Tony:
Over a year ago, Capcom released Resident Evil: Revelations
on the Nintendo 3DS. It was given praise for its survival horror gameplay mixed
with occasional action sequences while still maintaining a very Resident Evil feel. Now Capcom is bringing this title to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and
Wii U as Resident Evil Revelations: Unveiled Edition. The new edition totes HD
graphics, new playable characters, and a new Intense difficulty mode which adds new
monsters to change things up. At Capcom’s PAX East 2013 booth, the Xbox 360
version of the game was playable, so I gave it a try.
Taking place before the events of Resident Evil 5, the game primarily stars lJill Valentine with her partner Parker Luciani.
The two are on a mission to explore the abandoned SS Queen Zenobia to look for Chris Redfield who went missing while investigating the possible return of Veltro, a terrorist organization which used the T-Abyss virus to create B.O.W.s
a year before. As you would expect, the ship is crawling with these monstrosities,
and in usual Resident Evil fashion, there are also a number of plot-twists
to keep things unexpected. Having played the 3DS version, I am curious to see
if they added any new plotline twists in this release.
In the demo, I got to see a portion of the main story as
well as the first mission in Raid Mode. Gameplay wise, Resident Evil
Revelations: Unveiled Edition played nearly identical to its 3DS counter part
when using the Circle Pad Pro. The left stick moves the character while the
right stick controls the camera, which helped me survey my surroundings, searching for
various monsters. In order to shoot your weapon, you must enter an aiming mode
by pressing the left trigger and then shoot with the right. Like with the 3DS
version, this mode could be set in first-person or over-the-shoulder as in Resident Evil 4. Overall, the controls were responsive and mapped well to
the Xbox 360 controller. Sadly, there wasn’t a Wii U version to play to see
what functions its touch screen would add besides a map.
Obviously, some major changes were the updated graphics for high definition displays. While the original was good-looking for a handheld title, this
version had more detail in the character models, better textures, and improved
lighting. The character models now appear closer to how they look in cutscenes. The
monsters are also improved, appearing wetter and slimier than ever. These creatures also
had more imperfections added such as gaps in the flesh or protruding bone
structures though the skin. The game’s textures were crisper and had
more detail with rust and drippings. While everything looked better in general,
it definitely did not look like it was made from the ground up like the previous console ventures. Instead, it looked as though Capcom took what was already
in the original game, cleaned it up, and made it higher resolution. Given that the
first game was good looking already, being cleaned up does make it a good
looking console experience, just not an amazing one.
The game’s musical score, sound effects, and voice acting
all sound like they did back on the handheld version. The second I heard
the theme playing on the menu screen, I was taken back to my time on the 3DS, huddled over and about to delve into another chapter. Finally, the game’s interface has also seen a slight facelift to fit the new HD television screen. Since there is
no second screen, the Xbox version had the map, weapon ammo, health bar, and
grenade count all on the screen along side the action. Being that all the other
Resident Evil titles have been like this before, it did not feel too cluttered
to play.
Resident Evil Revelations was a great title that played like
the RE games of old based around survival horror. Now with Unveiled Edition,
people will be able to fully experience this game on their big screens with
added features. While it does not look as graphically powerful as other HD games
by Capcom, it certainly isn’t an eyesore either. Even though I already own the
3DS version, I would be willing to try this game on consoles for its improvements
and extra content. Look forward for a true Resident Evil experience when it
comes to all consoles this May.
