Resident Evil: Revelations

February 7th, 2012

Once upon a time we had Resident Evil the king of shock scares and Silent Hill the king of psychological horror, and all was right with the world. However, over time the horror genre has lost its blood covered shine, with Resident Evil swapping the scares and tension for shooting and co-op play. Resident Evil: Revelations seeks to re address the balance and take the series back to it’s survival horror roots and, in the process, give the 3DS another much need Triple A game.

The story of this outing takes place before Resident Evil 5, during the formative years of the BSAA that Chris, Jill and Sheva worked for in 5. Resi originals Chris and Jill appear along side some new characters, including Parker, a heavy set guy with a seriously bad Spanish accent, and Jessica, the token hyper sexualized young woman who is permanently trying to get it on with Chris and at some point in the game comes clad in a wet suit with the leg missing for reason never explained.

To say this is a total call back to days of yore isn’t entirely true, as the gameplay style is clearly inspired by Resident Evil 5, with the same aiming system and view point pioneered in Resident Evil 4 (this is swap-able with the first person aiming used in Capcoms other Resi 3D title The Mercenaries), most of the time you are accompanied by a partner and the game is usually pretty action heavy.

However during the opening sections, the tension of old is back with unseen enemies lurking in the vents and attacking when you least suspect. Another hold over from Resident Evil 1 is the return of the cheesiest dialogue every committed to video games: “me and my sweet ass are coming to help” is one such memorable line from Jessica, setting woman’s rights back a few years – whether this is intentional or not is not entirely clear.

Graphically there can be no complaints, the cut scenes are amazing and the in game visuals are easily the best on the 3DS to date and very nearly on par with Resident Evil 5 on the current generation of home systems. The 3D effect is also impressively subtle while still adding that little extra – if subtle is not your thing though you can set the 3D so high it’s enough to make you feel like you’re falling into the 3DS itself.

The controls are ok on the default setting but as with Mercenaries the controls still don’t quite have that intuitive feel. The new accessory, the Circle pad pro, while looking a bit hideous, helps a little to alleviate this problem.

In terms of new gameplay ideas there is the Genesis device, that lets you scan the area and enemies for ammo and health rewards, and later on a swimming mechanic is introduced. Both seem strange at first, but you soon find yourself scanning every area in search of illusive gun parts and extra ammo.

With this half way approach between classic and modern Resident Evil, Capcom runs the risk of alienating both sets of fans, but is mostly successful. Most of the time it’s better than you expected, but sometimes it disappoints a little. The new online enabled Raid mode helps extend the life past the still impressive single player length (about 8-10 hours) and it should go down a treat for fans new and old.

Words > Jason Potter

Tags: Capcom, Nintendo 3DS, Resident Evil Revelations