Jane Douglas is like, the finest woman alive. So strikingly beautiful. (and she likes video games!)
Is this game coming out for real consoles? Xbox or PS3? Looks great, and I want to play.
Resident Evil: Revelations Review
Revelations is a successful blend of old-school Resident Evil horror and new-school action.
The Good
- Taut stop-and-shoot action
- Creepy atmosphere
- Great visuals, especially in 3D
- Entertaining story.
The Bad
- Unengaging new characters.
Resident Evil: Revelations splices the survival horror DNA of classic Resident Evil with the new, brisker strain of Resident Evils 4 and 5. The result isn't an Umbrella-style crime against nature, but a healthy, happy hybrid: an optimum mix of tense, creepy exploration and stop-and-shoot action, telling a tale of bioterrorism and unwise genetic meddling aboard an abandoned ocean liner. It's also lovely to look at and, with a 10-hour story campaign, it's a meaty slab of a single-player adventure.
Veteran monster mashers Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield return, both in the service of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), but not as partners. The game is set after Resident Evil 4 and before 5, in the wake of a bioterrorist attack in which the high-tech island city of Terragrigia gets obliterated. Chris is paired with the flirty Jessica Sherawat, and Jill with Parker Luciani, a husky BSAA agent with a dubious Italian accent. The story plays out in TV-style, bite-sized episodes, each sandwiched between a "previously on Resident Evil: Revelations" recap and a cliff-hanger ending. It's a fun format for the compellingly hammy melodrama of Resident Evil tradition.
Much of the early game is spent playing as Jill or Chris in search of Chris or Jill, scouring the giant ship of horrors with your respective AI partner in tow. The new partners aren't hugely engaging--when you first meet Jessica, she's in shorts and ankle warmers, moaning about the cold on an arctic mission--but you're at least not responsible for their safety, since they can't be killed. Still, you wonder how much lonelier and scarier the game might be without the sidekicks. One of the most atmospheric portions is one that also most resembles old-school, haunted-house Resident Evil: Jill wakes up in a ship's cabin and has to venture alone and unarmed through the decaying luxury of the once-grand cruise liner.
The pace alternates between slower segments of cautious exploration and fraught sequences where you fend off waves of mutants while waiting for an elevator, for instance. In the slower sections, sinister ambiance and the odd well-placed jump scare come to the fore while you navigate ship corridors and dim rooms on the hunt, generally, for a key. The infrequent puzzles are on the slight side (one has you win coins from a casino slot machine and use them to unlock a high-roller suite), but they're agreeable palate cleansers all the same.
Not so agreeable: the comic relief double act of nerdy BSAA computer expert Quint Cetcham (really?) and his playable straight man Keith Lumley, whose comedy banter completely misses the mark. Their appearances, at least, are mercifully brief; Jill and Chris get the bulk of the screen time, the episodes flitting between BSAA teams, and there are plenty of stretches with these long-serving characters for fans of the series to enjoy.
As in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, the franchise's first foray onto the 3DS, you use the circle pad for moving or aiming, the right shoulder button for snapping into a laser-sighted aim mode, and the Y button for firing. It's a comfortable, reliable control scheme that makes for tactical and deliberate combat in characteristic Resident Evil style, and it holds up well even in more hectic fights with fleshy boss monsters. Battles are taut, measured standoffs, where you weigh the option of standing your ground to shoot an inbound enemy against the option of lowering your weapon to retreat to a safer spot.
By
Jane Douglas, Section Editor
Jane rejoices in the title of Section Editor, GameSpot UK. Fears: spiders, oblivion.
98 comments
hahaha. u gotta be kiddin me huh?Resident Evil: ORC & Re6 were just pieces of shit. why dont u concentrate on one??? it's embarrassing for capcom. try your best this time idiots
If Dead Space 3 sucks, I know I'll have one last bastion of horror games to try this year, in may, when this comes to the other consoles.
Even if this game is among the visually finest games of 3DS, it give you an idea of how much 3DS could downgrade great games visually. I guess this is the second time the setting of the game is in cruise line ship since RE: Dead Aim.
i would like to see this on wiiu, only 0.6 copys have been sold for the 3ds. i guess a lot of Re fans wont play it on 3ds, but would like to play it on a big screen and a HD console.
@Lykanthropie Revelations will be coming out on PS3 and Xbox 360. The Wii U will not get it.
it'll be one of the first 5 games I buy for the 3DS when i get it at te end of the month (Oct) Just hope it isnt a bomb like RE 5 was.
I would disagree about the characters,yeah Keith is kinda stereotype and quint is an absolute d-bag and Jessica is your generic ''sexy action star'' character....but I really enjoyed Parker in the story and he was one of my favorite characters (I wouldn't mind seeing him included in later games) , Raymond wasn't half bad himself either.
I think it will work for Vita as well. Although we do see the second screen on the 3DS, it is still possible to simply remove the programming codes that display that screen. It can easily be implemented Via up/down/left/right D-pad. **shruggz* who knows =) it is on 3DS not Vita now!!
I bought this game yesterday, and it is great! However, there are a few flaws that irritate me. 1. THE SCRIPT IS FREAKING HORRIBLE 2. WHO THE HELL WROTE THIS? and 3. WHY? WHY DOES THE SCRIPT HAVE TO SUCK!!!
@Rifiqi_Hb Actually, that's far from true. What you don't realize is that RE revelations is hand-tailored for everything the 3DS has to offer, separating the HUD from the gameplay screen on separate screens and leaving the action up on the top screen while the bottom screen functions as a quick-access map/menu. The vita, on the other hand, is not capable of doing so, and would either have to risk cramming a massive HUD on a small screen, or otherwise plagiarise on Dead Space. Not to mention that this game on the Vita, assuming it had no in-screen HUD like RE revelations on 3DS does, doesn't have all the necessary buttons to support the game unless it would jam them all on the touchscreen, which would disrupt the atmosphere that Revelations has going for it. You can say the back touch panel can substitute for it, but it's overly sensitive, and I can already see myself throwing grenades in an empty corridor just by adjusting the device in my hand. The circle pad pro peripharal has to additional back buttons which the Vita lacks, although it really isn't necessary with the bottom touch screen interface on the 3DS unless you want a second analogue, so it's essentially the perfect choice to keep it on this device as it is. Maybe RE Revelations could work for Vita, but it would need an entire interface overhaul for it to be possible, and then it might not even be the game the developers had in mind. As I have both systems, I know what I'm talking about.
1 Like Any1 up for a FC exchange? we could play also using skype for more fun and coordination :)
@guily6669 sorry, it's a misspelling. it's actually "the only game that made me want to buy 3DS". i also prefer Vita than 3DS. if this game was made for Vita too, maybe it will be better
@Rifqi_Hb Is that a joke? This is probably the best Resident Evil in years... and Really look a lot with PS3\360 HD quality (even though it's the only one with this must quality for the 3DS). I prefer Vita and it's titles too. But god damn this Resident Evil even deserve to be made for the 360\PS3...
~devilgonnatemp, I was saving money for the Vita for like two years already... I ended up buying the 3DS, because the Vita cost way too much. I will save more money for it now, but will wait for a big price drop... Well if 3DS is worth depends if you like it's titles or not, I kinda don't like them much and here most games for it cost 50 eur, which is almost the full price of an xbox360 game. I like the console and this game really looks like a PS3 game, it really has an amazing quality, but there isn't any more games with the quality of this resident evil for it (for now)... If your country is like mine and u dont like much 3DS games, I don't recommend u to buy it. Here most of the games for the other consoles are lot cheaper (even most of the vita games cost less), and there isn't much 3DS games, and also there's no one with it around. ps: But if in your country u can buy 3DS games for a good price and if u really like it's titles, well u should buy it, because in that case it would totally be worth it. The 3D also looks impressive in some games (though doesn't work good on some ~not a big problem).
Looks sexy but I DON'T own a 3DS and don't intend buying one so I hope they do the nice thing and convert it onto the consoles people have (tricky sometimes I know). I don't have mummy and daddy buying all my games :-(
Well if you actually like big titles, in my opinion you should get this game. It's the only game that I really bought for my 3DS, and the only one I really like. I wouldn't pay 49.99 eur for any other 3DS game besides this Resident Evil. ps: Don't buy the normal version, buy the one that come with the circular pad pro, it's really worth it and you can actually play almost as good as with a controller, hell you even get triggers on the back (though they only work as buttons).
3DS screen is not that much high quality, but still on this game with full 3D ON, DAMN, not even VITA can compete in the next million years to come... However there's only this single game with that kind of quality and I don't see more coming to 3DS soon. And the worst is I paid 59.99eur for it which comes with the circular pad pro. The game alone cost 49.99eur which is the price of most of the big titles for my xbox360. Thank you nintendo for wonderful prices on crappy games. I'm not gonna buy any more games for the 3DS. ps: The prices of what Nintendo ask for games that look as much quality as old dreamcast games that probably take a month to finish and selling for 45eur? And worst is paying 4eur for a black and white gameboy 1 game from the 80's which the copyright are expired long time ago. NINTENDO I HOPE U GO BANKRUPT, U GREEDY SONS OF A...
@EVIL346 Not really, did you read Psp reviews? The games were scored lower than DS reviews and the same for the vita. Plus this game would not be nearly as impressive technology wise on the Vita. I agree that this is a great game...
If this game came out on PS vita it would have got a higher score for sure coz its on a Sony machine but as it happens its not. The game is amazing how it is and it doesn't need to be better and its on Nintendo 3ds. If you don't like Nintendo its your loss if you don't play it just wait for a port on PS vita if it happens but I doubt its gonna be much better. I am playing it now not a year later and it deserves a higher score on 3ds for sure.
... Did this review seriously lose 1.5 points because of the author's PERSONAL disinterest in the new character designs? That is an insane amount of points to deduct! He should at least bring up some real issues with the game if he intends to lower the score so significantly. This happens all too often in virtually every Nintendo game. PS: I'm not mad that Revelations didn't get a 9 or 10/10 instead of an 8.5, it's a great score anyway, but the reason for why the score got lowered by so much is just nonsense, considering that its such a minor "flaw" and only if you see it that way.
@P3FES-NERD I'm playing it right now and it looks and sounds amazing and indeed the gameplay is some back to roots,which is great to me. :) Please notice that is for 3DS while you missed the 3D in your sentence. ;-) By the way I selected the highest 3D depth in the video options and it really bumps out from the screen! :D I suggest to keep the 3rd person also for shooting, cause it's far more natural to play that way.
Whoever says RE is for kids is freakingly retard and a fanboy to say. I don't want my kid to play RE/Scary games but ME! Wahaha
@2611mp: I don't know what circles you run in by I'm "way over" 18, have a 3DS and love it.
@Kos1c, thanks. The lack of shambling undead is very disappointing for me. Dead fish is not a good substitute for that for sure. :)
I just find it hard to take the 3ds seriously as a gaming platform. The only people I know who own them are all way under 18. I don't understand how games like this generate enough sales to make them viable.
@Ripper_TV No, there aren't any zombies in the game. They are a new breed of mutated fish, and mutated members of FBC, and Veltro. So, you will fight horrors, but nothing really of the undead, other than Rebeca (I think that's what her name was), I would count her as a Zombie though, since she comes back from the dead, due to a late reaction of the T-Abyss Virus.
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