Resident Evil: Revelations review

[Jonnyrp]

Resident Evil : Revelations-Nintendo 3ds

Enter the world of Survival Horror (arguably) the most interesting RE since the first one.

“Mayday. Mayday. This is the Queen Zenobia.” Asking you, when was the last time you really entered a Survival horror environment when playing a Resident Evil Game? To me, it was way back in 2002 with the re-releases of RE1 and RE2 on the Nintendo Gamecube.

Resident Evil4 had people go nuts into the waiting of the revival of the Survival Horror genre. To end up playing action based adventures focused on outside fights and where investigating closed areas was traded for the Shoot ‘em up style. And it went on the same with RE5.

Resident Evil: Revelations clearly revives the Survival horror aspect of the franchise. And I’m really glad that the game does it so well. If you already own a 3ds, or not but are in desperate need to play a good RE game, this is the game you’ve been waiting for.

This time, you play as Jill Valentine for most of the episodes. And with her partner Parker Luciani, they set out to uncover the truth behind Chris Redfield’s disappearance. For the ones that are less familiar with the franchise, Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield were both survivors of the mansion incident that occurred in RE1. The game that contributed the most to bring the Survival Horror up to the terms of popular genre. One of the pioneers, along with names such as Alone in the Dark and Clock Tower.

So, for the first time in years, playing Resident Evil: Revelations, you go back to the basics. After scanning the remains of dead sub marines creatures on the sea shores, Jill and Parker set out to investigate a cruise ship, that has been reported missing on the sea. The last news (coordinates) received of Chris whereabouts show that he is somewhere on the very boat you start on. But this is just the beginning, of course. The boat is huge. One of the biggest and most interesting RE maps I ever had the chance to explore. A little like the mansion from RE1, the haunted ship will take you deep into the world that Capcom has been neglecting for so long with their RE installments. Dark and claustrophobic. You then find yourself exploring the halls, corridors and decks of an abandoned area all of it with the addition of puzzle solving, monster shooting and bosses killing. Yet, in fact, much like RE1 and 2, all bosses aren’t ten times bigger than your character but one for instance: The zombie of a previously found corpse will rise again the next time you’ll enter the room where you found her. And the more you shoot her, the more she’ll try to hide from you by crawling in the ventilation shafts after claiming how bad you hurt her. It’s all up to you then to follow her around and wait for her to drop down (often attacking you from behind). And this all while you’re already dealing with the general monsters encountered throughout the game. There are no Nemesis, Tyrant, Birkin or Alexia potentials but this game involves some pretty decent boss battles. Most of the times you will truly find yourself checking the amount of ammo that you have left. And be wondering if you really have a proper caliber equipped to face what’s lurking around the next corner. Because this is another term used by the genre: Once you think you’re safe and that you’re walking a corridor you already walked before, a dead body dropping from the ceiling or a monster finally opening a closed door suddenly appears. You then have to deal with it, or run from it. You will also find texts talking about the ship's history and design. Along with creepy notebooks from passengers that were driven to insanity by the nightmare that occured. As always, some papers might help you solve a mystery or open a door that you will need to open later.

As fun and scary as it may be, this is RE. So the handling requires some time. The shooting system being what it is in this series, with that little red laser only aimed at the target. You will often find yourself shooting enemies in the chest instead of taking the time to aim for the head while they try to catch you. The turning around becomes kind of tricky when stuck in a corridor or a corner, but these corners might sometimes be the safest places from where to shoot the coming nightmares. But this all just gets easier as you play and in no time you'll find yourself doing all that pretty smoothly. Some rooms are also extremely dark and quiet. But this is the goal of horror games to get you to jump. Stuck? There is always a way out.

The story in its complete form is pretty good. Soon after the Raccoon city incident, both Jill and Chris joined the BSAA. A group which goal is obviously to prevent threats such as the ones in RE, by fighting bioterrorism around the world. So the cut scenes and cinematics between episodes evolve around who’s guilty or innocent, for provoking the mess we have to solve.
All in all, after many years of action/adventure games, Resident Evil finally gets back to doing something it used to do so well when it first came out: Have you on the edge of your seat, with your hair straight up. Wanting to close your eyes when turning around corners or opening a door. Constantly moving your character to check your/his back when you hear a sound or a voice coming out of nowhere. Creepy!

So, as you set out to uncover the truth about the Queen Zenobia and her sisters (But I won’t tell you more about it) wait for the night to shine bright. Then turn off the lights, lock your doors and crank in RE: Revelations just for the hell of it. It feels so good. RE was never quite as deep or psychological as Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness. But if you are in for some jump scares, investigation of dark and closed corridors and encounters with monsters this is the game that you should play. And it is going to take somewhere between 9 and 10 hours to defeat it the first time.

Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Difficulty: 4/5
Value: 4/5

General rating
9/10

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