Resident Evil Revelations: A Return to Survival Horror

You never know what's hiding around the corner.

You wake up in an old mansion. You're confused and a bit disoriented. All you have is your handgun to protect you from the evil lurking around the corner, but ammo is scarce and the stillness in the air is haunting. As you make your way around the mansion, monsters suddenly jump out of closets and around corners, keeping you anxious and on your guard at every moment. The whole experience is new to you, and yet it feels strangely familiar.

Where are you? You're in the world of Resident Evil, and it's good to be back.

This scenario, a clear throwback to the original RE, is how the E3 2011 demo of Resident Evil Revelations for the Nintendo 3DS begins. From the two demos I've played so far (the one at E3 and the one included with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D), it's already apparent that Revelations is a combination of ideas from all of the core RE titles, with a few new concepts thrown in for good measure.

You'll play as the original title's main protagonists, Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, though both demos only let me play as Jill. In either case I was slowly working my way through various rooms in a creepy environment - a mansion or a seemingly abandoned ship at sea. Around practically every corner is a locked door or cryptic clue, accompanied by sparsely placed but powerful enemies you must either outrun or defeat with your meager supply of ammo.

The slow pace and heavy emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving strongly harken back to the RE days of old. Gone is the action-oriented focus we first saw in Resident Evil 4 and later in Resident Evil 5, replaced instead by slower pacing and an atmosphere better suited for a true survival horror experience.

While Revelations is most definitely a return to the style of the original RE games, it does take a few cues from some of the newer titles in the series. Revelations goes for a behind-the-shoulder view of the protagonist, a la RE4 and RE5. The graphics are some of the best I've seen on the system, using highly textured backdrops that are strongly reminiscent of the Resident Evil remake for GameCube.

Revelations' controls are far different than they've ever been in the Resident Evil franchise. You use the 3DS circle pad to move and aim (which you can now do at the same time if you hold down L). You can adjust the view to get a better look at things by placing your right thumb on the touch screen. While the new setup might worry RE fans, it actually handles beautifully. Despite my initial concerns, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the circle pad works amazingly well for aiming, and adjusting the camera with the touch screen feels quite natural once you get used to it. Even going into first person mode when shooting, while different, makes complete sense within the context of the game.

While both of the demos I saw were rather short, especially the one included with Mercenaries, what I've seen has me terribly excited. As I followed the sound of a man screaming down a dreary hallway in the "Mercenaries demo," only to arrive in time to watch him get eaten by two zombies (who then came straight for me), one thing was clear: Resident Evil is back, and it's taking no prisoners.

Are you excited for Revelations? Why or why not? And does a return to a more old school style of gameplay interest you, or will you miss the faster-paced action of the newer games? Sound off in the comments section below!

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