Previews// Resident Evil Revelations

I’ve always been quite a fan of the Resident Evil series, but I’m not a portable gaming kind of guy, so I gave Revelations a miss when it was released for the 3DS. Lucky for me, we have a home console version coming, and I’ve got my hands on a preview copy.

Revelations is set in 2005, between the events of RE4 and 5. It’s based around BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) co-founders Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield as well as their new partners, and former FBC (Federal Bioterrorism Commission) agents Parker Luciani and Jessica Sherawat.

In 2004, Parker and Jessica were two FBC agents sent to the “floating city” of Terragrigia when the bioterrorist organisation Veltro launched an attack on the city using bio-organic weapons (BOWs).

The FBC overloaded the city’s solar power source in order to fry the BOWs and the city alike, leaving it in ruins. This lead to Veltro creating the T-Abyss virus using a similar formula to the deadly T-virus and threatening to deploy it to approximately one fifth of the Earth’s oceans.

We start out in the middle of the Mediterranean controlling Jill Valentine. Accompanied by her partner, Parker Luciani, she's heading to what appears to be an abandoned cruise ship in search of Chris Redfield and Jessica Sherawat at their last known GPS location.

Revelations has attempted to revisit Resident Evil's roots by incorporating much more survival horror than the previous few titles, as well as focusing more on exploration and puzzle solving. So how has Capcom done?

Well, as you can probably imagine, the cruise ship isn’t abandoned at all. In fact, it’s far from abandoned. It’s dark too, very dark. Hell, this is a survival horror game that’s actually quite scary at times, believe it or not. It has a very eerie feel as you’re wading through partially flooded corridors wondering where the next BOW’s going to jump out from.

Now, some people would argue that a lack of ammunition makes an atmosphere much more intense, scary and well, survival-y. Well, it does, but it also pisses me off to the point where I’ll happily take the disc from my console, put it back in the case and place the box on my ‘To gather dust’ pile.

I’ve found myself, during two separate boss battles, running completely out of ammo, rendering me basically helpless. I mean, yeah, I’ve got my little combat knife, but what good is that against a 10 foot BOW with 80% armoured skin? None, and I’ve had to restart from a previous checkpoint a few times.

A new feature to Revelations is the ‘Genesis’ – a tool that can be used to scan the area for any hidden items (ammo, herbs etc) as well as to scan BOWs. Each time you scan a BOW, you receive X%. Once you reach 100%, you’ll receive a herb, which can be used to heal your character.

You may now be thinking ‘Well, it’s clear that you haven’t been using the Genesis often enough, and that’s why you don’t have enough ammo’. Well, you’re wrong. I’m the type of guy who explores every room and every corridor in search of ammo/collectible items, and I still find myself a few bullets short every now and then.

As for the puzzle-solving and exploration aspects of Revelations (they tie-in together, sometimes), Capcom hasn’t done a bad job. We don’t have hundreds of easy puzzles, or a few ridiculously hard ones. There’s a nice balance of brain testing challenges and ‘go for a walk, see if you find what you’re after’ sections.

You start out with a basic pistol but, as you can probably guess, as you progress through the game you find new weapons such as shotguns, rifles and machine guns. You’ll sometimes come across customisable parts for your weapons – you may be able to add a bit more firepower or capacity, or even more critical hit damage.