NWR Interactive > Podcast Discussion
RetroActive 49: Resident Evil: Revelaitons
Pandareus:
I know I'm super late and need to catch up but at the end of chapter 1, did I just rescue a fucking paper maché Chris!?
TOPHATANT123:
--- Quote from: Pandareus on March 26, 2021, 02:29:14 PM ---I know I'm super late and need to catch up but at the end of chapter 1, did I just rescue a fucking paper maché Chris!?
--- End quote ---
My first thought was Well that was easy, found him already! Oh
Order.RSS:
Wrapped up the campaign. Feeling rather done with the game now, so won't try the online, but here's a few more thoughts.
A hint for those still playing: do pay the Solarium a visit once or twice.
Positives:
- Game seems like it'd be very impressive on the 3DS. On console the lack of enemy variety and dearth in bossfights feel a bit more noticeable, but it cleans up very well in HD. Couple of decent voice performances despite poor material.
- The Queen Zenobia is a pretty decent setting. Gives 'em license to do anything from cargo holds to Titanic esque suites and casinos. Easy excuse to have swaying environments, cramped hallways, and an aquatic theme for the monsters.
- Big fan of the pacing. Short episodes with cliffhangers make it easy to put the game down, or do one more chapter. Initially the recaps annoyed me, but they're nice to have after not playing for a few days. Towards the back half things get a bit more exciting since they don't cut away to useless side-stories as often.
- Love 3D maps like Metroid Prime.
Negatives:
- It's just not scary at all. Nor funny, nor moving. At most it has a few intense action scenes, but I felt very detached from the whole thing.
- The plot's events wildly outscale your sphere of influence: what are Jill and Parker going to do about orbital laser satellites? Basically nothing besides release a drone. Which means you flat-out don't interact with entire sections of the story, including the ending where you fight one of the pawns while the actual chess endgame occurs miles away in cut-scenes. I'm not saying stories need to revolve around its main characters, but why are we even here, just to find one USB drive?
- Every time we cut away from the Queen Zenobia to do beach clean-ups, protect office supplies, or press buttons in airports & planes, all tension evaporates. I get the campaign needs to hit the 10 hour mark to satisfy the spreadsheets, but the game is already action-heavy. Slotting in extra action segments feels redundant. At least the turret sections are a change of pace.
- Most characters really suck and many don't even complete a dramatic arc. Do the bad guys even have a master plan? Sure would've helped make their threat feel more immediate if we had an idea what they were working towards.
- The game is over-reliant on "shocking twists" to cap off episodes, only to immediately undo them the second you continue playing. You really expect me to believe Parker, Quint, Raymond, and Keith died for real this time, when you're constantly faking their deaths?
- Besides shooting zombies you're just not doing a lot here: puzzles are throwaway fetch quests, and rarely is your curiosity to explore rewarded with things other than ammo.
On balance I wasn't super impressed, but on 3DS this is probably one of the more impressive games along with MGS 3, Kid Icarus and Smash. The game does improve a bit in the back half, but I'm not really sold on the series by it.
doug:
This game is extremely impressive, although that does somewhat need qualifying as “for 3DS”. It looks better than it should be allowed to, and cranking the 3D up to “very strong” in settings adds to this. I miss 3D on Switch. It’s like peering through a little, engrossing window. Sometimes too little though: After getting used to Switch I miss being able to play on TV or handheld as I choose.
I’m playing on my 3DS XL without a Circle Pad Pro, leaving me with single circle pad aiming or gyro aiming. Gyro is fast but imprecise, and more importantly, it makes 3D impossible because moving the device shifts it out of the right spot. When I ended up doing was mostly using pad for the Jill sections, and mostly using gyro for the interstitial action sections with 3D turned off.
I could never focus when using the rifle scope with 3D on. My natural reaction was to shut one eye, which makes sense because you look through real scopes with one eye, but it means your aim is way off because the game crosshairs is positioned in the centre for both eyes. The game is trying to show you something more 3D than real life! (I usually end up shutting one eye when using binoculars in real life too.)
I picked up New Game+ from my play through in 2014, and selected Hell difficulty this time around. Mostly it’s all very enjoyable because I have weapon upgrades from the first play though to balance the difficult, but you don’t get those for the interstitial action scenes so those can be frustratingly hard. A hard game can be great when it feels precise and has a fast retry loop, but this game is cumbersome to control and loads fairly slowly. Also sometimes the checkpoints are placed just before a load of corridor walking rather than before the tricky fight where you keep dying.
I’ve neaaarly finished but it doesn’t feel as quick a game as James promised because hard mode is hard — my fault for choosing it.
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