Also On: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Capcom
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-2
Online: Yes
ESRB: M
Iโll be honest here: the odds of me disliking Resident Evil Revelations 2 on the Vita were extraordinarily slim from the get-go. No matter how much I may love indie games, no matter how much Iโve come to appreciate Japanese games, the truth is, Iโm always eager to play more full-fledged 3D action game on Sonyโs handheld. I didnโt have any illusions about it, obviously: I didnโt expect Iโd be getting another Uncharted: Golden Abyss or Killzone Mercenary or anything, but I figured this late port would fill a niche thatโs been a little underserved in recentโฆwell, years, if weโre being realistic.
To say, then, that RE Revelations 2 lived up to my expectations probably doesnโt mean all that much. It delivers that action game fix I was hoping for, and it does so in a fully competent manner. There arenโt any game-breaking bugs or glitches, the controls generally work as theyโre supposed to, and the whole thing more or less approximates the experience the game presumably delivered on consoles. (I say โpresumablyโ because I forwent those console versions in favour of waiting for the game on the Vita.)
While the preceding paragraph may leave the impression that I was wholly underwhelmed by RE Revelations 2โs Vita version, thatโs not entirely accurate. Rather, Iโd say I wasโฆI donโt know, whelmed. Not dazzled, not disappointed, just generally okay with the whole thing.
Pick some aspect of the game, and Iโd say I was relatively satisfied by it. The graphics? Theyโreโฆalright. Most of the cutscenes look moderately nice, but as soon as the action begins everything gets substantially uglier. Iโve seen worse โ far, far worse โ but I donโt think anyone would ever mistake this for one of the Vitaโs better looking games.
Likewise, the controls are kind of iffy. There arenโt any egregious missteps, but at the same time, too often the game will suddenly require very precise movements where it hadnโt done so before. Generally itโs more annoying than anything else, but when you get attacked by monsters after you didnโt approach a weapon or a ladder from just the right angle, itโs easy to get a little frustrated.
If and when you die from finicky controls, though, youโll have plenty of time to get over it, since Resident Evil Revelations 2 has some of the worst load times outside of the first Telltale Walking Dead game. โInterminably dullโ is really the only way to describe them, since they generally consist of nothing more than a black screen with โLoadingโฆโ in tiny little letters in the bottom corner.
That, however, is the only area in which Resident Evil Revelations 2 on the Vita ever deviates very far from middling โ in either direction, good or bad. It wonโt wow you, and it wonโt disappoint you: itโll basically just kind of be there.