Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - 8/10
This is actually the first Resi in 5 years that was at least sometimes scary. Some enemies were pure terrifying, shame the scariness factor dropped down with machine guns and other "not really horror-y" weapons. I liked the new sidekick element, finally they are actively taking part in the action and not just running around aimlessly like the previous sidekicks did. Although this "only the sidekick can find items" thing can be pretty annoying. And there is one specific part in the game when you literally have to switch back and forth between characters to progress.
The story was actually very good and interesting, which was nice to see after Resi 6's soap-opera like storyline abomination. I liked how Capcom linked Resident Evil 1 and 6 to this game (Wesker girl, Barry, Claire, mention of several other games' events, etc.). I love Claire, she is my favorite in the series so bringing her back as a protagonist was awesome. Although she looked kinda weird/unusual. Maybe her character design licence expired like Jill's and Capcom had to change it.
The enemy designs looked scary and gross. Playing as the sidekick who can't fight effectively, whenever I got close to these monsters I always ran away in fear. But as I said before, thanks to the more shooter-y type approach (guns that shouldn't be in a horror game...), the times you are legit scared are very rare. The other way to be terrified is to have zero bullets to shoot. So, not really horror-y...Still better than Revelations 1 or Resi 6.
Each episode (there are 4 in total) can be split to two parts. In one, you play with Claire and Moira (sidekick), in the other, you play with Barry and Natalia (sidekick). Because both "tank" characters are the same in terms of gameplay, I'll only talk about the sidekicks. Moira's main item is her flashlight, which can spot items in passive mode and blinds enemies or shows their weak spots to the "tank" character. Her only weapon is a crowbar, which is pretty useless 80% of the time in combat, and she can throw all kinds of bottles too (explosion, decoy, fire, smoke). She is pretty fun to play with, because you are pretty much defenseless against enemies but to use your ability you have to get close to them.
Natalia is a bit different from Moira. Since she is a little girl, she can't hold a crowbar and obviously can't throw bottles except for the smoke one. Her only "weapon" is a brick. This is the funny part, killing a monster takes ~20 bullets but if Natalia throws the brick right, it takes down the enemy in either 1 or 2 hits. Her passive ability is "pointing", which is the same as Moira's flashlight. She can point out hidden items and point out enemies' weaknesses.
She is pretty fun to play with also, pretty much for the same reason. And she can become invisible if she crouches, which is pretty useful.
But the best thing in the game is the co-op mode. It's just so much fun. Finally, you don't have to switch between sidekick and leader, you can play with someone else. It's done really well since you actually rely on each other a lot, so both players are active. While one shoots, the other points out the weakness of enemies to kill them faster and finds items. Also, one specific enemy is invisible for the leading player and the sidekick has to point in it's direction and the leader has to get the spot right.
Overall, this game is still not horror, not even close, but way better than the other newer Resident Evils. Finally, it looks like Capcom is on the right track again. |