*NOTE: This review looks at both Episode 4 and the entirety of Resident Evil: Revelations 2. The score at the bottom is reflective of the game as a whole.
After four weeks of being strung along episode after episode, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 finally comes to a close with a resounding, “is that it?” The final episode on its own isn’t a terrible entry, providing plenty of fun moments and creepy encounters, but the endings to both stories feel extremely inconsequential and rushed.
Claire and Moira make their way to the Overseer, finally meeting Wesker just in time for her to set the spire on self-destruct. The women take part in another thrilling escape as the building collapses around them, leading up to…nothing. That’s it. The first half of Episode 4 takes all of twenty minutes to finish, giving our heroines no closure or sense of achievement whatsoever. Just like with the first episodes, the momentum built by the escape is stamped out before it really gets going anywhere, ending Claire’s time on the island unceremoniously.
Luckily, Barry’s side of the story takes well over two hours to finish, making up a huge majority of the finale while providing slightly more closure. Not much, but it at least has a final boss battle and an appropriately challenging feel. Capcom also manages to finally shake up the environments a bit with an underground mansion that bears a slight resemblance to the castle interior from Resident Evil 4. In fact, much of this last episode cribs from RE4: the final boss bears more than a few similarities to Chief Mendez and takes place in a burning building.
While a majority of the episode is perfectly fine, the ending is painfully short on details. Much of the plot is described through documents left lying around the environment, and as if the decision to break the game into episodes wasn’t arbitrary enough, there is both a good and a bad ending that can be found. While both endings are totally pointless, the bad ending is particularly horrid, just sort of ending the game with a noncommittal farting noise.
Needless to say, Episode 4 is both the most disappointing and least fun of the group, which is a shame seeing as how the Resident Evil series can usually craft a pretty insane climax for even the worst of their games. There are so many details in the plot that are left either unanswered or full of holes, and the ending left me wanting more for all the wrong reasons. Since Revelations 2 takes place between RE5 and RE6, I was hoping for some sort of connection to occur, but a few mentions of the Uroboros virus is about all that does the job.
Along with the final episode, two bonus missions are available to play, both of which add a tiny bit to the story but hardly enough to make them necessary components to the core experience. The Struggle catches up with Moira after the end of her campaign, presenting an interesting survival gameplay style that’s definitely worth checking out, but the additional plot threads aren’t terribly great. Likewise, Little Miss adds just about nothing to the plot, although the stealth tag-team of Natalia and her shady counterpart are a fun diversion to run through after completing the campaign.
Raid Mode is finally at its full load-out, providing a ton of missions to run through with a decently sized roster of RE characters new and old. While the campaign certainly has its charm and still manages to be worth a play, Raid Mode is definitely where fans will get their money’s worth, as the replayability is insane due to the depth of everything Raid Mode has to offer. I’ve sunk multiple hours into this mode and still have a ton of medals to unlock, meaning I’ll be coming back to it for weeks to come yet.
The greatest advantage that Resident Evil: Revelations 2 has over other RE titles is the sheer replayability and value of the package. Marketed at half of the regular retail price of AAA titles these days, the campaign is long enough and full of plenty of cheesy moments to keep fans satisfied through to the disappointing ending. On top of that, both Countdown and Invisible Enemy modes add plenty of incentive to revisit previous episodes, as do unlockable bonus weapons, the unfinished skill tree, achievement medals and hidden medallions throughout each segment.
Surprisingly, the co-op is another area where Revelations 2 shines. For one, it allows local play, which shouldn’t be an achievement, but these days is a rare commodity that makes a difference. Aside from that, each character has their own role to perform rather than serving as a clone of the protagonist, offering help in unique ways that makes the single player campaign a fun puzzle to solve and a co-op run through a blast.
As an entire package, it’s safe to say that Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is full of what RE fans look for in the series: offbeat humor, creepy scares and intense battles. While the story is certainly weak and leaves much to be desired, it’s still fun to play through, and the amount of bonus content that can be unlocked through collecting BP and completing Raid Mode challenges is enough to keep fans coming back long after they rush through the story. It’s just a shame that Capcom couldn’t be bothered to put a more cohesive story together to really tie everything together.
This review is based on a PlayStation 4 version of the game.
