Resident Evil: Revelatons 2 hands-on impressions: Claire Redfield's deja vu experience

In a not so darkened New York City hotel room, I had the opportunity to get an early hands-on look at Resident Evil: Revelations 2 to get some scares in at the 2014 New York Comic Con. With Capcom producer Michiteru Okabe acting as my guide through the short demo, I put my horror survival skills to the test and hoped to keep my fear in check.

Despite what the title indicates, this is not a direct sequel to the Resident Evil: Revelations, but it does shares some of the same styles and themes. In the scope of the larger Resident Evil universe, the game takes place somewhere between RE 5 and 6. The four-part episodic game focuses on Claire from Code Veronica. She once again wakes up in a prison cell, and this one looks like it was built at the bottom of an abandoned silo. She's wearing a metal wristband with a glowing green screen on it. As she traverses the dark and dirty corridors, it soon becomes clear that someone is watching her from behind surveillance cameras and manipulating things. It's up to her to find out how she got here, who kidnapped her and why, and how to escape.

Soon after making her way down a debris-filled hallway, Claire meets up with an ally named Mora at a nearby cell. She too is mysteriously released from her cell and the two of them find their way through the prison. Although Mora is a companion, she doesn't do much in the way of fighting. She is soon relegated to holding the flashlight while Claire takes point with a gun. Players can switch between the characters, tightening the beam of Mora's flashlight to locate hidden items like keys, health and ammunition. Although Mora will take up a crowbar to help bludgeon monsters, she will not carry a gun. Even when armed, she hardly participates in combat, and only steps in with a finishing move when the player presses a button. This might call into question her overall usefulness as a companion, since Claire already carries a knife for melee hits when ammo runs low. Also, Revelations 2 promises to be very stingy with ammunition, so Claire will have to get used to being up close and personal with monsters anyway.

While much of the demonstration is filled with things you'd expect from a Resident Evil game, including body bags hanging from hooks chained to the ceiling, searching for keys off a corpse to unlock doors, and searching through areas, but the featured monsters are supposed to be new. I ran into my first creature, which looked like a bloodied mutated human, as I was pushing a broken metal shelf aside. After Claire stabs the creature to death, her wristband turns from green to orange. I asked if this was some sort of health indicator, but it turns out to be related to something that strictly story based. The player has no control it, and the wristband's color has no bearing on gameplay. It also works as an all-around plot device, because the mysterious kidnapper also uses it as a communications device. As I reach the end of the demo, I find out what the wristband is for. (SPOILER: It changes color according to Claire's fear level.)

Shooting and movement work fairly well, and I didn't have much trouble getting headshots on the creatures. Levels for the demo are short and linear, but I was told that the final game would have areas that are more open to exploration. I took this opportunity to ask Okabe how he felt about developing a new Resident Evil game at a time when the survival horror genre is filled with so many diverse options. He responded by saying that although they're keeping a close eye on competing games, his goal was to make the best Resident Evil game possible. By that, it means emphasis on horror, characters, setting and long established canon.

As an added bonus, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 will feature two multiplayer modes. Raid mode (surviving against hordes of monsters across missions) makes a return and will be playable online, but the two player story mode will be limited to local couch co-op. The other caveat is that whoever takes up the role of Mora will be limited to using a flashlight and crowbar, just as she does when controlled by the computer.

The four episodes will cost $5.99 each. The season pass will cost $24.99, and a disc version loaded with extras will retail for $39.99. It's up to players to decide which they'd rather go for, but episodes must be purchased in order - they won't run if it doesn't detect the previous one. Unlocked skills and items like bullets can be carried from one episode to the next. So, if you're really low on ammo at the start of episode 3, you can try replaying part 2 while exercising better bullet conservation. The game's graphical quality is about on par with the HD remake of the first Revelations game, with a couple of possible improvements. Although there won't be any startling changes in graphics between the different platforms, the game promises to run at higher resolutions on the PC and new generation consoles.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is shaping up to be a very strong addition to the series, and its first episode will debut on the PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3 in early 2015.