Resident Evil Revelations 2 Game Review

Oh boy it´s been a while, sorry for that but I was on a trip... didn´t really took my time to write anything for my blog... so how about I talk about a game release a year ago!

Resident Evil is one of my favourite video game franchises, the characters are memorable, the creatures are very interesting and well thought out, the art direction is always outstanding and while the stories aren't really masterful or anything it's the presentation and the character interactions not only with each other but with the situations, the monsters, etc... what makes this series shine for me.

The franchise has always had their ups and downs... with time both fans and designers have no idea what made the franchise so popular in the first place because the debates have ranged all across the board from blaming the bad live action movies to the absurd amount of Michael Bay-like action style in the latest Resident Evil 6. I can say that the series is in good shape by still coming up with good kinds of content (we recently got the HD remaster of the Resident Evil Remake, RE Revelations, the HD remaster of RE Zero, etc...), the latest entry in the main series is Resident Evil Revelations 2.

I'll admit I didn't play this game at lunch not because I didn't wanted to but because of it's episodic nature, I opted for waiting for a lunch on disk than getting it at digital lunch and having to waiting for a month or 2 for the next episode, I've had enough of that with the TellTale Games and the likes so I passed... recently I got it for PS4 brand new for 25$ and in my opinion this is one of the best in the franchise or at the very least from the most modern games.

The story is set between Resident Evil 5 & 6 (but set after the CGI movie Damnation), Claire Redfield is our main character for this game where she is now an anti-bioweapon NGO for TerraSave (witch was briefly explored in RE Degeneration), attending at a ceremony of the organisation but terrorists erupt and capture Claire and the other members of TerraSave. After waking up in some abandoned detention facility, Claire is reunited with Moira Burton, new member of TerraSave and eldest daughter of S.T.A.R.S. veteran, Barry Burton; the two must now escape the twisted local and discover who is doing these experiments and why.

I haven't mentioned the fact that Barry himself is also playable and he has his own quest line that you fallow, I guess you can figure he is indeed looking for his missing daughter but I won't say much for the sake of spoilers. Like I've said before, this franchise isn't exactly high art storytelling (there are some dialogue choices that are pretty dumb) but is the way the characters interact with one another and with the environment what makes it shine so much to me, it feels somewhat believable thanks to the delivery by the actors and the directing. Claire and Barry are very likeable for the most part, has for Moira and Barry's companion, Natalia, they are pretty likeable too, even though they don´t fight directly they are very useful and unlike RE6 where your companion is ignored almost completely here they are in danger and you will have to protected them witch is fine by me, besides you can swap between them any time so is not like they are completely out of your control and have their own ways of fighting back.

Gameplay wise, Revelations 2 plays somewhat similar to RE6, with characters being unrestrained by tank-like controls, moving while firing and even a dodge mechanic; however it suffers from certain production value issues witch unfortunately hurts the overall experience and if you ask me this is probably due to the team not being given enough budget: when Resident Evil 6 was under production Capcom combined two development teams to produce the game and even the budget was overall bigger than any other game Capcom had made for the series at the time while Revelations had less than half of the team RE6 had and that´s without mentioning the time constraints and probably the episodic nature of the game hurt a little for the budget. Make no mistake thought because on many areas I actually like Revelations 2 more than RE6, it certainly is much more atmospheric and slow passed than the action oriented aspects that the series has been criticised by in recent memory.

Revelations 1 made a great attempt at combining the gameplay aspects of the franchise that started to improve since RE4 and the classic horror aspects that RE fans love and for that reason alone I think Revelations is great; Revelations 2 stays very true to the elements of it´s predecessor and even improves the gameplay of both Revelations 1 and the main numerical saga: you can now dodge on command without having to necessarily wait for the enemy to get dangerously close to you and the shooting works great, they even went has far to include stealth mechanics that I actually wanted to see, it´s not deeply elaborated has that of Metal Gear Solid but it´s a very competent mechanic akin to that of The Last of Us (probably thats where the idea came from), ammunition will also be something you will have to keep a close eye, thanks to the stealth system is now not just about aiming well but about being smart with your environments.

Since Resident Evil 4, the franchise has had some great post game content like The Mercenaries mode, the Revelation series is actually taking it on a different direction with Raid mode: an RPG like meta-game where you partake on diffent objectives that range from reaching the goal to protecting a target and I have to admit that I find Raid mode to be more addicting than Mercenaries, it´s indeed very grind heavy where to fulfil certain goals you will probably have to replay some missions here and there to get to the required level, I won´t lie since this process can and is indeed very annoying and sometimes downright boring... but there is a special satisfaction when you achieve victory and is all because the challenge is both fair and fun.

Raid mode is just one of the modes, there is Countdown where you have to finish an episode of the main campaign within a time limit and Invisible where you play the episode within the campaign but the enemies are invisible... I don´t find these two modes very enjoyable, they are harmless I guess but it´s still dev time that could have been put into better use like maybe more enemy variety or much longer Campaign and more Raid mode maps and content.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 is rough around the edges... it´s unfortunate that the production and corporate choice of episodic style of game hurt the overall quality of the game but nevertheless I am thankful I played this game and I hope that more RE games like this can be given the treatment and respect it deserves because there is a great Resident Evil game waiting to come out within the Revelations name.

It´s nowhere near perfect but I know I would rather play this than any Ubisoft collecta-thon.

Gravity Falls Animation Review

During the last few weeks I have decided to watch the critically acclaimed TV show of Gravity Falls created by Alex Hirsch; I´ll admit that at first I didn´t knew what to expect... I went in knowing nothing about the show, literally, I didn´t had any positive nor negative expectations and has someone who enjoys animation in general I gotta say I really loved this show.

I have never limited myself to any kind of demography, genera or style despite many reprises by family and friends... many around me have argued that I should´t be watching cartoons like Gravity Falls because is for kids... indeed is for kids but that dozen´t stop me and many adults to enjoy a smart series. I have many reasons why I adore Gravity Falls and why is a great show.

The premise goes like this: Twin siblings Dipper and Mable Pines travel for summer to a town called Gravity Falls with their Granduncle Stan, a con-artist; while at first it does seem like a standard and somewhat boring hometown, Gravity Falls ends up having more secrets than it less out so eventually Dipper comes across a diary that holds the secrets of magical and interdimentional creatures out in the open... and so the kids have the summer vacation of their lifetime.

Alex Hirsch has stated that the promise itself was somewhat inspired by his own experiences on vacation with his twin sister, witch helps to give this series an air of genuine love and it shows on screen. There is plenty of good stuff in this show that I am literally having a hard time while writing thinking of where to start: well how about the comedy? I have seen many cartoon shows trying to be funny and mature at the same time and all they do is just fall flat on their faces by doing really idiotic stuff like telling jokes of all kinds that just goes over the head of many children and adults would most likely find revolting... Gravity Falls proves that comedy doesn´t have to be a complicated science or be too much of one thing; jokes can be simple with a circumstance in the story that drives it and have one character suffer a certain concequesce (weather it be slapstick or a play on words).

This generation of cartoons have not only been funny and extremely well animated but it has also been smart with it´s presentation, characters and stories in Gravity Falls is just the current example of that quality level in animated shows: I love the aesthetics, if you look carefully, the backgrounds matches the style of the characters, painting backgrounds is a nightmare for me so I am fascinated by seeing the team having such ease to work with blending the background with the characters so seemingly, the character models are very akin to something out of "The Simpsons" and for animation this is very good since it facilitates the work load for the animation, and with less complicated models there is more time to make plenty of wacky and interesting movements, the characters in this show are very well stretched and squashed. Even with their simplistic design the way these characters look is memorable, of course much of it comes from the personalities and characterisation but looking at them is easy to appreciate them: Mable is one of the most adorable characters I´ve ever seen on an animated show.

The stories are simple for kids to fallow yet intriguing for adults to watch, it´s smart on that regard by not only showing creative imagery but challenging their core audience by sometimes incorporating scary elements without going way too far with it, I can think of a couple of times I was startled by some of the creatures the team came up with... some people might think that this kind of things are too much for little children but I doubt it would scar kids or anything; if anything it challenges them to face scary imagery.

Like most cartoon shows now days (and some even back when), it has a core story it fallows yet every episode can be watched on it´s own and that helps any common viewer to jump in at anytime... however, thanks to the power of the internet people can access the episodes in sequence, I feel however that having this kind of story format helps to tell some new stories has well has helping viewers who are jumping for the first time in that very episode. The overarching story that is being fallowed does take many twists and turns about the direction the series is taking... I don´t wanna give anything away but it is very cleverly incorporated and it does know how to build good drama while at the same time keeping focus on the on the comedy aspects and the fact that it´s a cartoon.

Gravity Falls only has 2 seasons under it´s belt unlike most other cartoons that lasts for about 4 seasons or more, the creator knew that the magic would be lost if he forced the continuation of the show so he decided to finish it out with a bang by lunching the final season and wrap up pretty much every loose end has the summer is ending... again i don´t want to give anything away but let´s just say that everything from the message is trying to convey to the comedy, the action, the drama and of course the well incorporated animation is all excellent making what seems like an epic finale for a simple animated show something somewhat glorious to watch.

What else can I say; Gravity Falls is a great show and has an animator myself i can appreciate the work put into making this what it is, the characters are memorable, the stories are fun, the comedy is smart, the animation is great... is just an overall great cartoon, one I am glad I watched and I want to revisit in the future when it feels fresh again.

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After the bad taste that playing EA´s Star Wars: Battlefront left me I am glad I got to see something very fun and clever, I hope I got the interest of some people to check it out because I am not kidding when I say it´s a really smart animated show... If you are a fan of animation then I am sure you are gonna appreciate what it has to offer.

I don´t know what is to come on next but I have been busy with life stuff recently and I don´t know when is the next post going to be let alone the topic... it will come to me but in the mean time check out my tumblr page here. Since I know I haven´t been putting up anything related to my project I felt like I could get someplace to share it.

Thank you again and stay tuned.