Resident Evil Revelations 2

[DisturbedSwan]

Put a fair bit of time into this over the past couple days, think I'm around 5-6 hours in, about halfway through Episode 3.

 

First thing I noticed was the step up in visuals over Rev 1, you can definitely tell this is a newer cross-gen title built for consoles with the lighting, particle effects, enemy designs and a lot of the texture quality being a huge step up from the first game, facial animations are markedly improved as well.

 

The whole game though is vastly different. Rev 1 felt very contained to this one ship, very stuffy and claustrophobic - in a good way, it gave the ship an identity of its own - you do explore other locales sure, but the meat of the game is what happens on that ship with Jill and Chris. 

 

This though, feels totally different. You wake up with Claire in this Prison area, find Moira, you've both got these bracelets attached and there's someone listening/watching your every move. It's all very Saw and the look of it is very industrial, there's no other way to put it, it's very grey and rather bland.

 

You do make it out of the Prison after the first Episode and the game picks up after this, but the environs still don't really wow me, everything has a generic kind of look about it that will feel familiar to those that have played RE4/RE5. I definitely appreciate the variation though, but wish the variation wasn't Prison to factory, one grey area after another. You seem to be stuck on this island in the middle of the Ocean, got serious Code Veronica flashbacks playing as Claire and all, but the island just doesn't have as much character as the ship from Rev 1 as of yet.

 

I do like how they've tightened and mixed up the combat though. Being able to switch characters on the fly is great and leads to some cool puzzles along the way, I reckon playing with another human would be fantastic but the AI has done a competent enough job so far. The shooting feels less floaty and the bullet impact on enemies feels far more visceral and satisfying. The inventory management feels much sleeker and easier to pull off too, combining items into various bits and pieces and passing items between the two characters is much improved.

 

So overall, I'm enjoying it, but can't help but feel it lacks a bit of character compared to Rev 1, it's just not that memorable so far, but hopefully it improves. I will say I'm liking the dual plot-lines and time periods, definitely keeps things feeling fresh, just wish you didn't have to repeat a locale with Barry after already going through it with Claire.

 

A few pics:

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

44 minutes ago, Nag said:

Just to let you know, there's a "good" ending and a "bad" one... If you get the bad you miss a chunk of the game, it all revolves around one choice.

 

I'll let you know what it is if you don't mind one small spoiler...

 

Ah ok ta, yeah go for it.

[DisturbedSwan]

Ah ok, cheers for the heads up, I'll definitely be doing that!

[DisturbedSwan]

Played another 3 hours today, 8/9 total.

 

I'm now half-way through Barry's Chapter in Episode 3. 

 

I haven't really had such a good time with it today, the first 5-6 hours I was enjoying it enough but never overly enthused with it but today is the first time I've really found it a slog to get through, I just want it to end now.

 

The remainder of Claire's chapter I had been enjoying, I liked the puzzles with the traps - it isn't original, and very Saw, but I thought they were cool nonetheless. But the big road block for me was the Boss fight at the end of it. 

 

It was one of the most tedious boss fights I've ever encountered. The first stage is laughably easy - just wait behind some explosive gas cylinders and wait for the monster to go up in flames and his weak spot to become explodes, classic Resi really. But the 2nd phase after that I didn't have a clue, I emptied every bullet I had in to him, then ran around for what seemed like eternity just hoping the odd knife attack on his weak spot would eventually do the trick, but of course it didn't. 

 

Eventually it clicked that I have to use Moira's torch to burn him up and expose his weak point when all the explosive barrels have run out. So I did this over and over again, kept shooting the weak spot and then it seemed like he wouldn't burn up and expose it anymore? What the actual fuck. I didn't know if it was a glitch or what, must've wasted another amount of time dodging his attacks with Moira endlessly before I realised that nothing was gonna happen and Claire got killed. 

 

So on about my 10th try, I paused it on this 3rd phase where he doesn't expose his weak spot and looked at YT to see what other people did. Every video I watched seemed to have no issue having him expose his weakpoint on this 3rd phase so I assumed it was a glitch, I was bummed out but thought fuck it, I might as well try one last time before putting the difficulty down to casual - hoping that would kick the game into gear. But on this last try, I had quite a few bullets remaining in my weapons fortunately, I unloaded everything I had into him and he eventually exposed his weakpoint, and I put him down - immediately switched to Moira to make sure I got the good ending - then did so again when I realised it's actually the bit after you need to switch in.

 

But yeah, that boss fight. I mean the boss itself was cool, I liked the designed as he looked a hell of a lot like a certain incredibly famous Resi boss from the past. But it just went on forever, I must've been at it for about an hour, it was easy as fuck as well it's just the game wouldn't let me annihilate him. Pleased I persevered and got through it eventually, but boy did it make me wanna rage quit and not bother with the rest.

 

I did plough on though, got about halfway through Barry's Chapter in Ep. 3 and was enjoying it a bit more, will it up from there tomorrow.