Now Playing - Resident Evil: Revelations

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale. Having found some time on hand recently, I decided to try out a new game after my relative departure from single-player games for roughly half a year. With a sudden craving for guns and zombies, the game I naturally chose was the 2013 HD remaster of, Resident Evil: Revelations. 

Despite not being a numbered release, such as Resident Evil 4, 5 or 6, Revelations is largely considered to be a mainline release of the Resident Evil series of games. First released on the Nintendo 3DS, Revelations was also the first mainline Resident Evil game to initially be released on handhelds back in 2012. It was then followed up with the 2013 HD Version which was made available for PC and all major consoles. The version we will be taking a look at today is the PC version.

Unlike Resident Evil 5 and 6, Revelations has a decidedly different pace and tone preferring to focus on more on the survival horror aspect of the series' origin. This is opposed to the more action-oriented pace that the main numbered games were going with at the time. Of course, we now know which was the more well received route among the two styles hence, Revelations's success and the tone of the current numbered Resident Evil games. 

The emphasis on survival horror elements in Revelations is immediately apparent with the usual combination of a creepy atmosphere and resource management. To provide the backdrop of said creepy atmosphere, the team at Capcom has chosen a Victorian-inspired cruise ship which provides no shortage of tight corridors, poorly lit pantries and old-world charm while, still maintaining modern amenities. Meanwhile, resource management, a key gameplay feature of older Resident Evil titles, presents itself in the form of scarce ammunition, healing items and weapon upgrades. 

All of this is thrown into the mix together with Resident Evil's signature puzzle solving elements. While the puzzles may be elementary in nature, the game provides little guidance on solving them. Instead, player's will have to rely on their powers of observation to get things right any many a times, these puzzles are on a timer. 

Behind every locked door leads the way to either the next part of the game or a hidden cache. The latter of which does require some back tracking as certain keys are only unlocked later into the game. To make matters worse, newer tougher enemies will spawn in previously cleared areas which makes the errand of back tracking for locked doors a decision players have to balance versus their current fighting strength. For the most part though, the rewards are often worth the extra effort. 

Story-wise, the setting of Revelations takes place between Resident Evil 4 and 5 and centers around Jill Valentine and the early days of the BSAA. Earlier I mentioned the cruise ship setting but, that is not the only setting or character available for play. Other exotic locations and characters, namely Chris Redfield, are also available to play albeit to a lesser degree compared to Jill. The game makes up for it in the fan-favorite Raid Mode (Revelation's version of Mercenaries) by allowing other characters to be used. 

Being both a Resident Evil and Japanese game, Revelations is no stranger to some humor peppered throughout the game. One such example, is a "treasure" discovered in between the cleavage of a buxom mannequin. Treasures such as these are discovered using Revelation's environment scanning system known as Genesis. Back in 2012, environmental scanning was still a fairly popular gameplay mechanic which has since toned down a little in more recent game releases.  

Scanning areas around the environment would uncover precious resources such as ammunition, weapon upgrades and hidden secrets. While it might sound like a chore, scanning is unfortunately an important requisite to making the game much more manageable. Even on Normal difficulty, ammunition shortage is a commonplace problem especially with Revelation's clunky melee system. Fortunately, the act of using the Genesis scanner is not too difficult and becomes second nature after a while.

Other departures from the numbered Resident Evil games include the use of an episodic system, another system which proved to be fairly popular back in its release. In total, there are 12 episodes to play with each one taking anywhere between 30-60 minutes to complete. Factors such as the amount of time spent exploring or the number of times dying contribute to the increased length of each episode. Ordinarily, each episode can be cleared in half an hour. In total, it took me 9 hours to complete the single-player campaign which is not too shabby. On harder difficulties, I would have certainly needed more time.

Speaking of harder difficulties, Revelations retains the New Game Plus system that is present in previous Resident Evil titles. New Game Plus allows players to replay the campaign with all of their previous upgrades and weapons while, trying out different costumes. It is a staple of the series and one that I am tempted to try it out granted if time is kind.

Completing the main campaign is only the tip of the iceberg though as the greater part of Revelations' player base resides in the Raid Mode. Raid Mode is Revelations' take on the classic Mercenaries timed arena that is present on most every modern Resident Evil title. Aside from differing characters and weapon load-outs to choose from, Raid Mode adds an RPG element by adding character levels while tossing in two player co-operative options. Raid Mode can also be played as a single player mode, if you choose. 

As of writing, I have yet the chance to play Raid Mode mainly due to the fact that I do not have a co-op partner and the fact that I do not want to get sucked into its competitive gameplay mode. Given the time, I would certainly love to give it a shot and, perhaps, even share my impressions then. 

Being a HD version of the original 3DS release, Revelations HD sees a big boost in terms of graphical fidelity while being able to leverage the more powerful hardware of PC and consoles. On PC, this means a nice smooth 60 frames per second experience with fairly good hardware optimization. Even on my modest system, Revelations ran without a hiccup with all settings cranked up to the highest. This would be expected as the game was originally meant for the 3DS and is certainly good news for anybody planning to play the game on an older system.

Keyboard and mouse controls are also very intuitive and fluid which makes aiming with the mouse a pleasant experience. Load times are very fast going from the menu to in-game. Large portions of the map are loaded at a time with clever use of doors and elevators to hide loading times. There is the occasional stutter when transitioning into a new large area of the map but, not too much to detract from your gameplay experience. From a systems point of view, the only complaint I have are for the HUD borders which cannot be adjusted and are too far away from the corners of the screen. 

Revelations on PC (or any other console for that matter) is a very big step up graphically when compared to the initial release. Not just in terms of the game's internal resolution for textures but, the overall textures themselves have been overhauled quite drastically. Ambitious points of the games are certainly highlighted in the grand environment designs, such as the one shown above, and meticulous rework to the characters models. 

Character models are by far the biggest upgrade in terms of graphics when comparing the original 3DS version and HD version. While I do not have the actual figures, they certainly rival the polygon count of the character models in Resident Evil 5 and 6.

Environments, while not the most detailed, do also have make clever use of pre-rendered lighting to give the game an ominous atmosphere. There is no real time lighting or volumetric fog but, the pre-rendered solutions certainly look the part in my opinion. 

That is not to say that the game does not falter at points though as the game's upgrade becomes painfully obvious when you move to more open areas. Areas such as the outside of the cruise ship reveals bland and low detailed textures of the cruise ship's deck. Everything is gray and the un-textured surfaces look like something out of the PS2 era. 

It would be unrealistic to expect that concessions were not made and considering the time and budget allocated, I still think the team did a very good job. For the rare few parts which seemed to take a (graphically) ugly turn, the majority of my experience with Revelations was a exceedingly good one. 

Graphics is one thing but, ambience is something completely different and just like Dark Souls, I have always held the firm belief that Japanese game studios have often been able to make up in ambience where they lack in graphical fidelity. While a graphically superior game may look better, another similar game with superior ambience would ultimately feel better because you end up being more immersed in the experience as your brain naturally cancels out the minor imperfections. At least, that is what I would like to think.

With a great high frame rate experience, fluid mouse and keyboard controls, and good graphical presentation, Resident Evil: Revelations is certainly worthy of any PC gamer's time especially if you are a fan of the series. But if you would like to play it on a console, that too is certainly an open option with the game being readily available on both current and previous generation consoles.

Of course, for those would like to experience the game as it was originally made, the 3DS version exists as well with its unique two screen approach to gameplay. At the end of the day, Revelations is a great game regardless of the platform it is played on and, in my opinion, a core installment that every Resident Evil fan should play. 

Oh, and if you were wondering. Yes, Revelations still has those pretty CG cutscenes we have all come to known and love from the Resident Evil series. With this game done and in the bag, perhaps it is time for me to move on to another. The only question is, what shall I play next? Whatever it will be, if it is interesting enough, you would certainly be sure to hear from me here on Tiro Finale. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!