Maximum Review: Resident Evil: Revelations

The tagline for Maximum Nintendo is "A blog about anything related to Nintendo. News, commentary, reviews. All that good stuff." I've given you news and commentary, but have yet to bring a review. Well today changes that. My reviews will not be like the major gaming websites where you have scores like 7.8/10 or 4 out of 5 for the games. I'm not gonna do that because a) I'd probably never give a score below 7/10 b) I can't express my feelings of a game in numbers that well anyway and c) It's cool to be different. Also, since I'm just some guy blogging, I won't be able to review games until at least a couple of weeks after the release date. I don't really have a set idea of how I want my reviews to go in terms of setup, so I may experiment a lot with this. Enough with the rambling, and let's get to that review.

Resident Evil: Revelations

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom, Tose 

Release Date (US): February 7, 2012

ESRB Rating: Rated M (17+) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Language

Features: Local and Online Multiplayer, SpotPass, StreetPass, Circle Pad Pro Support

Concept: Bring a full-fledged console Resident Evil experience to the 3DS

Resident Evil: Revelations is the second RE game for the 3DS after last year's The Mercenaries 3D, but it is the first to be specifically designed for the handheld. It is set in between the events of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 in 2005 by the series' timeline. The game's events are shortly after the foundation of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), which was a prominent part of Resident Evil 5. It features original Resident Evil protagonists Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield in a mystery related to a terrorist organization called Il Veltro and the destruction of a Mediterranean city called Terragrigia that sat on a artificial island. Jill and her new partner Parker find themselves on the abandoned ship Queen Zenobia when Chris went missing during a mission to find answers about Veltro and its possible resurrection. Revelations takes a very episodic format, which leads players through plenty of flashbacks and parallel missions.

Controls: I played the majority of Revelations with the default control setup, sans Circle Pad Pro. Both ways are certainly playable, and without the Circle Pad Pro, I didn't feel like I was missing out. The Circle Pad Pro setup is also great, but the only real advantage is it lets you move around while you aim your weapon. Either setup is totally playable and fun, so Capcom and Tose did a great job there. 

Gameplay: Revelations is part shooter, part adventure game, and pretty dang fun. If you're a big fan of first-person shooters, having to hold a button down just to switch to aiming mode may seem weird, but its not that hard to get used to. A dot laser of a color of your choosing will tell you where your bullets go plainly and clearly, so you don't have to worry about learning how each weapon handles. Keep on your toes, though. Monsters can and will come out of everywhere, and ammo can become scarce. The game is upbeat, and while sometimes I got lost (it was my fault, though), the map system keeps your bearings pretty well. Unlike The Mercenaries 3D, you won't have an issue of enemies looking choppy, but you will somewhere else. Places like elevators and certain doors slow down the game's frame rate a ton because of the need to load a new area, but since you do nothing but stand around and wait in those areas, it isn't much more than an annoyance. And if you are tired of the campaign and just want to have a little action, Raid mode is there for you. It's the same mechanics, except you just need to get to the goal. Raid mode supports multiplayer in both local and online settings, so you can go it alone or play with others.

Graphics: Resident Evil: Revelations is by far one of the best-looking games on the 3DS. To me it looks on par with some Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games. The textures aren't as detailed as a console game, but the 3DS screen's resolution means it doesn't have to be to look great. I would have to say it's battling Super Mario 3D Land for best 3DS graphics. 

Conclusion: All in all, Revelations is a great addition to the Resident Evil series for fans both new and old. This was my second RE game after Mercenaries, and Revelations gave me a great impression of the series. For the Resident Evil fan, the story is a great little side story explaining some aspects of Resident Evil 5, which can be appreciated, while its self-contained feeling bodes well for newcomers. So if you're new to the series or are eagerly waiting for Operation: Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6 this year, this won't disappoint.

And here's a little blog-related announcement: since I have a lot of school stuff to do, and summer brings a full-time job, I'm thinking of toning down the amount of news I report on and focusing on more opinion-related posts. I'll report on major stuff, like the release date or title of the next Mario or Zelda, or when Pandora's Tower is announced for the US, and other stuff like that. But reporting on news I got from some other site isn't worth it too much, and the way I can set Maximum Nintendo apart is by its opinion articles. So expect to see more opinion posts every couple of days, but I'll start posting links to interesting news articles on the Twitter account (far as I know, nobody has "liked" the Facebook page yet).