Do you ever stumble across a random sale, or get alerted to something on Bluesky? That happened to me the other day, and I got both “Resident Evil: Revelations” games for like $7. And as a lifelong RE fanboy, I’ve somehow never played these two before.

So far, after beating the first one, I can confidently say it’s a pretty good game!

This game sits at an interesting crossroads in the franchise’s history. It came out on the Nintendo 3DS first, in 2012, a few years after “Resident Evil 5” became the first RE game to be released in HD. But it also came out the same year as “Operation Raccoon City” and “Resident Evil 6,” which somehow makes this the best one to come out that year.

It clearly uses “RE5” as a template for its graphics, its art style, its controls, and point of emphasis on almost everything. But since it was crammed down into handheld form, they had to go back to a more classic RE model in both enemy count and setting. This time, it’s chapter based, and mostly sticks to one large tanker which acts as a ghost ship. And boy did I smile from ear to ear when there were locked doors marked by icons and I had to find the corresponding keys to open them.

This is also the age of seeing Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in a game; which is refreshing! As was seeing layered and complex level design coupled with different guns, stats, upgrades, secrets, and a scanning system that rewards with green herbs. It’s a quick blend of all the things I love from classic and modern RE games but in a game meant to be played on the go, and not necessarily on an 80-inch TV. But at least it looked good enough, and played well enough that I didn’t see anything get lost in translation apart from having to hit a button to pop open the map.

Between the main chapters on the big boat, you get some other vignettes that are much more action focused. Those are, by far, the best parts of the game because there’s no expectation to backtrack and find guns or gun parts. Which I also like, but, man, is it great when they give you a magnum, grenades, and an RPG, and say “beat this big ugly boss monster!” That’s what video games are all about.

I’ve yet to tackle the second “Revelations,” which apparently has more co-op elements as well as Claire Redfield. But as long as I keep my expectations in check, I could be in store for another surprise. Nothing hits harder than a really fun 7/10 game that isn’t too long or hang its hat on anything too annoying.

It seems like these games are just aiming for a lower bar and clearing it because they don’t have the world’s best story, characters, graphics, sound, music, combat, pacing, replayability… You get the idea.

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Image Credit: “Resident Evil: Revelations”