After the spin-off Resident Evil Revelations franchise made its debut on 3DS, it was ported to home consoles, and with its upcoming sequel, Capcom is tailoring the game specifically for the big-screen experience. Considering the 3DS version used the touch screen to its advantage for several of the original game’s puzzles, what changes this time now that the focus has changed?
What is it?: Capcom’s second entry in the Revelations series takes place between Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. The game stars Claire Redfield, heroine of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica, and Moira Burton, daughter of the first Resident Evil’s Barry Burton. The portion we played starts off with both Claire and Moira waking up and finding themselves in a run-down jail. Following a fairly linear path, you try to make your way out of the jail by figuring out some simple puzzles and defeating a taste of the game’s new enemies.
While there weren’t many puzzles present, it showcased one of the game’s new features: the ability to switch characters. While Claire is a run-and-gun hardened zombie apocalypse survivor, Moira is far from that. Using a flashlight, she can point out things that Claire might’ve missed and point out unreachable items. She’s not defenseless, as she acquires a crowbar that can be used for both defense and creating new paths by removing nailed pieces of lumber away from doors.
Why we’re excited: Now that the focus isn’t solely on a handheld, Capcom can now focus on using the environment more effectively in puzzles, as well as combat. It was also confirmed that both Claire and Moira are going to be the sole protagonists of the game, so having a story focus solely on their adventure will definitely be a treat to players not looking to focus on different and multiple characters.
The “zombies” (for lack of a better word) are also way more aggressive in this game. They run at you at full force, they even jump at you with the intent of pinning you down and making sure you don’t recover. Also, healing with green herbs is no longer instantaneous and require you to hold down a button for a short amount of time to activate. Gone are the days where you accidentally hit the wrong button and waste it at full health.
What we’re wondering: This will be the first Resident Evil to be done in episodes. Will this affect the quality of the story and be able to portray the adventure in the limited amount of time that each episode is given? Also, now that the character-switching mechanic is a feature of this game, will it be expanded beyond the scope we’ve seen? Will modern console features (like the PS4’s touch pad and controller glow) be used in interesting ways?
The episodic release of Resident Evil Revelations 2 will begin early next year.
