All is Revealed, Again | Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 1 Review

Resident Evil Revelations 2, Capcom

<p>Yet again&comma; Capcom&&num;8217&semi;s decided to deliver us yet another installment to yet another spin off of the highly renowned&comma; and sadly degenerating Resident Evil series&period; Resident Evil was once great with its intense survival gameplay&comma; strong tension&comma; and lovably corny characters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You all know the story&comma; the series lost its way after <em>4<&sol;em>&comma; and has never been the same since&period; It seems like Capcom have come to reason with their latest title&comma; <em>Resident Evil Revelations 2<&sol;em>&comma; implanting what made the original series once great&period; Darker themes&comma; stronger horror elements and more intense game play through survival&comma; rather than action&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s only one episode so far that&&num;8217&semi;s been released&comma; but this gives an indication of what to expect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 802px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;image&period;noelshack&period;com&sol;fichiers&sol;2014&sol;37&sol;1410365994-6&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"802" height&equals;"393" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">We need Barry to examine this<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Resident Evil&colon; Revelations 2&&num;8242&semi;<&sol;em>s set a couple of years after the first&period; Originally a new virus has emerged&comma; turning countless innocents into mindless murderers – part zombie and part aquatic&comma; but both cannibalistic&period; After the events of Revelations&comma; Claire Redfield from <em>Resident Evil 2<&sol;em> has joined Terrasave&comma; an organisation who&&num;8217&semi;s sole purpose is to rid the world of terrorism&comma; displayed in some pretty good satirical promotional videos&comma; mocking the cheesy nature of military propaganda&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At a fancy dinner party one night&comma; Claire&&num;8217&semi;s introduced to her new partner&comma; Moira Burton&comma; daughter of legendary Barry Burton&period; Soon after their meeting&comma; a swarm of masked gunman kidnap the pair and take them to a seemingly abandoned military prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;d1vr6n66ssr06c&period;cloudfront&period;net&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;resident-evil-revelations-2-14&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"805" height&equals;"428" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A simple narrative so far but&comma; one filled with mystery that will allure you to find out more as you progress&period; The original <em>Revelations<&sol;em> also had a gripping narrative&comma; but was filled with some pretty awful comic relief&comma; bad dialogue &lpar;not even entertaining&rpar;&comma; and some shallow twists&period;<em> Revelations 2<&sol;em>&comma; however&comma; does a better job at bringing a darker tone to its story and a more engaging mystery about why the events are occurring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All I can say is that Moira seems to say f&ast;&ast;k a lot – which is rather annoying&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t mind swearing&comma; but in all honestly&comma; she could&&num;8217&semi;ve had wittier dialogue – anything that&&num;8217&semi;s more amusing than just swearing&period; And everyone else here can pull a good joke or deliver an emotional statement here and there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Graphically&comma; the game&&num;8217&semi;s okay&period; I know graphics aren&&num;8217&semi;t everything&comma; but you can clearly see the budget for this title was lower than any other Resident Evil game recently&period; Even the HD remake looks much better&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not awful&comma; but the game is graphically presented very bland&comma; colourless&comma; and too smooth&comma; with a lack of healthy textures or detail to make the world organic&period; The monster animations are much better looking and the 60 frames per second&&num;8217&semi;s a welcome touch to current-gen consoles&period; Sadly&comma; it looks somewhat the same as the first Revelations&period; Not a great improvement&comma; but not totally awful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 787px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn3&period;dualshockers&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;12&sol;10-2&lowbar;bmp&lowbar;jpgcopy&period;jpg&quest;eaa32f" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"787" height&equals;"418" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Resident Evil Revelations 2 does not greatly represent textures or fine details in the graphical elements of the game<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Though the graphics are a slight let down&comma; the gameplay makes up for it&period; The most interesting aspect so far is its co-op feature&period; I know it&&num;8217&semi;s been done already&comma; but <em>Revelations 2<&sol;em> offers a new twist on Resident Evil&&num;8217&semi;s co-op&period; Each player has a purpose in the game&comma; where one can not function or survive without the other&comma; mixing other forms of action and survival game play into one experience through the means of co-op&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One player &lpar;Claire for example&rpar; will have the means to fight back&comma; shoot and kill the enemies in the game world&comma; whereas the other &lpar;Moira&rpar; won&&num;8217&semi;t&comma; but they have their function in the world by spotting concealed&sol;hidden items&comma; accessing hard to reach places and being able to track enemy movements or have means to temperately blind&sol;incapacitate them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 774px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;Gj2UlOgwigw&sol;maxresdefault&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"774" height&equals;"398" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A helping hand<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Its a great method of combing both survival and action game play&period; It also offers two options for players&comma; giving both a slight action orientated experience&comma; or something more along the lines of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;alien-isolation-review&sol;"><em>Alien&colon; Isolation<&sol;em><&sol;a>&period; The game offers a strong survival horror experience as those who play as Barry or Claire will have to use resource management and lateral thinking more over brute force&period; Yet&comma; this can be altered by using the other character &lpar;Moira and Natalia&rpar; more effectively in finding hidden ammo and health&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>An interesting and more engaging aspect of co-op gameplay&comma; where one character relies on the other to survive&comma; creating an intense and fresh experience unlike other Resident Evil games&period; Besides&comma; the first <em>Revelations<&sol;em> felt unfair as your AI partner never seemed to help out and never did they draw the attention of every monster in the room&period; Here&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s balanced and enemies will see both characters as threat&comma; even if one if holding a flash light&comma; they understand her importance to the other&&num;8217&semi;s survival&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are some neat set-pieces in the game so far&comma; including Barry and his  companion Natalia traversing a darkened forest with creatures lurking in the darkness&comma; Claire using a giant mounted flame-thrower to fight off hoards of fiendish monsters&comma; and a brutalizing battle in a logging yard&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 776px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;assets&period;vg247&period;com&sol;current&sol;&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;revelations-2-raid-mode-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"776" height&equals;"390" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Raid Mode is awesome&excl;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>What does make <em>Resident Evil&colon; Revelations 2<&sol;em> a great game to play is Raid Mode&period; Seen in the first <em>Revelations<&sol;em> game&comma; Raid Mode&&num;8217&semi;s a brilliant survival&sol;action experience that pits players into multiple challenges&comma; offering rewards and customizations for your efforts&period; Players can unlock certain skills&comma; weapons&comma; and new characters by playing multiple maps&comma; taking on different challenges and earning medallions&period; Raid Mode has tremendous immersion with its unlocks and offers much more engaging gameplay elements than even <em>Resident Evil 4<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s Mercenaries Mode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The slight problem I do have is the amount of meaningless micro-transactions&period; They can be ignored if you&&num;8217&semi;re a skilled enough player&comma; but still shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have a place here&period; Hopefully the game won&&num;8217&semi;t become unfair and soon force me to buy extra credit with real money to progress like so many mobile games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 819px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;xblafans&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;work15&period;1&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"819" height&equals;"430" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Great &&num;8230&semi; the waiting game now&excl;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m also baffled to the episodic content&comma; as it works well to build intrigue and suspense&comma; but honestly with each episode lasting only 2-3 hours&comma; its just annoying and has the chance of destroying any interest for the next episode&period; Thankfully&comma; Raid Mode&&num;8217&semi;s here to help fill out time nicely&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Resident Evil&colon; Revelations 2<&sol;em> is a very good game&comma; offering you an intense experience with strong elements of horror and action with the fantastic Raid mode to help fill in the space between episodes&period; Worth its low price tag&comma; and joyous for any old school Resident Evil fans&comma; even with the sub-par graphics and tacky dialogue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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