Resident Evil: Revelations Review (Xbox 360)

These days ‘going on a cruise’ is not so much about dressing for dinner….

Dropping you into events set between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 this Nintendo 3DS port has you following the exploits of Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield and their recent creation of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, or BSAA. If, like me, you aren’t right up to speed on your Resident Evil canon, not to worry, you can still have a good time and not get lost within the Resident Evil universe.

Also the one thing I remember hating about previous Resident Evil games is fixed. You can move while aiming weapons this time round!

I’m on a boat! The SS Queen Zenobia to be exact. You spend the majority of the game as Chris Redfield or Jessica Sherawat within the confines of this beautiful luxury liner, mysteriously drifting near the destroyed island-like city of Terragrigia. Although you do get to venture elsewhere as other characters in some chapters to flesh out the story and let you know what is going on in the attempt to find Chris and Jessica. It’s a cool plot and does well as a stand alone story but with any Resident Evil knowledge you do have it will obviously be even better. That said, I won’t let too much of the plot line slip, wouldn’t want to ruin it for you now would I.

Now I have already mentioned that you can now move while aiming, which greatly reduces the level of frustration I use to experience when aiming would stick your feet in place. Another new tool to help make life a bit easier is the Genesis Scanner. This fancy piece of kit allows you to scan and analyse creatures for health benefits and also scans the area for any hidden objects that would be of use to you. And with ammo being a scarce commodity once again, it is so important to find every hidden cache. The Genesis Scanner really does help, especially with Resident Evil: Revelations making a return to its exploration and puzzle solving roots. I found myself constantly doing a quick scan of each area and room to ensure I hadn’t missed anything.

As Resident Evil: Revelations is a port of the Nintendo 3DS some of the areas look a bit sparse but the HD remake of the characters and creatures is great. I guess the sparseness of many of the ships corridors adds to the atmosphere in some ways but as someone who has served on many ships, I found it all a bit bland, even for a luxury cruise ship. It doesn’t help that you will see most corridors many times due to the exploration nature of the game. The sound is spot on though, many a creepy noise is to be heard coming from the air ducts or echoing through the empty hallways. Often you find yourself turning to investigate a sound and often it is nothing but every now and again your curiosity will be rewarded with you having the jump on a creature sneaking up on you.

To add a bit of extra meat to its bones, Resident Evil: Revelations also includes a co-op mode called ‘Raid’. Like many titles these days, ‘Raid’ mode has you and a friend beating off wave after wave of creatures. The nice touch is that the rewards are in the form of weapons and mods that can be used in your single player game. It’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t any real co-op mode for the main campaign considering that you are with a NPC 99% of the time. Perfect for a co-op mode.

I have to say, I do like Resident Evil: Revelations but still get the old ‘been there, done that’ feeling. Maybe because I’m not a Resident Evil devotee, and therefore don’t care as much as I should about the story. Take away the story and the game you are left with is ok, but would sink in the ocean of great 3rd person shooters we have these days. If you love your Resident Evil games then this is a no brainer, get it. For others, try the demo. It’s good, but there is better.

Released on 23rd May 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC.