Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 2 Review

Immediately, I’m thankful. Whereas Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 1 (of which I talked extensively here) had a slow intro built to set the stage and add atmosphere, Episode 2 goes immediately into gameplay – but that can be a bit of a double-edged sword in the Resident Evil series…

Claire and Moira continue to embrace the nightmare and explore their surroundings, which soon lands them in a scenario which harkens back to Resident Evil 4’s infamous “The Cabin” scene just a little too much. It’s easier, for one, and the tension that its predecessor achieved in spades seems entirely absent. There’s also an area which reflects Resident Evil 4’s Village, again, just a little too much – here it’s dark and miserable, but not necessarily scary in any way.

While playing I kept wondering what kind of progression was happening with the characters; Claire Redfield, being experienced when it comes to viral outbreaks creating legions of monsters, seems mostly calm and composed, which is understandable, while Moira is more shaken, also understandable. The question really is, why isn’t Moira’s character progressing at all? Her character may be against using firearms, which is fine from a gameplay perspective, but from a story perspective this just paints Moira as immature, which is a little disheartening.

 

In Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 2 re-using areas also becomes more obvious – it happened in Episode 1, with Barry and Natalia mostly going over the steps Claire and Moira had made, but it’s certainly more in-your-face this time around, especially when playing as Claire and Moira and discovering item chests that only Natalia with her “Small Hands” can open. With each episode split into two pieces I assumed there would be a bigger difference in areas and enemies, but instead it’s essentially just the same areas just with different character moving through them.

I will give them credit for the invisible enemies introduced in Barry’s half of the episode, though: while overly reminiscent of the Novistadors from RE4, these foes are incredibly fun and tense to fight, forcing you to rely on the commands of your partner character to line up a shot and kill the enemy. This is where Natalia’s virus-detecting abilities truly become interesting.

Another interesting aspect of Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 2 is that ammo is far more scarce than in the first episode. This, coupled with a seemingly increased enemy density, definitely increases the survival factor.

Boss fights are also well done here and you may die repeatedly if you don’t approaach them with caution.