By Edward Mah
Well-made overall, with its biggest downfall being the limiting atmosphere factor of the Nintendo DS
There’s been a flood of zombie media lately, such as Walking Dead, World War Z, and Dead Rising, that have spawned and devoured pop culture. Resident Evil is more of an alpha zombie that’s infected the hordes to come. As the recent title Resident Evil: Revelations shows, being first can have its advantages.
Revelations picks up just before the beginning of the last full entry with fan favorite Jill and newcomer Parker at the helm. The duo finds themselves on an abandoned cruise searching for answers about Terragrigia, a futuristic city decimated by a bio-weapon attack. Considering the series is unnecessarily convoluted, Revelations is a step back in the right direction with a streamlined plot and a simpler, self-contained story that welcomes newcomers to the franchise.
Campaign sections are broken into chapters reminiscent of a TV show, using flashbacks to cutscenes in the previous chapter. Gameplay focuses on tight corridor shooting and overwhelming players with careful enemy placement. Capcom has stuck to its tried and true formula, using low ammo counts and occasional boss battles to keep gamers on the edge of their seat.
The visuals of Revelations are simply stunning with a fantastic attention to detail on display. The lighting is brilliant, setting the eerie mood each time players take a trip into an abandoned hallway. Capcom has again forgone zombies as enemies but the hideous creatures players will encounter are plenty scary as they are covered in oozing blood and spikes.
This is extremely unusual but the biggest problem Resident: Evil Revelations suffers from is its platform. The 3DS is a great machine and Revelations is a very good game.
The plaguing issue that keeps arising is that survival horror games thrive on creating atmosphere, something that’s impossible to maintain if the user is sitting on a bus or in a coffee shop. It doesn’t make the game bad, just more difficult to enjoy.
Resident Evil Revelations isn’t for everyone but gamers that can find a quiet space to frighten themselves will enjoy the wet and wild ride.
