I know I skipped the first Resident Evil: Revelations game, don't worry I'll play and review that game too. I chose the sequel first because I got to play as Barry Burton. He haven't got an RE game since RE: Gaiden. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is originally an episodic game and later released as a full retail game.
RE:R2's story takes place after RE5 and before RE6. You'll start off as Claire Redfield a member of TerraSave, an NGO with a goal of aiding the people around the world affected by bio-terrorism. Moira Burton (Barry's daughter) is introduced as a rookie TerraSave member and a close friend of Claire. Claire and the members of TerraSave were raided by an armed group. They kidnapped her along with Moira and a few select TerraSave members. Few days later, Claire woke up in a prison cell wearing a weird bracelet, she escaped and found Moira shortly. They don't know where they are and how to escape the place filled with aggressive, misshapen people known as the Afflicted and other lurking monsters.
There are two campaigns in RE:R2, Claire's and Barry's campaign. Barry is the other main character in the game. He is aided by a mysterious girl named Natalia whom he met after arriving on the place where the distress signal he received comes from.
This game feels like a prime time cable show because of episode recaps when you continue the game or starting a new chapter. The game have cheesy moments, which is a part of Resident Evil's charm.
GAMEPLAY
RE:R2 is a third person survival horror game. That's right, survival horror, just like RE:R1. The game devs returns the game to its roots and they did a good job. Survival horror means, ammo and item management, backtracking and creepy atmosphere and RE:R2 doesn't disappoint.
RE:R2 have a partner system like in RE5, RE6 and RE:R1. But here you can freely switch between the two characters. Claire and Barry are more combat-focused while Moira and Natalia, being a rookie and a kid respectively, plays as support partners. Moira is in charge of using a flashlight and crowbar while Natalia can detect nearby enemies when crouched and attack with bricks. Both support partners can find hidden items and helps if your active character gets in trouble. This system makes the game strategic and solving puzzles more fun.
Teamwork is everything in this game. You can have a friend play as your partner locally via split screen or have an online player to play as the your partner.
The game have a good stealth system which really helps if you want to
conserve ammo. You can sneak by crouching down and attack behind the
enemy to stealth kill them.
Combat is slower and direct to the point than RE6's flashy, over-the-top combat. The characters can sprint/sprint attack, do basic dodges and perform follow-up attacks. The character's arm sways when aiming, making it a bit difficult to score a headshot at first, but you'll get used to it.
Navigating through the inventory is easy thanks to the simple interface design. You can pass some items to your partner and let them keep them for later use. Partner characters can automatically use special healing items in-case that the character you actively control gets in a pinch. You can make different healing items and explosives by combining specific items, just like in The Last of Us but you cant make improvised weapons.
You can customize your weapons by obtaining gun upgrade parts and you can attach the parts to your guns in the workbench. You can freely remove and attach the parts to other guns without penalties.
The character upgrade system improves the playable characters' skills, performance and chance of survival. Upgrading a skill requires BP, you can earn them by finding gems and completing a chapter.
When you're done with the campaign, try Raid Mode (introduced in RE:R1). Raid Mode is like the Mercenaries Mode, but have RPG elements: EXP, character skill sets (unique to each characters), weapon buffs/upgrades and Enemy buffs. You can upgrade the character's skills by spending skill points. Level up a character to gain skill points.
You need to spend gold points to start a mission. Gold can be earned by completing Raid Mode missions. Most maps are ripped from some RE games and most Raid Mode missions aren't time restricted. It gets repetitive though because there are less mission variety. There are lots of characters to choose from in RE:R2's Raid Mode including some characters from past RE games. You can unlock them by completing the main campaign and earning Raid Mode completion medals.
There are lots of gun upgrade parts in Raid Mode, you can buy them or pick them up during missions then evaluate them in the Raid Mode lobby. Unlike in the main campaign, you have to either destroy a weapon to get the attached parts or destroy the parts to remove them from the gun and they cost some gold points.
You can also play co-op (split screen or online) in Raid Mode.
GRAPHICS
Judging on how the game looks, the devs used a different game engine on this game. It runs pretty well on last gen consoles (PS3/Xbox 360) with a decent frame-rate, fewer effects/filters, less detailed textures, and few objects being removed. Character models looks great though.
MUSIC/AUDIO
The soundtrack for this game is creepy and fits the game's mood and ambience, but the game gets scarier if there are no music, just environment sounds and noise.
I encountered audio problems that randomly occurs during frantic, combat-heavy scenes and major boss fights like gunshots and explosions getting muffled suddenly.
Aside from Moira's mouth full of colorful language (but I like Moira's voice when she's not swearing around), voice acting is great. They changed long-time voice actress (Alyson Court) for Claire. In my opinion, the new voice actress for Claire performed well.
REPLAY VALUE
After completing the main campaign, the weapons and character upgraded are carried over when you start a new game. If you're a completionist, there are lots of collectibles/unlockables in the game (Concept art, figurines, skins, etc.). Spend BP in the Rewards menu to unlock them... again. I don't know why you have to buy the unlockables after unlocking them. It's like opening a locked box and then another locked box is inside, and you have to find another key.
After finding and getting everything in the main campaign. Raid Mode will eat most of your game time. It gets addictive at first, because there are lots to unlock here too, but like I said, it gets repetitive.
By the way, if you get the retail version, all DLCs, especially the two extra episodes are included. The game also have two endings.
CLOSING REMARKS
RE:R2 is a great sequel to Resident Evil's mainstream/main timeline games. Good story and pacing, good toned-down combat and the series is returning to its survival horror roots while maintaining modern gameplay elements which is great. The game also have pretty good controls and a user-friendly in-game menus and inventory screen. Tons of unlockables too. I really like this game and I can't wait for another Resident Evil: Revelations sequel.
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is also available on PS4, PSVita, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.
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