Note: This is a review of the physical edition of the game that includes everything.
So after the great Resident Evil Revelations 1, Capcom decided to give us another one in the Revelations series and I couldn’t be more happy. Yes, it has its ups and downs but it's still a great game that should be played by fans of the series as it brings back series favorites, Claire and Awesome Barry! I love that guy. So let's begin the review…
Story:
Claire is now a member of Terra Organization, an anti-bioterror organization. She attends a party in Terra Save HQ and there where we are introduced to Barry's daughter Moira Burton which became one of my favorite Resident Evil characters at the end of the game even though her dialogue is so bad which was cool because it reminded me of the hilariously bad dialogue in the original Resident Evil 1. While they are enjoying the party, a group of unknown masked assailants crashes the party and capture Claire and Moira and other Terra Save members. Claire wakes up in a prison in an Island and find a bracelet on her wrist that was installed by the main antagonist 'The Overseer'. She finds Moira in a prison near her and plan their escape. I don’t want to spoil the story so I won't delve further into their part of the story. So they escape the prison and send an SOS message which later on Barry hears and go to the Island to find his daughter. When he arrives on the Island, Barry encounters a little girl, Natalia Korda. She partner up with Barry to find Moira and so the story begins. It’s a great story with a surprisingly likable new characters and like I said, it has some of the best Resident Evil characters so it’s a must play for every old school fan.
Environment and Graphics:
Unfortunately, that’s not one of the better game aspects. The game looks good, but I expected much better. Hell, it felt like Resident Evil 5 had better graphics than this in some parts. The lighting in the game is a little impressive and the character models are great but nothing else really stand out. It looks like a low budget title which is a shame because I felt Revelations 1 had much more quality than this one. The environments here looks really dull, none of the episodes except the final episode which takes place in a mansion looks great. But, the mansion is amazing and I kind of wished the whole game had better quality than what's offered. Also the game lacks a good atmosphere and its wasn’t creepy or scary at any part like the director promised. In the end, none of them come close to the amazing atmosphere of Revelations 1.
Sound:
The soundtrack in the game is forgettable which is a shame because Resident Evil is known for its amazing soundtrack but nothing here was beautiful or amazing. And the sound effects in the game were average. For instance in a game like The Evil Within, when you headshot an enemy, their head explodes and makes this cool sound effect or when you bash someone's head in The Last Of Us, they make those squish kind of sounds that are so satisfying. None of those sound effects are here which is a really missed opportunity. The enemies were more annoying instead of frightening. Screaming while charging at you, it didn’t feel scary, it just made me want to say 'Shut the hell up!' . So yeah unfortunately, there is nothing memorable in this aspect of the game.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is really solid here, you play with four characters. Claire and Moira in the first half of the episode and Barry and Natalia in the second half. Claire and Barry are experts on weapons and the only ones who can equip weapons in the main campaign and they can be upgraded with weapon parts found throughout the campaign and there is also a skill system with good choices. Moira carries a flashlight and a crowbar the whole game and Natalia can find and hit enemies with bricks scattered all over the episode. So you might say at the first glance that Moira and Natalia are useless but they are far from it. They can find hidden items that are scattered throughout the campaign that Claire and Barry can't see. Also Natalia can see through walls and spot enemies behind them. They are a great support until you upgrade their Crowbar and Brick skills which makes them a force not to be trifled with. Moira can kill an enemy with 2-3 hits with the crowbar and Natalia can one hit kill the normal enemies and two hit kill stronger types. And also they can't die so on higher modes, you will find yourself running with them most of the game. Also new to the series is the inclusion of a stealth mechanics that is similar to The Last Of Us. You will find yourself using it in many situations especially with Barry and Natalia as that seems to be the heavy focus of their part of the campaign and I liked it because it worked very well. Overall this is a great third person shooter that balance between action and stealth and exploration.
Length:
The campaign isn’t very long, it will take you 5-7 hours to finish but the three difficulties will surely tempt you to return to get higher rank or just to fully upgrade your skills. And if you got the physical edition of the game, you get to play two more episodes as Natalia and Moira which will give you 1 hour of playtime combined. Also there is two more modes to play with. Countdown mode which requires that you finish the episode before the time runs out, so it's basically a speedrun , you will find time extenders while you are playing but you will still have to run like hell to finish it especially if you are going all solo like myself. And then there is the extremely tough mode, Invisible mode. You guessed it, all the enemies are invisible and the damage you take like between Normal and Hard mode. It will test you in some places and even though I finished it and got an S rank in every mode, I simply didn’t enjoy that mode, I found it to be more annoying than challenging. But that’s my personal opinion. Also the amazing Raid Mode returns, and I have to say I hated it at the beginning because70% of the stages available were cut from Resident Evil 6. And most of us have played RE6 before Revelations 2 so it felt cheap that they just copied and paste the stages but what kept me hooked was the 2 player mode and the huge amount of unlockables in it and that every character has their own level unlike Revelations 1. So when we are talking length, Raid mode alone can give you 200 hours' worth of content so yeah, I think it's well worth its price.
Conclusion:
If you are a Resident Evil fan, you ought to give it a try because you will be surprised by how good albeit short the Main campaign is and how addicting and amazing Raid mode is, especially when you are playing with another player.
Capcom’s failure to justify the episodic nature of Revelations 2 is finally unmasked.
GR-UK writes: "You realise that while Claire Redfield might be the headline name when the game was first announced, Revelations 2's star is the Burton family. Though whether you get the pay-off that underscores that is again really dependent on that last episode choice."
PushSquare:"Pin back your decaying lugholes and listen for a second: there are two endings to Resident Evil: Revelations 2, and one will leave you feeling significantly more satisfied than the other. In what's perhaps a nod to survival horror games of old, there's a throwaway choice in an earlier episode that completely changes the complexion of the conclusion – it's just a shame that a large proportion of people are going to miss out on the better one."
Spoilers:
I mentioned in my review a few months ago that i HATED Claire in this game. It was my biggest gripe, really. She was like a recolored Jill (almost like they wrote her in last minute) with a stern personality and deeper voice, but then she acted like a total dope as she refused that her love interest was obviously a bad dude. In Code V she wasn't blinded by love, got s*** done as well as had a personality, etc.
Barry was perfect though :D