The first big 3DS demo has hit the eShop, and it’s a brand new Resident Evil game. F**king awesome way to kickstart this service, I’d say. Since the game is free, hopefully most of you have already downloaded and played it. Here’s my thoughts after a few playthroughs.
I’m enjoying a lot of things about this game, first and foremost the controls. It’s classic RE, but with more ease and comfort. Changing weapons and items is very easy, and throughout the entire demo there’s no reason to even open the menu. Having a map on the bottom screen is the icing on the cake; everything is just there without having to freeze time and clumsily dig into your backpack. Having weapons and items as two separate scrolling categories is brilliant and intuitive – something I would never expect in a Resident Evil game. Everything can basically be done with one button, and even secondary weapons can be used straight away by pressing X instead of Y while aiming. I love the use of the scanner too. It’s something that wasn’t possible in classic RE games simply because you couldn’t look around and aim freely. Now you can and they’re taking advantage of it; it made no sense before how items would just glow for no reason before you’d even looked for them. The RE world starting to make sense? Now that’s horror.
Aiming is great, shooting in first person is satisfying, and it’s easy to look around. The enemies seemingly bob their heads and tard out a lot more to help “balance” the ease of control you have over your aiming, ensuring the game isn’t easy. I died quite a few times trying to be a badass with the knife; it seems really weak in this game. It seems like it’s only worth using when the enemy is already down, because they don’t respond much to actual knife blows and they’ll lunge at you even WHILE you’re stabbing them.
The graphics and environments really stand out to me as well. It has a good isolated atmosphere which was lacking in Resident Evil 5, and to me it feels closer to the very first Resident Evil than any of the others. The environments are nicely detailed and unique, without being over the top. It feels like a real place, and experiencing it on a handheld is pretty damn special. Gamers can finally experience real horror while lying in bed, without the guilt!
Despite how much I like the design, I can’t get used to the 3D effect in this game; it looks way better without it. Putting it on full strength just makes Jill Valentine morph into two and having it only slightly on isn’t worth the blurriness, especially considering how crisp it is with 3D off. I really hope this is cleaned up in the final game, because there’s a huge opportunity here for 3D to enhance the horror aspect and immersion. If Capcom doesn’t do it, someone else will.
Overall, I’m impressed, and definitely buying this. The demo on the eShop was a GREAT idea, because it was hard to imagine what it would be like before playing it. One reason for this is the screenshots Capcom have released look horrible – believe it or that picture up there of Jill is the best gameplay shot I could find – an empty corridor. If Revelations sells well, I can see lots of developers joining the demo bandwagon, and it could create a good ecosystem for successful games on 3DS. One big thing hurting the gaming industry now is people unwilling to “risk” buying a crap game with so much out there, and demos will eliminate this risk and give gamers a lot more confidence in the product if it’s good. If you have a 3DS, go download this now. If you don’t like it, who cares? At least you’ll know. This is the most excited I’ve been about Resident Evil since Resident Evil 4, a staggering 7 years ago.
Pietriots 
I’m actually comfortable with the demo’s 3D (Strong – 50% slider), just as with any 3D title released in the last season. I do see the ghosting effecting on Jill and the laser, and it’s distracting, but it shows up about every other room and I don’t know what triggers it.
I’m used to the gyro as well, but I hate how the gun’s horizon points to the upper half of the screen, instead of giving me a reticule in the center. The gyro sensitivity is practically the same as Ocarina 3D, where the camera moves at twice the angular change that I do. BUT THE DAMN THING DOES GO HAYWIRE once in while; seems to easily lose its bearings if I pan too slowly, causing it to “rubber band” or spin inexplicably. Jill, not only does your character design look awful (what did Umbrella do to take 10 years off your face?), your aim sucks too.
No matter how much I try, I haven’t gotten a single decaptitation or limb shatter on these oozie fellows. I demand a higher standard of violence, and this leaves me greatly dissatisfied.
That all said, I won’t bother buying this game. The series is dead to me (checkout RE6 and the other HD pursuits of “art”!), and this questionable “return to form” confirms it.
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I can understand not buying it, but it’s a bit unfair to dismiss the whole game based on that. Those things aren’t even normal zombies, their shit stays attached possibly by design, or possibly because it’s just a DEMO. I think it showcases a good experience, it’s silly to look too deeply into the mechanics.
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Even if it’s by design, the result is still unappealing. My impression already goes beyond the demo – given all the media and detailed info that’s already available on the final product, my overall expectation’s been set. I don’t find the characters, “story”, art direction, and RE5-ish emphasis on automatic weaponry (not kidding) appealing. I do like “classic RE” in the form of REmake and Zero, but I don’t consider them great games. The gameplay is stupid – but I did find the isolated story/characters and adventure experience entertaining. Now this gen’s series has flipped around, where the core gameplay is OK yet everything else I find stupid. I’m at a loss.
The details in the mechanics, in reference to this series’ evolution, hold a lot of weight to me. What good is manual aiming if I see no “reward” like specific body damage? Maybe I’m saving ammo by hitting vital spots, but that’d be the same lukewarm feedback I’d get from regular unresponsive shooters. Something is missing, and providing me with assault rifles isn’t the solution.
As for this demo, I’ll take it as an accurate picture of the core mechanics for this brief section of the game. We’re a MONTH away from release; we got the Viewtiful Joe and Resident Evil 4 demos (both were updated E3 builds) 3-4 months ahead of release last time, so I can expect that Capcom’s track record still holds true.
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In other news, to hell with these “speed runs” of the demo. Bypassing the game’s mechanics in the guise of “expert play” was a inherent problem of the original series.
I’m trying to kill every oozie with just THE KNIFE.
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Hahaha speedruns. Yeah I agree with that, most of the fun i’m having is just looking around. Inspecting the toilet is part of the experience.
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Considering Capcom’s track record, I am predicting DLC to come out in two months for Revelations. Vita port won’t happen because its a flop-flop.
Capcom.
Capcom never changes.
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I think the biggest mistake they made with this was not calling it “Resident Evil 6”. Hopefully it doesn’t meet the same fate Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers did, fantastic game nobody even looked at. The demo gives me hope, though.
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I’m not too worried about that happening. Umbrella Chronicles managed to be a million seller, and that actually WAS a spinoff.
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Wii owners like myself only bought that shameful game to prove to Capcom that THERE WAS an audience after Resident Evil 4: Wii Editon (what, HD? They exist? Well fuck).
Instead they got the now dead Cavia to make ANOTHER RAIL SHOOTER, which no one wanted. And after playing Resident Evil 5, which was a fucktarded disaster with awful A.I. controlled partners (ASHLEY WORKED SHUT THE FUCK UP EVERYONE) Revelations has a lot to do to win me over.
And I learned that the writer for this game wrote that Eureka Seven anime. Oh fucking hell… 😦
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RERev is my new favorite RE title ever. Buy it!! Play it!!
RE4 was great.
RE5 was garbage.
RE6 will hopefully learn from RE5’s mistakes.
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Considering how badly they screwed over one of Hideki Kamiya’s best creations (Resident Evil 2 with Operation Raccoon City), RE6 is the train ride to disaster.
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I’ve finally started playing the full version and it’s pretty damn awesome. I love how they changed the bit from the demo. This game reeks of effort, it can’t be from Capcom.
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Yes, I noticed the demo quirk too. I was very clever of them to do that.
So amazing that this game is better then that awful Operation Raccoon City. Shitting all over Resident Evil 2 like that… die.
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