Game Review: Resident Evil: Revelations 2 – Episode 1 (Xbox One)

The first Resident Evil: Revelations came as a surprise & offered up a more traditional Resident Evil experience with its tight corridors & less emphasis on action. It was a good Resident Evil game & introduced us to Raid mode, a clever inclusion that added longevity.

Revelations 2 is coming at the right time for Capcom…riding the crest of good will from gamers who lapped up the re-release of Resident Evil. Revelations 2 will follow the episodic style of the first game but release weekly over the next 5 weeks. The game is already finished so there is no concern about delays.

Placing Resident Evil: Revelations 2 in the RE timeline is a difficult one, it obviously comes after the events of the original & Resident Evil 5. Starring series favourite Claire Redfield & new-comer, Moira Burton (the daughter of Barry). Claire works for TerraSave, a human rights organisation & Moira has recently joined. The duo meet at a TerraSave party & we discover Moira is estranged from her father.

The party is then attacked by an unknown group of soldiers & everyone taken hostage.

The player is given control of Claire as she wakes up in a dingy prison. Sound familiar, right? She has an electronic wristband on & before she can get her head together the door opens.

The prison is a filthy, dilapidated place with no signs of life until a scream is heard. Following the sounds Moira is found, unhurt but with a wristband as well. Her cell door mysteriously opens as well & the player now has control of both characters.

Pressing RB switches between the 2 with Claire handling the guns & Moira being on ‘light duty’ & wielding a hefty crowbar. It’s not long before the pair find out that they are not alone in the prison as they come under attack from the new enemy types.

I’m not sure how I feel about these enemies (The Afflicted)…they look cool & have enough humanity about them to draw a comparable line to the Gando’s of old. The problem is that some of their attacks are cheap & the bigger enemy types are bullet sponges. It is easy to get over-whelmed at times but the dodge function can help get you out of a sticky situation.

The melee attack is great for saving ammo (it is quite sparse) & the combination of Moira using the flashlight to blind your enemies followed by a Claire melee attack works great. For the most part the AI is competent but when trying to move away from a group of enemies it is a lesson in frustration.

The AI Just doesn’t move fast enough & constantly stops to attack even if you’re trying to put distance between yourself & the enemies. Switching doesn’t help as the AI controlled character will just run back to start attacking. It seems as if it is better to allow the AI to control Claire as it will use the weapons & her melee compared to its lack of action when in control of Moira.

The aim of Claire & Moira’s part of the campaign is to escape the prison. Once outside the objective switches to reaching a radio tower & sending an SOS message. It is this message playing that brings Barry to the island in search of his daughter.

The 2nd half of Episode 1 puts you in the comfortable shoes of Barry Burton who has come to the prison island tooled up. Instantly he meets up with a young girl with a serious bit of RE2 Sherry Birkin about her. She also has a wristband & insists on going with Barry. Her name is Natalia & she has a power that means she can spot enemies through walls & warn Barry of the dangers.

The combination of Natalia & Barry is much more playable & fun compared to Claire & Moira & the duo really complement each other. It won’t take long before you feel a certain affinity to keeping her safe but there is clearly something more to her.

Their journey will see them re-tracing some of the areas seen by Claire & Moira as well as a trek through a really atmospheric forest at night. New & much better looking enemies are a threat & it’s important to always have eyes in the back of your head.

Natalia’s power is more useful than you might initially think as it allows Barry to sneak & get stealth kills on many enemies saving much needed ammo as well as seeing if they are just waiting behind the corner to attack.

The episode signs off with a nice *ahem* revelation that sets up the next in the series well. It lasts about 2 hours long which might not seem like lots but alongside Raid Mode is more than enough value for money (£4.79 per episode or £19.99 for the whole package).

Speaking of Raid Mode…

Raid Mode puts you in the shoes of one of the characters from Episode 1 & asks that you complete an objective in a short level (taken from the game but only Episode 1 so far as well as areas from other Resident Evil games). Players can earn medals for completing extra objectives (no herbs, all enemies killed etc.) & level up. They can also earn weapons & customisation tools to make later levels easier.

Raid Mode is good, it is fun & has dropped the heavy reliance on co-op that the original had. Playing in areas meant for Resident Evil 6 left a bad taste in my mouth…alongside the more modern controls it felt like I was momentarily playing that game instead!

It’s a strong start for Revelations 2 with an even stronger end. Of the 2 I preferred playing as Barry & Natalia but there is plenty to enjoy with Claire & Moira. This has the potential, once all the episodes are released, to be one of the better Resident Evil games!