Review - Resident Evil: Revelations 2
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Review - Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (Ps3, Ps4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Pc, PS Vita)
Resident Evil Revelations 2 cover art
The Resident Evil franchise has often relied on tongue-in-cheek horror cliché’. Unsurprisingly RE: R2 continues this trend by placing all our protagonists on a tiny island full of spooky locales, a psychopathic villainess and hordes of flesh eating monsters. This time around however our heroines are just as tough as the heroes, even the little girl Natalia manages to slay a few monsters throughout the game. In a somewhat contrived twist, Moira Burton, daughter of Barry refuses to use any guns throughout the campaign. A political critique of North American gun crime this is not. Rather it’s a bit of a cheap trick by the developers to force the player into some melee combat. This design decision is also mirrored later on when the player later takes control of Natalia. The melee combat is a lot more fluid in this iteration of the franchise. So you’re AI partner never comes close to delivering the same sort of frustration that Ashley did in Resident Evil 4 when you had to coax her through a series of dustbins.
Disappointingly RE: R2’s musical score didn’t have any particular tracks that stood out. The score during the more survival orientated sequences is actually rather bland, which takes a lot of the tension out. That isn’t to say the overall soundtrack is terrible but it is far from memorable. RE:R2 was a late cross-platform release for both old and new gen along with Pc. So graphically the game does really show its age in places. Muggy low resolution textures can be found all across the environments. These low-res textures become especially noticeable outdoors. Cliff faces have some seriously ugly and under-detailed designs. Indoors isn’t much better either. The same door, hallway and environmental assets seem to be copy-pasted everywhere. This cookie cutter look is made even worse by the fact you have to revisit the same locations as both Claire and Barry throughout the game.
Disappointingly RE: R2’s musical score didn’t have any particular tracks that stood out. The score during the more survival orientated sequences is actually rather bland, which takes a lot of the tension out. That isn’t to say the overall soundtrack is terrible but it is far from memorable. RE:R2 was a late cross-platform release for both old and new gen along with Pc. So graphically the game does really show its age in places. Muggy low resolution textures can be found all across the environments. These low-res textures become especially noticeable outdoors. Cliff faces have some seriously ugly and under-detailed designs. Indoors isn’t much better either. The same door, hallway and environmental assets seem to be copy-pasted everywhere. This cookie cutter look is made even worse by the fact you have to revisit the same locations as both Claire and Barry throughout the game.
Resident Evil Revelations 2 gameplay screenshot
Contrarily the character models are pretty decent. Animations and facial movements including lip-synching whilst not exactly pushing the envelope do stack up just fine for a cross-gen game. What isn’t so good is the frame-rate. Even with a beast of a gaming computer RE:R2 is still poorly optimized. Random framerate dips from 60 into the low 40’s where not at all uncommon throughout my play through. Mechanically it’s more of an action game with a handful of survival elements then it is a straight up survival horror. During my play-through there were only a handful of times when I ended running out of ammunition or healing herbs. So over-burdened did I get with items that I frequently used my AI coop partner as a mule. Even after I upgraded the carrying capacity. As a predominately action-orientated game RE:R2 manages to hold its own so I wouldn’t count any of this as a negative.
In Resident Evil 5 solving puzzles cooperatively was a rather cumbersome affair but this has been streamlined for RE:R2. Character switching is pretty dynamic and most of the time your AI partner manages to keep up. Co-op puzzles range from moving boxes, pulling switches, turning levers, and generally just having to hunt for items. New to RE:R2 is the lock picking mechanic which revolves around moving your cursor until you find the right spot. The simplicity of this mechanic does make it a bit tedious after a while.
In Resident Evil 5 solving puzzles cooperatively was a rather cumbersome affair but this has been streamlined for RE:R2. Character switching is pretty dynamic and most of the time your AI partner manages to keep up. Co-op puzzles range from moving boxes, pulling switches, turning levers, and generally just having to hunt for items. New to RE:R2 is the lock picking mechanic which revolves around moving your cursor until you find the right spot. The simplicity of this mechanic does make it a bit tedious after a while.
Resident Evil Revelations 2 gameplay screenshot - solving a puzzle (Moira Burton top-left, Claire Redfield bottom-right)
Outside of RE:R2’s main campaign is the game's 'raid' mode. This consists of taking on a set number of enemies in a very small cookie cutter location from the main campaign. The aim is to get enough points through these raid to pay for weapon and item upgrades. This hunt for points becomes very bland very quickly, and your points can only be used on one character a time making it even more a grind for completionists.
As for the somewhat controversial pre-order DLC bonuses there is one which is a massive fetch quest: ‘the Struggle’ and one which is a sneaking mission ‘Little Miss’. In ‘the Struggle’ the aim is to gain meat by killing animals. In it you play as Moira who in a plot-breaking twist conveniently decides to use a gun. This is despite her adamantly refusing to throughout the entire main campaign. The gameplay consists of running after and shooting various animals. ‘Little Miss’ is a stealth mission that gets automatically failed if the player is spotted by an enemy. It features an AI partner who can scout for you without being noticed. The gameplay for both DLC’s is in a word: garbage. That said the campaign of RE:R2 is definitely worthwhile. It manages to deliver dynamic and entertaining co-op gameplay even though it falls short on acting as a return to form for the series.
Dodd, R. (2015). ComicConReviews: Review - Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (Ps3, Ps4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Pc, PS Vita). [online] Comicconreviews.blogspot.co.uk. Available at: http://comicconreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/review-resident-evil-revelations-2-ps3.html [Accessed 9 Aug. 2016].
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