A week has passed, and as we had been expecting the second episode of Resident Evil Revelations 2 was released. After the first episode, I criticised the game for what it was worth, but the second episode has softened my heart. On the one hand, I’ve managed to get used to the somewhat low quality of the project, and on the other, they have managed to correct some of their mistakes, which automatically made the continuation a bit better.
To begin with, I’d like to note that Capcom apologised to fans, playing Revelations 2 on PC. Yes, the game still doesn’t have a co-operative mode, which kills the lion’s share of all the pleasurable sensations of the gameplay. Two characters, each with unique abilities and possibilities … well, how could one think to cut out co-op? We can only wait now and, since we’ve had an apology, we can hope that the co-op will still come back to PC.
A co-op is very necessary in the second episode, for both duos now have to work well together and should have learned how to exploit the strong and the weak sides of each other. Moira blinds enemies, Claire shoot them. Natalia marks enemies through walls, marks the weak spots in the bodies of enemies, marks even invisible enemies, and Barry deals with them at his discretion – whether it’s creeping up softly or firing from a distance (as he now has a sniper rifle for this purpose).
There are now many moments in the second episode that require co-ordinated work of two companions. At the same duration (30-40 minutes per duo) there is an obscene number of different situations. If we dallied along only one prison in the first episode, the places and events interchange with indecent speed in the continuation. Of course, as always, a big part of the scenery for Barry and Claire is the same, but still there is no time for looking around and noticing things anymore. A lot of new enemies: small, large, invisible, difficult to kill, even a couple that look like mini-versions of William Birkin, and that’s not to mention the boss. In general, there are more sensations given for every 10 minutes, than in the entire first episode.
And yet, I want to criticise the plot a little. A small spoiler for the ending of the first episode: it turned out that Barry came for his little girl a whole six months after the beginning of her adventure on the island. Natalia informs us at the end of the episode that Moira is already dead and this was the second plot twist in a minute towards the end. The authors behaved like experienced series writers, intriguing players with these facts at the end so much that the wait became unbearable.
But with this intrigue they are also too clever by half. It turned out that Natalia could not have known that Moira died, because they separated when she was still alive. That is, the authors of the script, for the sake of their own intrigue, in fact, made themselves a pit in the ground, ran for it … and received the corresponding result in the end. The plot is good, I can’t argue with that, but these illogical moments make me stop taking it seriously. Who knows what else will be re-written next time? Suddenly, everything that happens is Natalie’s dream within Wesker’s son’s dream, clubbed over the head by Sherry Birkin? Magic and flying ponies with rainbow pollen cannot be discounted in the end as well…
Nevertheless, I am in a good mood today, and I won’t write once again about the wobbliness of the PC port, the short duration (in order for me not to grumble about this, there should have been about eight episodes, not four as planned), the weak graphic and the buggy “Raid” operating mode. The authors have two more weeks to surprise us, and do something so that I would stop paying attention to their numerous failures. So far, I see that they are on the right track, but they need to move even faster.
Kirill Ilukhin. Born in 1985 in a land with snowy summers and flooding winters. Games addict from the age of 13, actively voicing opinions about them since 17.
