Resident Evil: Revelations 2 ‘Episode 2: Contemplation’ Review

What you can’t see, can hurt you...

In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, both parties start in the direction they left off in. While Claire and Moira make it to the Wassek, Barry and Natalia start exactly where they left off. Both teams attempting to make it to what is/was what they assume to be the Overseer's tower. I get the feeling that neither group knows exactly what they're getting themselves into. There will be slight spoilers so continue at your own risk.

Claire and Moira reach the Wassek where they meet up with old TerraSave pals Padro, Gabe, and Neil. It seems like the Overseer also told them to go to this specific location. One of their friends didn’t make it so they had the attention to un-engineer the wrist bands. Since they found a helicopter with some fuel, battery, and repairs, they have hopes it will take everyone to safety. Apparently these people have never seen a horror movie before. I’m sure it will end well.

So, as the do gooders errand boys, Claire and Moira go out to get said objects. Guess what, zombies are still in the town! They learn that they need Padro’s drill to break down conveniently red ‘X’ marked walls. Later on you’ll meet the best boss ever and even someone familiar. Like all previous episodes, you encounter a brand new boss that will challenge you, especially if you’re low on herbs or ammo.       

Stab Zomb

At this point you should have unlocked some skills that should help you in your style of gameplay. May I suggest giving Claire and Barry the ability to fire and not use ammo when you’re not using them. I learned to use Moira as a melee machine with Claire on shotgun support. Excessive Raid Mode playing will make you better at this. I found myself constantly low on herbs so I’d suggest using them sparingly or until you absolutely have to.

I won’t hide my bias; the Barry and Natalia gameplay is far more fun to me. The little girl spotter and the war veteran Barry is a really really fun dynamic. These two start at the radio tower – RIGHT where they left off, now in the day time. Due to Natalia dropping the mic at the end of their last adventure, Barry needs to move forward and learn the truth for himself. This leads the odd duo towards the tower.  

There is a lot of similar stealth gameplay akin to the previous chapter. While this isn’t forced upon you, taking out these harder undead with instant kills will do wonders for your constantly depleting ammo reserves. So do yourself a solid and kill with stealth whenever you can – totally worth it. Make sure you use Natalia to open the chests only she can, lots of solid powerups and increases to carrying capacity.

Bug Aim

You’ll be introduced to a brand new type of enemy which is easily the greatest and most terrifying thing I’ve experienced in a horror game for some time now. I love it. I hate it. Capcom does such an amazing job of forcing you to use both characters to take down these foes. If you mess up, you're so amazingly dead. Once you learn what these things sound like and and get their visual queues, you’ll find yourself extremely anxious. That or dead. Really scary, really fun.

For any of the more advanced enemies and even bosses, you’re going to always want to switch to Natalia real quick to see where their weakness or even position is. I can’t stress this enough. You have this girl with an incredibly useful vision ability, make sure to use her as your spotter. I find myself playing her when ever combat isn’t going down. Due to this though, the game uses surprise encounters to throw those players off who become reliant on her vision. Long story short, don’t let your guard down just because you have her.  

Once again, I loved this episode. Lots of slaughter, lots of new elements, lots of now plot devices, new bosses, new horror aspects, and new gameplay – all of which I really enjoyed. for a while I was wondering, besides gameplay, what made this a Revelations game and in this episode you’ll start to see hints at that answer. As a fan of the original Revelations, I love this sort of stuff. By beating this chapter you’ll also unlock Padro and Gabe for Raid Mode. By the way, I’m still loving Raid Mode. It’s a great way to get better at efficiently taking down foes and learning to dodge.