“When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth.”
That line is uttered by a character in George Romero’s classic 1978 film Dawn of the Dead. It’s a chilling sentiment, particularly when contrast against the anti-consumerist message Romero managed to capture in his film, but for today it seems more apropos to change the quotation to, “When there’s no more room on Nintendo’s handhelds, the dead will walk the more lucrative gaming platforms.” Admittedly, that was a ham-handed segue into word that Resident Evil: Revelations will soon appear on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, but how often do we get to reference Romero?
Anyway, we’ve been hearing rumors for a while now, and today Capcom announced that the Nintendo 3DS-exclusive Resident Evil: Revelations will be making the transition to home consoles and personal computers. Is this an attempt by Capcom to further monetize a successful entry in the Resident Evil franchise following the failure of last year’s Resident Evil 6 to ignite sales charts or impress critics in any meaningful way? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean the company is merely selling the same game you played almost one year ago.
When the new iterations of Resident Evil: Revelations arrive on May 21, they’ll each feature a $50 price tag. This is $10 more than the original retail price found on the 3DS version of the game, but that’s owing to the new features Capcom has created specifically for these redux incarnations of the title. Alongside the expected high-definition aesthetic upgrades, the latest edition of Resident Evil: Revelations will also add “a new enemy, a new harder difficulty, new Raid weapons and new Custom Parts that make your weapons even more formidable,” according to the Capcom Unity blog.
Most importantly for fans of the series though, the new version will also include an exclusive playable character who first made his debut in Resident Evil 2. No, not Chris Redfield or that stupid-huge crocodile in the basement; we’re talking about Hunk, the mute, featureless, yet somehow bizarrely intriguing soldier who has sporadically appeared in the Resident Evil series, most often as bonus content. While you won’t be able to take Hunk through the main singleplayer campaign in Resident Evil: Revelations, he is slated to be available for use in the game’s Raid Mode.
If you were to look up our original review of Resident Evil: Revelations, you’ll see that we enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best Resident Evil game made to date, but it was easily in the top handful of titles the series has produced. Plus, its portable nature and surprisingly excellent implementation of its platform’s 3D technology were both big positives on a handheld that, at that time, boasted nothing worthwhile outside of first party Nintendo games. We’re sure that the console and PC versions of Resident Evil: Revelations will look gorgeous and feature the same basic, entertaining gameplay, but we’re not sure we can justify that $50 price tag unless Capcom adds more content. Still, fans of the series that were left with a bitter taste following the last console offering, may want to check this out as a palette cleanser for the series, albeit a relatively pricey one.
