The Resident Evil series has been through a lot of changes over its long career. What started out as a survival horror has been skewed more towards action with Resident Evil 4 and even more so with Resident Evil 5. Capcom has tried to get in touch with its roots of horror and terror with Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS. Even though there are a few stumbles along the way, Revelations does provide the scares long missed from the series.
Revelations stars our good friend Jill Valentine and newcomer Parker Luciani in search for Chris Redfield on a cruise ship filled with monsters, traps, and the inevitable secret lab in the basement (or bowls since this is a ship). What fallows is a story of espionage, betrayal, and annoying characters. One aspect this game suffers from is its tendency to jump back and forth between three different stories taking place at different times in the story. While all these stories connect, it’s still a little jarring when you just finish a level and all of a sudden you are playing a level in the past. And while the Resident Evil series has never really been known for its “great” story and superb voice acting, some of these new characters introduced are just down right aggravating. Jill and Chris are more or less the same and Parker is pretty likable, but Jessica Sherawat is overly flirty and has the most ridiculous wetsuit on for someone who’s supposed to be fighting monsters on a ship. There are other characters you play with as well but aside from their voices they aren’t as annoying. The story isn’t terrible, there has definitely been worse ones in the RE series, but where this game really shines is its gameplay and creepy atmosphere.
Revelations brings back the claustrophobic hallways of the first Resident Evil games, which really ads to the tension. You never quite know when a monster will pop out and attack you. While there aren’t any traditional zombies, the monsters seem to be a cross between deep-sea life and humans, which fit in perfectly with the story. I have to say, it’s been a while since any Resident Evil game made my heart beat a little faster in nervousness when turning a corner. This game is beautiful on the 3DS and the 3D works really well at times. However, sometimes when aiming at multiple enemies in stressful situations the 3D becomes more of a hindrance if you don’t hold the system still. Revelations tries to implement a few new mechanics including a scanning system and a dodging system. Scanning doesn’t amount to much than getting an extra herb from time to time and finding ammo. The problem with finding ammo though is that more often than not you will receive ammo you either can’t use or ammo you are full of and don’t need. Dodging is a nice addition but a little hard to master. Enemies provide a good challenge and will swarm you if you aren’t careful. The bosses are challenging and fun as well. A problem I found here at times is that the game will rev up the difficulty level by leaps and bounds at times, sending everything the game has at you, especially with the final boss. I found him to be very unbalanced soaking up all your ammo and dealing near fatal blows with one hit. If you haven’t mastered the dodging mechanic there is almost no way to beat him. At these difficulty spikes, and you will know where they are, be prepared to die and start over. Thankfully the game won’t send you back too far from where you died.
Resident Evil Revelations is a good horror survival game and is worth checking out. While I wouldn’t say run out and buy a 3DS so you can play this game, if you already have a 3DS than this is a must play for the system. One of the best looking games for the system and fun to play as well, while not perfect, it is definitely fun.
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Excellent read my friend. I am eager to see how the controls lend themselves to the portable 3DS. Seems like the controls would be difficult at times. But i could be wrong, definitely want to find a 3Ds to try the game out.
I completely agree the Resident Evil series has gone from Survival Horror to Action, which was bound to happen with the evolution of the gaming scenes. I like the multi-player aspect 5 presented, it’s nice to be able to hop on and have a partner actually help in fighting. It would be nice to get back to the Survival horror aspect, give a bit more suspense. I just hope it never goes all action, which they are coming dangerously close to doing. That would be best left to the Devil May Cry series.
The story of RE has always intrigued me. Corporate conspiracy, espionage. Genetic manipulation, science, and of course zombies. When 4 came out and introduced a new “Plague” instead of the T virus I was excited to see how they work with this new story. Though it still feels like we’re killing zombies and not just “Infected” like we have been. The combination of the Tricell, and Umbrella, and always Wesker has been well done over the course of the Games.
Good Read man!
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