A return to true survival horror,RE Revelations is one of the better RE games and is the best looking game on 3DS too.
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Story
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The story shows the events that happened to a once beautiful city named Terragrigia which was built on an artificial island (you'll see how it's surrounded by beautiful ocean scenery) and the city was high tech,used clean energy but a series of disasters happened to the city but I won't say what they are.The story takes you to before and after Terragrigia was destroyed.All I will say is a bioterrorist organisation named II Veltro whom are against government control come into the story and the BSAA are a group whom were created specifically to combat bioterrorism and the group was founded with the help of known RE characters Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine.Jill and her partner Parker go on an infiltration style mission to spy on or stop II Veltro but they go missing and Chris and his partner Jessica go searching for Jill and Parker and you'll also control Keith and Quint.The individuals in the pairing of characters can change too.I like how the story shifts it's focus on different pairs of characters because it makes the story feel more thrilling by making you wonder will they be able to find eachother or not or will they survive.
The story does a good job to fill you in one what happened to Terragrigia and explains about Terragrigia in detail with some beautiful cinematics and it makes an attempt to fill you in on story elements that happened in past RE games.
The story also has a bit of character flirting and romantic interests mixed with a lot of seriousness and personally I like how the story is that way because the story is still disturbing and very serious and can be emotional but the romantic interest/flirting stuff and humor give the characters/story a nice break from some of the intensity at times.
The story also has some plot twists you won't see coming.
Overall I found the story to be entertaining and well presented and like I've said it's still quite a dark,disturbing and intense story but it also has a lighter side to it.
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Gameplay
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The gameplay in RE Rev is a great mix of classic survival horror and action gameplay.For much of the game you'll need to be conservative with ammo because ammo isn't plentiful like it is in RE4 and RE5 which means you'll need to make headshots or cannot miss too often when you shoot(this adds more intensity to the gameplay as you'll try to make your last few remaining bullets count and was something that was missing in RE4 and RE5).
Also,there will be times you will get startled when enemies will be waiting for you in sneaky places and will catch you by surprise and this also adds more intensity to the gameplay and encourages you to carefully move through places carefully and to always be on guard.
But there is also gameplay segments where you'll need to spray lots of bullets at enemies and fight past many enemies or hold off many enemies from a certain period of time.These segments are fun and do a nice job to give the player a bit of a break from the intensity of the survival horror style gameplay segments and to allow them to mow down mutants with high powered weapons but for survival horror purists don't worry,most of the gameplay focuses on survival horror.
The game introduces a scanner device that you can use to scan areas for much needed ammo and herbs that are hidden from plain sight.So basically,you're encouraged to scan areas thoroughly for those few extra shotgun bullets or for that extra machine gun ammo you might desperately need.This process slows down the gameplay quite a lot but it's a clever way to make you earn much of the ammo and herbs you find,because in real life,ammo and medical equipment wouldn't be just laying around on top of a desk or on the floor on plain sight.
The controls work well and feel comfortable.Initiating the infra red by pressing R1 and aiming by pressing the left thumb stick and shooting by pressing Y works surprisingly well on a handheld console.The game allows you to switch weapons without having to go into a menu or having to cycle through weapons by allowing you to choose them by pressing them on the touch screen.The game takes advantage of two screens by allowing you to see a map the whole time without having to bring up a menu.
Another thing I like about the gameplay is it makes enemies advance on you when you're in narrow areas so you can't always rely on simply running around enemies.
Another new feature I like is how when you're low on health your character can be knocked to the ground(which prevents them from being able to run away from enemies)and you'll need to fight off the enemies before you can get up again which makes it feel like your character is seriously injured and is trying to desperately fight off enemies.There's also segments when your character is injured from story related scenes and must fight off enemies while laying on the ground.
I like the variety in enemy attack styles(wolves run very fast at you and attack in numbers)some mutants advance at you slowly but their bodies can absorb a lot of gunfire unless you can perform headshots,some mutants can shoot projectiles at you or can leap at you.Some mutants can explode themselves causing serious damage to you.Infected fish can bounce around outside of water and are small targets which do a small amount of damage but are hard to shoot because they're small targets.
The gameplay also has a dodge feature which allows you to dodge enemies if you time certain button presses and thumbstick movements well enough and sometimes using this feature well is important of you're low on ammo.
As you'd expect,you'll need to search for keys to unlock doors and solve puzzles and do a bit of backtracking.The puzzles aren't hard but the backtracking can be annoying because of the intricate level layouts in some places.
Some other annoying things about the gameplay are the fact your partner's AI can be very bad at times and they'll stand there and face you and will get in the way of your aiming when enemies are advancing towards you.Also,sometimes they'll stand in your way and won't move and can make it harder to move to a place then it should be.Also,when you open a door,it automatically makes you enter a room and if you had left that room previously(which automatically closes the door for that room)and an enemy was in there,they'll be waiting right next to the door(which is fair enough)but like I've said when your character opens a door they automatically enter the room and the enemy can get a free hit on your character and it's annoying.If you knew there was enemies inside a room,wouldn't the logical thing to do would be to slowly open the door first and then enter the room? The gameplay mechanics don't allow this.But these flaws don't ruin what is overwise a great game and great gameplay for the most part.
As for game length,if you know where everything is,the game can be around 6-8 hours long depending on how many times you die but if you get stuck on backtracking or don't know where to go it can add a few more hours to the game time.
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Visuals
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This is easily one of the best looking if not the best looking 3DS game to date.The visuals look clean,have a good amount of realism(for 3DS standard) and detail,give you some beautiful cinematic scenese that are also quite lengthy,provide a dark,creepy,morbid atmosphere when you encounter lots of dark,abandoned areas with disgusting things in the room and lots of gore too such as seeing someone with their face smashed in or missing lots of flesh.The 3D effects work well to give what are already clean looking and and great looking visuals a 3D feel.
But to give a variety of atmospheres,Terragrigia is surrounded by beautiful ocean and the use of sunset over the city is stunning.The city looks high tech,clean and the way it blends with the ocean that surrounds it is quite spectacular.
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Sound
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Besides Parker's bad Italian accent,the other voices go well with the character personalities.Especially the voice of Jessica whose voice+personality adds a lighter feel to an otherwise very intense and serious story.
The dialogue sounds authentic but is clever in how it can add humor to serious situations.
The game creeped me out when I heard a certain voice(you'll see what I mean when you play the game).
The music does a good enough job to add atmosphere but not overpowered the survival horror segments and the action gameplay segments have great,faster paced music to add a feeling of urgency.
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Overall
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Probably the best original release title for the 3DS so far and it brings back the survival horror elements that classic style RE fans miss but uses the mechanics introduced in RE4 very well.Add the creepy atmosphere,great graphics/beautiful cinematics and story/characters you might care about make this game great.