The Haunted Hoard: Resident Evil: Revelations (Xbox One)
If one were to track the trajectory of the Resident Evil franchise, they’d find the games constantly experimenting with the balance between action and survival horror. While every entry could be said to at least contain some of the two, how much one is emphasized changes quite often, many easily slotted into which genre style they lean into more. However, Resident Evil: Revelations chooses an interesting approach to these two sides of the franchise, almost splitting the two cleanly into different sections of the gameplay.
The split is mostly supported by the small range of locations that are featured in Resident Evil: Revelations. Most of the surivival horror elements are contained aboard a ship, the tight corridors making enemy encounters more claustrophobic. Supplies are kept fairly tight, ammo not so scarce that you’ll be starving for it but the game distributing it throughout the ship in a way where after a big boss battle you’ll often find yourself drained down to the last bits of your reserves, necessitating the need to both be careful with what shots you do fire and what battles you choose to skip, even if weaving around a monster involves the risk of getting so close they might strike you. Even with the Genesis scanner that can find hidden items in the environment to help out, the player can still end up overwhelmed by a single sturdy monster or just a small pack that leaves them little room to move and few resources to draw on during the confrontation.
Despite executing the survival horror gameplay mechanics pretty well to inject tense struggles into the gameplay, Resident Evil: Revelations is just as happy to take you to new locations where the monsters you face will come in waves but go down to a few well placed shots of your now abundant ammo. This is mostly achieved by having the game follow a larger cast of characters, the main hub for most the game being the large overrun cruise ship but the player getting excursions to snowy monster-infested bases and flashbacks to a city of the future being attacked to add in blood-pumping monster battles. Here, you can still run out of ammo, but more because the enemies are so abundant, so while much less methodical, they can still have an edge to them as you can’t completely rely on the guns blazing approach. There is definitely some overlap across the different stories where a moment on the ship leans more into action movie style boss battles or the trek through the snowy wastes slows down for a bit, but this clear separation means the player can better experience the genre elements that make both sides of Resident Evil enjoyable since they have the room to embrace their components fully.
The monster design has also chosen an interesting direction for this spinoff title. The creatures the player encounters are people or animals infected with the T-Abyss virus, their bodies taking on pale fleshy forms with exaggerated fangs, almost no other facial features, and plenty of bony spikes to clearly communicate the danger they present. These creatures known as The Ooze come in many flavors so they can attack from range, explode into goop, or deal harsh damage, but other monsters found along the way draw heavy inspiration from the deep ocean. There is definitely a deep lean into body horror shapes this game, with a few creatures nearly unreadable they’ve been mutated out of proportion. Giant leech-like flesh monsters rear up to reveal eerily human teeth, a boss monster made of what appear to be barnacles also has a dangling head with ratty hair, and a creature called the Sea Creeper expertly mixes human anatomy with underwater isopods to make a foe you really don’t want to meet in the water. Action moments often lean on more traditional Resident Evil monsters like mutated dogs and reptilian humanoids, their numbers their strength rather than the quirks of unusual body shapes, but bosses often deliver on being both appropriately horrific and having unique attack angles like a monster with a circular saw made of its bones and one that will constantly appear in hallways to try and ambush the player.
Perhaps a bit surprisingly, the Revelations subtitle is incredibly relevant. Resident Evil: Revelation’s story focuses quite a lot on its constant twists and reveals, the game dividing itself into chapters where almost every one ends with some cliffhanger or dramatic story beat. Not all of them are as strong as the game tries to portray them, but the plot definitely has plenty of justified turns that change the course of the story, making the constant narrative twists ultimately work. The story takes place after a floating city of the future known as Terragrigia was overwhelmed by bioweapon monsters and destroyed to prevent their spread. A terrorist group called Veltro claims responsibility for the Terragrigia incident, but while they seemingly disappeared after the attack, their sudden reemergence draws in people who deal with bioweapons like Resident Evil series veterans Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine to assist along with new members of the group who dealt with Terragrigia assisting them, Parker assisting Jill and Jessica backing up Chris. There is some partner mixing along the way, and while they do feature in the gameplay, your allies unfortunately can’t really kill enemies, only distract them. While new villains and allies work well for the overarching plot as you learn more about the truth of Terragrigia and Veltro, there are two odd ducks in the form of Keith and Quint, two mostly unlikable comic relief characters who have very minor roles to play despite taking up a few playable segments. They do get some of the more interesting action moments though like fighting invisible Hunters and holding off hordes of monsters, but their jokes feel like a complete tone departure as they crack wise about dating and act like dopey teenagers whereas other funny moments like Jessica going in hard on being a massive flirt and the general absurdity of some of the twists work without providing a sense of humor that feels like it was taken from a different game entirely.
The chapter segmentation and the pre-chapter recaps of the plot so far are likely a remnant of Revelations originally being a 3DS title where you would be more likely to put down the game and pick it up later, but while the narrative definitely has quite a few wild swings, it’s easy enough to keep track of it. Textures that weren’t updated for the Xbox One rerelease are the only bad mark showing from its origins, while others like having to come to a stop to fire your weapon probably add a lot to the efficacy of its combat. You’re capable enough to hold your ground, but the need to stop gives the lurching enemies time to close in, allowing for those moments of tension as you need to aim well to force an enemy back before they strike. There is a good selection of weapons on offer if not a groundbreaking one, the player beginning with a pistol but able to get shotguns, machine guns, sniper rifles, and back up weapons like grenades and your always present knife. Able to carry three firearms at once and having the opportunity to swap them out or upgrade them at certain boxes you encounter along the adventure, you can customize your loadout but have the ammo concerns holding you back from becoming too powerful for your own good. They definitely work well for their story functions, giving you adequate power to not be helpless in a fight but enemies, especially bosses, can take hits well or work their way around sloppy shots to maintain a constant threat level as you progress in the game. Outside the campaign though, the Raid Mode which recontextualizes areas from the main game as levels you are meant to clear of all monsters finds things on a bit flimsier footing. Unlike the Mercenaries modes of other action heavy Resident Evils, Raid Mode can be linear and often somewhat slow, the focus on aiming for weak spots for high points and the need to gradually level yourself up through the easier missions making it more a mode for the truly committed rather than one that will really keep players around after the main plot’s been experienced.
To progress sometimes requires solving small puzzles, especially a circuit-arranging one that is simple in concept and doesn’t require much more than just a time investment, but others just involve a bit of tinkering with switches or valves and having the right items for the right places, these often an excuse to imperil the player with the enemy encounters. Finding your way around the cruise ship’s interconnected halls can be tough even with the map, at least once you’ve opened up a few different paths and the game perhaps gives you a little too much freedom to go the wrong way, but it does at least allow for finding secrets or missed items. Only a few control flaws really hurt the game, the swimming a bit awkward when it appears but the dodge maneuver really proving to be unreliable, made worse by the game really leaning on it as your way out of a few situations. The dodge requires the player to press the control stick in time with the proper moment of an incoming enemy attack, but it more likely will just make them move a little and then get hit anyway, the dodge detection making it less of a tool for overcoming the close quarters combat and more something you might luck into while trying to avoid enemies through regular movement. It’s hardly enough to destroy the experience, but getting lost or getting screwed by a failed dodge is the occasional mild sting that can’t be ignored.
THE VERDICT: The two sides of the Resident Evil franchise, action and survival horror, achieve a strong balance in Resident Evil: Revelations, mostly by giving the other room to breathe. Action segments get to be bombastic and give the player the thrill of killing hordes of enemies, but they take place away from the tight quarters and limited supplies that allow the survival horror segments aboard the ship to make even a single monster feel like a threat. Excellent monster designs inspired by the deep ocean make the monsters appropriately grotesque, and the story, while goofy, is at least a good ride thanks to its constant reveals and twists. Time spent grappling with awkward controls for the dodge or time spent with the out of place comedy stylings of Quint and Keith do interrupt a game that was otherwise balancing its two halves well, but small irritations don’t ruin the overall execution by way of proper separation between its genre halves.
And so, I give Resident Evil: Revelations for Xbox One…
A GREAT rating. While the survival horror segments aboard the boat are definitely the highlight of the experience since they make up much more of it, Resident Evil: Revelations is happy to indulge in more Hollywood style action and horde shooter gameplay from time to time to inject some traditional excitement in between its more horror-focused thrills. Save for a few moments where one bleeds into the other unexpectedly, the different situations feel like the different approaches are appropriate, as neither one would really gel well if the contexts were swapped. Handling The Ooze requires smart movement and ammo use to match their strength and strange anatomy, but mutant wolves and reptilian Hunters are fast and fearsome creatures who must be blasted away to match their simple tactics. The story, while I wouldn’t call it well written, is full of so many unexpected developments that it hooks the player along to see what will happen next, and while it has a few characters whose behavior weighs down parts of it, the plot is a good framework for the monster encounters and mild puzzles. With a bit more tidying up of control issues like the dodge and the execution of ideas like the interconnected ship interior, Revelations wouldn’t have too many conditions to its GREAT rating even though it probably would need more variety in its settings, conflicts, and monsters to push it to a higher one.
While cordoning off the two halves of Resident Evil’s DNA worked well here, it was certainly not a formula that could be adopted for the entire series. There are benefits to embracing one more than the other, but by not leaning too hard into either one, survival horror and action are able to coexist and cover for the small weaknesses of the other in Resident Evil: Revelations. Like two adjacent shelves in the same display case, it splits certain content up appropriately without completely escaping from a general theme, ensuring it’s one of Resident Evil’s better executed spinoffs.