I am only half way through it but i love it! Def way better then RE 6. Although i do wish for things to pop out at me!!
Resident Evil: Revelations plays a lot like the best games in the series, but lacks the scariness and intensity that made those games special.
It has been a dark time for the Resident Evil series. The abominably disappointing Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6 utterly lacked the nail-biting action the series was once known for, making it impossible to see in them any glimmer of the franchise's former greatness. So in a sense, the release of Resident Evil: Revelations on consoles and PC is cause for celebration. First released on the 3DS last year, Revelations is both the best Resident Evil game of the past few years and the one that's the most true to the series' roots. There's something to be said for that. But taken on its own terms, it's not a great game. It's not remotely scary, and the enemy design is uninspired. Still, Revelations is competent enough to remind you of what Resident Evil can be, even if it doesn't get under your skin the way the best games in the series do.
Set between Resident Evil 4 and 5, Revelations' tale is more concerned with organizations--the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, the Federal Bioterrorism Commission, and the terror group Veltro--than with individuals. Series mainstays Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield are on hand, but they don't get any opportunities for character development here; they're just familiar pawns in the series' latest sinister, overly complicated conspiracy.
They're joined by one likable new character, and one awful one. Jill's partner, Parker, bears an unmistakable resemblance to actor Russell Crowe; looks aside, he's a good-humored companion, someone you'd like to have by your side in a crisis. Chris' partner, Jessica, on the other hand, is so obnoxious and absurd as to strain credulity, even in a story about ooze monsters. When Chris has been injured and she responds, "Me and my sweet ass are on the way!" it's so goofy that it takes you out of the moment, and a one-legged outfit she wears later in the game makes her look like a member of an avant-garde dance troupe, not a counterterrorism task force.
The bulk of Revelations takes place on the Queen Zenobia, a luxury ocean liner with plenty of cramped corridors that make for claustrophobic combat. The ship's elegant cabins, casinos, and promenades contrast with its bilges, freight lifts, and other metallic environments, which makes your initial explorations of the ship rewarding. The Queen Zenobia's layout is convincing, making it easy to buy into the idea that it's a real ship with a long and grisly history. But before you've advanced too far through the campaign, you've seen most of what the Zenobia has to offer, and you spend much of your time trekking back through areas you've already covered.
Things may have changed somewhat--you might be able to access rooms you couldn't before, or you may encounter new enemy types--but the sense of discovery that helps make the early sections intriguing wears off too soon. Still, the way the story is broken up into short, episodic sections, jumping back and forth frequently between characters and locations, keeps the pacing brisk; you never get tired of one situation before you're whisked off to another.
Of course, you're not on the Queen Zenobia for a pleasure cruise; terrible things have happened aboard that ship, and as a result, you're constantly attacked by bio-organic weapons, some of which look like people covered head to toe in gray ooze and others of which resemble human-size lizard creatures from a low-budget monster movie. Confrontations are sometimes more campy than chilling, and the fact that you can perform cartoonish melee attacks, complete with goofy windups, on stunned enemies, only adds to the silliness.
If you've played Resident Evil 4 or 5, the controls and combat here will feel familiar. The camera's closeness to your character limits your peripheral vision, fostering a feeling that you never know what's just around the next corner. The problem is that Revelations never does much of anything with this; you're never startled to discover an enemy you didn't know was there or given a reason to dread what might be lurking in the shadows ahead. There's a halfhearted creepiness to the atmosphere of Revelations, but never anything that might generate actual fear or dread.
Instead, the combat is typically straightforward rather than scary. Your weapons feel powerful, and only become more powerful as you augment them with parts you find, but they never feel overpowered; your enemies' resilience makes you grateful for every ounce of firepower you can wring out of those weapons. You rarely feel truly threatened or desperate, but enemies can still corner you in tight spaces, generating some tension as you fill them with bullets and hope they go down before they get close enough to grab you. (You don't want that to happen, both because you get injured and because you're prompted to do some unpleasant stick-wiggling to struggle free.)
Some environments give you a bit more freedom to move around, with opportunities to leap to lower levels to temporarily flee from encroaching attackers. These areas might fill with monsters that close in on you before you blow up an explosive tank at the last second, incinerating your enemies and making your escape. You've probably experienced moments like this in games many times before, but they're still satisfying.
Unfortunately, though the best games in the series feature confrontations with memorable, horrifying bosses, the boss battles here, like everything else about Revelations, are standard. Bosses can dish out and withstand plenty of damage, but their designs and their attack patterns are all par for the course. Outside of the campaign, there's Raid mode, an opportunity to fight off enemies solo or with another player, and though the process of leveling up and earning points with which you can purchase more and better gear is predictably compelling, the combat still lacks the spark of scariness that infused the action of earlier Resident Evil entries. Revelations is a decent adventure, but it doesn't come close to reaching the heights the series has in the past.
Carolyn Petit has been reading GameSpot since 2000 and writing for it since 2008. She has a particular fondness for games of the 1980s, and intends to leave the field of games journalism as soon as she hears that her local Ghostbusters franchise is hiring.
This person doesn't even sound like she played the game. Did she even try to play the game before she started bashing it left and right. Her review did not describe the experience I and many other people had. She was way off the mark, completely. She must be one of those people jumping on the hate Resident Evil bandwagon. Well congratulations because of this lousy review you lost a reader. I will be going to other sites for gaming reviews now.
I just finished the game . There is no way in hell this game is 6.5 !!!. People trust too much the scores given by gamespot . Although its not great as resident evil 2,3, code veronica , remake or 4 but its better than 6 . it has great story . Great bosses fight especially the last boss. More than 12 stages. Its good to see jill and chris again.
1 Like I wished that game companies went back to doing pre-rendered backgrounds. Like the RE Remake and Zero. They were top notch, I also really miss the FF7-9 games. There is an appeal about rendering high res graphics and lighting that is much harder to obtain with real time game assets and lighting. I wonder if game companies will eventually one day come back to that.
@2w-sephiroth The controls in the early Resident Evil games sucked mainly because of those pre-rendered backgrounds you love.
@Kryptonbornson @2w-sephiroth A price for the other, you want immerse and a scary game? or you want action? We live in a world with many double edge swords. And yes, I love them specially because I make game graphics and I appreciate what is not done any more. No biggie.
He's saying:
You want games to go back to pre-rendered backgrounds because it's what you enjoy.
He's saying he loves (enjoys^) his kids; however he wouldn't want them being babies again.
In other words he wouldn't want to go back to the old pre-rendered backgrounds that were prevalent on FF8/9. Personally graphics are not too much of a big deal for me but can make some really emotional scenes when properly knitted.
@Kryptonbornson @2w-sephiroth I... Um... ok... You are calling RE remake and zero babies, you are then calling Atari games what? Good for you for being a father...?
@2w-sephiroth To each his own. I love my kids, but I wouldn't want them to go back to being babies.
1 Like @Qassim986 ive never agreed to one of her reviews ever she ether overrates or underrates and the cons for this review are stupid
1 Like Oh good Carolyn is still with gamespot. Nice to see there are still some honest reviewers out there. :)
Nice to see professional journalists willing and able to give popular games a thrashing when they fail to live up to their own standards.
Truth is I never played resident evil 3 until a few months back after playing almost all the other games in the series and the game held up remarkably well and was still a ton of fun. This stinker however is destined for the flusher in the long term.
Last good Resi game was RE 3 Nemesis and the remake from RE 1 for the game cube.
Since than they just sucked
Don't you hate it when those new aged Resident Evil fanboys tell you na uh resi 4 is the best duh(lol)! I gotta say resident evil 3 was pretty awesome back in the day I fondly remember playing that game for the first time right after I completed Survivor I think for like the third time and pretty much realizing how terrible it was/ Awww those were the days to be a gamer...
@pity-the-sadnes For you. RE4 was the best RE. After RE5 (good), crapcom launched only crap games. This last one is a joke. RE6 has better graphics than this garbage despite having bad gameplay.
1 Like I like the RE franchise but in the words of the Angry Videogame Nerd..."This game is ass"....
Too much back tracking, stupid stop and scan feature, back character designs, bulletsponge enemies.. this games is a 4 at best.. and only worth $10 dollars, not the $40 that it costs. Seems Capcom is continuing the train of shitty RE games.. why can't they be good like RE4?.. hopefully someday they will be.
Too much backtracking? Really? Must every game be a linear corridor fest?
Being able to explore a large location at your own pace was something I loved about the classic Resident Evil games. I hated when RE5 took that away, so its nice to see Revelations giving a bit more freedom to the player.
@strawhat1987 If I heard this point one more time I'll shoot someone. They both have different standards!
so shoot yourself fool ... this a big game ... guys don't listen 2 dat emo from gamespot who gave it a 6.5 such a fool reviewers !!!
2 Like With all due respect CAROLYN who should we believe you or JANE DOUGLAS who reviewed this game for 3ds ? Jane said its CREEPY you said NOT SCARY !!! .and i believe its a same game only in hd . i think we must find out the truth .
3 Like I just dont find these mutants scary at all.There's something to be said for regular zombies and their scary factor.Besides, the ammo should be scarce and variety of guns next to 0.These games shouldnt be a third person shooter.Bring back true survival horror, Capcom!
2 Like LOL. Great review as always, Carolyn. Your opening statements alone made this the best review I have watched in a long while.
I agree with your scoring. Though I haven't played the entire game yet, the demo gave me the exact feeling that you mentioned in your review. It certainly is better than ORC and RE6, and at the beginning of the demo I did feel a little fear and dread about turning corners and opening doors, but once I started shooting a few... ugh... mutants (?), the game starts to get a bit uninspired.
By the way, whatever happened to good old zombies from Raccoon City? Those were scary. Ever since RE4, zombies were just... stale. And monsters, mutants, BOWs are just trying too hard to make themselves relevant. I remember constantly being cornered by groups of zombies in Raccoon City and all I could do was say my prayers and hit the restart button.
2 Like she talk about how are there to much back tracking well all the old games were famous for that.which made re so fun to play. she says it not scary and yet i had a few scary moments.as for the enemies i found them unique and different and very interesting. oh well. this games a 9 to me thats all that matters
So wait, this is better than RE6? I have had RE6 for over a year now and still have yet to beat it cause it sucks so bad.
While I don't always agree with her scoring, I do often agree with her remarks concerning the overall game experience. I think Carolyn just wants to see the full potential realized in the games she reviews. If the next RE game turns out to be much better, and she gave this an 8, would she really be able to give the new one a 10? Food for thought. I've come to realize that Carolyn's scores are more in line with what they ought to be.
It's the other journalists that are padding other games' scores, which is in turn throwing everyone and the entire scoring system off. When I see 6.5 I say dear god, not buying, but realistically 6.5 isn't a terrible score, we've just become accustomed to seeing 6.5 paired with horrible games.
So in Carolyn's defense, despite the fact that I am still irked by Luigi Mansion's score, 6.5 doesn't always mean the game is bad...it just depends on who is reviewing the game.
There is no more RESIDENT EVIL... its not anymore the same... 1.2.3 part was the best resident evil parts ever! those 3d shit stay much much behind... here we cannot see those atmophere or gamplay or fun ... its not the same... nat all games have to be in 3d...
6 Like Another poor review from Gamespot. It's the same game as the 3ds release with much better controls and it gets a considerably lower score? Total lack of logic.
Goofy Dialog? That's one of the reasons why we fell in love with Resident Evil to begin with! Silly stylized millitary outfits? This is Resident Evil not Flashpoint. It's supposed to be a bit campy.
This is a good game people around an 8/10 I'd say. I am totally convinced now after the RE6 fiasco and now this that there is a conspiracy against Resident Evil with you so called journalists.
1 Like I highly disagree with Carolyn most of the time. But paying $50 for a 3DS game with barely any new content is highly stupid.
Wait for a price drop you fools.
oh and one final thing to anyone who believes in a reviewer score i feel sorry for you just read both reviwes for this game on the 3ds and the console one and you will see the flaw in believing in reviewers if you can see it well your beyond hope.
How can a game on score this low on ps3 and high on the 3ds when there the same game and one be scary and the other not.this makes no sense at all thank god i don`t judge game like this or for that matter by other people opinions.but i gonna say this every re game rock and i mean all.
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2 Like her review is not even close at all and that makes it not good in my book.maybe you should learn to respect and treat others nicely huh instead of attacking them for things like spelling
different standards and yet the game are the same other than graphics and some minor details.i`m gettting ff 10 and 10-2 since that game is ps2 port it going get a lower score ,that load of crap. if the game has been improved it should scored fairly no matter where it`s ported too.i review my game one standard guidline no matter what system it on.and as for this game being flawed and lacking horror elements that bull it has scary elements and i see no flaws in the game at all. so this review than is flawed.
@resident_jisenYou're asking why the scores are different? it is because different consoles have different standards. Common sense. Oh and her review was good. The game is basically a flawed upscaled HD port for $50 lacking horror elements.
2 Like Apparently she never played any of the old REs (1-3)? I disagree with this review and its score, backtracking is a staple of survival horror. I think this game tries to capture the older RE audience by setting up Jill's campaign similarly to the old RE's. The exploration in Jill's campaign feels reminiscent of the old RE's, while Chris's campaign caters to the CoD, blast everything in sight audience. New and old school in one little package :o)
1 Like I'm certain she didn't play any resident evil before Revelations. Hunters are a staple of the series and she refers to them as "human-size lizard creatures from a low-budget monster movie" .
