Resident Evil Revelations PC Demo Playthrough & Impressions

Capcom recently released a demo for the upcoming PC version of Resident Evil Revelations, the third-person survival horror action title which focuses on Jill Valentine (one of the protagonists from the first Resident Evil game) and was initially released for the Nintendo 3DS, and we have recorded a playthrough of the same. First off, while the display settings include options like motion blur, shadow and texture quality and of course anti-aliasing, don’t expect any high-end or next-gen visuals here. So most people with current-gen PC’s can expect the game to run smoothly on their computer; it did so at a resolution of 1920×1080 on our test system which is an Intel E8400 3Ghz with 4GB RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

The demo section sees Jill and her partner Parker Luciani aboard a cruise ship – the SS Queen Zenobia – in search of Chris Redfield (the other main character in RE1), though be aware that the main campaign does not have co-op like the more recent titles. In this writer’s opinion that is a good thing, as it allows for more scenes of heightened tension, and forces players to proceed cautiously conserving ammo and others resources procured during their journey. The perspective is similar to that of the previous games in the franchise, featuring an over-the-shoulder view, though you zoom in while aiming your weapon.

A new device available to players is the Genesis, which allows you to scan various objects in the game, including hidden items such as ammo and grenade stashes. Furthermore, each time you scan an item of interest, for example a dead enemy’s corpse, it fills up a percentage of the scan bar, which upon reaching 100% nets you a green herb (typical health packs in the Resident Evil games), and then resets to Zero. We used a mouse and keyboard and found the shooting mechanics to be pretty straightforward, though you may want to plug in a gamepad if you feel like a challenge.

While the demo was short, it did hint at some of the traditional survival horror experience that has been missing in the franchise over the past two instalments, though the lack of enemy diversity may be an issue (at least this was so in the demo); more varied environments would also have been welcome. The high-definition port of Resident Evil Revelations arrives on the PC on 21 May in North America and on 24 May across Europe for around $49.99; fans of the franchise may rush to purchase this, but we would recommend that gamers try the demo first; it weighs a paltry approximate 500MB.