks new costumes and skills to earn. Once beaten new modes can be played on each episode which include a countdown mode where kills and checkpoints increase the time, its fantastic. There is invisible enemy mode which is a call back to the REmake extra mode. All these have their own rewards as well encouraging multiple playthroughs and speed runs. There are two bonus missions which are kind of like the extra modes found at the end of the old RE games but with some storyline implications, Moria’s episode in particular is very well done, again adding another unique twist to the games formula. If that was not enough there is the new Raid mode which may be larger than the campaign. Raid mode is like a gigantic loot game with leveling and rare weapons to find. There are over 15 characters to choose from, each have a mix of certain skills which include stuff like becoming invisible, increasing weapon damage, better dodging, etc. There are over 120 levels to play of increasing difficulty, each level is like a small mercenaries map where you need to defeat a certain amount of enemies. These levels take locations from RE6, Revelations 1 and Revelations 2 and transforms them into battle maps. Enemies start off very basic but soon you will see all sorts of buffed enemies like electrified monsters, invisible monsters, poison ones, giant ones, fast small ones, even ones that can suck your weapon out of you hand. It takes way too long to get to the good stuff but once it does the maps become very challenging in all the right ways. I did enjoy the Revelations 1 raid mode more than this version since that Raid felt as if you were going through a remixed loot version of the entire game.The level design was an important part of getting through the raid, not so in Raid 2 as the maps are like tiny arenas with no real progression. Small arenas are fine if the combat is as exciting as Mercenaries but that is not the case. Most of the time there is no verticality or use of the environment to your advantage, there is simply a lot of running up to enemies and shooting them in the face. It is addicting in the loot game kind of way and later levels are very challenging but I feel its almost to huge for its own good. A smaller more focused raid mode would have been a better choice. That said its nice to have another 40 hour plus mode to play. This being a budget game the graphics are not impressive. At least it runs very smoothly with a generally great frame rate. The locations are quite drab with a lack of colors, it is a very brown game. The character models look like something from the PS2 days. But just like with every other aspect they do the most with what they got. The creature design is top notch, there are some disturbing monstrosities to kill. The music is generally good, nothing that memorable. Revelations 2 is a huge surprise to me, I expected it to be a mess of game but it somehow comes all together with some surprising gameplay ideas and great execution. There is some fluctuation in the level of quality during certain episodes but the best moments are well worth buying for. For $25 there is a good 50+ hours of content, good content, stuff Resident Evil fans will get a kick out of it. For fans of the series and the genre I think this should be a sure buy. |
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Posted by Dvader Sun, 05 Apr 2015 22:23:00
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travo (2m)
What genre is RE even a part of anymore? Its not survival horror. Not adventure. Not really even a shooter.
They absolutely nailed Barry though, perfection. Also Moira who starts off as a cussing generic term becomes a fully fleshed out interesting character. Really one of the better RE stories.
She used to be a hot midwestern redhead with a nice chunky ass. Now she looks like Geddy Lee from Rush.