This was... well, it was special. I've seen people claim this is a 'return' to the classic survival horror roots of the first Resident Evil game, but honestly, they're full of shit. This game isn't awful, but man does it feel weird to play.

First off, how about some good things? The enemy designs in Revelations are awesome. The aquatic theme for the fucked up mutants in this game is executed really well, and I was pleasantly surprised with each new enemy. In all honesty, the enemy variety and uniqueness might be the best out of every RE game I've played so far. The aquatic theme also works alright for the setting. The cruise ship is a very distinct location, but it's hampered by issues I will mention later. Finally, the soundtrack is pretty sweet. The tune that plays at the end of each episode is a real earworm, and some of the music toward the end of the game really stood out to me as well.

Okay, now for the bad. The episodic format of the game isn't really bad, but the fact that you rarely play the same character for more than ten minutes at the time is jarring. It's cool that they wanted to tell a story via multiple characters at once, but it doesn't feel very cohesive, particularly since the story is not that good (though I do love the idea of Terragrigia and I think Veltro and the FBC v BSAA conflict are cool). The gameplay is also subpar. The gunplay doesn't feel weighty at all, the camera is kind of annoying, the Genesis, while somewhat engaging, is a pain to use half the time because it slows the pace of the game, and the level layout... oh boy. The Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil gets to be big and sprawling because you are constantly backtracking, so by the end of the game you know where you are at all times and how everything connects. Revelations bounces you between 4-5 locations, so the cruise ship doesn't feel familiar to you at any point. Getting around is confusing, particularly because the in-game map gives no indication of which room is which. It's a shame, because as I said earlier, an abandoned and adrift cruise ship is a promising setting for a RE game, but the disjointed nature of the game makes it ultimately pretty lame in practice.

In the end, I don't hate the game. Parker and Raymond are neat new additions to the RE character lineup, the story has some interesting ideas, and the enemies are memorable, but I have no desire to ever replay a game with such tedious gameplay.

Definitely my least favorite of the Resident Evil games I’ve played so far and the first one to just feel quite bland and tedious to me despite having decent potential and some great moments.

The good: aquatic horror setting and theming is fantastic with some genuinely creepy and creative enemy designs. I love the horrifying tube sucker thing that emerges from enemies’ mouths and latches on your head when you get grabbed. Combat can also be quite fun at times - functioning as a somewhat simplified version of RE5’s combat. I also enjoyed being able to mod weapons which allowed me to make an absurd 8000 dps magnum to use against the final boss (for reference standard pistol has around 300dps and the bolt action rifle has around 1300). This surprisingly didn’t destroy the balance of the game due to this sort of upgrade only being available in the last hour or so and the scarcity of magnum rounds. The final boss fight is also fantastic in this game. Definitely one of the most creative and difficult boss fights in the series - even with my illegally modded burst fire murder cannon.

The bad: this game switches back and forth between characters and settings 15+ times and it absolutely destroys the pacing of this game. The moment you start to feel immersed in the process of exploring the wonderfully creepy queen zenobia as Jill Valentine, you’re forced into a flash back with a different character or a largely on rails segment with Chris Redfield three days earlier or a cutscene featuring the inane banter and quips of two of the most annoying characters I’ve ever seen in a video game. (I can’t even be bothered to remember their names - Skeeter and Streeter or something. My best description of these two would be Jar Jar Binks meets the Property Brothers.) All of this switching back and forth is in service of the story, which uses these different character perspectives to set up cliff hangers and slowly reveal the details of the conspiracy surrounding the events of the game. None of this is particularly engaging and certainly not engaging enough to justify design decisions that disrupt the flow and pacing of gameplay.

The story in this game is generally serviceable but bland and pointlessly convoluted - bordering on nonsensical at times. The nicest thing I can say about the story is that it’s weird in a mildly interesting way. The story is a full on techno-thriller, and it was somewhat entertaining to see how this genre was applied to the lore of Resident Evil. Overall, however, the story was just kind of boring and at times kind of pretentious (the various inane allusions to Dante Alighieri), which is something I never thought I’d be saying about a Resident Evil game.

Can’t say id recommend this game even to Resident Evil fans. With other games in the series that are severely flawed like RE5 and RE0 there’s typically a few things they do that make them worth playing in spite of their flaws. This is definitely a functional game and one that’s weird and unique enough that there are probably some people out there that will love its idiosyncrasies, but these people are likely few and far between.

Played a bit of it and I'm mixed on parts.

On one half, Jill's sections are great and seem to give me the mood that Lost in Nightmares DLC gave me but the scanning annoys me at times for finding items, it does atleast reward you though with heals. Parker's NPC kinda stinks and didn't do much so do the actual enemies even if I like their design a bit. The dodge also kinda sucks but whatever.

On the other, the whole floating city and some of the plot beats just feel like the plot went completely off the rails. Even more-so than RE6 at times which gives me whiplash I felt because this was supposed to set before RE5 which idk man...

For the most part, I definitely want to continue it because the setting seems cool at the most part these side games do good with the RE elements from before.

First RE game that isn't 4 or 4 Remake. I think it started strong and then took a nosedive. It just feels so repetitive and I never felt like the story got super deep. I found a lot of the attempts of being serious to be super cheesy. For a 3DS game, I think it looks amazing, but on HD systems it looks like garbage. The 2 random guys are so insufferable that I would dread playing them. I wish they could have just cut them and everything else that wasn't on the boat but even then you are still left with a mediocre game

Revelations is a brief, budget take on the Resident Evil series. I played the Steam version on Normal mode. The port was great, it ran well and I experienced zero technical difficulties.

The game very much feels like a 3DS game. The graphics are fine, though by 3DS standards they are phenomenal, likely among the best on the system. The game is comprised of cramped corridors and small rooms, with loading rooms between sections. You never see a loading screen, but you'll be trapped in these rooms until everything loads in. The tight areas are a result of the hardware limitations, but they do well to contribute to the sense of horror. At the time of its release Revelations was seen as a return to the Survival Horror genre after experimenting with action. I think this is very much still an action game, but the scares and inventory management do seem to be emphasized more than in RE4 and RE5. The character models still look quite nice by today's standards, but the animations, particularly in cutscenes, are lacking. The environments are low poly but make good use of shaders to simulate depth. The cruise ship is a very cool setting for this series, as evidenced by it being attempted multiple times including Gaiden and Dead Aim. The atmosphere on the ship is pretty great, and the music is nice.

The controls feel like an evolved version of RE5. You can now move while aiming for the first time in the mainline series. Gone is the run button, replaced by analog movement on the stick. Slightly tilting results in a walk, while pressing forward all the way results in a jog. The top speed feels slower than the equivalent running speed in RE5, though this is understandable given the technical limitations. There are no on-foot stealth sections or perilous platforming challenges, so you will be moving at full speed most of the time. The only time the movement speed is really bothersome is when you are backtracking for secret items. There is a new dodge move that doesn't work particularly well. What is it with RE games starring Jill and poorly implemented dodge moves? Otherwise, the controls feel quite similar to RE5. The aiming is markedly worse than the prior game, likely due to the console hardware lacking a right stick without the Circle Pad Pro attachment. The aiming feels almost digital, rather than analog, and it can be imprecise lining up headshots with a controller. It wasn't a huge deal overall and didn't significantly affect my playthrough, but from a game feel perspective it was a bit lacking. Another thing inherited from RE5 was constantly having an AI partner. Thankfully, unlike Sheva, these partners do not share ammo or healing items, do not get in your way, and I didn't have any partners die the entire playthrough. I don't know if they actually even can die.

New to Revelations is the Genesis scanner. This scanner transitions you to a first person view, where you can scan enemies to get healing items, as well as find hidden items in the environments. The scanner is a neat way to prioritize inventory management. Ammo is scarce if you don't regularly use the it. I enjoyed scanning every room in the game for hidden items and collectibles, though I think this would negatively affect replay value. I don't particularly want to re-scan everything.

Another new game mechanic is the ability to swim. There are a few swimming sections interspersed throughout. These sections aren't very difficult. There are plenty of air holes around to refill your air gauge. While there are enemies underwater, your health meter and air gauge seem to be one in the same. You only take air damage underwater, and when you resurface you seem to refill back to full, like in Super Mario 64. I was unable to experiment and see if taking damage from enemies out of water would be healed by diving and resurfacing, but the scenarios in which this would be useful in the game are very limited, anyway. Enemies underwater can be dispatched via QTE or with a special grenade type that can be used underwater. The swimming sections do a good job at changing up the pacing, and are never too long. There is one baffling swimming section right before the final boss that contains a sort of stealth section with an instant kill. This was a very strange place to put this section. It was not a terribly difficult section, though it was frustrating and cost me a few lives. I did not die much in the game otherwise.

The game is much less linear than RE5, which I liked. You are rewarded for carefully scouring each area, and returning to past areas with new keys. The weapon customization part system worked well enough, and resulted in collectibles worth finding. Finding a strong part tucked away was always a joy. The game's story will have you returning to past sections whether you want to or not, but new enemies and events always kept things feeling fresh.

I liked the new enemies featured in this game, the Ooze. Though their grey colour scheme is a tad generic, they looked suitably creepy and were mostly fun to fight. Enemies can be stunned and followed up on with melee like in RE4 and RE5, and have weak points that can result in instant kills if your guns are properly powered up. The boss battles were quite good overall, though I found the final boss to be unfun to fight, as it teleports around and forces you to engage with the crappy dodge mechanic. There is one strong "stalker" type enemy who keeps popping up and is fun to fight each time, as they are usually encountered when you are under a strict time limit. Defeating them will offer new and exclusive gun parts, but defeating them within the time limit can be a challenge.

The plot is bonkers. The quantity of nonsensical plot twists far surpasses typical RE titles, and starts getting into Kojima territory. It's a fun story to turn your brain off to and enjoy the ride. I liked most of the newly introduced characters, particularly Parker, Raymond, and Jessica. Parker and Raymond start as pretty stock tropes but end up having some depth to them as the game goes along. Jessica in particular is a really interesting character, as she is essentially the opposite of Jill in nearly every way. She is scantily clad, nonserious, and mains the Sniper Rifle. She constantly hits on Chris, who always stonewalls her, which I found absolutely hilarious. I was pleased to find after finishing the game that the developers had gone on record in saying that was indeed the case, she was intended to be an "anti-Jill." The plot is nothing special but I found it entertaining. The characters have fun banter with each other and the constant ridiculous plot twists were fun to follow along with, wondering what crazy thing will happen next.

Resident Evil Revelations is a fun, goofy rollercoaster ride that does not overstay its welcome. It does not reach the peaks of the best installments in the series, but I had a good time with it.