Resident Evil Revelations turns the cheese factor up to the max, and is all the better for it

One of the games in the Resident Evil series that I was most excited to try for the first time was Resident Evil Revelations, a title which originally released for Nintendo 3DS, and which was subsequently ported to Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Switch and PC.

Back on its original release, Resident Evil Revelations was positioned as something of a “return to form” for the series after it had been proceeding in more of an “action horror” direction from Resident Evil 4 onwards. In particular, many fans saw Resident Evil 5, 6 and Operation Raccoon City as evidence that the franchise had somewhat lost its way, and thus found Resident Evil Revelations to be a welcome reminder of the things that made the series great.

Looking at Resident Evil Revelations now, I’m not entirely sure I agree with the assessment that it’s a return to the fundamentals of survival horror as some people suggested on its original release — but it’s definitely a very good game, and an entry in the series that you shouldn’t skip over on the grounds that it’s “just a spinoff”. It’s a strong game in its own right — and outside of the main story mode, one of the most replayable titles in the franchise. More on that aspect another time, though.

Resident Evil Revelations is set up in an episodic structure, giving it the feel of a TV show as opposed to the movie-like structure of the previous games. This even extends to each episode opening with a “Previously on Resident Evil Revelations” teaser reel, and most episodes ending with some sort of cliffhanger. It’s a good structure for a game like this; while its original intention was to break the game into bite-sized pieces and thus make it more handheld-friendly — remember this was a 3DS game originally — it also keeps the narrative interesting and pacy, offering the ability to play as a variety of characters in numerous different contexts.

The main narrative of the game concerns the apparent return of a bioterrorism group named Veltro, who are threatening to release the T-Abyss virus into the world’s oceans. This virus, derived from the original game’s T-Virus with a little bit of extra unpleasantness blended in for good measure, results in horrible creatures called Ooze, who we quickly learn have infested a cruise liner known as the Queen Zenobia.

Original Resident Evil protagonists Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, who are now working for the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, are investigating the apparent return of Veltro; Chris finds himself in the snowy mountains investigating an apparent Veltro base, while Jill ends up on the Queen Zenobia. Both characters have new partners — Jill is alongside the eminently likable Parker, while Chris is paired up with femme fatale Jessica. Elsewhere, we’re also introduced to a few other new characters, with the absolute highlights being chalk-and-cheese combo Quint and Keith, which it’s a shame to learn Capcom hasn’t really done much else with since Resident Evil Revelations.

The game unfolds from a similar over-the-shoulder view to Resident Evil titles from 4 onwards. Coming to Resident Evil Revelations immediately after Resident Evil 4 Remake, the movement in the former feels a lot looser and snappier; there’s less of that modern “triple-A weight” to everything, which is neither a good nor a bad thing — it’s just noticeably different.

Whichever character you’re playing at the time can hold up to three weapons, though there are a lot more to find over the course of the game as a whole. Unused weapons are stored in weapons crates that are scattered throughout the game’s environments, and using one of these crates allows you to switch up your loadout whenever you like; weapons can also be modded with attachments you find around the environments, allowing you to adjust capacity, power, fire rate and various other features.

The main reason Resident Evil Revelations is often cited as a return to the classic survival horror formula is the fact that ammunition throughout the game is fairly limited — at least, it might initially seem so. In practice, there’s more than enough around the place to be able to defeat each and every enemy in your path, outside of a couple of “endless respawning” sequences, where the intention is simply for you to charge through as quickly as possible.

Much of this ammunition is hidden, however; it can be revealed with a first-person scanner known as the Genesis device. If an item is hidden in a room, the Genesis device will indicate this with a pulsing mark in the corner of the screen, and locating and scanning a green icon will reveal the hidden item. Interestingly, sometimes you can reveal items that are several rooms (or floors) away with the Genesis device, too.

The Genesis device has another function, too, which is to scan enemies and corpses. By doing this, you build up a percentage gauge, and when this reaches 100% you’re given a healing item, ostensibly because the device has synthesised a vaccine from your research data. The twist is that the more times you scan the same type of enemy, the fewer percentage points they’re worth, so you can’t just endlessly “grind” your way to infinite healing — particularly as many enemy corpses immediately decompose if you don’t quickly scan them!

There’s some mild puzzle solving in a few places, primarily taking the form of wiring puzzles in which you must untangle a mess of wires and then put the various nodes in the correct sockets to form a particular shape. These are straightforward, unobtrusive and quite fun, though it’s a shame there isn’t a bit more variety in the puzzle-solving over the course of the game as a whole. This is one area where Resident Evil Revelations really doesn’t match up to its “classic survival horror” predecessors.

Outside of the three-weapon limit, there’s no inventory management to worry about, either. Key items are stored for later use, with characters simply automatically using them when required. This keeps things nicely streamlined and minimises the need for backtracking to pick up important items, but again, it feels like something is missing compared to the entries in the series Resident Evil Revelations is supposedly hearkening back to.

After a while, it will become clear that the best way to enjoy Resident Evil Revelations is not to compare it to past (or future) Resident Evil games, but instead to simply enjoy it on its own merits. Because when considered in those terms, it’s a lot of fun. There are challenging enemy encounters to deal with, multiple “run like the clappers while a countdown happens” sequences, some excellent boss fights (which, notably, feel a lot less bullet-spongey than even some more recent encounters in the series) and some highly enjoyable setpieces.

By far the best thing about it, though, is the way in which it absolutely embraces the cheese factor. The dialogue is genuinely amusing throughout, helping to bring some much-needed levity to an otherwise fairly serious situation. Back on its original release, many reviewers criticised the Jessica character for being overtly sexy — and in particular for her line “my sweet ass is coming to save you” while Chris is lying on the floor with a hurt leg, fending off mutated wolves with a pistol — but in context this works brilliantly; her light-hearted femme fatale nature is a wonderful contrast with Chris’ completely po-faced attitude throughout.

And that dynamic, among others, is what makes Resident Evil Revelations’ TV show-style structure really work; it’s not just the episodic nature that makes it feel like something you’d buy a DVD box set of in the mid-2000s, but also the varied characters, the entertaining dialogue and the enjoyable pairings of contrasting personalities.

There’s a bit of a trade-off, though; Resident Evil Revelations isn’t really “scary” in the same way as the earlier entries in the series. There’s a few mild jump scares here and there, and a few “enemies coming out of unexpected places”, but for the most part this is a game about a team of heroic badasses taking down a thoroughly silly conspiracy and causing plenty of explosions in the process.

At times Resident Evil Revelations almost feels more Metal Gear than Resident Evil. Jill’s form-fitting wetsuit bears an uncanny resemblance to Raiden’s sneaking suit from Metal Gear Solid 2. The maritime setting is also similar to Metal Gear Solid 2. Hell, you’ve even got Paul Eiding playing the “mysterious commanding officer who may or may not be up to no good” as the icing on the Kojima-style cake.

It’s things like this that make me question the veracity of the claims that Resident Evil Revelations is a “return to classic survival horror”. Sure, parts of the Queen Zenobia setting have a distinctly “Spencer Mansion-esque” aesthetic about them — and the delightful Gothic cathedral-style room in which the final boss confrontation takes place makes absolutely no sense in the best possible way — but for the most part, this is more J. J. Abrams (when he was good) than George Romero. And, I reiterate, this is absolutely not a bad thing.

Those who have never been able to move beyond Code Veronica may find it hard to adjust to this style at first — but it’s by no means impossible. After all, I’d count myself in that category up until quite recently, and I absolutely adored Resident Evil Revelations. I think the important thing with Resident Evil as a whole is not to take it too seriously. While it has detailed lore and can be explored in a frightening amount of detail if you are so inclined, at its core it’s cheesy, silly, comic book-style nonsense.

Taken on those terms, Resident Evil Revelations fits right in, making it a highly enjoyable installment in the series — and one that shouldn’t be missed out on.

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