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 or mouse-shaking 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 game is great and the GameSpot review is totally off. I have been playing RE games literally for all my life and I put Revelations above RE 5 in terms of game-play. Of course it isn't any masterpiece like the old school Resident Evil games, but if we keep comparing any new game with the golden era of the 90s, then we should all agree that each new game cannot score more than 5.0
Seen this coming.
Those who cannot stand criticism are sure every big title that involve many dollars must be a success. They are the same guys who let Troika die, the company that created the best games in the business ever, in favor to buying Call of Duty and Battlefield XXIII by the millions.
Don,t listen to their wasteful opinion. Masses are stupid.
6.5? found it pretty decent myself, the two major flaws this game has is lack in environments and its shortness, otherwise its ok, metacritic average is currently 77 so GS underscored it...about the backtracking, I actually enjoy backtracking, might be every man/woman has different taste though, either way going for a 7.5 or 8, not decided yet...
@thorn3000 your on a ship most the time how can that be a lack of environment? unless you mean it has a lack of atmosphere.
Grrrr, Completed the game a 4th time... Went to try for the Autoloader... Set key to use herb from tab to * so I wouldnt press it by mistake.
A possible bug may of cost me the autoloader.
Playing as Jill, chris or parker the tab key didnt work for heal so I knew when I set the * as use, it worked.
However on the boat mission where you use a machinegun as you approach the ship, I accidently pressed tab and it healed me :O. Rechecked to make sure heal was still set to * and it was.
Exited and restarted from previous checkpoint. Completed game with no herb use and I didnt get the autoloader :(, guessing that stuffed it up for me.
Will just uninstall as im not going through the game like that again
1 Like giving it a 6.5 is an overstatement!!!
this is like the bottom most level the game could fall,
DS games should stay on DS!!
4 Like Tired of everyone throwing 6 under the bus, anyone who's played it knows its not that bad.
@JCASHUFL i played it and i hated it. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many quicktime events on top of a super dull story. leon's story starts off great then its just phoned in after a hr. chris's call of duty story line was lame and i dont even want to talk about the other guy
@therealneoturk @JCASHUFL
I agree with quicktime events. The cutscenes were good but as soon as you sit back and try to enjoy them you have a QT event, and often I wasnt ready.
Really didnt like RE6... The only thing that would of made me want to play it a second time would of been the ability to gain exp and upgrade weapons
@therealneoturk No way. Ada's campaign is just supplemental, just to fill in plot holes. I'd rate Chris's above Ada's for the simple fact Chris has a full eventful campaign with huge bosses and they acknowledge alot of nostalgic stuff (giant snake, letting Chris actually pilot a plane because he used to be in the Air Force). Jake had a charm I didn't think he'd have and his campaign has a tension that Chris doesn't have. I think Chris made me want to do stuff like use my knife he's just so manly. jk. I was getting ready to say maybe Ada's campaign felt the most like the old games, but all of the campaigns did. Not all from the same game.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion.
However this review staff is like a bland SNL cast. At least compared to Greg Kasavin, Jeff Gerstmann, Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, etc. I think firing Guy Cocker may have pushed my limit lol
Its the closes thing to a horror/survival since 4. Its not great but it's good enough to play, I don't think its worth $60. Wait for it to hit the used bin.
@headsupkid01 4 wasn't survival horror. It was action like 5 and 6. 6 just has better controls.
Its a step in the right direction and dropkicks 5,6 & ORC any day. But this Episode thing needs to stop. Just make it like the Classics 0-4 with this games controls and their won't be a problem
@Norrie91 I didnt mind the episode style. Just like RE5 (6 was too crap to mention), it was good to have it broken down into more sections because if you are good at a certain bit, you can replay and get a higher grade or just replay it because you enjoy it.
The problem with revelations was they made each section of the episode too short. The end part of the final episode is simply watch a cutscene, watch credits, watch the end cutscene and completed.
Theres also silly things like an episode section lasting just 5 minutes. Such as 1 part is to walk into a bunker, pick up a security card and complete... No shooting or fighting.
@Sparkz2013 @Norrie91 well it was for the 3SD then again first resident evil was on DS. Cartridges have plenty of space but it is probably the crammed in cut scenes that take up more space.
2 Like No offense, but this game deserves at least an 8 for not being RE6. That said, I played it on 3DS and rebought it on 360 and I'm actually enjoying it way more on 360 and still can't get over the fact the 3DS pulled of graphics this nice. (because really very little has been done to the graphics) Also, I find it very creepy at certain parts...the main thing I found annoying is very lame characters for the most part, even by Capcom standards.
1 Like Gotta admit I loved this game at first. It beats RE6 anyway but its highly annoying for a few reasons.
Theres a few floored engine mechanics that can spoil parts of the game...
What is the point of a partner? They do nothing. I faced 1 of the basic enemy's and let him do the shooting. 15 to 20 shots later and several reloads and the enemy is still alive. I fired 3 or 4 times at the enemy and killed it. (Are partners guns actually programmed to be a lot weaker than your own?)
You run out of ammo? let yourself die and restart from checkpoint and use less ammo to get back to where you were. Your partner wont save you. I know the whole survival horror thing is to have limited ammo but it would be nice if your partner would throw you some when your running low as your partner is no help with killing enemies.
Mainly evident in the ship is not being able to use your partner to their only potential.... Cannon fodder. You open a door and theres instantly a load of enemies... If you dont move a few steps outside the door, your partner stands the other side of the door until you do. Saying that, even when your partner is in battle with you I notice enemies will pretty much ignore their gunfire and come right at you regardless.
Each room is a "zone". No enemies come in from other rooms but also it can be dumb. I did that thing where there were lots of enemies in 1 room. I opened the door to another room. Didnt walk forwards (so partner stayed in room with enemies) and there were no gun sounds at all, no shooting. Went back to that room and was instantly hit by a load of enemies that were grouped by the door, while my partner had been standing there not shooting.
The map system is pretty poor. Im meant to get somewhere at the back of the ship, however theres no indication as to what door I have to take to get there (it shows on the 3D map but doesnt show what doors you have to go through).
A little thing is the crap with picking up new weapons. Either walk past it and lose it. Or pick it up, swap it for your current weapon (if slots are full), then swap back and the new weapon will be in your storage box for use when you want. Why not just ask "do you want to equip this?" when you pickup a new weapon and if you say no it goes direct to your storage box.
I'm stuck on a part which due to the useless partner has made me have to load an earlier save. Loads of enemies...
A) Run past them, take too much damage, die (Only 1 herb left)
B) Shoot and kill them (No damage but ammo will run out before I kill them all = death)
I think the 6.5 is fair. Better than RE6, still not amazing though
@Sparkz2013 The point is : you have to beat the game, not the partner. Even if is ridiculous and unrealistic Capcom decided to leave all the dirty work to the player (and it's right..in this way the game is much more difficult). If the game is too realistic we loose most of the fun. To avoid such choices would have been better to be alone (the best choice for an horror game). I thing this game is ok, maybe you dont remember RE1 or RE2..a lot of backtracking, limited inventory slots ecc although they were great games they had flaws and sometimes they were frustrating. Resident Evil Revalations have flaws (some section are not interesting, charachters are not intriguing, there are a few monster-but that's because is a 3ds game- ecc) but the gameplay is ok.
@RSVSilver @Sparkz2013 this is really the only game where you HAVE to start from easy and slowly build up otherwise if you choose hard or normal...your screwed.
8.5 for the 3DS version and 6.5 for the PC version.
What's the meaning of this...someone care to explain?
I was wondering the same thing. I suspect perceptions are being colored by the failure of RE6. Jane Douglas' reviewed this game as an 8.5 yet Carolyn Petit reviews the console version gets a 6.5?
After the release of 6, it seems like everybody is retroactively seeing all the old titles in a bad light. 4 and 5 both did well commercially and critically, yet after 6's critical panning the chatter seems to repaint the series' history as that of a steady decline over the past few iterations.
TL;DR The failure of 6 is causing people to view past entries with the opposite of "Rose Colored Lenses" (Shit Colored or something).
Basicly, you like Resident Evil? Ok you'll like this game. You like most modern AAA Shooters? You'll like RE6.
2 Like @lingo56 I liked RE6, I think it gets a bad rep, because people thought they were going back to Scarey Horror/survival. I wish they would go back to that but RE6 as a stand alone is a fun game.
1 Like @headsupkid01 @lingo56 6 isn't bad at all really. Wrong direction, sure, could have been better, sure, but it's fun.
@headsupkid01 @lingo56 the controls were ass. i had a zombie leap at me deal damage even though i fucking killed it with a shotgun it still killed me flew back then died. no knockback animation=utter bullshit.
@RecurringEspion What game were you playing? Revelations? RE 6 had no such bugs that I've experienced.
2 Like i'm surprised no one has talked much about the partners in this game. well they don't take any damage also don't do any damage or take any heat off the player they are there just to comfort you and flick switches.
1 Like What is "NOT SCARY" ? I hope the author really played this game . And the face of Jill really made this game looks so bad , can't argue that. Also the FOV is too low as a pc game , really need to fix that
@ShienYeh well it isn't scary more or less just creepy i mean the creatures in this just creep you the hell out hearing the voice of zenobia emergency call creepy. the monsters in this creepy the characters facial expressions eg raynald sneering in suffering pain for a full minute before moving hes lip then sneering some more and moving which would be during(escape of terragreia pt1)even jessica is smirking like she got a raise.
@ShienYeh Perhaps Carolyn meant the lack, near absence, of regular horror elements as can be found in popular horror films. Yes a lot of creepy critters are on your tail, and the Mayday moment did creep me out a little... But these are all the same ´we´re coming to get you´ flicks. No suprising ´booooh´ elements or spooky mysteries. It´s all the same can of gore, stacking some dead bodies, and have some undead ones chasing you.
1 Like And consider this author gave Diablo III 8.5 score , just take it easy about all reviews from her.
@I_are_Cake Maybe she's still single. Once she finds a boyfriend she'll be less "cynical" :-)
1 Like @I_are_Cake True. Cynics are just one step behind haters. They shouldn't be doin' reviews with such a mindset. 'Coz it's just as unfair and biased as a fanboy's.
The Dead Space series already took the crown from Resident Evil with regards to the survival horror genre.
Anyway, I'll still give this game a try even if the series isn't as great as it used to be.
Code Veronica is my favorite in the series. The characters are memorable as well as its soundtrack. I also like parts 2 & 4.
