Resident Evil: Revelations is the game Capcom has been promising Resi fans for years and many were surprised by the release on the Nintendo 3DS, even thought the franchise has been released on many Nintendo consoles over the last few years, but many of these games have not been to successful, but with Revelations Capcom have decided to go back to basics.

The first thing you notice when you fire up the game is that how fantastic the graphics are, they are the best yet seen on the 3DS by some way & the CG cutseens are stunning, of course being in 3D makes the graphics overall even better looking, the sound it also very good, with lots of atmosphere and depth, this is only possible because Revelations comes on a hefty 4GB card where most other games have to make do with 2GB, the story mode is apparently around the ten hour mark.

You play as Jill a officer in the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) for most of the time, there are a couple of other playable characters available throughout the game though, the game-play being on a hand-held is in more bite size chunks that can be easily be put down and picked back up again, this means that the game focuses less on puzzles of the elaborate scales that console based Resi games are known for, so there is more in the way of exploration this time, from the enclosed tight corridors of a damaged cruise ship the SS Queen Zenobia to the more expansive areas of ‘The Crash Site’.

Once again ammunition is very scarce so there is much more emphasis on swapping weapons this is made much easier because of the 3DS’s second touch-screen allowing you to easily switch between weapons and other items, one of these is the Genesis portable scanner unit, which when used uncovers hidden items when scanning the corpse of a dead monster, scanning the recently deceased also allows you to increase your health by way of intel gathered by the Genesis Scanner, it is a bit clumsy to use first as you have to aim in a specific area but once you get used to it, it’s fine and easy to use.

Like most Resi games the players viewpoint is third person and the controls are pretty standard, however Revelations supports the Circle Pad Pro, a add-on device that the 3DS slips into, that includes a extra right thumb stick and trigger buttons on the rear of the console, this makes the 3DS feel much more like the joy-pads for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, the Circle Pad Pro (CCP) has it’s own battery which lasts for 400+ hours according to Nintendo, the CPP does make the game a bit easier to play as it will do for many other games, it’s a bit strange though when games can easily incorporate the 3DS’s capability of augmented reality, but the CPP is of course a afterthought by Nintendo and has left many 3DS owners worrying about when a improved 3DS will be released that includes the second stick, Revelations works fine without the CPP as most other games supporting it will do, weather you choose to use it yourself is of course up to you, however one thing is for sure and that is that Resident Evil: Revelations is a must buy game for the Nintendo 3DS.

Resident Evil: Revelations is out now and available only on the Nintendo 3DS, there are is also a version that includes the Circle Pad Pro.

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