Revelations is a brief, budget take on the Resident Evil series. I played the Steam version on Normal mode. The port was great, it ran well and I experienced zero technical difficulties.
The game very much feels like a 3DS game. The graphics are fine, though by 3DS standards they are phenomenal, likely among the best on the system. The game is comprised of cramped corridors and small rooms, with loading rooms between sections. You never see a loading screen, but you'll be trapped in these rooms until everything loads in. The tight areas are a result of the hardware limitations, but they do well to contribute to the sense of horror. At the time of its release Revelations was seen as a return to the Survival Horror genre after experimenting with action. I think this is very much still an action game, but the scares and inventory management do seem to be emphasized more than in RE4 and RE5. The character models still look quite nice by today's standards, but the animations, particularly in cutscenes, are lacking. The environments are low poly but make good use of shaders to simulate depth. The cruise ship is a very cool setting for this series, as evidenced by it being attempted multiple times including Gaiden and Dead Aim. The atmosphere on the ship is pretty great, and the music is nice.
The controls feel like an evolved version of RE5. You can now move while aiming for the first time in the mainline series. Gone is the run button, replaced by analog movement on the stick. Slightly tilting results in a walk, while pressing forward all the way results in a jog. The top speed feels slower than the equivalent running speed in RE5, though this is understandable given the technical limitations. There are no on-foot stealth sections or perilous platforming challenges, so you will be moving at full speed most of the time. The only time the movement speed is really bothersome is when you are backtracking for secret items. There is a new dodge move that doesn't work particularly well. What is it with RE games starring Jill and poorly implemented dodge moves? Otherwise, the controls feel quite similar to RE5. The aiming is markedly worse than the prior game, likely due to the console hardware lacking a right stick without the Circle Pad Pro attachment. The aiming feels almost digital, rather than analog, and it can be imprecise lining up headshots with a controller. It wasn't a huge deal overall and didn't significantly affect my playthrough, but from a game feel perspective it was a bit lacking. Another thing inherited from RE5 was constantly having an AI partner. Thankfully, unlike Sheva, these partners do not share ammo or healing items, do not get in your way, and I didn't have any partners die the entire playthrough. I don't know if they actually even can die.
New to Revelations is the Genesis scanner. This scanner transitions you to a first person view, where you can scan enemies to get healing items, as well as find hidden items in the environments. The scanner is a neat way to prioritize inventory management. Ammo is scarce if you don't regularly use the it. I enjoyed scanning every room in the game for hidden items and collectibles, though I think this would negatively affect replay value. I don't particularly want to re-scan everything.
Another new game mechanic is the ability to swim. There are a few swimming sections interspersed throughout. These sections aren't very difficult. There are plenty of air holes around to refill your air gauge. While there are enemies underwater, your health meter and air gauge seem to be one in the same. You only take air damage underwater, and when you resurface you seem to refill back to full, like in Super Mario 64. I was unable to experiment and see if taking damage from enemies out of water would be healed by diving and resurfacing, but the scenarios in which this would be useful in the game are very limited, anyway. Enemies underwater can be dispatched via QTE or with a special grenade type that can be used underwater. The swimming sections do a good job at changing up the pacing, and are never too long. There is one baffling swimming section right before the final boss that contains a sort of stealth section with an instant kill. This was a very strange place to put this section. It was not a terribly difficult section, though it was frustrating and cost me a few lives. I did not die much in the game otherwise.
The game is much less linear than RE5, which I liked. You are rewarded for carefully scouring each area, and returning to past areas with new keys. The weapon customization part system worked well enough, and resulted in collectibles worth finding. Finding a strong part tucked away was always a joy. The game's story will have you returning to past sections whether you want to or not, but new enemies and events always kept things feeling fresh.
I liked the new enemies featured in this game, the Ooze. Though their grey colour scheme is a tad generic, they looked suitably creepy and were mostly fun to fight. Enemies can be stunned and followed up on with melee like in RE4 and RE5, and have weak points that can result in instant kills if your guns are properly powered up. The boss battles were quite good overall, though I found the final boss to be unfun to fight, as it teleports around and forces you to engage with the crappy dodge mechanic. There is one strong "stalker" type enemy who keeps popping up and is fun to fight each time, as they are usually encountered when you are under a strict time limit. Defeating them will offer new and exclusive gun parts, but defeating them within the time limit can be a challenge.
The plot is bonkers. The quantity of nonsensical plot twists far surpasses typical RE titles, and starts getting into Kojima territory. It's a fun story to turn your brain off to and enjoy the ride. I liked most of the newly introduced characters, particularly Parker, Raymond, and Jessica. Parker and Raymond start as pretty stock tropes but end up having some depth to them as the game goes along. Jessica in particular is a really interesting character, as she is essentially the opposite of Jill in nearly every way. She is scantily clad, nonserious, and mains the Sniper Rifle. She constantly hits on Chris, who always stonewalls her, which I found absolutely hilarious. I was pleased to find after finishing the game that the developers had gone on record in saying that was indeed the case, she was intended to be an "anti-Jill." The plot is nothing special but I found it entertaining. The characters have fun banter with each other and the constant ridiculous plot twists were fun to follow along with, wondering what crazy thing will happen next.
Resident Evil Revelations is a fun, goofy rollercoaster ride that does not overstay its welcome. It does not reach the peaks of the best installments in the series, but I had a good time with it.
The game very much feels like a 3DS game. The graphics are fine, though by 3DS standards they are phenomenal, likely among the best on the system. The game is comprised of cramped corridors and small rooms, with loading rooms between sections. You never see a loading screen, but you'll be trapped in these rooms until everything loads in. The tight areas are a result of the hardware limitations, but they do well to contribute to the sense of horror. At the time of its release Revelations was seen as a return to the Survival Horror genre after experimenting with action. I think this is very much still an action game, but the scares and inventory management do seem to be emphasized more than in RE4 and RE5. The character models still look quite nice by today's standards, but the animations, particularly in cutscenes, are lacking. The environments are low poly but make good use of shaders to simulate depth. The cruise ship is a very cool setting for this series, as evidenced by it being attempted multiple times including Gaiden and Dead Aim. The atmosphere on the ship is pretty great, and the music is nice.
The controls feel like an evolved version of RE5. You can now move while aiming for the first time in the mainline series. Gone is the run button, replaced by analog movement on the stick. Slightly tilting results in a walk, while pressing forward all the way results in a jog. The top speed feels slower than the equivalent running speed in RE5, though this is understandable given the technical limitations. There are no on-foot stealth sections or perilous platforming challenges, so you will be moving at full speed most of the time. The only time the movement speed is really bothersome is when you are backtracking for secret items. There is a new dodge move that doesn't work particularly well. What is it with RE games starring Jill and poorly implemented dodge moves? Otherwise, the controls feel quite similar to RE5. The aiming is markedly worse than the prior game, likely due to the console hardware lacking a right stick without the Circle Pad Pro attachment. The aiming feels almost digital, rather than analog, and it can be imprecise lining up headshots with a controller. It wasn't a huge deal overall and didn't significantly affect my playthrough, but from a game feel perspective it was a bit lacking. Another thing inherited from RE5 was constantly having an AI partner. Thankfully, unlike Sheva, these partners do not share ammo or healing items, do not get in your way, and I didn't have any partners die the entire playthrough. I don't know if they actually even can die.
New to Revelations is the Genesis scanner. This scanner transitions you to a first person view, where you can scan enemies to get healing items, as well as find hidden items in the environments. The scanner is a neat way to prioritize inventory management. Ammo is scarce if you don't regularly use the it. I enjoyed scanning every room in the game for hidden items and collectibles, though I think this would negatively affect replay value. I don't particularly want to re-scan everything.
Another new game mechanic is the ability to swim. There are a few swimming sections interspersed throughout. These sections aren't very difficult. There are plenty of air holes around to refill your air gauge. While there are enemies underwater, your health meter and air gauge seem to be one in the same. You only take air damage underwater, and when you resurface you seem to refill back to full, like in Super Mario 64. I was unable to experiment and see if taking damage from enemies out of water would be healed by diving and resurfacing, but the scenarios in which this would be useful in the game are very limited, anyway. Enemies underwater can be dispatched via QTE or with a special grenade type that can be used underwater. The swimming sections do a good job at changing up the pacing, and are never too long. There is one baffling swimming section right before the final boss that contains a sort of stealth section with an instant kill. This was a very strange place to put this section. It was not a terribly difficult section, though it was frustrating and cost me a few lives. I did not die much in the game otherwise.
The game is much less linear than RE5, which I liked. You are rewarded for carefully scouring each area, and returning to past areas with new keys. The weapon customization part system worked well enough, and resulted in collectibles worth finding. Finding a strong part tucked away was always a joy. The game's story will have you returning to past sections whether you want to or not, but new enemies and events always kept things feeling fresh.
I liked the new enemies featured in this game, the Ooze. Though their grey colour scheme is a tad generic, they looked suitably creepy and were mostly fun to fight. Enemies can be stunned and followed up on with melee like in RE4 and RE5, and have weak points that can result in instant kills if your guns are properly powered up. The boss battles were quite good overall, though I found the final boss to be unfun to fight, as it teleports around and forces you to engage with the crappy dodge mechanic. There is one strong "stalker" type enemy who keeps popping up and is fun to fight each time, as they are usually encountered when you are under a strict time limit. Defeating them will offer new and exclusive gun parts, but defeating them within the time limit can be a challenge.
The plot is bonkers. The quantity of nonsensical plot twists far surpasses typical RE titles, and starts getting into Kojima territory. It's a fun story to turn your brain off to and enjoy the ride. I liked most of the newly introduced characters, particularly Parker, Raymond, and Jessica. Parker and Raymond start as pretty stock tropes but end up having some depth to them as the game goes along. Jessica in particular is a really interesting character, as she is essentially the opposite of Jill in nearly every way. She is scantily clad, nonserious, and mains the Sniper Rifle. She constantly hits on Chris, who always stonewalls her, which I found absolutely hilarious. I was pleased to find after finishing the game that the developers had gone on record in saying that was indeed the case, she was intended to be an "anti-Jill." The plot is nothing special but I found it entertaining. The characters have fun banter with each other and the constant ridiculous plot twists were fun to follow along with, wondering what crazy thing will happen next.
Resident Evil Revelations is a fun, goofy rollercoaster ride that does not overstay its welcome. It does not reach the peaks of the best installments in the series, but I had a good time with it.