Resident Evil: Revelations

After a couple of mis-steps, between Revelations and RE6, the franchise is firmly back on track.

At $50, Revelations is cheaper than most AAA retail releases, but it’s decidedly lower-budget in scope and style. While it’s a serviceable throwback for those sick of survival-action, we’d have liked a bit more polish and a deeper quest.

This HD edition builds subtly on the 3DS foundations, but thankfully doesn't crush them under the needless AAA junk that has dragged the series so far off course. That leaves a game that is just rough enough around the edges to win over fans who still pine for the series' heyday, and suggests the saga might yet come back to life.

A great port of a good game that has a few problems, the result being something well worth picking up if you’re looking for some decent home console Resi action, or just something to get rid of the lingering taste of Resident Evil 6. Although this re-release is somewhat surprising, it is far from unpleasant.

It doesn't last all that long, and the wonky difficulty spikes early on may deter some players. But there's something refreshingly terrifying about staring down a faceless, leech-tongued shambler, or fleeing for your life from a razor-toothed water beetle that's as big as a sack of potatoes.

This is not to say Resident Evil: Revelations is bad game, it is just not an exceptional one and has a little too much of that “been there and done that” feeling to it.

Resident Evil: Revelations doesn’t live up to its title. The closest thing to a revelation is that you can construct a story out of nothing but betrayals, double-crosses, and weightless twists. Even worse is that the gameplay, while fun in small doses, suffers from a long list of poor design decisions that will surely scare off anyone trying a Resident Evil game for the first time.

Resident Evil: Revelations plays a lot like the best games in the series, but lacks the scariness and intensity that made those games special.

Revelations is a lesser experience on console simply because more is expected. Upsized for TVs, several flaws become apparent. A great game on handheld, here it’s merely acceptable.

As an HD edition of a 3DS game, Revelations is the best Resident Evil game since Resident Evil 4. But clumsy controls, bad voice overs, a brain dead plot and some technical flaws still proves Capcom has a way to go bringing the franchise back to its former glory. Being a hybrid between a horror game and an action game, it’s hard to see what the developers wanted to achieve. But even with all this, it’s still better than Resident Evil 6.

Resident Evil fans will want to see the story, and will forgive the design flaws and wacky dialogue. For everyone else, the game doesn't hold the HD spotlight well. This was a quality handheld title, but on a larger screen it falls into the middle of the pack.