Resident Evil Revelations 2 review for PS Vita

I’ll 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 I’ve come to appreciate Japanese games, the truth is, I’m always eager to play more full-fledged 3D action game on Sony’s handheld. I didn’t have any illusions about it, obviously: I didn’t expect I’d be getting another Uncharted: Golden Abyss or Killzone Mercenary or anything, but I figured this late port would fill a niche that’s been a little underserved in recent…well, years, if we’re being realistic.

To say, then, that RE Revelations 2 lived up to my expectations probably doesn’t mean all that much. It delivers that action game fix I was hoping for, and it does so in a fully competent manner. There aren’t any game-breaking bugs or glitches, the controls generally work as they’re supposed to, and the whole thing more or less approximates the experience the game presumably delivered on consoles. (I say “presumably” 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 2’s Vita version, that’s not entirely accurate. Rather, I’d say I was…I don’t know, whelmed. Not dazzled, not disappointed, just generally okay with the whole thing.

Pick some aspect of the game, and I’d say I was relatively satisfied by it. The graphics? They’re…alright. Most of the cutscenes look moderately nice, but as soon as the action begins everything gets substantially uglier. I’ve seen worse — far, far worse — but I don’t think anyone would ever mistake this for one of the Vita’s better looking games.

Likewise, the controls are kind of iffy. There aren’t any egregious missteps, but at the same time, too often the game will suddenly require very precise movements where it hadn’t done so before. Generally it’s more annoying than anything else, but when you get attacked by monsters after you didn’t approach a weapon or a ladder from just the right angle, it’s easy to get a little frustrated.

If and when you die from finicky controls, though, you’ll 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. “Interminably dull” is really the only way to describe them, since they generally consist of nothing more than a black screen with “Loading…” 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 — in either direction, good or bad. It won’t wow you, and it won’t disappoint you: it’ll basically just kind of be there.