The Revelations games offer side stories in the Resident Evil universe, often featuring the main cast going off on this or that adventure that apparently took place between mainline games. While generally shockingly inconsequential to the overarching timeline, there are at least some ties between the two games, though this one focuses on Barry and Claire, rather than Jill and Chris. There are some interesting differences with this one, but I feel like, similar to Revelations, this sequel offered a glimpse of the series' redemption arc following a string of rough years. Revelations 2 has its quirks and issues, but it's ultimately a fairly fun title that fixes many of the issues with games proximate to it in the series' release order.
First of all, I must note the game's eccentricities. Most notably, this game came out in that era where every game felt the need to be a sequential release with episodes releasing periodically. While it's never been a structure I was a huge fan of, I feel like as random as it might seem, this game pulls it off better than most. This is because instead of releasing an episode while the next is being put together, they finished the game and simply timed the episode release for one every week. This allowed for the "I have a week to ponder what will happen next" effect of a season of a television show, while not staggering releases months apart to the point you can't recall what happened. I still think it's a little funky but if you're going to do this, I think that's the way to go. Secondly, this is another game that is fully partner-based, even more than previous partner RE games with each partner having specialized skills much more unique than simply "this character can fit in small places." One of the characters is almost completely non-combat and Claire's partner Moira can't use guns but will whack things with a crowbar. I much prefer solitary RE games, but this is a pretty neat way to implement the partner system if we have to. The only thing that's odd is despite the obvious co-op potential, this game only has couch co-op without online lobbies, which is bizarre for 2015 when the opposite was becoming more common.
The story of the game is much easier to follow than in Revelations, despite its surprising connection to mildly obscure RE lore (from the RE5: Lost in Nightmares DLC). But the premise is simple: Claire has been trapped on a prison island (again) with her fellow Terrasave operative, Moira (Barry Burton's daughter). Barry goes to try and find Moira and soon encounters a little girl with some sort of latent powers named Natalia. The story alternates each of 5 episodes with a section as Claire and Moira then the same area as Barry and Natalia, clearly at some point in the future. I won't get into too much of the specifics, but it's a flash forward and back story that gradually reveals why they were taken to the island and the mastermind behind this plan. A lot of the premise ultimately does get into more of the supernatural-esque stuff that in general I'd prefer Resident Evil avoid, but shot for shot, it's a decent character-driven story with solid pacing through the effective back and forth narrative.
That said, while I think the story overall is functional for what it's going for, the writing on a more micro-level is going to be hit-or-miss for some people. For one thing, there's a ton of random Easter eggs and references to prior games shoehorned in. They do this a lot in the series, especially for trophy names, but I feel like they were trying to reference every joke possible, especially to older games like RE1 (1996) or Code: Veronica (even when it requires Claire to say something kind of out of character just for the reference). But further, the line-by-line dialogue is often quite goofy and really goes in with the cheesy zingers and one-liners the series is often poked fun at for. Moira is also a shameless potty mouth which I find amusing (if silly), but could be grating for some people. While I don't mind it too much, it does detract some from the darker tone a lot of the game's atmosphere is capable of.
Gameplay-wise, it's pretty good. It's clear the game takes from the recent-ish success of The Last of Us as the combat feels much more similar to that game than it does prior RE games. But it works for the hostile environment of the ruined island setting so full of monsters. The puzzles are okay, if a little weak, but the exploration is pretty strong. Though there are no hub areas given each episode goes somewhere new, the knowledge and experience with an area gained in Claire's side of the episode can be helpful and informative for Barry's side. In fact, there's even a mini-zapping system where actions in Claire's part of the scenario affect things in Barry's. This also allows for more environmental storytelling as Barry can see things in the area that were caused by Claire as well as things that weren't, implying something further has happened in the past six months.
The atmosphere of this game is generally pretty strong. It feels still just a touch action-y and overly fast-paced with some really fast running and melee combat capability, but as with its predecessor, the attempt to capture the classic atmosphere of the early series is evident throughout. The areas are dim and creepy and the action is generally more confined to uncomfortable close encounters than it is large arena brawls. While I don't feel this was the point they quite nailed it, Revelations 2 to me really signals when the series started picking back up for the first time in years.
So for the most part, I like the game and would recommend it, but not without some reservations. My major complaints with the game are that sometimes the segments feel like they go on a little longer than they need to, especially near the end. I had a lot of positive things to say above and while that's all true, there are parts of the game that dragged and left me a little bored. I in theory really like the game, but when I revisit it, I find myself wanting to get some parts over with much more quickly than they go. I wouldn't overstate this reservation, especially as it's much more exciting on a first playthrough, but it's a big reason this is a 4-star game for me when it only barely misses the mark on some important levels. Accordingly, I wouldn't say this one is only for die-hard series fans, but it isn't super high on my recommended list for people wanting to try Resident Evil out.
My other Resident Evil reviews:
