Resident Evil Revelations 2 is out!

http://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-19034-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Images-Leak.html

JILLY V BACK IN ACTION?

Only played the 3DS version but it was still one of my favorite RE games. Hopefully this comes to current gen or 3DS as well. Loved the horror with headphones in a dark room.

http://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-19145-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Officially-Confirmed-For-Early-2015.html

Confirmed, teaser video, current-gen consoles and previous-gen, but apparently a new cast with no Jill. =(

Edit: Got around to watching it. TerraSave shirt basically confirms Claire, maybe this project is what caused the RE6 DLC campaign rumours.

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/09/03/resident-evil-2-revelations-takes-place-much-larger-stage-first-game/

So the game might involve Claire, it takes place on an island and it has an old rusty prison...

This is more Code Veronica 2 than Revelations 2.

Edit: http://game.capcom.com/campaign/biohd/en/

http://www.relyonhorror.com/latest-news/resident-evil-news/rumor-leaked-image-confirms-claire-and-barrys-daughter-for-resident-evil-revelations-2/

YAY BARRY.

YAY SUPPORT CHARACTER

Only thing that worries me is that Claire's VA said on twitter that she hasn't heard of this, so I hope they don't use someone else.

Yeah that'd suck considering she's the only RE VA, who has voiced her character in EVERY instance in English, but if they're going for an older voice it might make sense.

It's weird that it features co-op but the secondary character is basically Ashley with a flashlight and a backpack. I'm guessing that it's local co-op only because Moira is basically less than FLOYD from Jet Force Gemini.


Still! That's exciting, I am so down, and I betcha that we'll have Barry in Raid Mode. It's a shame that Claire's gameplay always seems to be based around babysitting kids though (Sherry, Steve, that little girl in Degeneration...)

It's also great that Moira seems to be able to fend for herself and won't cause you a game over. She'll probably be playable for short bursts like Sherry, too.

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/news/news-14292-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Set-to-Release-As-a-Digital-Episodic-Series.html
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/09/10/resident-evil-revelations-2-episodic-game/

So Moira is kinda Sherry 2.0. She's joined Terra Save, and is probably in her late teens then (oh no Rule34, sorry Barry.) I was expecting her to be younger.

The game's split into four (or five if they're excluding the base download) episodes that will be delivered weekly. This isn't too surprising considering the episodic structure of the first Revelations, Siliconera's got a suggestion as to why it was done this way. Personally I'm not a fan of the decision, especially because of how PlaystationTrophies has phrases things...The season pass gets you additional DLC on top of the separate episodes, but the retail release gets you that additional DLC + even more DLC, apparently.

Who knows how much the second lot of DLC will cost, will the cheaper price of the season set be worthwhile in the end? Is all DLC even going to be released outside of the season pack or the disc release? Would it be better to just get it all on disc in the first place? Do I even want to wait? I don't really want to support this episodic stuff because I like getting a big beefy game all at once.

Due to this structure I'm gonna assume that they've excluded Raid mode, or maybe it's part of the first set of DLC.

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/news/news-14301-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Trailer-is-Dark-and-Bloody.html
Can't watch so I can't confirm the presence of the Courtster, but I've heard that she isn't in it. =(

Such a shame. Her voice felt so iconic after all these years.

Now that I've watched it, the only thing she said is NO! and it sounds like Alyson, so who knows.

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/news/news-14391-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Hands-on-Preview-–-Scare-Claire.html

It sounds good, and the saucy language isn't too surprising after RE6 (I think there are one or two "f***"s in it) even if IN THE NAME OF COCK sounds really stupid. The return of Raid mode is much appreciated!

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/news/news-14411-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Vid-Shows-20-Mins-of-Gameplay-Footage.html

Looks just like I thought a Revelations sequel would; I dig how minimal the hud is, and it looks like we can crouch? Shame they talked over the bit about guns, I think Barry is mentioned there. Also Claire seems kinda bitter which is a rather large change for her.

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/news/news-15018-Resident-Evil--Revelations-2-Dated-For-February--Barry-Burton-Confirmed-as-Playable-Character.html so is this Revelations 2 or Code Veronica 2 with Barry instead of Chris?

Not sure I like the idea of the extra non-combat character, or her design for that matter. When I started reading I was hoping that she'd be a member of Terra Save, and just have psychic powers or somethin'. Nope, just another little girl who was probably experimented on and has some kooky power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2t9F4d7GwU huh, actually this co-op element looks really cool, particularly with this enemy type (and it's actually kind of creepy, but keep in mind that RE6 and Revelations HD both had only one really eerie enemy type (Rasklapanje and the Wall Blister.)

Also the Resident Evil HD Remaster came out yesterday. I...Really suck at it. Mind you I've never actually gotten a chance to play the Gamecube version so that could be part of the problem. I feel like a lot of my shots are missing because it took 12 bullets and a stab on the ground to down the first zombie, but I'm hearing that apparently Normal difficulty (mountain climbing) is supposed to be really hard and that's why they introduced Very Easy mode (a walk.) This might be like Akiba's Trip where I kind of fucked myself for the first playthrough by choosing Gamer difficulty expecting it to be Normal.

So this game combines the best elements of all the modern RE games while maintaing the Revelations style of progression. I'll write more about the mechanics when I have more free time, but the co-op gameplay might even be at its finest, they finally made having an AI partner FUN. This might very well be the best modern RE, it's a DAMN shame there isn't online co-op for the campaign, I wouldn't mind playing as Moira honestly.

Also Jill is totally in Raid mode (there are awards for getting each character to certain levels, which is how I know) and I need to unlock her!!

And the reward for double posting goes to Taiyz for his amazing sextuple post!

Seriously though, I'm looking forward to your analysis of the mechanics. I'm thinking of getting it (dat HD remaster on Steam, especially with Wesker as a playable Raid character), but right now I don't have enough money for anything like that. That time will come in the foreseeable future though.

Sway me Taiyz!

Er, Revelations 2 is a current-gen game, all the versions are in HD and the PC release is by no accounts a "remaster." Buy a PS4 and play with me!

So, gameplay-wise the game definitely makes its Revelations heritage known. The controls are essentially the same as the HD version, but there's now a duration on the time it takes to use an herb (you have to hold R1) and the dodge is now an actual command (you press circle while holding a direction and you dodge in that direction, it's similar to the dodge mechanics from RE6 except you don't roll or slide, the dodges are all done on your feet. It works REALLY well, definitely trimmed the fat from RE6.) You can also crouch with L3, this prevents enemies from detecting you if they haven't seen you already (Moira and Barry's lights can give you away though) and you can perform stealth kills for instant death if you sneak up behind an enemy that isn't aware of you, again like RE6. Skills can also increase your damage while crouching (accuracy increases as a default mechanic while crouching.) Sprinting is also like RE6, you get tired after a bit, but there's no stamina meter.

The biggest change is obviously the fact that you have a real partner like in RE5, not an immortal exposition machine. You can switch characters at any time with Triangle, and when you're not in control of a character, they take severely reduced damage so the AI doesn't really screw you over, which I dig a lot. Reviving Moira/Natalia doesn't take long either, I think you can even move while doing it so you don't get stuck in revive/down loops like in RE5 and RE6. If you die as Claire or Barry, you get a game over, and if you're in a situation where you can't reach Moira/Natalia and they get downed, you get a game over as well. I'm not sure what happens if you get downed while playing as Moira/Natalia, presumably a game over unless you're in co-op, but maybe it just forces a character switch. Moira and Natalia also seem to regenerate health. In single player, doing co-op stuff like boosting Moira to a ledge to trigger/open something, control seems to switch automatically to her (then again I hit Triangle just in case, so I'm not 100%) because if you switch back to Claire, AI Moira just runs back and jumps down to you again. It's not like RE6 where the AI character will just complete the event while you wait, since you can switch at any time!

Your partner WILL do stuff to help you, but they don't directly attack enemies much (I have seen Moira brandishing her crowbar but I can't remember if I've seen her use it.) I'm not sure if they can use sub-weapons like Fire Bottles, or any consumables for that matter as I don't think I've seen them use an herb (you can probably still use an herb in a pinch.) Moira will always be trying to stun enemies with her flashlight, but her targets appear to be random. If you're playing as Moira, Claire will actually melee attack enemies that you have stunned, so you can perform Moira's follow-up (the concept of stun --> melee --> follow-up is the game's general combat flow, replacing the body part-based melee attacks/counters and coup de grace moves from RE4-5 and RE6.) You can stun enemies with headshots, Moira's flashlight (focus the beam with L2 to blind enemies after a few seconds) or Moira's crowbar to their back (her crowbar is just a melee weapon like the knife from Revelations, Claire has a knife too but when I say melee I'm referring to the on-screen prompted attacks,) then you can melee them with Claire, then Moira can hit the enemy on the ground which is either an instakill or at least heavy damage. Natalia's follow-up I can't figure out, she carries bricks which break after hitting enemies 3 times, there's a ground attack but it doesn't seem to do any extra damage, Barry's melees usually kill zombes anyway, and switching, grabbing a brick then trying for a follow-up if a zombie gets knocked down is almost impossible. Maybe I should see what the AI does if I give her a brick (I think she just throws it.) Natalia's special ability is seeing enemy auras through walls, to aid with stealth, she can also see weakpoints of Revenants which you need to attack or else they continually mutate. She doesn't have a light, she just points at glowing items that Barry can't see (Barry has a light on his vest and will shine where you're looking.)

Moira in general is just FUN to play as. You could make an entire game with her mechanics. You can turn her flashlight on/off with R3 (this is why I expect you have to turn it off for sneaking. I assume she can stealth kill but I haven't tried with her.) She can focus the beam with L2 but it does need to recharge, batteries how do they work? When her light casts over stuff, items will glint in the light ONLY, and need to be revealed with the focused beam before they can be picked up (there are also "Kafka Drawings" which she can reveal. Franz Kafka's poetry is referenced in this game, I think it was in Revelations 1 as well...) She will follow Claire's gaze as AI, but she won't use the focused beam except on enemies. Blinding enemies takes an agonizing 3-5 seconds, but it can be made more effective with skills that you purchase. It's cool how she can slow and stun enemies with her light in front, and hit them in the back with her crowbar for a lot of stun damage (like headshots it's not a guaranteed stun, I'm pretty sure, this is typical modern RE.) The fact that she is such a fun playable character, without actually having to wield a gun, is a true achievement in the genre, and narratively is really important because she apparently has issues with firearms. I believe she even flinches and yelps a little bit if you fire your gun near her outside of combat. I think Moira's the real star of this game, fitting with the way that the game starts with welcoming party, I'll definitely be subbing her in Raid mode (maining Jill of course.)

Some minor bits and bobs. Inventory is shared like in RE5, Moira and Natalia have half as many slots and passing items between characters is instant and doesn't require proximity, but the inventory does NOT pause the game, I hella dig this dawg, I loved RE5's inventory. You pick up parts kits to upgrade weapons like Revelations 1, but until you reach a workbench they take up inventory (Revelations 1 might've worked like this, I forget) otherwise the workbench functions just like the boxes from Revelations 1, and inventory works the same also. You cannot heal each-other, at least in single player, but your partner will use "impairment" healing items on you automatically; like Code Veronica (and maybe some of the other classics) you can get debuffs like bleeding and blindness, bleeding dealing damage over time and needs to be mended with a tourniquet (item use in this circumstance is instantaneous and can be done from reasonable distances.)

The menus in this game are super sweet, although you can never access a full-screen map, just a mini-map if you find the item in the game world. You've got a list of challenges to complete which unlock concept art and figurines and other gallery items that you can buy with BP, the campaign's currency; challeges with ribbon icons beside them double as trophies/achievements. They specify if they need to be completed by a human player (there are only a few) but otherwise they can be earned by your partner (I blinded an enemy and then AI Claire kicked him for the Teamwork trophy, presumably this works the other way around if AI Moira blinds the enemy first.) You also have a list of medals a la RE6, and you can actually check it mid-chapter which is a super nice change (I haven't replayed any chapters yet, I forget if the medals earned me BP or not. Edit: Yes, they are the largest source of BP.) Some will be hidden until you complete the chapter though. (Edit: You can achieve medals on replays for extra BP; for trophies you don't have to get all of them in a single playthrough.) You can also view the tutorial from the menu, AND all the documents in the order they should be found, for the current episode. This is super great because I actually created a guide for Revelations 1's documents, I'm pretty sure I found them all, the game listed them in your inventory but without rhyme or reason or a number of how many there are (and Revelations 1 never had an achievement for getting them all so I could still be missing something. =/)

On the title screen you can continue or do stage select, the game is supposed to go Claire-->Barry-->Claire-->... through all four episodes, but I suppose you could go all Haruhi and play them RE6 style by quitting at the results screen to play the same character's following episode. I'm curious if that'll make much sense. You can look at the gallery I mentioned before and buy the items with BP, you can even convert BP into Gold, Raid Mode's currency. Movies are unlocked as you see them, for free, so only bonus content needs to be unlocked via challenges/trophies and then purchased.

You can buy skills which are permanent upgrades unlike RE6 (RE6 let you select skills of varying levels with a certain number of slots you could fill) and most of them level up in three increments, requiring more and more BP. Some of these can be really potent, making significant changes to evasion, cooldowns, times to revive/heal, attack strengths and stun damage, etc...One cool skill allows AI Claire and Barry to use their gun, but they deal very weak damage, apparently Claire and Barry can eventually get their own follow-ups (maybe they'll be like the curbstomps/impales from RE5-6.) At the results screen after each chapter (each episode being a Claire chapter and a Barry chapter) you are ranked based on accuracy, retries and time, and I think those reward BP like in RE5 but I'm not sure, you can also pick up gems like the other modern games, they grant immediate BP like in RE6. Certain skills will let you earn BP as well after performing follow-ups. After the results screen you can quit to the title screen, continue the game based on the episode structure I outlined before, or go and upgrade skills.

The game's leaderboard is based on time only, and are ranked by the chapters. Episode 1 Claire, Episode 1 Barry, Episode 2 Claire...All chapters. The title screen also features your Raid Mode records/challenges. Raid Mode is a separate hub with a separate currency, accessed via the title screen. It's played in-character, you are a victim of the Overseer, the game's antagonist voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and are inserted digitally to train for combat with the Red Queen Alpha. You choose your character to simulate, a skillset and weapon set, consumables, you can buy weapons and parts with Gold or earn them through gameplay (they're represented as Albums/Records and bought from a Jukebox...Strange,) there's a rulebook for tutorials and a bunch of other things to look at. Two characters are unlocked by clearing episode 1, pretty sure it's Moira and Gina Foley (I wonder if Revelations 3 will have a new Foley, like the Carmines from Gears of War,) Jill I think is unlocked by getting 10 Medals total across the campaign (I got 6 in Claire chapter 1, first try) and "Cipher" is unlocked by getting 90. I haven't played it yet because I haven't unlocked Jillwaifu, and I'm kinda waiting for the online co-op, but it is splitscreen-able right now.
Edit: okay so the medallions for Jill and Cipher are actually earned in Raid mode, you just need to perfect 10 stages. Jill's in her wetsuit, kind of disappointing but I kind of expected that.

So yeah. All in all, this is a beefy package, probably the best RE mechanics-wise at least, whether the plot will be great is gonna take a while to discover. It'll be a short game, because chapters are similar in length to Revelations 1 and RE6 (hour, hour and a half) so it's basically like RE6 but with two character campaigns instead of four, which is a good thing honestly, it's $30 so whatevs. I have a feeling that the plot is going to involve the return of Tricell, due to the stingers of certain RE movies and games, but all I really know is that the Overseer is calling the shots and she talks to you through your FEAR BRACELET (something cool on PS4, the Overseer's voice comes out of the controller's speaker, and the controller glows the colours of the fear bracelet as you take damage turning solid red if you die (THERE WAS A BIG SPIKY MAN WITH A SPIKY HAMMER AND BLEEDING CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD AS A MECHANIC OKAY I ONLY DIED ONCE.)) The virus in this game seems to take hold based on fear, your bracelet monitors endorphinithings and whizbangs and magic and based on that it will go from green to yellow to blinking red; when it turns solid red, you've basically lost your mind and the virus takes hold and you become a mutant, one of the Afflicted. VERY cool, THIS is what BIOHAZAADO is all about.

Oh and Barry is voiced by Michael McConnohie, which I wasn't expecting to work but it totally does.

BUY 10 COPIES, TWICE

Edit: okay so Moira is disappointing in Raid mode, all characters play identically so she uses guns and a knife...I don't agree with that design choice.


Double Edit: Okay so buying the Follow-Up skill is important, it lets Claire and Barry attack grounded enemies with an impale animation, as expected. As far as I'm aware, this just deals massive damage since in raid mode, the impale does just that. Only stealth kills instakill...But in Episode 1 on Normal, Follow-Ups do guarantee a kill (Ironheads, the hammer guys, don't seem to take damage though; you do the animation, blood comes from the air, but they're already getting up.)

Natalia does such poor damage that even her Follow-Up is super weak, so increasing brick power is important since a single brick can't even defeat one enemy at the start. I don't know if her bricks are designed to stun enemies like Moira's crowbar. Their main purpose I think is to hit Revenants' weak points because once they're hit, they bulge and Barry can see that. Edit: I can't remember if this was how things worked originally, but after upgrading her bricks twice, hitting an enemy knocks them down. I think the Rotten are designed to be weaker, not that Barry is stronger, so as Barry you can get headshots then melee, or have Natalia brick them and then either character can do a Follow-Up, keeping in mind that Natalia's brick damage does need to be upgraded for this aspect at least as I clearly remember not being able to kill with the brick by default. Rotten do not get up after being downed, they just crawl.

Moira can use sub-weapons, Natalia can't because the bricks can be thrown thrown like a sub-weapon, I assume this difference and the fact that Moira's Follow-Up appears to be as powerful as Claire and Barry's without needing upgrades is supposed to emphasize their differences, by default Natalia is for tracking enemies, guiding stealth kills, and revealing weak points, not stunning or Follow-Ups.

Partner characters do regen health, I don't know what happens if you get downed while playing as them...I confirmed that if AI Claire or Barry die, it's game over.

Be careful looking up Revelations 2 on other forums. People have data mined the PC version and have found the secret files (basically like RE5's files from the title screen) and concept art which reveal some major spoilers, and people are just assuming it's common knowledge now. Thankfully the plot seems to be headed in a good direction.


In other news, I discovered that certain enemies in Claire's chapters, ones with bubbly heads, will drop "land mines" if you let their corpses dissolve. If you shoot the bubble it will explode and kill the enemy instantly, I think it does minor AoE damage in a tiny range but I'm unsure. (If you play for long enough Claire will be able to see and triggers these mines.) These things will carry over to Barry's chapters in the same locations, also, apparently you can destroy a set of Illegal Custom Parts (gold,) I think this happens if you use the flaming bust, which then do not appear in Barry's chapter, this is important since it appears that you can only obtain each set of custom parts once (I found no extras when replaying Claire's chapter.) Thankfully the parts don't appear to break if you shoot them once, because I didn't understand how to get them and thought I could shoot them out of place like gems (because you can't get them during Claire's chapter.) Hopefully when you replay Claire's chapter from scratch it resets. The game seems to remember the state of each character's campaign separately in terms of items and inventory (a la RE5 and RE6) and presumably remembers the state you left each chapter in as far as these environmental aspects go.

Edit: more carries over than I thought. First playthrough I missed a hidden item with Moira, and Natalia found it. On my second Claire playthrough I got it, and it didn't appear either time for Natalia when I played Barry's chapter again, thrice (my last Claire playthrough was partial, but I got a checkpoint after doing this again so I can confirm that checkpoints are all you need to save your chapter and inventory state. You need to finish to record times, ranks and get medals and BP though.)

The game also randomizes certain sequences. I've died a couple times, testing stuff, and upon retrying, one or two enemies don't appear or appear later or in a different spot, I first thought the game had a difficulty-lowering aspect, but toward the end of Barry's first chapter there are two rooms, and one Revenant spawns in one of them at random each playthrough, though their orientation and weapon arm seem fixed.

BTW, although they act like the Afflicted, Barry's enemies are called the Rotten and have a different appearance, for reasons I won't spoil. It's a surprising touch.

Double Edit: I believe the mines are left if you shoot the bubble. So, in exchange for an instakill, you get to deal with mines after a fixed amount of time.

Oh and a neat feature, if you discard an item, it appears in the game world at the feet of your current character. Dunno if they cross over campaigns if you do that (Edit: they don't.)There's also an item crafting system I didn't mention because it's very basic, a replacement for mixing herbs really; crafted items go into the inventory of whoever made them, recipes are only revealed if you have all the ingredients...Oh, and you can get things to increase inventory space by one row per character, and ammo cases to increase the max you can carry for different weapon types.

Claire's second chapter starts strong and the setting is way cool, but it sags a bit in the middle.

I had a lot of fun with the game, but after finishing it I really wish that it had the budget/time put into it that the main series games do. I thought the partner mechanics were really well done and could have been even better if expanded on more.



6.5/10

Spoiler:

(Barry reacts to some notes in the game world, but Claire and Moira don't which really bothers me because some of them are very potent.)

Because of the episodic structure and because Barry is essentially following Claire's travels backwards (a lot like DMC4, hmm,) I kind of feel that Barry's second and third episodes really sag, most of their plot details being involved at the second episode's ending cutscene and the third's beginning. The end of Barry's episode 3 hits a high note with the enemy introduced at the end though.

Spoiler:

I kinda wish that they described the virus in more detail though, because apart from activating from fear, it's not clear what it does or what creatures it was responsible for (I'm talking about the Glasps.

Spoiler:

Barry's final chapter also suffers from the gas mechanic, it's not scary, it just makes you have to run to high ground repeatedly and increases the time of a chapter that's already 1.5x longer than normal to make up for Claire's final chapter's length. Once the screen starts going black, you're probably in a position where you're gonna die unless you're already heading back. (Also the

Spoiler:

Apart from that though, I think the game is fantastic. Great pacing apart from the bits I mentioned where you're just retracting Claire's steps, I love that Claire's campaign can affect Barry's which alleviates some of that frustration...And when Barry isn't redoing her areas, his new areas are great. It does a great job of fitting in with the RE story, it feels like a sequel to Revelations 1 (though I feel that

Spoiler:

it fits nicely in between RE5 and RE6 and doesn't contradict anything, although it has some unfortunate callbacks to Code Veronica with Neil being Steve 2.0. I've already discussed the mechanics at length, the partner mechanic is great (but definitely don't let the AI play as the non-Partner character while Glasps are around as you'll get a game over almost guaranteed) and they really just take the best bits of Revelations 1, RE5 and RE6 and make it work. I hope that they take another stab at the cover and melee systems from RE6 in RE7 though, I don't want RE7 to be Revelations 3. Raid mode is kinda eh, but I'm hoping it'll be fun with a buddy in co-op as it's very promising and has a lot of content, even if a lot of the maps and half the character models/audio are from other games. The episodic release definitely felt like a gimmick because the game clearly had to have been finished, they couldn't have done much in ONE MONTH, but I think the price is right. You get four chapters across two campaigns, two bonus chapters, that is equivalent to half of RE6's campaign, and Revelations 2 is half the price. Revelations 2 didn't look bad, but it certainly could've been flashier like RE6, but I'm more than okay with what we go. We can get our Michael Bay on in RE7.

Now, for the future...It's still not clear what plot threads have been wrapped up.

Spoiler:

For the bad ending you have to

Huh, I wasn't expecting that something from chapter 3 would affect chapter 4. Interesting. I guess I understand, because if you did that,

Spoiler: