Resident Evil: Revelations 2

Resident Evil: Revelations 2, known in Japan as Biohazard Revelations 2 (バイオハザード リベレーションズ 2), is an episodic survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the tenth major installment in the Resident Evil franchise (22nd overall). The game is a follow up to Resident Evil: Revelations and Resident Evil 5. This marks the return of Claire Redfield as the main protagonist, and the first time Barry Burton is a playable story character in the main series. The first installment was released in February 2015.

The plot is set between the events of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, in 2011. The story begins when Claire and her co-workers, including the newcomer and playable protagonist, Moira Burton, are at a party in the headquarters of the NGO Terra Save, when they are attacked by unknown assailants and taken away to a deserted island.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita and lastly for Nintendo Switch in the end of 2017 along with the port of the first Revelations. The reviews were mixed to positive; there was praise about the setting, story, characters and the co-op gameplay, but the graphics and some technical issues were largely criticized. As the end of December, 2017, the title reached a combined 2.3 million units sold, surpassing its predecessor and becoming the 24th best seller of the company.

Gameplay
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is set between the events of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. Claire Redfield is the main protagonist and Barry Burton's daughter, Moira, plays a supporting role. In December 2014, a new trailer revealed Barry as another playable protagonist and he is joined by Natalia Korda, a little girl with supernatural abilities. The official cinematic trailer was released in December 2014. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is a survival horror game which supports cooperative gameplay on console platforms. The game has stealth elements as only two of the four playable characters use guns. The other two are more vulnerable, preferring to use weapons such as crowbars and bricks, or be used to find hidden items with a flashlight or special senses.

The game features the Raid Mode, which returns from the first Revelations game with new changes, more missions and new playable characters. About 200 missions and 15 characters are featured, which span the entire game series, and there are also new scenarios and enemies from Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil: Revelations. In this mode, players can customize their skills and weapons, as well as buy new ones. Some enemies in Raid Mode have special abilities like extra speed or strength. This mode can be played either online or through split-screen local co-op.

Plot
Claire Redfield and Moira Burton, daughter of Barry Burton, work for biohazard prevention agency Terra Save, and are kidnapped by masked assailants. Claire and Moira are taken to a facility on Sushestvovanie Island, where the "Afflicted" are in wait. An unknown woman calling herself the "Overseer" watches via cameras and tells them the bracelets on their wrists record fear, as the pair try to find safety. Upon reaching a radio tower, they call for help. Once Barry reaches the island, he immediately meets Natalia, a strange little girl. Together, they head to the radio tower, encountering many dangerous situations along the way. Unfortunately, Barry arrives very late as the distress call was actually made 6 months ago. After having a severe headache, Natalia claims Moira is dead.
 * Episode 1 - Penal Colony

Claire and Moira meet up with their fellow Terra Save co-workers, discovering a broken helicopter they intend to fix and use in order to flee the island. However, they find themselves ambushed by a horde of Afflicted, separating Claire, Moira and Pedro from Gabe and the helicopter; Pedro succumbs to fear and is transformed into a monster. Claire and Moira fight off the Afflicted until Neil arrives to help them escape. They decide to make their way to the Overseer's tower, but are once again ambushed and Neil stays behind to fight off the monsters. Claire and Moira come across Natalia and she joins them. Gabe fixes the helicopter and attempts to escape, but the Overseer remotely crashes it, killing Gabe. As Claire and Moira are distracted by this, Natalia is kidnapped and taken to the Overseer.
 * Episode 2 - Contemplation

Six months later, Natalia takes Barry to the Overseer's tower, the last place she saw Moira alive. Along the way, Barry learns Natalia is an orphan as her parents died in the Terragrigia incident, the shock having left her immune to fear. Inside the tower, they find a portrait depicting Albert Wesker and a woman; when Barry recognizes him by name, Natalia corrects him by stating the woman is named Wesker. They are then surprised by the Overseer, who incapacitates Barry and reveals herself to be Alex Wesker.

Claire and Moira follow a note that was left by Neil to meet them at a factory nearby. Getting there, they don't find him and have to pass thorough a series of dangers, which they narrowly survive; after this they decide to head to the Overseer's tower through the sewers, and getting there, learn of his intentions to release Uroboros to justify the FBC. They then confront Neil who mutates, having been infected by Alex moments before; Claire and Moira are left with no choice but to kill him. Six months later, Barry and Natalia narrowly escape from mutated Alex and work their way from the sewer back to the surface. Upon arriving back on the surface they fight through the old mine. Afterwards Barry gets knocked off the path by Alex and separated from Natalia, while Alex tries to kill Natalia, Natalia does something that startles and strikes fear into Alex. After Neil's death Claire and Moira make their way up to the Monument to confront Alex Wesker, and the duo learn of her intentions. She shoots herself in the head and forces Claire and Moira out of the Monument as a self-destruct sequence becomes active. Eventually Moira sacrifices herself so Claire can escape whom is rescued shortly after escaping the island while Alex mutates. She tells Barry to go to the island in the hopes of saving Moira. Six months later, Barry and Natalia make their way through several underground toxic mines before reaching Alex's research facility, disguised as a mansion. They make their way through as Alex taunts Natalia via her bracelet. When the duo confront her she injects herself with Uroboros and mutates a second time to fight Barry and Natalia. After apparently killing her, Alex suddenly springs alive and incapacitates Barry. She grabs Natalia and once again attempts to kill her. At this point, the story proceeds to one of two endings.
 * Episode 3 - Judgment
 * Episode 4 - Metamorphosis

Endings
In the bad ending, where Claire defeated Neil and thus Moira never overcame her fear of guns, she died from her injuries and Natalia is killed. With her mind gone, Alex's consciousness fully awakens in her body and takes over it. Alex destroys her former, mutated body and reveals herself to Barry, leaving him alone in the island.

In the good ending, where Moira defeats Neil and subsequently overcomes her fear of guns, Moira survived and arrives in time to save Natalia, distracting and temporarily repelling Alex with gunshots. Barry, Moira, and Natalia escape the area, but Alex, mutating even further, gives chase and ultimately corners them on the edge of a cliff. Claire arrives in a helicopter to rescue the trio, and their combined efforts take Alex down. As they leave the island, Barry expresses his intention to adopt and raise Natalia as his daughter.

In an epilogue, Claire is informed that her brother is in China, to which she responds "tell Piers to take care of him." She heads towards Barry's home, where Natalia, surrounded by newspapers reporting on the events of Resident Evil 6, finishes reading The Zürau Aphorisms by Franz Kafka and smiles ominously, revealing that Alex indeed succeeded, to some extent, in taking over her body.

Bonus episodes
In this extra episode, set just before Natalia meets Barry, Natalia wakes up in a dream like state, being greeted by Lottie, her favorite teddy bear. She goes on a search for Lottie after this. Joining her is 'Dark Natalia' who can sense the presence of monsters so that Natalia can sneak past them through a somewhat Silent Hill-esque atmosphere. They find various postcards sent by Lottie scattered around and eventually find her on a beach, but this was all a trick by Alex Wesker to lure Natalia there, as the other Natalia vanishes as well. At this point, Natalia snaps out of her dream and sees Barry's boat approaching. This was really all of Alex's plan to take her consciousness over Natalia's.
 * "Little Miss"

During the six-month gap since Claire's escape and Barry's arrival to the island, Moira tries to survive on the island with the help of an old Russian man, named Evgeny Rebic, who Moira had met once before in the underground sections of the island. He saved her life after the fallen debris had separated Claire and Moira. Food is very scarce now and the pair overcome much danger. Sadly, once Evgeny learns of his daughter's demise, he decides to stay behind alone himself and dies. Moira eventually meets up with her father, Natalia, and Claire. In the good ending, Moira would overcome her fear of guns and kill Neil, as well as save her father from a grotesquely mutated Alex Wesker.
 * "The Struggle"

Development
Capcom announced that the team responsible for Resident Evil: Revelations would be responsible for the sequel and a playable version of the game would be seen at Capcom's 2014 Tokyo Game Show booth. It was stated not only would Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine not be part of Revelations 2, but the game would also not be tied to Revelations. However, the Revelations title would be used as its own series of games, existing to fill in gaps in the mythology of the Resident Evil series and expand upon lore for the main title series. During Tokyo Game Show, Michiteru Okabe explained further that the main Resident Evil series will remain more action-oriented, keeping it aimed at a wider audience to try and interest more people in the Resident Evil world. However, Revelations as a series will be fan-driven, intending to revel in the older horror style. With the side series, they hope to aim at their long-time fans and keep them supplied with something similar to the horror experience they fell in love with. During Tokyo Game Show it was announced that Yūdai Yamaguchi, a director and writer known for his mix of horror and "goofy gore" with manga-based inspiration, was brought on to the Revelations 2 team as cutscene director.

Dai Satō, scene writer for Resident Evil: Revelations who is returning to do the same for the game, was said to be a huge Claire fan and was adamant about her returning for the new game, coming to Okabe and others with a number of ideas on how to include her. Alyson Court did not return to reprise her voice role as Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Revelations 2, she was replaced by a woman credited under the pseudonym James Baker. Fans upset by the change began petitions demanding to have Court back. According to the Okabe, the reason for replacing Court is because they felt that the old voice sounds too young for the older and mature Claire, also could cause a messy for the players between the voices of Claire and Moira, that is actually a young girl.

The Czech novelist and story writer, Franz Kafka, was a major inspiration behind the game story, the idea came from the scenario writer, Dai Satō. Since the first Revelations used passages from Dante Alighieri, the team felt that would be a common element from the Revelations series. Also, that would give a deep meaning for the quotes and themes approach, like "The Transformation," to the story of the game. Furthermore, it would make the players feel more immersed, since a real writer became part of the setting. The title of the four episodes of the game are allusions to his wsin; the first one, called Penal Colony, is based on a short story by the name: In the Penal Colony. The second one, named Contemplation, is based on a collection of short stories with the same name, Contemplation (short story collection), the third, The Judgment and lastly, The Metamorphosis

"Familiar Relationships" was a significant theme for the game, approaching more personal elements for the story. The Barry's family has a great focus throughout the game's plot, furthermore, he can also be seen as a father for Nathalia, that's actually orphan due to the "Panic of Terragrigia", an event part of the first game of Revelations series. On the other hand, Claire, can be seen as a big sister for Moira. The sanity as well has also a great importance for the setting of the story, as examples, that theme is displayed through the wristbands that shows the level of sanity of the characters, the title of some songs of the soundtrack, as Insanity and Despair and the name of the main enemies of the game, the Afflicted, that actually were human that has been driven crazy by torture and experiments.

About the soundtrack, the songwriter, Kota Suzuki come backs as the game's principal composer, after his works within the series, such as Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil: Revelations. According to him, for this soundtrack, they decided to focus on “duality of sound”. And speaking about the concept of the sound design for Revelations 2 and his collaboration with Nima Fakhrara for this job, he explains: "His [Nima Fakhara] productions possessed that particular element of darkness that worked perfectly with our[s]. After many brainstorming sessions we decided to use ‘iron’ and ‘water’ as our concepts in creating new instruments. And, after recording, we edited and mixed the sound with other tracks to create a truly unique sound".

Release
Capcom released the game starting February 25, 2015 in a weekly episodic form for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Once the final episode was released, a complete version was launched. The japanese rock band, Dir En Grey, was featured in some of the material promotion for the game. A full video of the song, Revelation of Mankind, featuring scenes of the band and the game was released in the middle of 2015. That music was also part of their last album, Arche. Sony Computer Entertainment published the PlayStation Vita version of the game. The port was developed by Frima Studio and released on August 18, 2015. The first episode of the game, Penal Colony, was made free to download for PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 18, 2015. After that, a collection was made for the Nintendo Switch with both Revelations, this package was launched at the end of November of 2017.

Reception
The reviews were mixed to positive, there was praise for the setting, story, characters and the co-op gameplay, but the graphics and some technical issues were largely criticized. According to Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer, the game is fulfilled by crazy plot-twist, laughable dialogue, and campy moments, and all of theses comes with in a satisfying way. She also praises every character, their unique arcs and development through the game. The chaotic moments, the insane bosses battles, the story, world and characters were well received too, but, in the other side, Wallace complains about the dated puzzles and the retracing route of Barry's campaign, saying that "these places lose their mystery a second time around".

Polygon (website) commented that "Revelations 2 finds a focus that recent entries have sorely lacked", and their writer, Philip Kollar, emphasized the notable and strong elements of the plot around women, since three of the four main and playable characters are females, Kollar also highlighted the characters, saying that the newcomer, Moira is memorable and interesting, but criticized the lack of horror, generic video game levels and the graphics. Destructoid's reviewer, Chris Carter, described the atmosphere of the first episode as well done, praising the creepy bloody dungeons and the dark forests of the island, they also speak well about the action and the fun co-op gameplay.

GamesRadar+ gave the game a score of 4 of 5 and spoke positively about the collaboration and teamwork, felting that both couples are complementary characters and make of this a fantastic cooperative experience. But it's felt the ending unsatisfying for the Claire's side. IGN provides that the game's horror does not frighten, criticized the graphics details and felt the game a unmemorable experience, otherwise, praised the elements of action-adventure, the co-op gameplay, the implement of some traditional puzzles and the mysterious plot, that in the words of their writer, Lucy O'Brien, "kept me hooked right up until its finale". She also spoke well about the bonus Raid mode.

Many reviewers felt the third episode was the best one, as explained by Peter Brown from GameSpot, the reason for that was the plot development and the presence of interesting puzzles, that was lacking in the first two episodes. IGN agreed with that statement, saying that the balance between the action sequences and the puzzle solving was exquisite.

Sales and accolades
According to Capcom, due to the variety manners of selling, the Resident Evil Revelations 2 had a strong beginning and quickly become a million seller for the company. In Japan, in the first week of the release of the complete version, the game reached the second (PS3) and fourth position (PS4), selling, 73,373 and 42,358 respectively. The PlayStation 4 hardware that week had a higher-than-normal sales, thanks to the releases of the Resident Evil Revelations 2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. In Brazil, the full game version became the 9th best selling game in the PS4 during the month of April, 2015. As a download content, the complete season, reach the 6th position at the same platform. After that, in the same year, specifically in November, the second episode alone, Contemplation, was the 8th best-selling download content for Playstation 3. A month later, the PS Vita version reach the 5th position. According to Steam Spy, the game has sold 967,000 units of the first episode on Steam.

As of December 31st, 2017, the original release has reached 2.3 million units sold and, with that, Revelations 2 has surpasses its predecessor and became the 24th best seller of the company. The collection of the Revelations 1 and 2, a port released after for Nintendo Switch, sold 250,000 copies within the first months of the release. Furthermore, in the beginning of 2016, the title was selected by the readers of the Japanese game magazine Famitsu as the 9th most Memorable Game of Xbox One.