Review - Resident Evil Revelations

The last few fully fledged Resident Evil titles have been met with vastly differing opinions depending on who you speak to. There are many people out there who quite enjoy the increased pace and additional focus on gunplay, while there are also plenty of Resident Evil purists who find themselves aghast at the departure from the series’ survival horror roots.

Given that the forthcoming Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is very much a shooter at heart, Capcom were no doubt wondering just what they could do to genuinely appease fans of both styles of gameplay, without pissing too many people off. Their answer to the problem is Resident Evil Revelations. While it’s not quite back to the old school for the series, it does place a much stronger emphasis on some of the key gameplay elements that have managed to become marginalised in more recent instalments.

It’s also encouraging to see how the 3DS is really starting to evolve into a machine that’s actually worth having. Quickly approaching a year since its debut, there were very few reasons to actually go out and pick one up until the last quarter of 2011, but since then we have seen plenty of genuinely convincing reasons as to why it’s a worthy investment. The important question that needs to be asked now is whether or not Revelations fits into that category? The good news is that it does, and we’re going to take a look at why.



Probably the most important thing about this game, for us, was the fact that it was willing to go back to the series’ roots. That means you can expect plenty of cheesy lines, dodgy presentation and questionable set pieces – but we mean that in the best way possible. It could so easily have gone the other way, but thanks to the quality of the overall presentation, it all works out better than expected, and the game looks absolutely beautiful... even with the 3D activated (and those of you who have read our previous reviews will know that we’re not big fans of that side of the 3DS).

The game follows franchise favourites Christ Redfield and Jill Valentine as they investigate a biological attack on Terragrigia, a floating island in the middle of the Mediterranean from the “safety” of an old ocean liner. It’s a solid setting that offers plenty of variety as you explore the different areas of the ship, while also allowing for the kind of cramped claustrophobia that so often raises the tension in survival horror titles.

Rather than pairing the duo together, they are instead teamed up with new partners. For Jill, it’s Parker Luciani, and for Chris it’s Jessica Sherawat. Neither of the new characters is particularly likeable for our money. Parker’s Italian accent is cringe worthy and Jessica is straight up irritating, but that’s par for the course with the series.



The bulk of the early part of the game will be spent searching for the other team, with controls switching between the two. It’s perhaps a little bit unnecessary to have played it out in such a way, but it does give us a few opportunities to see what’s in store for us later on in the game, with plenty of variety in the pacing of these different sections. You can expect a few enjoyable scares here and there, and even if the puzzles are a little disappointing in terms of quantity, there are enough here to keep the old grey matter ticking over.

The series’ traditional third person perspective is available, as well as a first person mode for those of you who can’t quite get out of that FPS mindset. That said, with a real lack of weapons and ammo to be had without becoming super reliant on the game’s major new feature, the Genesis scanner, you’ll be well advised to keep the shooting to a minimum where possible. You’re able to carry a maximum of three weapons at any given time, so employing some kind of tactics with regard to your inventory is essential if you’re going to survive for the duration of the game’s ten hour or so long campaign. As you progress, you’ll come across some of the more fun weapons the game has to offer, but ultimately you’ll be slumming it up with whatever you happen to be able to lay your hands upon throughout the game.

If you are one of the early adopters of the new Circle Pad Pro add on, you’ll be happy to know that it’s compatible with Revelations. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet been sent a review unit, so we have no idea if it improves things all that much (not that they need much improving). When we do finally get our hands on one though, we’ll let you know if it makes all that much of a difference.



Where the game does manage to disappoint is its storyline. There was a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of the game’s setting in between Resident Evil 4 and 5 in order to explain a few bits and pieces. Unfortunately that opportunity hasn’t been seized upon at all, and the whole thing is disappointingly self-contained. The second slight gripe is that the controls do occasionally feel a little bit dated, dare we say clunky, at times. You’ll adapt to it relatively quickly, but this should have been seen as a good opportunity to start tidying things up a little bit on that front – instead we get the same loose feeling mechanics as some of the series’ previous instalments.

If you’re looking to indulge in a little multiplayer action, Revelations has you covered in that respect. In Raid mode you’ll be able to hook up with a friend online, or locally, in order to play through what is essentially Resident Evil’s version of the increasingly common “horde mode” style gameplay, where you’ll need mow down each enemy wave as quickly as possible. It’s not groundbreaking in any way shape or form, but it’s good fun in short bursts. Additionally, if you want to get some practice in, you’ll be able to play Raid mode in single player too.

So all in all Resident Evil Revelations has turned out to be a lot better than we had expected. It doffs its cap to earlier games in a reasonable manner, while also implementing occasional flurries of high octane, full on intensity action, and still manages to deliver a campaign that’s longer than the majority of home console games’ campaigns. Plus it still finds space to shove in a multiplayer mode. You can’t really argue with that.