Right before RE6 launched there was another RE game, Revelations exclusively for the 3DS. I really liked my 3DS, I found the 3D to have a really cool effect on games and previously loved all the cool touch screen features of the OG DS. When I saw an exclusive RE is coming to a portable, this new impressive portable at that I was pretty excited. Initial previews showed a game that looked like it could hang graphically with RE5, it was seriously extremely impressive for the handheld. The game featured the return of Jill as the main playable character, as well as have Chris and others join in.
So as a new owner of a new portable decide Revelations was a massive exclusive and I was quite excited for it. I bought it on launch and was immediately blown away at the graphics, for a portable it was kind of mind blowing, the 3D effect also added to the overall impressive package. The campaign itself was cool, especially coming after RE6. It felt so much more old school in that there was a central location to run around hallways, get keys and explore. The episodic way the story is broken down made it perfect for quick sessions on the go. Overall the campaign wasn't that great, I would rank it pretty much at the bottom with RE6 but this game is more than just the campaign.
Raid mode has to be talked about because it is far better than the campaign and I feel what makes the entire game well worth owning, especially back in the day for an amazing experience on the go. Raid mode basically transformed the entire game into a sort of stat based action RPG filled with stats, wild new enemy buffs, loads of unique loot and remixed levels. There is so much quality content here, perfectly tuned to give you that just one more play feel. All in all Revelations is one of the best 3DS games ever made and if you count the entirety of the package and the fact it is all done on a portable it's so impressive. As time goes on and there are the console/PC versions you lose the novelty of the 3DS features and the portable nature of the game. Plus I feel most people will just play the campaign which is rather weak and call it a day. I think it's important to separate a ranking of the campaigns and Rev 1 being near the bottom and the overall game Revelations 1 was at release which was an amazing portable game experience.
For this playthrough I just did the campaign and yeah it's not the best. Revelations 1 suffers from really repetitive gameplay sections, poor hit reaction from enemies, and some really tedious sections (underwater stuff). The story is also a mess of poor revelations trying desperately to be like a shocking TV episode was cliff hanger endings but come out forced and cheesy. It's kind of wild that the backdrop to this game is hey an entire made up city was melted and now the entire planet knows BOWs exists… uhhh kind of a big plot point for some portable entry. It introduces a bunch of terrible characters, Quint being one of the worst, is lines became memes because of how bad it was. I'm happy this is mostly Jill's game, she needs more entries but she has very little to do in this game. No one grows, no one has any real character moments, it is a bad story.
The ship segments where you are exploring new areas and seeing new monsters is good. I would say the collection of new BOWs are impressive and it has some memorable designs and bosses. Every once in a while there is a well design combat scenario like in this shopping area being trapped with a huge chainsaw boss with different floors and windows to get in and out of. But for every one of those you get like 3 complete utter garbage designed sections (usually outside the ship) with random hordes of enemies, usually hunters. Somehow this game takes my favorite BOW and makes them cannon fodder, they come out like roaches in waves and you mindlessly blow them away. I have no clue why there are so many of these sections.
Oh this game also has a dumb scanning mechanic. To find hidden items in the world you have to constantly press a button to go to first person view and look for invisible objects then hold down a button to scan it. You can also scan enemies to get health. It's tedious and hardly adds anything to the game. It just seems for every good idea this game has there is something that holds it back. Now I used to think this campaign is just as bad as RE6 and now playing them back to back, no way, RE6 is a special kind of crap. But I still generally think Rev1 campaign is bottom tier. It lives in this strange half way between old school and action RE and takes a lot of the worst aspects of each and lacks most of the good.
The dark ages, post RE6 was a bad time for this franchise. In one year you had RE6 and Operation RC, as well as Rev 1 which at least was good. Still not the best showing. The franchise would basically be put on ice, for three years NOTHING. The first post RE6 project was a new Revelations entry, this time having the series try its hand at episodic gaming. Revelations 2 would be released in chunks over a month with the first episode being F2P. Not sure if this strategy ending up helping sales, just seemed like an annoyance to me. Like Rev 1 it was episodic story broken in chunks but now with a real one week break which made the TV show like recaps and "next time on" actually matter. I guess the week long break allowed players to really replay these episodes but I like to do that after the entire game, at least the game gave plenty of reasons to replay.
Revelations 2 is really great and a big improvement over the first. After the slop of stories that have come out for this franchise in this time, Rev 2 felt like it had an interesting story to tell with characters that are interesting, grow through the game and a villain that has major ties to the overall mythos. Claire is a fan favorite already but it's the return of Barry that really pushed this game into highly anticipated territory for me as he is my favorite non main RE hero. Barry absolutely lives up to his legacy here with him calling back so many of his iconic lines, acting just as goofy but also a damn hero in every way. This game is fan service all the way through, Anpo and his team understood the assignment and did the best they could with such a limited production. Yes this game was directed by Yasuhiro Anpo which will go on the direct the two masterpiece remakes 2 and 4.
Revelations 2 has some really great ever changing gameplay sequences. Levels are filled with some traps, a few puzzles to solve and great hordes of monsters to fight. Combat is much improved over Rev 1, the bullet hits have impact, our heroes have melee follow-ups and a dodge that works. There are stealth elements with some nice instant backstabbing kills which is something we won't see again until RE4 remake. This game has two characters that can be switched at any time bringing back memories of RE0 but without a lot of the drawbacks. Each character has a specific role, our classic hero is the fighter, has all the guns and does all the combat. The other character, Moira and Natalia, each serve as support and item finders. They sort of replaced the scan from Rev 1 with the skills of the other character, so yeah switching just to find invisible items is annoying but I did like when they helped in combat, mainly Natalia finding weak points.
This game launched to an ok reception, mid 70s. An improvement to RE6 but hardly worthy of this franchise. I think it's rated too low, I feel production limitations hurt it. It's a pretty ugly game, it does have a few tedious sections and does reuse environments between the two mains. Returning is Raid mode though this time it doesn't remix the campaign, instead it's a mission based mode that takes levels from RE6 and sort makes a fake mercenaries mode out of it. It's HUGE, with lots more focus on growing characters, getting new loot and accomplishing high scores. I didn't like this raid mode as much as the one in Rev 1 but it does provide incredible amounts of content.
Ultimately Revelations 2 was a nice reminder that hey RE is still around and when it has a story that's well done it can please fans. Still it was a game that didn't add anything new, more of an amalgamation of a ton of previous RE ideas.
Replaying this right after Rev 1 shows how much of an improvent the combat, level design and scenarios are better in this one. Right off the bat the feel of shooting the enemies feels a lot closer to RE4 and melee follow ups that have impact return. The character switching feels like it has some proper gameplay usage though times it is just a look for hidden item mechanic. What stood out to me was how much your actions in one chapter impacts the switch to Barry, a sort of zapping system like RE2. Plus this is the first RE game is a LONG time to have multiple endings, as I mentioned before this game is like a greatest hits of RE tropes.
Moira is a standout character, she begins as what seems like a generic loud mouth teen but quickly becomes a well fleshed out character with big character growth moments. Sadly I feel that was at the expense of Claire who's charater takes a step back. For some dumb reason they make Claire obsessed with her boss, to the point where Moira has to point out to her how pathetic and crazy she sounds. Also Claire is terrible with Natalia, a complete reversal from how motherly she is in RE2 with Sherry, again to prop up Moira. It's by far the worst version of Claire, also doesn't help that we lose Allison Court.
On the flip side we have Barry's triumphant return, he is PERFECT. Every call back to a RE1 line is brilliant, delivered with the right tone. The voice actor for Barry nailed it, he sounds like the OG Barry just enough. He is the perfect corny dad who can also save your ass in any situation. The final battle is such a crowd pleasing finale, full of our characters being maximum badass, Barry with his iconic "I have this!" line. Everything about the Burtons is just perfect, shame they don't get a spotlight more.
Points to this game for continuing the dangling thread from RE5 about the Wesker children and giving us a new Wesker villian. Sadly Alex does not get enough screen time to really push her into any memorable category. Ultimately she feels a bit wasted, I know they gave her a way to return by using Natalia as a vessel, though not sure whether that is a storyline worth revisiting. I expected more from the next Wesker.
The game has some really standout sections, overall I think the third episode is the best of the bunch, specifically Claire sections. There are some really good bosses and subbosses mixed very well with exciting setpieces that do remind me of a well thought out RE4 section. We have another shootout in the cabin section, well done and with a big boss that can chase you across an entire villiage. Barry's sections are a bit more mechanic heavy with Natalia serving as a way to few weakpoints of enemies and even see some. Those invisible bugs, not my favorite. The entire factory level I feel is one of the best, really well paced with sections building on one another. I think the entire final boss sequence is one of the stronger one in the series.
The game does reuse a ton of sections, its the nature of having two parallel storylines happening in different times but crossing the same locations. If you think of it its like RE2 character swapping but in pieces. The lack of a big budget shows, it looks like a very basic PS3 game and has a few odd bugs and quirks. There were a few annoying sections that I feel could have been better designed but those are far less than in Revelations 1.
I didn't focus much on raid mode, I previous had reached maybe the half way point, mostly with Wesker. It gives a TON of extra content but I really didn't care for the remixed RE6 levels and it being like a poor mercs level. I do love the crazy status effects and different forms of monsters, its a really fun addictive mode. I didn't do the extra episodes this time but I did do them before, the Moira one is better but both are not as good as the main game. I really loved my time with the game, its not as good as the top of the series but it stands firmly above the bad stuff.
Ok I made it through the worst era, and now it should be smooth sailing to the finish. Every game after this is pretty damn great. My updated rankings:
RE4
RE2
RECV
REmake
RE5
RE1
RE3
Rev 2
RE0
Rev 1
RE6
Gaiden
