Review: Resident Evil: Revelations 2 “Episode One: Penal Colony”

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is weird.

From the first of four episodes that I’ve played and can write about, I think this new game is going to polarise players and fans.

It’s very hit-and-miss. When things get overly serious, the game drops lines like “Because ‘terr’ doesn’t have to end with ‘rist’”, when talking about Claire Redfield’s company, Terra Save. That comes complete with a television ad, laden with big-smiled, can-do employees. It’s awful and eyeroll-worthy, but perfectly so and in the same vein as the original Resident Evil. Unfortunately, that atmosphere gets destroyed only a little while later as Barry Burton self-references his infamous ‘Jill sandwich’ line.

No, Capcom. No.

Like Revelations before it, Revelations 2 has so far proven itself to be a little less action-oriented than Resident Evil 6, but nowhere near other, earlier games in the franchise’s past. Worse yet, it tends to jump all over the shop, offering up straight-up action against hardcore stealth. It’s a definite continuation of the franchise’s bout of identity crisis.

Revelations 2’s first episode “Penal Colony” is — like every one of its episodes, I’d suspect – split into two parts. The first part follows Claire Redfield and Moira Burton, while the second follows Moira’s father (and Resident Evil veteran) Barry Burton alongside a creepy little girl named Natalia.

From what we’ve been told in the game’s marketing, Claire’s now battle-hardened; older and experienced. The problem is, she doesn’t seem any different than how she was portrayed in Code: Veronica. In fact, it’s hard not to think of Code: Veronica when playing this episode – the opening of the game features helicopters with spotlights zeroing in on Claire. Sadly, rather than acting like an older, wiser bad-ass, Claire simply gets apprehended without any fuss.

Boo. Fanboy complaint: Capcom needed a new voice actor for Claire because she’s older, but Barry’s voice actor from 2002 was still okay? More boo.

Anyway, the comparisons don’t end there. Claire awakes after being knocked out to find herself on a mysterious island in the midst of a viral outbreak. She has to scavenge to find a knife, then a gun, and then some means of escape. Along the way, the runs into Moira, a foul-mouthed punk of a girl who swears more than… well, anything else.

She’s so edgy, she calls her own dad ‘Barry’. HER OWN DAD, GUYS.

Let’s really focus on Moira for a second. She looks like the punk-styled, female version of Capcom’s recent DmC: Devil May Cry Dante. Can we try for some originality when presenting characters, please? For her horribly aggressive attitude, Moira is a semi-pacifist. She won’t take a gun, merely opting for a flashlight and a crowbar. The crowbar can be used against enemies, but more often than not is required to get past blocked doors. Moira’s flashlight can be focused, much in the same way you’d focus to aim down the sights of a gun. It will temporarily blind enemies or uncovers hidden items like XP or bullets.

It sucks to play as Moira.

Okay, it’s not that bad when playing Resident Evil: Revelations 2 in single-player; after going through a bit of a tutorial, you can hit a button to switch between characters at will. My problem lies with playing as Moira in co-op. You’ll be locked to her person and will have to spend your days crowbarring, dodging and searching for sparkly items on the ground. Natalia’s like that too, but I’ll get to her in a minute. The worst thing about Claire and Moira’s section, on the whole, is that it’s far more action-oriented than Barry and Natalia’s, meaning one person is locked as the aggressor and the other as the pacifist if in co-op. I get that Capcom wanted to encourage cooperative play (again boo), but at least let us play in the style of Resident Evil 5’s Chris and Sheva; they were interchangeable, actual equals.

Barry’s section is absolutely designed to be played as stealthily as possible. Though Natalia, who’s about 7 years old from what I can tell (oh, and very creepy – did I mention that yet?) can use bricks to defend herself, she’s really meant to be used to sneak around. The game encourages you to use her to identify enemies to Barry and then retreat so that the elder man can take them out. Barry, armed immediately with a handgun, assault rifle and magnum, is supposed to then tip-toe up to enemies and take them down with stealth kills. Barry’s section amps up near the end, but you’ll have myriad of ammo by then ‘cause you’ve tackled the rest of his play cautiously and methodically.

This episode is all over the shop. Sometimes in a frustrating way, and sometimes in a good way. Despite the ‘Jill sandwich’ thing, there are some awesome references to Resident Evil‘s history. I won’t spoil them here.

Looking around Claire’s section, it’s easiest to compare it to the recently released The Evil Within. There are blood splatters all over the walls. There are Saw-like weird bits of machinery poking out everywhere. Barry’s section looks more like something from Twin Peaks or Alan Wake, partially because Claire’s section begins to drop some over-arching mystery, but mostly because you spend a bunch of time outside in a creepy forest. Barry’s section of the game is vastly superior as a result.

I like the idea of the mystery that starts to unfold in “Penal Colony”. Who’s kidnapped the Terra Save employees? Is the person getting in contact with Claire and Moira an ally or an enemy? I actively want to keep playing the game to delve deeper into its story… but on the other hand, I can’t help but shake the feeling that this doesn’t seem like a Resident Evil game. Or, at least, after the recently released Resident Evil HD, like a Resident Evil game that I want to play.

Some tense moments are just that: tense. Others are random, poorly designed puzzles that will have you dying from a one-hit kill as you try to figure them out. Then, as you get restarted from the closest checkpoint — which no self-respecting Resident Evil game should have, by the way — you’ll come across the same, scripted scares that you just went through. Icky.

I’ll freely admit that Resident Evil is perhaps my most-loved game franchise, and as such, I might be overly critical of it. On that note, Capcom: a green and a red herb should never make three green herbs. Ever. You should be raked over hot coals for changing a staple of the franchise like that.

Anyways, for all the bitching I’ve just engaged in, I’ll also admit that after the cliff-hanger ending of episode one, I’m hooked. I don’t really care for Moira at all, but Natalia is an interest character. Though I didn’t really build any more rapport with Claire or Barry in this episode, I have grown up with the characters and want to see what happens to them next.

I’m not even remotely close to issuing a final verdict on this game; I’ll be holding off on that until the release of the game’s fourth and final episode. Though I’ve finished the three-hour-long episode today, I have yet to try the episode in its new Invisible mode. It might be cool. It mightn’t. At any rate, for its price and timely, week-after-week delivery method, I think you at least should buy this episode of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 to see where you fall in the love-it-or-hate-it spectrum.

Or, like in my case, to at least get a feel for what you… um, feel.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2‘s “Episode One: Penal Colony” was reviewed using a promotional code on Xbox One, as provided by the publisher. A final verdict and overall score will be issued to the game upon its fourth and final episodic release.