Resident Evil Revelations 2

This review is for Episodes 1-5 of the Nintendo Switch release of RER2, but can very well still be applicable to the PC release here and where I'll also publish my PC review when I write it. Switch: I'm gonna be honest, this is somehow one of my favorite Resident Evil games I've played, even though it does very much so have its kinks that can make it frustrating or down-right unbearable at times. Starting off with the probably over-looked thing, the story isn't the best, but it's far from the worst. You follow Claire and Moira, members of Terra Save, who are abducted by a mysterious woman speaking to them through bracelets that change color, corresponding to their fear levels as she's put a virus inside of them where if their fear spikes too high, they will either die or mutate into terrifying creatures. It's honestly shockingly well-done and even more impressively so whenever, if I'm correct, this is Capcom's first attempt to mesh survival horror with the latest episodic series craze that popped off in the 2010s. Episode One is a great introduction, Episode Two is more suspenseful and terrifying, Episode Three is really where it gets horrifying and Episode Four is the thrilling and terrifying conclusion of the game and it's overall a good execution on Capcom's part in my opinion. The gameplay also isn't very bad. There's fairly unique enemies throughout the course of the game where you need to expose and then hit weak-spots, ones that are invisible and distort your vision as you close the distance to them and they're overall terrifying and, even for 2015's standards, the gunplay feels objectively great and like it isn't the worst thing ever AND the co-op integration is awesome and I found myself on many occassions primarily playing as Moira because I liked how she was designed and her flashlight and crowbar assist's felt great and the perk progression system was also well-executed in my opinion and felt like, as you progressed through the story, it wasn't unbearably difficult to gain SP to unlock new perks and upgrade existing ones. Barry and Natalia's campaign was also great. Barry is about as he was in previous Resident Evil entries with powerful guns and immense strength, but here, he actually takes some technique to play and is arguably more stressful than playing as Claire and Moira as he's exposed to the more aggressive and intimidating enemies before they are, which makes sense. Natalia is also very unique because, while unable to defend herself with anything outside of bricks, she has the ability to sense enemies through walls and can see their auras which change color depending on what or whom they are and whether they've spotted either of the characters respectively or not. It's honestly a fairly unique experience and is really well-done, even though the bar and expectations for the Resident Evil franchise was fairly high, despite the bad apples like RE: Survivor and the Outbreak trilogy, I believe? The graphics are also great. Moira and Claire and their respective environments look great and it's infinitely more impressive when this still remains the truth on the switch port of the game, where you'd expect major graphical fidelity drops and this just isn't the case. While the Switch version does have some frame-drops, it isn't near as bad as the PS Vita release (which I won't dog on too much as I haven't played it yet, but do plan on doing so) and maintains a stable 30fps at the minimum and breaking that and hitting 60 more often than not. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is honestly a great experience across the board and is a fantastic game for fans of the franchise who want to "expand" their horizons. While it is by no means the best game in the series, it is a fun and enjoyable experience with its good story, great gunplay and wonderful optimization across the board and is even better for those returning RE veterans who want to see Claire and Barry's stories expanded upon and even new players with no prior knowledge to the series who get introduced to the charming cast and terrifying vibes of Resident Evil.