Resident Evil: Revelations https://i.imgur.com/IqdkGYh.jpg Im Federal Agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life. Jill Valentine
To me, Revelations as a title implies the game will reveal a dark secret about whats happened up to this point. Spoilers, but the titular revelations are about people and organizations we never met until this game. But if you want to learn more about series mainstays like Parker, Jessica, Raymond, Norman, Morgan, Keith, and Quint, have I got the game for you!
I guess what I can respect about Revelations is that its the only game that goes all-in on the idea of bioterrorism. People talk about bioterrorism in 5, 6, 7, and Rev 2, but its always in the background and isnt really the focal point this time, it actually is. This is the only game in the series with an actual, honest-to-God bioterrorist in it: one guy. The problem is that the game decides to explore this concept in the strangest way possible: by making it exactly like 24. And Im not joking when I say that. I am going to list all of the ways this game is like 24:
The game is constantly telling you the time, as if you care that its 9:08 PM, and takes place over a short timeframe.
There is constant cutting between locations and flashbacks. You never stay with a particular group of people longer than about an hour.
There are constantly cutscenes where you see BSAA headquarters (the monster-hunting organization), and it looks and sounds exactly like CTU from 24. Theres even an older guy walking around next to glowing blue computer screens giving orders to computer nerds. A big emphasis is placed on showing the BSAA as a large organization exactly like CTU.
The game is split into twelve episodes, each of which ends with a cliffhanger thats immediately resolved in the next chapter: someone is about to die, a gunshot rings out, something like that.
At the start of each new chapter (so eleven times), theres a recap of previous events where a main character narrates, like youre watching 24. This is probably the most inexplicable aspect of the entire game. Some of the episodes are like twenty minutes long, so youre getting a recap of what just happened. There are cutscenes in MGS4 that last longer than two consecutive episodes in Rev, meaning youll watch three recaps of things that just happened in the time it takes Snake to talk to Naomi.
The plot has almost nothing to do with monsters and is entirely about government guys and conspiracies. Like, the monsters are used as a weapon, but it could have just as easily been mustard gas. Rev isnt the only game where this happens (RE5 is guilty to some extent of having irrelevant monsters), but its the most blatant about it.
There are constantly government guys betraying you, terrorists, and people saying things like We cant win unless we get our hands dirty.
The game ends with white text on black background saying what happened to each character in turn, as if this was a spy drama or something.
The game ends with a ton of unresolved sequel bait, especially Rachael, Raymond, and Jessicas fates.
The plot of this story is presented by means of flashbacks and cutaways and isnt in chronological order, but heres the gist: the American director of counterbioterrorism says I am going to secretly fund bioterrorists in their bid to destroy the ocean because then I can get more funding for my agency, and Ill also destroy a city lol. Our heroes go to investigate the terrorists and eventually figure out whats happening. And thats basically it? There are a lot of 24-esque plot twists about betrayals and whatever, but none of them matter that much. Its incredibly strange how this games story progresses. Its the most predictable and stupid thing ever, which is what you expect from Resident Evil, but it seems to think its genuinely a clever story, and it has a huge emphasis on cutscenes and plot? If you were surprised by any of the plot twists in this game, I can only assume that you are an alien who has never seen any of our Earthling TV shows before.
I dont even know where to begin unpacking this games story. Im just going to list random things that bothered me about it:
Literally the very first thing in the game, literally the first thirty seconds, is Jill, the Master of Unlocking, shooting a lock to open it.
Jill and Chris, our supposed main characters, have no consequence to the story. This is a story about Parker, Raymond, Jessica, Grinder, Jackass, and Norman. The fact that Jill and Chris are here is important only in that they are experienced agents who can survive monster attacks. Compare this to any other game with recurring protagonists, where the fact that were playing as Jill/Chris/Leon/Claire/Rebecca/Sherry/Ada/Barry is actually important and it feels like an extension of what happened in previous games. When you get styled on by CV, RE0, and RE6, theres something seriously wrong with you. Like, I want this to be crystal clear: if you replaced Jill and Chris with new characters, it would change nothing, and the game would no longer have any connection to Resident Evil as a franchise.
Theres a character named Rachael who dies in the first ten minutes of the game. We have never met Rachael before. She gets exactly one line before she dies, and its something to the effect of oh no. She becomes a major recurring boss, and the game presents her like this tragic monster you should feel sorry for. She sings, she taunts you, etc. But the audience has no ****ing idea who this woman is. Did Rachael like to sing when she was still human? Was she playful or serious? I have no idea! I have no idea how much the monsterism changed her personality, which makes her taunting personality as a monster impossible to gauge. Excuse me, game, Im trying to reflect upon the Shakespearean tragedy that is this womans needless death and the hubris of man as it constantly creates new monster viruses. Could you please include her in one of the seventeen flashback sequences so I can feel something about her death? Thank you.
A major element of the game is the terrorist agency Veltro, which wants to blow up the ocean or whatever. But they have no motive beyond rah we hate the world. For such a major part of the game, we the audience have no idea what they want.
The game makes nonstop Dantes Inferno and Hamlet references, as if anyone besides me who plays Resident Evil games has read those.
One of the biggest issues is that the game cannot pick a location and stick with it. As you play through the cruise ship and try to be scared, the game switches perspectives to a dude in a skyscraper in the middle of the day, or two people trekking through the mountains, or something like that. And good luck trying to be spooked in general. This is the least bloody monster apocalypse ever. Almost every surface in the ship is completely clean, theres only blood in a few locations, and there is no gore at all. CV has the excuse of being the first fully 3D game; Rev does not.
The lamest aspect of this game is the monsters. I dont even know what theyre called, theyre just fish guys who act like zombies (to the point where Jill even calls one a zombie at one point). Never have the monsters felt more like an afterthought than in this game. Someone just said We cant use zombies after RE4 introduced not!zombies; this game is set on a ship, so lets use fish guys.
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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
