All the episodes are out and the newest Resident Evil is about to be released in shops, but is it the new direction the series needs?
It started less than a month ago, but by the end of this week all of Resident Evil Revelations 2’s four episodic downloads will be out – along with the retail version collecting them all (and a few extras). Games like Life Is Strange have taken longer than that to release their second episode, but in our review of Episode 1 we already expressed our confusion as to why Cacpom is releasing the game like this. Even now, at the end, we’re none the wiser, but what we do know is that this is the best Resident Evil since number 4.
Considering the steadily decreasing quality of the games since then that’s not quite the compliment it may at first seem. But while the first Revelations was able to more successfully blend old school survival horror with more modern action this sequel is even more accomplished in its blend of elements. It’s scarier, the action is better, and the story is just the right flavour of cheese to satisfy series regulars. It’s still far from perfect, but it’s good enough that suddenly Resident Evil 6 doesn’t seem like quite the unrecoverable disaster it once did.
The fact that Revelations 2 is episodic is probably the least interesting thing about it, especially as the story is divided into two separate strands anyway. One involves Claire Redfield and Barry Burton’s daughter Moira trying to escape from an Alcatraz like prison and laboratory complex, while the other has you controlling Barry himself as he attempts to rescue them. Although the twist revealed in Episode 1 is that Bazza has turned up several weeks late, after a delay in receiving their distress call.
Barry immediately runs into a mysterious young girl called Natalia, at which point the game reveals it’s actually a co-op game. But rather than just controlling another gun-toting zombie hunter the second player cannot use a gun and in Natalia’s case can only bash zombie brains in with a brick, if they’re already on the floor. Moira has a crowbar, and can blind enemies with the beam of her torch, but both are support character rather than fighters.