Resident Evil Revelations 2 Review – Learning And Improving

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Back To Its Roots

I have been a fan of Resident Evil for a very long time. From the sense of desperation in its hardcore survival gameplay aspects to a story that has always been simple, Resident Evil has been right up my alley; however, with recent entries such as Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, the series has lost its values as a survival horror game, instead giving in for more action oriented gameplay. Resident Evil Revelations was initially launched on the 3DS and later ported to other consoles due to the positive feedback given by the community. With the reputation of “bringing Resident Evil back to its roots,” Capcom released Resident Evil Revelations 2 a couple of years later.

Does Resident Evil Revelations 2 stand up to the better games in the series, or is it an unworthy sequel?

Family and Foes

Resident Evil has always been great at having simple yet meaningful stories, but Resident Evil Revelations 2 seems to make it a little more complex. The game starts off discussing Claire, a character who works for a company called Terrasave, whose job is to protect the world against biochemical viruses. Without many spoilers, something happens and you are taken to an island where you and your friend Moira will attempt to find the reason behind the existence of a new dangerous virus.

This sounds like a typical Resident Evil story that I would like, but the story doesn’t end there; Moira is set up to be a character who completely hates her father Barry, but Barry quickly comes back into the mix when he shows up at the island trying to look for Moira and prove to her that he can be a better father. It was cliche at times, but these family issues really made the story more meaningful and it gave me reason to keep going and learn how these characters grew not only as individuals, but also as friends and family.

The more recent action-packed Resident Evil games weren’t really to my liking and I am glad to say that Resident Evil Revelations 2 fixes that. The game is not generous at all about the amount of ammo it gives you, and enemies can vary in size and difficulty. This difficulty can quickly become somewhat overwhelming and that is what I have always liked about the series — the difficult survival like nature of it. I have to say, I went in expecting the game to function like an average recent Resident Evil, and that quickly had me dying many times before I readapted to the survival horror roots of the game. This felt a lot closer to Resident Evil 4 than Resident Evil 6 with its eerie environments and low ammo count.

Old Game, New Tricks

If you have played this game before, there is no reason other than the included DLC for you to jump back in, unfortunately. The addition of motion controls is advertised throughout the entire experience, but it was sadly one of my least favorite features of this game. I forced myself to play through the entire first half of the game using motion controls, and I got to say, while it isn’t the end of the world, it is nowhere near the optimal way to play this game. Playing in handheld mode was actually one of my favorite ways to play the game, yet I noticed that the game could look quite fuzzy at times, ruining the experience at times.

Other than these two issues, the port is really well done, running smoothly and loading at an acceptable speed, but I can’t help but wish that motion controls had been improved to not feel as sensitive as it did.

There’s also an 8-bit Ghosts n’ Ghouls-like mini game where you play as Barry. Completing these fun levels will give you more BP in the Raid mode, where you fight hordes of zombies and monsters with friends and strangers online.

System reviewed on: Nintendo Switch.

Disclaimer: A review code for Resident Evil Revelations 2 was provided by Capcom for this review.