Resident Evil: Revelations Review and Joycon Aiming Thoughts(Nintendo Switch)

Originally, I wasn't going to play Resident Evil Revelations 1 again due to me previously beating on PS3 and later PS4 but the Nintendo Switch does tend to be more open for motion control aiming depending on the game and I've been going through RE games as of late so I decided to take the plunge and beat Rev 1 for a 3rd time.

I learned later that there is no gyro aiming for the pro controller and that this version only has Joycon motion aiming. The Joycons have been something I never liked using but I decided to give it a chance. It turned out to be more interesting than I thought it was going to be. It's basically the Switch version of Pointer aim on Wii which is one of the more interesting ideas that brought to the table regarding motion controls. Revelations 1 with this aiming style is basically RE4 Wii Edition.

This did however created problems that were never there before. Like say playing Doom 1993 without keyboard aim. Aiming for headshots on enemies became so easy and I was rolling with ammo for much of the game. The sniper rifle which was something I never felt comfortable for using is now the best weapon in the game bar none due to the much added precision of Joycon motion aiming.

The slower moving enemies were almost too easy to take out like the Molded on the Queen Xenobia. With them only being in large numbers being more threatning. The faster moving enemies like Hunters and Dogs fared better but with the former, there's less need for melee attacks. The only big challenge to overcome is evading enemy attacks since dodging is context sensitive and reliably evading attacks is moving back or strafing left or right before a seconds or a minute before an faster moving enemies like Hunters can reach you. This isn't the best tactic however. I often did get hit by them a lot and relied on the healing items a lot. Might've been high on ammo but not healing items which prevents Rev 1 from being a complete pushover and a sleepwalk game with this control setup.

The final boss of Rev 1, Jack Norman is pretty challenging with Joycon motion aiming on normal. It can feel like a huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the game. I questioned how I was able to beat this with analog stick aiming...twice. Or how this was doable on 3DS the system it was first on. This is a boss fight I appreciate a lot in some ways but there are things that are bizarre. As a whole, Norman is one of the series' better bosses in that he has actual patterns and attacks to dodge and it's game of waiting for openings to hit him but those can be guessing games since he can be an illusion and it's about noticing and reacting quickly when to shoot him in the heart before he can hit you. This is well above using your best weapon and tanking hit like in past REs, there is some skill here. One thing that holds it back and can make this boss enter into the realm of frustration is how much HP he has. The only way to reliably widdle his health down was using the sniper. Anything else would make this fight longer and his later attacks get less and less easier to avoid especially his running charge move.

Outside of that, it's still for the same game I enjoyed. The attempt at combing older more exploration based gameplay with action is commendable. The Queen Xenobia sections with the player going to different parts of the ship to find key progression items to unlock different areas is still as enjoyable as ever since it builds up anticipation on where you are going to go next and various locked areas and inaccessible parts of the level you can't go to hours earlier you will go to later on.

The shooting gallery sections are enjoyable since it breaks up the pace of the exploration and it's nice to just let loose on some faster enemies after fighting the slowly creeping towards you Molded. The game also does a good job at having sections where it feels like you have too much ammo and healing items but later on, a longer enemy wave will pop up to drain at least one of these things if not both. There are also timed and swimming sections here and there but neither lasts overly long enough to make me groan at their inclusion. The levels can be lengthy too and this was once a portable game.

If there are issues that are in the game regardless of what aiming method you use are that sometimes, you can randomly get killed in one hit even though you were at full health. Some stuff like the finger print touching was a carry over from 3DS. The aforementioned lack of a dedicated evade command. Getting hit from behind can happen often especially during faster paced segments with high enemy volumes.

The story despite being called "Revelations" doesn't reveal anything about the series' story you already don't know. It's pretty much just a filler arc like many interquel stories tend to be.

Overall, Rev 1 is a very enjoyable game, I can still be engaged by it even when most of the game design never intended to have motion controls and fast aiming.