I’ve only
ever played two Resident Evil games. The first two were RE2 port for the N64,
the remake of the original for the Gamecube. So when I picked up Resident Evil revelations for the
3DS on sale a few weeks ago the changes to the series came as a bit of a shock
to the system. It wasn’t a bad shock,
but I’m not sure the changes were all for the best either.
Resident Evil Revelations starts out pretty promising. Jill Valentine and her partner,
What’s-his-name board a dilapidated cruise ship in the Mediterranean looking
for Chris Redfield and his partner, What’s-her-name. Unsurprisingly this does
not go well and the two end up strained on a boat filled with B.O.W.s, which
are like zombies only not as scary or disconcerting.
Zombies have
become really overdone in recent years but that’s for a good reason. The zombie
encapsulates both our fear of dying and our fear of the dead. As much as we
humans strive to overcome death, part of us is repulsed by the overturning of
the natural order. We are both worried and comforted by the idea that the dead
cannot cross back over to the living. The idea that a body might do just this
disgusts and terrifies us. That’s why a generic humanoid monster just doesn’t
have the psychological impact of a zombie, even if it’s a person “transformed”
by a virus. Doing away with work-a-day
zombies was a huge mistake.
The plot of
Revelations is convoluted, not always in a bad way but not always in a good way
either. Without spoiling the details there are a lot of government agencies,
conspiracies and twists, some of which are predictable. Even more annoying is
the games constant quote od Dante’s Divine Comedy in an attempt to appear
deep. Dante was deep but RE Revelations
is not, and no amount of gratuitous quoting of an old classic will change that.
Another flaw is the constant flashbacks which can be disorienting at first. One
minute you’re on the cruise from hell and the next you’re on a beach surveying
corpses.
The concerns
about writing aside, the game is well designed. The camera is always behind
you, except when you aim, then the view switches to first person. This is great
for the horror/survival angle. Since you can’t see behind you the player most
constantly look around to keep watch for threats or useful items. Unlike in the
classical titles you can move while you shoot. This is more realistic, though
it somehow hurts the survival aspect, as you don’t have to be as careful
choosing your fights. Another feature is the map on the 3DS’ bottom screen,
while not very realistic helps keep you from getting lost in the huge cruise
ship, which would be quite annoying.
One very
annoying feature which probably seemed cleaver in development is the Genesis: a
portable scanner you carry with your through most of the game. The scanner lets
you find hidden items and create anti-viruses (green herbs) by scanning
monsters. Scanning everything becomes tedious, especially when you’re trying to
survive. Good game design would simply hide things in concealed but intuitive
places.
RE
Revelations looks good on the 3DS, with decent 3D effects. The game has aged
pretty well over the last half-decade. Unfortunately even on my New 3DS, the game
lags when loading a new map. Thankfully this does not affect combat, but it
seems the game is a bit more than the system can handle .
If it sounds
like I hate Revelations I don’t. It was a fun game which I will probably replay
at some point. But there were all these little things about it that bugged me.
Still, it’s not a bad game by any stretch and I would encourage people to play
it, though it lacks the iconic status of earlier entries in the series.
7.5 out of 10
-Gedaemon
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