One of the things I dislike when writing about games, is writing about something that is mediocre, subpar, or anything negative really. It’s also hard to go into a game without some sort of expectation. Several games get my attention because they are part of a brand I love, or in a genre I like. Some games that are not on my radar I play anyways because you just never know if it will be something you like or not. Then there’s Resident Evil: Revelations 2, which is part of a franchise I used to love but like many people, have been disappointed with over the last few entries.
A few weeks back, I reviewed the first chapter to Resident Evil: Revelations 2, which you can read here. Revelations 2 won me back into the series with Episode 1, and continued to do so in the following episodes, with Episode 3 being my absolute favorite. I don’t like doing plot-centric reviews, so I opted out of reviewing every episode, but I did want to briefly bring this small gem back into the spotlight here at Critically Sane, as I have a feeling it will sit in my top ten games of 2015 list.
Like every episodic game, the first episode is there to get the story going and the players’ feet wet. In the case of Rev 2, it showed the game had solid gameplay mechanics, there was an interesting story starting to take shape that ended with a cliffhanger, and most importantly, no quick-time events. Episode 2 built on this, though only slightly.
In Episode 2, a few new enemies were introduced, the story obviously progressed, and the game continued to blend action and exploring. The story certainly picked up, but the second episode was really only mildly better than it’s predecessor. The best part about Episode 2 was not having to wait months to play it. I was playing this game episodically, so I would play an episode a week. To compare it to the Telltale games, I usually wait until every episode is out before I play because of the time passage between releases, but this distribution choice worked beautifully. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 was my weekend game. I would play the first half of the episode on Saturday, which took about 45 minutes to an hour, and then finish up on Sunday, with some raid mode game time in between. Other developers, please take note of this. I paid more by buying this one episode at a time (I opted out of the season pass because I wasn’t onboard until I played the first episode), but could care less. It was worth it.
Episode 3 was the peak, in my opinion. The episode focused much more on puzzles, but they were not hard by any means. They were just enough to make you think for a moment. Some moments weren’t actual puzzles, but still made me smile. I wish I could elaborate, but I’m very much against spoilers, so I apologize that I am not sharing more than that. By this episode though, raid mode had begun to be a moot point. I was still lightly playing content from the first two episodes so I could unlock the new stuff. However, when they introduced the invisible enemies into raid mode, I began to lose interest anyhow. Well, until they patch in co-op, because then I imagine it being a lot more fun. Everything is more fun with friends, right? (Note: Co-op was patched in after writing this, but I have not circled back to it yet.)
I am less inclined to speak highly of the finale, however. The first half was dissatisfying, and too dark in my opinion. I felt cheated. The last half was long, and dragged on too long. And the actual end scene was disappointing on top of that. After such a great experience with the previous episode, it was just a little disheartening.
That being said, this last weekend I was craving more. Even at it’s worst, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is one of the best Resident Evil games to come out in a long time. If Capcom learned from this one and carries over the good aspects into the next main Resident Evil game (assuming there is one), I may be on board to give it a try.
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