• Episode 1 Playthrough, Podcast, and Blog/Review/Whatever!
• Episode 2 Playthrough and Blog/Review/Whatever! + Podcast!
• Episode 3 Playthrough and Blog/Review/Whatever! + Podcast!

Duder, it's over! Or perhaps this is just the beginning???... Nah, I think it's safe to say Revelations 2 is over. Though I'm still far from through with it as I'd like to at the very least play through the main campaign on Survival, while perhaps giving the countdown & invisible enemy modes a run, and then there's still the two bonus episodes and more Raid mode and... suffice it to say Revelations 2 is likely to keep me stuck in for a fair while longer. In any case, as is tradition I recorded my playthrough of Episode 4! It's about what you'd expect, complete with the same annoying whir that encompasses the entire bloody thing... But at this point anyone who was actually willing to watch any of it shouldn't be surprised.

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I have to admit, I'm somewhat saddened that the routine of an episodic bit of Resident Evil'ing is over. While Revelations 2 is a game that could have easily stood to be released all in one go, the episodic format actually lead to a tinge of excitement that slowly built per week; the prospect of having to wait for the next story beat and to see what other Raid mode stuffs will be added was effective enough to force me out of bed at the wee hours every Wednesday. And believe me when I say that reasons for me to get out of bed these days is in short supply.

As such, the final episode of Revelations 2 is bittersweet to say the least. Though the actual episode didn't quite match my expectations. Storywise it involved a lot of me waiting for a twist or some sort of unexpected surprise that unfortunately never came. I think that would be my main criticism for this episode, for how the story pretty much wraps up how you'd expect it to; not much in the way of any curveballs or anything that breaks the mould of what to expect from a Resident Evil game story. Which is really unfortunate, as I think they done well in inserting all kinds of intrigue that could have hypothetically lead to something a little more... well, perhaps intelligent isn't the right word. Out of the ordinary let's say.

Still, the actual character moments once again take the cake and make for some of the most surprisingly well done character building the series has seen. That's not exactly a tall barrier to overcome, but still! Improvement! Barry in particular is the star of the show once again, and in a weird twist takes up much of the episode. I was surprised to find that the opening segment with Claire & Moira is in fact really short. Not a whole lot of combat either and mostly seems to function as the set-up for where Barry's segment will take him. Claire's segment still has memorable moments packed within all the same, however, with the selfless 'sacrifice' of Moira to push Claire out of the way of descending rubble making for a surprisingly touching moment. All throughout Barry's segment I as a result kept worrying of whether there was something else I could do, whether it was worth playing it again to see if there were any option at hand to save Moira. I was surprised to find that I actually felt guilty, and realised that I inadvertently must have grown at least some degree of attachment of Moira. Which is understandable, as I've found her to grow to be more likeable with every proceeding episode.

With Moira's fate left ambiguous, as Claire also leaps off into the ocean below, we're then taken over to Barry's side of things, which again takes up much of the episode's running time. There's a good variety of stuff going on in Barry's, too. It first opens up with Barry & Natalia having to operate a number of levers and lifts to help one another across a rather banged up bridge. It seems that they made this segment look to be a little more complicated than it actually is, but it still involved a bit more of that cooperative dynamic that Episode 3 in particular executed so well. The duo then find themselves in a gas-encased mine, which requires that they must act with the utmost haste when exploring the depths before having to escape and get some air. Fortunately the gas doesn't seem to have risen as high as you may think, so you're not constantly having to return to the surface; you also recover astonishingly quick from the effects of the gas. A little jarring to see (and hear) Barry sounding like he's about to ready keel over right then and there, only to be good as new within a milisecond of escaping the gas's radius. The gassy mines portion is designed pretty well overall nonetheless, as it forces you to keep on the move and gives your actions an added sense of urgency, especially when it comes time to unlocking one of the optional puzzle boxes as Natalia. Combat encounters amidst the gaseous depths are naturally made to be rather intense at times too, often forcing you to decide whether you should take these monsters on, or if it would be more advantageous to just run past it all to escape the gasping effects of the gas.

Finally their travels take them to (wait for it...) a spooky mansion! Yup. Capcom have no shame, no restraint! But ah, for as much as the spooky mansion archetype is so played out within this series, it's still an environment that I think works. What's unfortunate, however, is that the actual mansion motif is disappointingly short-lived. It's just not very big overall and is still rather linear all things considered--that and your time in the mansion is split between the mansion and a slaughterhouse/lab--which is a shame. One of the primary pulls of having a huge mansion to explore is that it's a big frikken mansion! They're typically massive, with all kinds of rooms and multiple corridors to discover. Still, despite Capcom's incessant mansion retreads, the environment itself is attractive to look at and carries at least some semblance of the slow-paced spookiness of the original Spencer Mansion. The lighting in particular is well done and sets the mood, and for as unoriginal an aesthetic it may be, it still makes for one of the more evocative environments in the game.

One thing I liked about the proceeding lab area was the number of Ravanent enemies quietly slumbering within their cozy little tubes. You would expect that they're simply lying in wait until you've triggered something important, signalling their time to strike! Or at least I assume so, as funnily enough the game allows you to prematurely smash each tube and kill the bloody things as soon as you find one. It's a small but appreciative gesture that laughs in the face of the invincible zombie corpses in RE6 that you couldn't kill until their triggered ''jump scare revival'' went into effect.

Once the mansion's done and (figuratively) dusted, it isn't long before you then stumbleupon Alex Wesker, still rockin' the fairy tale hansel & gretel witch look. However despite having God knows whatever viruses she has sloshing around her insides, she then injects (what I think is) uroborus for funzies and undergoes quite the bit of spinal stretching. She now looks like a mix between 'The Big Cheese' from RE4, and those utterly terrifying quadruped nightmare monster skeletons from Dark Souls. Monster Alex is certainly a rather memorable design, though the boss itself was disappointingly easy. The first stage is also generally a little bland, as you must simply shoot at the prototypical glowy-orange weakspot until she eventually dies. She will sometimes duck into the vents and routinely pop out to spit gobs of snot or something at you, but by and large she doesn't make for an especially memorable boss battle.

The second part is much superior and a more fitting finale. After Moira arrives (shocker!) in her hobo garb to save the day and provide some backup (with guns!), Barry, Natalia, and Moira escape the lab, only for Alex to then undergo the B.O.W. equivalent of blackface and start rushing after the three. At this point we then have a nearly unrecognisable Claire Redfield, looking like she's cosplaying as Ada Wong, who arrives by chopper and provides some air sniper support. From there Barry goes into Maximum Badass mode, as he then slowly advances towards Alex on his lonesome while Claire provides cover from above -- there's also a really great use of Barry's ''I Have This!'' quote to wrap the cutscene up in a sweet, silken bow. Though it was a little awkward to see Barry ready his Colt Python magnum, to then revert to gameplay where I had exchanged his Python for a different magnum...

This battle again makes for a huge improvement over the first Alex bout, though this too is a little on the easy side. Still, the added sense of spectacle makes up for it. When playing single-player at least you'll switch control between both Claire & Barry; as Claire you have to safeguard Barry as he does his thing, to which you'll then switch to Barry whenever he makes his way inside a cave or something. This goes like that for a while until eventually Barry suggests that ''Hey, hows about you make use of that RPG you have up there'', and in classic Resident Evil fashion you destroy Alex with a well placed RPG shot. Still sucks to see that the RPG has taken the place of the rocket launchers of yesteryear, though. Why Claire didn't just use the RPG from the get-go also doesn't make any lick of sense, but whatever. Gotta build to the crescendo first, soften her up and all!...

All of the dialogue that follows is just pure gold, complete with practically everything coming full circle with both Barry & Moira swearing up a storm, complaining about 'technology', and other such ''Like father like daughter'' tropes. Natalia is then formally adopted by Barry, and they all lived happily ever after.

...BUT THEN PLOT TWIST OH SHIT NATALIA ACTUALLY SEEMS TO BE CARRYING THE ESSENCE OF ALEX WESKER OOWHAAAA. Right, in an epilogue cutscene--complete with references to Chris & Piers heading to China during RE6--we actually get to take a sneak peak at the Burton household. My first thought was how I then suddenly wanted to play a Sims-like sort of game as the Burtons go through their non-BOW bustin' adventures. The perspective then switches to Natalia, who is quoting poetry about a bird and a cage and something something before ending on a close-up of an incredibly evil-looking smirk.

I don't know when or how that happened mind you. Natalia is shown to be kidnapped by Neil at the end of Episode 2 and placed in Alex's post-modern laboratory, as it seems Alex designed this whole fear gauntlet so as to discover who best could withstand the procedure of Alex somehow transferring herself into the body of another. The reason why she's doing this is because I think it's implied she's dying? I mean there's also her harebrained desire for immortality which undoubtedly functions as part of her motive, but she's also shown to cough, which I think was meant to imply that she's perhaps not in the best of health. Especially considering she injected herself with that T-Phobos virus as well, for... some reason? It also turns out that she transforms into the hunchback of Oz during Barry's segment because she had previously shot herself in the head... for some reason? Only she didn't die completely or whatever and the fear of dying then instigated the virus to turn her into Quasimodo.

So... what happened to Natalia during this time? Was Natalia secretly housing the essence of Alex this whole time during Barry's segment? Or was that why Alex got all freaked out at the end of episode 3, because that's when they done the whole Freaky Friday shebang? In any case as it turns out this is still very much a Resident Evil story and doesn't entirely make sense! Though there is that Bonus Episode that centres on Natalia which may perhaps answer my questions, or it may very well pile on even more questions for that matter. Still, despite the confusing subject matter nearing the end, I'm still a little disappointed that it had to end on another ''good guys save the day with practically no major repercussions!'' thing.

I was really banking on the possibility that Moira may not only die, but may in fact have to be killed by Barry as her own very swear-happy variety of monster. This series is just so damn shy about killing their good guys, and while I dig much of the character interactions, I was hoping that the story would lead to something a little more... consequential. It's always a little difficult to fear for the cast of characters' lives when we already know that they're ultimately going to survive anyway, that is unless you're a faceless bit member of a special forces squad, a pilot (or often both), or the comic relief. If you happen to make it through your first appearance in particular, chances are high that you've then got yourself a lifetime's worth of plot armour at your disposal. I mean, those bits of rubble hit Moira pretty damn hard. She didn't look like she was going anywhere, and the timer to Everything Explodes was around 17 seconds. I already know that Moira was somehow saved by that old Russian guy, as I've played a bit of the first Bonus Episode, but it still doesn't specifically explain how that was even possible. This is still undoubtedly Resident Evil's most engaging story yet, in large part thanks to the antics of Barry, but the actual story itself stuck too closely to the formula of every other Resident Evil game for my liking.

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Oh, I also streamed my first attempt at the Moira-centric Bonus Episode. To my surprise this is actually fairly different from the main game. Story wise it seems to be set in-between Claire and Barry's main campaign segments, and of course follows Moira, who is paired with that grouchy Russian beardsman who briefly appeared in Episode 2.

Right off the bat, the character interactions are surprisingly enjoyable. Moira being her defiant and attitude-prone self doesn't mesh with the old Russian fellow at all, and neither is afraid to voice their displeasure of having to work and try to survive with one another. Their conflicting personalities adds a very vivid ''Odd Couple'' sort of vibe, but one that I found to be genuinely rather entertaining.

What really took me surprise is the structure. It first opens with you killing animals in order to collect the meat, which accumulates up top by way of these bag icons. This right here felt like this was the 'Winter' equivalent from The Last of Us, though it soon got weirder. As it turns out what you're basically doing is farming for lives, as each death you succumb to will use up a bag of food; should you run out of food, it's game over. Also, it deletes your save and forces you to start over. For the Bonus Episode I mean, not the entire thing!

The difficulty makes for another splash of cold water, as you can only choose between Casual and Survival -- there is no gobetween, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis style! Naturally I picked Survival because I ain't no filthy casul, but whoo boy this shit is tough! After you've acquired food you then move onto what is essentially wave-based survival shenanigans, where it just throws hordes of everything at you, including multiple appearances of those cauldron-cannon wielding things. You at least carry over all of up your upgrades, though you must reacquire your weapons again. What makes it especially difficult is the increase in aggressiveness of the enemies. Those Hammer monsters were typically rather slow, but here they'll routinely break into a sprint and bum rush you to Hell and back. Enemies are also naturally sturdier and can withstand more punishment, but the ferocious new AI enemy patterns is what really sets up a whole new dynamic. I was so used to relatively waltzing my way through the main campaign on Normal that playing this Bonus Episode on Survival has forced me to start playing much more conservatively and to make extra-use of the dodge maneuver. Ammo isn't in especially high order either, often forcing me to really savour every bullet and make sure I'm getting the most use I can out of 'em. No more shotgunning every enemy I spot regardless of their threat level.

Like the main episodes you still have a coop buddy, this time being the old Russian fellow. What's weird is that you now have two characters with weapons, though the old guy can seemingly only use the bolt-action rifle. Moira can use any weapon she can find so long as she has the space, which I think is sorta funny, given that she's now seemingly a weapons expert despite going nearly her whole life avoiding firearms like the plaque. Must be those 'Burton genes'. Funnily enough she also still has her torch available as well, which that too has proven to be vital as it helps to save on ammo as you try to rely on melee attacks instead.

I managed to get through the wave-survival stuff but quickly perished during the latter stealth stuff, which I didn't even understand what was really even going on. Suffice it to say this Bonus Episode is pretty fucking Hardcore, but in a good way. It's helped open me up to certain strategies I wouldn't otherwise consider, such as actually making use of the damage bonus you get whilst crouching. It's also given me an even greater appreciation for the dodge maneuver! Perhaps one of the greatest new mechanics the series has seen for some time. Despite the difficulty I really enjoyed what I played of it and I'm certainly excited to try again. Though I also think this episode in particular would really benefit from having another player at your side, especially since if Moira dies it's game over completely, without any opportunity for her to be revived by Manly Russian Tramp Woodsman. I still haven't yet touched the second Bonus Episode yet, to which I think will be next on my to-do list. Will likely want to do a write up about that and maybe some more thoughts in the first Bonus Episode in due time. And not to mention a general retrospective on Revelations 2 as a whole and what it means for the series' future!