Resident Evil: Revelations 2 speaks in code, Veronica
After firing up the brief demo of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Capcom brought to New York Comic Con, I turned around and asked producer Michiteru Okabe point blank: "How the hell does Claire Redfield seem to always find herself in this exact situation?" He just laughed. Nearly a decade and a half after waking up in the cell of an island Umbrella fortress in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, here's Claire again, waking up terribly confused about where the hell she is.
Spoiler: She's on an island and bad things are happening. Monster-y bad things. True to form, Claire looks a few years older but she's still rocking a red leather jacket and is quick with a pistol. In fairness she has a weird wrist band on rather than a collar that might explode, so it's not exactly the same. It's close enough, though, that fans still perturbed by the series' mutation into co-op action schlock in the mainline Resident Evil series will find even more to love here than in the survival horror-tinged Resident Evil: Revelations.
Capcom's commitment to the broader continuity of Resident Evil remains impressive. Rather than break with the convoluted bombast that's carried through since 1996, Revelations 2 sticks to the story. Taking place between Resident Evil 5 and 6 but after the CG movies Claire recently starred in, Revelations 2 finds her working for Terra Save, an NGO trying to combat the spread of biological weapons. While she's attending a gala for the organization, some shady people rush and knock out the partiers, taking not only Claire hostage but also twenty-something Moira Burton. Moira, speaking of thorny continuity, is the daughter of Barry Burton from the very first RE.
For someone that just got drugged and kidnapped, Claire is pretty spry. Coming to in the dank detention, dirty like Resident Evil 5's shanty towns but with that classic Code Veronica industrial feel, she moves quickly even before holding down the trigger run button. She feels like a halfway point between the jerky but versatile Leon of Resident Evil 6 and the slower, more cramped moves of Chris Redfield in the first Revelations. Claire quickly busts Moira out of her cell and the two start hunting for a way out.
Exploration is sadly limited in this twenty minute dollop of the game due in early 2015, just a slice of one of the four two-hour episodes that comprise the full package. The duo follow a linear path, through nasty halls of cells and towers dotted with ominous body-shaped bags with spikes jutting out of them. Claire seems to be unflappable and stoic, which has always been her default state in situations like these. Moira, meanwhile, seems like a new voice of reason. The first time some grisly weirdo attacks them, she yells out, "What the cock was that?" echoing pretty much everyone playing a horror game for the first time.
There's promise of more exploration in the interplay between Moira and Claire, though. While Redfield wields a traditional pistol and shotgun, Moira says she won't use guns because of past experiences. She does rock a mean flashlight, though. Tapping triangle on the PS4 controller lets you switch between the two, so in new rooms Moira can shine a light around the environment to illuminate hidden items and keys for locked doors. It's far more functional than the scanning device from Revelations while serving the same purpose, plus it enhances the feeling of partnership between the two characters.
Not that Moira is helpless. She has a crowbar for finishing off enemies after Claire downs them with her pistol, a sort of brutal, bludgeoning riff on needing to set zombies on fire in the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil. Revelations 2's gaggle of freaks need putting down quick as they do not stay down after a few gunshots to the gut. Flayed berserkers with chunks of metal poking out of their rotten clothes, the enemies in the prison bum rush Claire and Moira.
Running away and heading for the nearest exit was often more effective than actually taking them out, which certainly recalls the pace of older series entries but the speed of Claire and Moira's maneuvers make this feel far more panicky and frantic. For all the callbacks to old Resident Evil in just this quick demo of Revelations 2, it still managed to feel like something new. Quirks from literally every nook of Capcom's survival horror series were on hand: limited supplies, tweaked interplay between two characters, weird freaks hunting you in some bizarre industrial facility, even Resident Evil 6's speedy acrobatics. Bundled together in a single mass, Revelations 2 felt as refreshingly skewed as Code Veronica did all the way back in 2000.
Even the closing tease held promise. After breaking through to a central cell block with a glimpse of the sun outside, a mocking woman's voice calls out to Claire and Moira and starts pontificating about fear. Those weird little bracelets on our heroes? Turns out they're like mood rings, changing color based on how scared you are. Okabe was tight-lipped about how deeply those will change the game, but they're demonstrative of the series' renewed focus on tension. We'll see how Revelations 2 leverages its obsessions with the past when the game comes out next spring. In the meantime, holdouts still carrying a torch for Resident Evil take note: This game is speaking directly to you.
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is due out for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in Spring 2015.
[Images: Capcom]
