Resident Evil Revelations 2

Episode 2 Review

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Revelations 2 is good, that much is obvious. It takes everything that was great in the previous Resident Evil installments, mixes it up and makes you care about the whole experience. In Episode 2, our adventure with Claire, Moira, Natalia and Barry continues at a more frantic pace all the while staying true to what makes it a good RE game.

Yes, let’s follow the trail of blood. Because that couldn’t possibly backfire in any way at all.

The episode begins in a fairly open area with a plethora of character to interact with, for the series standards at least. Claire and Moira have met up with three more of their kidnapped co-workers in an effort to maximize their chances of survival. The pair will be helping you out by fixing your potential ticket off the island or by taking down enemies and drilling holes in walls with structural weaknesses. While somewhat obnoxious in their depiction, Pedro and Gabe do liven up the atmosphere of the run-down eastern-european village the episode begins in. The third guy looks suspiciously similar to Sam Fisher in every way except for the general demeanor – he’s obnoxious. Hell, his surname is Fisher, too! His role is also very straightforward and obvious from the get-go, but it’ll work in the context of a Resident Evil game. The village is pretty open all in all, allowing you to scrounge for supplies much more than you could in the first episode. Those supplies will finally come in handy, too. While I never really found many components in the first chapter of the Revelations 2 saga, there’s an abundance of them here. You’ll be crafting smoke bottles for stealthy sequences, explosives and molotovs for when shit hits the fan and a really cool bait bottle that lures all the nearby afflicted towards it and then goes boom. This part of the gameplay feels much better incorporated into the basis of the game than it was before, and that’s a change I applaud greatly. The main reason behind this is the fact that you’ll be facing more enemies than before, some of them extremely dangerous if not taken down immediately. The first boss fights of Revelations 2 included – which there are (arguably) two of.

Again, some pretty scenes will show up.

Claire and Moira in particular will be facing the brunt of the afflicted here, I’d say. In comparison to their prior arsenal, they’ll add two more firearms and a lot of ammunition. Regardless, by the end of their part of the episode you’ll spend most of it away on the horde. My favourite part would be the wave defense-like sequence in which Claire, Moira and Pedro have to fight off the afflicted in large numbers. It’s highly reminiscent of Resident Evil 4’s similar section. All that’s missing are the movable closets, really. On the other hand, Barry and Natalia will be moving through virtually the same areas, but with them being ravaged by… well, something. Capcom cleverly re-uses these sections, but shows them from a wholly different angle. Again, Barry is a bona-fide badass with another great stealth sequence in Episode 2. Natalia becomes even more useful due to the appearance of horrifying invisible enemies as the episode comes to an end – she can sense their presence and “see” them, while Barry is almost completely oblivious due to not being infected. This time around, it’s difficult to say whose part of the episode is better, which goes to show that we can expect Revelations 2 to be one of the best RE games there are once all is said and done. One thing I’d like to recommend to all of you who have both episodes already – invest in the evade cancel skill as soon as you can, as it influences the gameplay greatly and makes the whole thing even more enjoyable than it already is. You can try it out if you have Wesker in the Raid mode, too. Speaking of Wesker and Raid mode, there are two important things to take account of here. First of all, this episode’s cliffhanger will have much to do with the leather-clad badass himself. Second of all, Raid mode will get fifty new levels to complete should you have both episodes unlocked. Talk about replayability…

One thing I probably should have talked about last week is the game’s similarity to the original Revelations title. Capcom got rid of the tight hallways and claustrophobic rooms, for the most part, and now smartly combines the more open environments with the cramped surroundings we were closely acquainted with in the original. The first episode was much more similar to it than the second one, thus easing those who’ve had extensive experience with it into the more flexible gameplay of Revelations 2. Gone are the overly sluggish controls, with the characters now being much faster and more responsive than they were before, but it’s still Resi so don’t expect them doing backflips anytime soon. My greatest gripes with Revelations, though, were the strangely flamboyant characters (gone) and truly horrible weapon handling mechanics (also gone). All in all, Revelations 2 comes with more content, better gameplay mechanics and is much more pleasant to play.

I’ve spoken enough about the game’s visuals in the Episode 1 review so I’ll just say that things don’t change much here, as expected. Nothing has changed in the performance department, either, with random lag spikes and performance drops occurring just as they did before. At this point, I don’t think Capcom will do anything to fix their game’s shoddy performance, but I’ve noticed something fairly interesting. The game is supposedly running on the same engine that fathered Resident Evil 5 – a game that runs ten times nicer and looks five times better. What RE5 didn’t have and Revelations 2 does have, however, is the grain filter. I’ve got a strange feeling this post-processing effect has something to do with the shoddy performance many people keep getting. Seeing how Capcom reacted to the masses wanting to play local coop (now included) on PC, I’d like to ask the developers to make this filter an optional feature so that we can see if it does or does not affect our technical issues with the game.

To conclude, Revelations 2 is kicking even stronger than it did last week, and I can see it keeping its head above the water in the following episodes, too. Stay tuned for Episode 3 review next week!