Episode 1: Penal Colony - REVIEW

MysterD's Assessment:
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

REVIEW:
Resident Evil: Revelations is a spin-off series from the original numbered Resident Evil game, which return in quite the fashion this time around. With each main-numbered entry since namely Resident Evil 4, the numbered RE's seem to have evolved into a more linear, direct, action-esque game with less emphasis on the old-school survival horror elements. RE: Revelations was created to bring back the more old-school style of survival horror and Revelations 2 continues this, while still evolving quite a bit. This time around, with Revelations 2, this series returns actually in an episodic format.

In Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Episode 1: The Penal Colony, Claire Redfield returns with Moira Burton (Barry's daughter) by her side, as they go to a party that gets crashed and then wake up in a Penal Colony. They are trying to escape the Colony that is infected and infested with monsters. Barry Burton with a little girl by the name of Natalia go out towards this Penal Colony to find Barry's daughter (Moira). Claire + Moira have their own episode together here, while so does Barry + Natalia. In each episode, you control one character & the AI controls the other. You can give the AI orders; pass items b/t characters; and each switch b/t characters when necessary.

Each character has their own abilities, weapons, and skills - so you will need to switch b/t characters to solve puzzles, do certain things, and even access certain areas. For example, Claire is more of the gun-toting character, while Moira has more of a focus on melee combat + can user her flashlight to stun enemies & find hidden objects in the game-world. Barry is the leader of his duo and is his episode's gun-toting character; meanwhile Natalia often throws bricks, can point out enemies and things close or distances away, fit in small areas others can't reach b/c she's a small child. Also, for how well you play and what you find in the game-world, you can upgrade your equipment at in-game work-benches & after an episode you can even upgrade the skills for your characters.

Revelations 2's combat feels way less tank-like than what Revelations 1 had going on. Combat mechanics here feel a bit closer to what has been going on with the series since Resident Evil 4 and beyond. Having this advancement in combat is great here, since the game still knows to make sure it keeps the old survival-horror elements to keep long-time fans of the series happy. In spirit to what Revelations 1 was doing, Revelations 2 in this episode doesn't ditch the survival-horror elements of the older games. You still very likely can run out of ammo, need to conserve ammo, rely sometimes on melee combat, combine object, solve puzzles, traverse some not-so-linear areas & whatnot.

Performance in this game has been on my rig (i7 950; 16 GB DDR3 RAM; 4 GB VRAM GeForce GTX 960; Windows 7 64-bit) pretty good. With everything maxed-out in-game at 1080p & even with cranking my Nvidia Panel up to its Maximum, the game and its environments look certainly better than what Revelations 1 had going on. With more interesting & detailed character models, textures, and in-game environments than often Revelations 1 had going on, RE:R2 Episode 1 already feels like an improvement over the previous game in that regard. Most of the time, the game was running at 60 FPS (Frames Per Second) with in-game VSync On & the in-game 60 FPS cap turned on.

Though, there were a few times when it performance would take some hits. Namely, this happened during area transitions & loads of an area; and just even at a few points while in-game it would take some nasty framerate hits (and cut the game right into half at around 30 frames for a few moments) - and then bounce right back to 60 frames in a matter of moments. This is a very minor issue, as this didn't happen too often and seemed to happen at times when nothing was really happening on-screen anyways.

By relying on the evolution of RE's main-game's combat improvements here & by combining that with making sure horror-survival elements (often found in older titles like earlier Resident Evil games + SIlent Hill series), this here is nothing but a formula that looks to be written for nothing but success. RE: Revelations 2 - Episode 1: The Penal Colony succeeds, delivering a fantastic opening episode to start the Season here for Revelations 2 (which should take around 2-4 hours for most to finish). Also, by offering-up a nice plot-twist ending at Episode 1's completion & the game offering up an excellent preview of things to come in the next episode, I'll certainly be looking forward Episode 2...and likely the entire Season, given how great Episode 1 turned-out.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADDENDUM.

Thoughts on The Entire 4 Main Episodes Overall -> 10/30/2020:

Please see My Reviews for also Episodes 2, 3 and 4 for in-depth review of each of the other Main Episodes of Revelations 2.

I'll quote some of my final thoughts on and for the Entire Season below:

"Regardless, minors issues of performance issues and the not-so-great ending in one of Episode 4's final acts here - Revelations 2's last Episode is really good - maybe great even - for the most part and the Entire Season (Episodes 1-4) is just great overall."

"I can easily recommend ... the entire Season (Episode 1,2,3, and 4) of Revelations 2."

"If you're a Resident Evil fan; and/or love the series; and/or was disappointed with RE6 - do yourself a favor, check out the Revelations series. While Revelations 1 was great, Revelations 2 feels like an improvement on that and also is an improvement over RE6. Revelations 2, for the most part, is a better game & experience; and is probably the most underrated game in the RE franchise."

"...Play this entire Season of Revelations 2. It's great and also underrated."

[u][b]Episode 1: Penal Colony - REVIEW[/b][/u] [u][b]MysterD's Assessment:[/b][/u] [b]VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.[/b] [u][b]REVIEW:[/b][/u] Resident Evil: Revelations is a spin-off series from the original numbered Resident Evil game, which return in quite the fashion this time around. With each main-numbered entry since namely Resident Evil 4, the numbered RE's seem to have evolved into a more linear, direct, action-esque game with less emphasis on the old-school survival horror elements. RE: Revelations was created to bring back the more old-school style of survival horror and Revelations 2 continues this, while still evolving quite a bit. This time around, with Revelations 2, this series returns actually in an episodic format. In Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Episode 1: The Penal Colony, Claire Redfield returns with Moira Burton (Barry's daughter) by her side, as they go to a party that gets crashed and then wake up in a Penal Colony. They are trying to escape the Colony that is infected and infested with monsters. Barry Burton with a little girl by the name of Natalia go out towards this Penal Colony to find Barry's daughter (Moira). Claire + Moira have their own episode together here, while so does Barry + Natalia. In each episode, you control one character & the AI controls the other. You can give the AI orders; pass items b/t characters; and each switch b/t characters when necessary. Each character has their own abilities, weapons, and skills - so you will need to switch b/t characters to solve puzzles, do certain things, and even access certain areas. For example, Claire is more of the gun-toting character, while Moira has more of a focus on melee combat + can user her flashlight to stun enemies & find hidden objects in the game-world. Barry is the leader of his duo and is his episode's gun-toting character; meanwhile Natalia often throws bricks, can point out enemies and things close or distances away, fit in small areas others can't reach b/c she's a small child. Also, for how well you play and what you find in the game-world, you can upgrade your equipment at in-game work-benches & after an episode you can even upgrade the skills for your characters. Revelations 2's combat feels way less tank-like than what Revelations 1 had going on. Combat mechanics here feel a bit closer to what has been going on with the series since Resident Evil 4 and beyond. Having this advancement in combat is great here, since the game still knows to make sure it keeps the old survival-horror elements to keep long-time fans of the series happy. In spirit to what Revelations 1 was doing, Revelations 2 in this episode doesn't ditch the survival-horror elements of the older games. You still very likely can run out of ammo, need to conserve ammo, rely sometimes on melee combat, combine object, solve puzzles, traverse some not-so-linear areas & whatnot. Performance in this game has been on my rig (i7 950; 16 GB DDR3 RAM; 4 GB VRAM GeForce GTX 960; Windows 7 64-bit) pretty good. With everything maxed-out in-game at 1080p & even with cranking my Nvidia Panel up to its Maximum, the game and its environments look certainly better than what Revelations 1 had going on. With more interesting & detailed character models, textures, and in-game environments than often Revelations 1 had going on, RE:R2 Episode 1 already feels like an improvement over the previous game in that regard. Most of the time, the game was running at 60 FPS (Frames Per Second) with in-game VSync On & the in-game 60 FPS cap turned on. Though, there were a few times when it performance would take some hits. Namely, this happened during area transitions & loads of an area; and just even at a few points while in-game it would take some nasty framerate hits (and cut the game right into half at around 30 frames for a few moments) - and then bounce right back to 60 frames in a matter of moments. This is a very minor issue, as this didn't happen too often and seemed to happen at times when nothing was really happening on-screen anyways. By relying on the evolution of RE's main-game's combat improvements here & by combining that with making sure horror-survival elements (often found in older titles like earlier Resident Evil games + SIlent Hill series), this here is nothing but a formula that looks to be written for nothing but success. RE: Revelations 2 - Episode 1: The Penal Colony succeeds, delivering a fantastic opening episode to start the Season here for Revelations 2 (which should take around 2-4 hours for most to finish). Also, by offering-up a nice plot-twist ending at Episode 1's completion & the game offering up an excellent preview of things to come in the next episode, I'll certainly be looking forward Episode 2...and likely the entire Season, given how great Episode 1 turned-out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [u][b]ADDENDUM. Thoughts on The Entire 4 Main Episodes Overall -> 10/30/2020:[/b][/u] Please see My Reviews for also Episodes 2, 3 and 4 for in-depth review of each of the other Main Episodes of Revelations 2. I'll quote some of my final thoughts on and for the Entire Season below: "Regardless, minors issues of performance issues and the not-so-great ending in one of Episode 4's final acts here - Revelations 2's last Episode is really good - maybe great even - for the most part and the Entire Season (Episodes 1-4) is just great overall." "I can easily recommend ... the entire Season (Episode 1,2,3, and 4) of Revelations 2." "If you're a Resident Evil fan; and/or love the series; and/or was disappointed with RE6 - do yourself a favor, check out the Revelations series. While Revelations 1 was great, Revelations 2 feels like an improvement on that and also is an improvement over RE6. Revelations 2, for the most part, is a better game & experience; and is probably the most underrated game in the RE franchise." "...Play this entire Season of Revelations 2. It's great and also underrated."