By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (PS3)

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (PS3) - Review

by Ben Burnham , posted on 05 April 2015 / 15,703 Views

Resident Evil, like many long running video game series attempting to remain relevant in the modern era, is going through something of an identity crisis. Series creator Shinji Mikami, in his final Resident Evil project before departing Capcom, created with Resident Evil 4 a true survival horror rebirth, a game that arguably influenced horror (and action) games for years to come. It certainly proved more accessible than previous entries in the series, and was faster-paced and more action driven, but the game didn’t feel like a marketing exercise or an imitator. Resident Evil 4 felt like something truly new and exciting, and it took horror gaming to entirely new and terrifying places.

It has unfortunately become increasingly evident that Capcom has since lost its way with the Resident Evil series. Resident Evils 5 and 6 shed almost all remaining horror roots, instead raising the action level dramatically. The series continued on with increasingly diminishing results.

In the midst of all this we had Resident Evil: Revelations, a handheld installment aiming to bring some of that horror and exploration back. While the game wasn’t perfect, it seemed to prove that Capcom understood that many fans weren’t thrilled with the action game direction the series had taken, and its existence was a good sign that Resident Evil could one day become Resident Evil again.

And then Revelations 2 came along.

The second instalment in the Revelations series heads back in the direction of Resident Evil 6, stripping away many of the exploration and horror elements that the original Revelations tried to bring back to the table. Much like Resident Evil 6, it fails to replace them with anything compelling, and though to its credit it doesn’t hit the lows of that game, what we’ve wound up with is a bland action/horror exercise that borrows from games it has no hope of topping while failing to develop an identity of its own.

Revelations 2 begins with series regular Claire Redfield, who, along with Barry Burton’s daughter Moira, works for a company called Terra Save, whose mission is to fight bioterror worldwide. The two are kidnapped at a Terra Save event, and wake up in a cell on a mysterious island with bracelets on their wrists and the voice of the Overseer blaring through the speakers.

As with Resident Evils 5 and 6, a partner character is always with you, the two conversing quite a bit as they take out hordes upon hordes of monsters. Cutscenes that advance the story occur frequently, and the game forgoes a single explorable world in favor of a series of “levels.” You’re often able to explore or backtrack through the environments of your immediate area, but once you clear the “level,” you can’t return to those locations. Much like the other action game Resident Evils, the Auto-Save function gives away all the scares ahead of time, as it’s very hard to be surprised by a boss when you suddenly arrive in a larger-than-average room littered with ammo, explosive barrels, and green herbs, with the game visibly saving your progress as you do so.

Where Revelations 2 shakes things up is that you’re able to take control of your partner character. Natalia, who teams up with Barry during his levels, has the ability to see enemies that Barry can’t, and while she can physically point you in their direction, it’s far more satisfying to take control of her on the fly and see the hidden enemies yourself, before switching back to Barry to take them out. It’s only through Natalia that Revelations 2’s gameplay even hints at greatness, as the partner switching, both for combat and for puzzles, is a fresh take on a concept that’s usually either AI controlled or operated by a second player.

Here one person has the ability to control both characters, and it’s something that can work surprisingly well at times. At others, it can be a source of frustration, as the partner character will sometimes follow you and sometimes won’t, and nothing’s worse than trying to switch to the other character in the heat of a zombie assault only to learn that they’re actually three rooms away. Still, it’s a cool new take on an old idea and it’s something that Revelations 2 is mostly successful at.

The game’s less successful elsewhere. Though the progression’s fairly linear, you’re given the chance (most of the time) to explore and backtrack through the environments of your current level. That said, there’s hardly any reason to do so, with branching paths almost always ending quickly at a dead end and a treasure chest or a piece of ammo, with little else to see or do. In fact this illusion of exploration actually turns out to be a detriment, as Revelations 2’s environments often look so similar to each other that it’s far too easy to find yourself wandering back and forth in circles, unsure of which direction you were heading in and which rooms you’ve already ventured through.

Combat feels pretty standard for modern Resident Evil with its stiff controls, less-than-satisfying shooting mechanics, a very typical selection of weapons, and weak skill upgrades that don’t make a big enough difference to keep things from becoming repetitive. There’s a so-so stealth element that seems very much inspired by Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, and needless to say, it doesn’t compare, with Revelations 2’s enemies often spotting you with no rhyme or reason (even if you’re behind them). The same goes for the dodge mechanic, which works about as often as it doesn’t, along with the developer's decision to go without a Health meter, instead revealing your character’s damage to you by blurring the edges of the screen with a red fog so severe that it becomes frustratingly difficult to see almost anything around you.

Though it became clear to me very quickly that Revelations 2 was not going for the same survival horror feel as the first Revelations game, I was at first able to have some fun reuniting with old Resident Evil characters and gunning down zombies in a couple of moderately creepy environments. But as things progressed, the lack of gameplay variety and the feeling that I’d done this all before in the last couple Resident Evils really began to take its toll, ultimately rendering the game a chore to play.

Story-wise, Revelations 2 doesn’t amount to much either, despite the fancy FMV sequences and frequent banter between the characters. Revelations 2’s dialogue seems to be going for something like NCIS and other TV crime dramedies, which doesn’t work so well for Resident Evil, where the writing (or the translation, or both) just isn’t up to that standard. The game focuses on and then abandons characters entirely, and culminates in an ending that, at least judging by the one I received, didn’t feel like it was worth the effort at all.

Revelations 2 was released episodically, with each of the four episodes becoming available to download throughout the month, the complete disc version hitting retail alongside Episode 4. I’m not sure why Capcom chose to release the game this way, as it doesn’t have any positive influence on the gameplay or the story presentation. I’d have rather they focused on improving the often choppy framerate and fairly long load times. A patch that was released, sadly on the day that I beat the game, seems to have slightly reduced the load times, but they still feel longer than they should.

So it’s with a heavy heart that I have to report that the newest Resident Evil game yet again disappoints. Capcom seems to have lost all drive to innovate or truly evolve the horror series, and here once again repeats that same “traverse from room to room as you take out monsters, reach the end, grab a key, return with it to the earlier locked door, clear the level, and repeat” formula that they’ve been rehashing since Resident Evil 5. Revelations 2 isn’t as horrifically bad as 6 was, and it’s definitely onto something at times with the way it makes use of its partner character mechanic, but otherwise this is a depressingly typical action/horror game with an inconsistent tone, weak gameplay, and forgettable story.

Though I’m a long-time Resident Evil fan, I don’t feel that the series necessarily has to revert to the old school style of gameplay in order for it to become fun again. But if not, it needs to replace that older style of gameplay with something far more compelling than what Capcom continues to offer. It’s certainly not the worst we've seen from Resident Evil in recent years, and the length of the campaign isn’t bad at all given its low price (not to mention the usual Raid Mode multiplayer features and co-op play). Still, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is too bland and repetitive to be worth a recommendation to anyone beyond the series' most die-hard fans, and even to them I’d say that there are horror games out there much more worthy of their time.


VGChartz Verdict


6.2
Decent

This review is based on a retail copy of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 for the PS3

Read more about our Review Methodology here

More Articles

1 Comments
SR388 (on 06 April 2015)

I will probably get this game when it is $5 on steam. Looks enjoyable, but I can wait.

  • 0