Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode 1 Xbox One Review

Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode 1 Xbox One Review

Released by Capcom
Platform: XBox One

There's just something about the Resident Evil series that really sets you on edge.

In the latest release franchise, which is being unleashed episodically and weekly, there's more than an element of fear frittered throughout the game.

You take on the role of fan favourite Claire Redfield in the start of this new batch of 4 episodes. The survivor of the Raccoon City incident is now an employee of anti-bioterrorism organisation Terra Save.

As the game gets underway, Claire's at a party at Terra Save with Moira Burton who's attending the shindig as well. It's all going well until the windows are smashed in and army soldiers come flying in through the glass and take Claire and Moira hostage.

You start off as Claire, waking at an abandoned detention facility on a mysterious island and have to try and puzzle your way out of there, with Moira at your side. However, it appears someone is aiding you to do this as a figure is watching on monitors and letting you progress when they want you to.

At the same time as this, Barry Burton is heading to the island to find his missing daughter and comes across Natalia, a little girl with a strange power.

The two parallel storylines play out together, giving you the chance to play at the same time. But it's still the atmosphere (or should that be atmos-fear) which gives Resident Evil Revelations 2 its true sense of horror.

Creatures lurk at every corner and as with the likes of The Last Of Us, you have to know when to go for combat and when to run for cover. Puzzles also are prevalent throughout, so you'll need to use both characters to solve these to allow for progression - and it helps that the respective partners have skills which work in tandem with the proposed method of attack and solution.

Some of the dialogue sticks out a little from time to time, but you don't play Resident Evil for the incidentals - you play it for the pure fear factor and to be frank, in a dark room, with the sound up, Revelations more than delivers on that front - and it's fair to say that the best elements of this game are all about the surprises, rather than me dishing out spoilers here.

Equally, the game comes with a Raid mode, which will see you taking on the hordes of creatures and dishing out your own take on vengeance. (I've not spent stacks of time in this level as the main story with its weekly release is keeping me pretty busy for now, but a brief dive in has shown that it's fun and a counterpart which offers a release to the tension of the main story)

Resident Evil Revelations 2 is perhaps at its heart a true survival horror game. It's got nervy interactions, deep dark dank corridors to explore and spooky goings on to cower at. On the evidence of the first episode, there's much more going on than you first see, but it's well worth diving into. And it's best to get a friend in to enjoy and endure the nerve jangling experience - you know, for your own comfort more than anything.

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