So like I said a few days ago, I decided to go out and get RE Mercs
3D. What does that have to do with anything? Well Mercs 3D actually
includes the "pilot" (demo) to the upcoming game, Revelations! I know a
lot of you out there will either just NOT get Mercenaries 3D, or your
currently unable to so that's why I decided to do a review.
Anyway... Lets get started!
The revelations demo has been advertised for the past few months as a
pilot/intro to the newest game. Very much like the Legends 3 Prototype,
Capcom said that it would be a full intro to the game and a lot of fans
were expecting to see just what they were told. If you're one of them
people, well you're going to be upset. This demo can easily be beaten in
less than 60 seconds (however if you do try to take your time the game
WILL end on its own), and there is really no story included. This is NOT
the "pilot" most of us expected.
Putting aside how long the demo is, I can say that it really DOES
show off how the game will be. (Or at least gives us a good idea.)
When you first start the demo you'll get a message telling you that
it is still a demo so a LOT of features may not be included, and it also
tells you to use head phones and to try to find the perfect spot to
play. Horror has always played a big part in RE games and Capcom feels
that you should be playing this game at the best possible time. After
the notice you'll quickly see the title screen and you'll also see that
it is NOT in 3D. Now once again this is a DEMO so this could change for
the full release, but I still think it would have been nice to see.
Once you start the game you'll find yourself playing as Jill once again and you'll see the controls listed on the touch screen.
Now this game plays pretty much the same as Mercs 3D. You use the
slider (circle pad) to move your character. Forward moves forward, back
moves back, left and right causes Jill to turn around, and holding back
while hitting B will cause you to do a 180 turn. If you have ever played
the past (fully 3D) RE games, then you'll feel right at home from the
get go.
RE Revelations is a 3rd person shooter but the 3DS only has one
control stick. Some people think that this would be a problem, but it
really isn't. By holding the R button you'll enter "aim mode" which
pretty much turns your circle pad into a "right stick." In aim mode you
can rotate your character/aim in any direction and you can then press Y
to shoot. In aim mode the cam will zoom into a 1st person view, but it
is possible to change the settings to 3rd person if you're used to RE4
and 5. Even though aiming can be done in first person, you still aim by
using a laser sight so don't go expecting anything like in Battlefield
or Call of Duty.
Another button can also be used but it is NOT listed on the touch
screen. By holding the L button the circle pad turns into a normal "left
stick" which pretty much means pressing up/down/left/right will move
your character in that direction. This allows for side stepping and it
also allows you to shoot while walking (a first for RE) if you combind
it with aim mode. You can also hold the B button to run, and you can use
the touch screen to control the cam angle.
Overall the controls are pretty easy to use, but they can take awhile to get used to if this is your first time playing.
So once you start the demo you'll be playing as Jill on an old ship.
The 3D effect really doesn't seem to be that deep, I mean it's there and
it looks nice, but it really isn't that big of an effect compared to
some other games (including Mercs 3D). You'll see that Jill is not quite
"touching" the 3DS screen, but it's sometimes hard to even tell if the
world she's walking in has the 3D effect or not. Everyone does see the
3D effect in different ways though, so maybe it'll be different for.
Either way, I still leave it on to increase the quality of the graphics.
It REALLY looks nice.
Graphics will remind you a lot of RE4, but there are still some
limits to the 3DS so don't go expecting everything to look just as good.
However I can say that the graphics are a LOT sharper, and you won't
really see any blurriness (if that's even a word).
The actual demo starts with you walking down a hall and coming across
a door and another hallway. If you go up to the door you're able to
look inside the room and see a man tied to a chair, but that's about all
you can do here. You pretty much HAVE to take the other hall. Once you
take a few steps down this hall some rats will break out of a fuse box
and the game lets you check to see the damage that they've done. Once
again it's just another little extra which has no real meaning.
In the next room you'll find stairs going up and down. If you do down
Jill way think to herself that it's a dead end, so you'll be forced to
go up. The game is VERY linear (at least the demo is), and that's
something you'll learn pretty fast.
Once you make it up the stairs and go down another hallway you'll
find yourself in front of a door that has blood running out from under
it. You're really not sure what to expect in the next room but since
this is RE you have a pretty good idea. In this room the light effect
shows up.
You'll find yourself in a room with quite a few beds and it'll be
dark all around you. It isn't so dark that you can't see, but you have a
flashlight to shine around so lightning really isn't a problem. It just
adds to the overall tone of the game.
After you walk through the bedroom like area you'll find yourself in a
bathroom with a strange monster coming out from one of the stalls. Now
in this demo you have UNLIMITED ammo so you can simply just fire away at
the thing, however since the final game will be more of a survival game
you can bet that it would be best to run.
Blood shoots out with each shot, and getting hurt adds a red/blood
screen effect which appears behind Jill with the 3D effect. I have
noticed that blood CAN pop out at you if it goes flying in the right
direction, but it mostly stays back farther like most of the things in
this game.
After you make it through the stalls you'll find yourself in another
bedroom, which has some lockers you can look in, which then leads to
another hallway that has bats flying at your screen. Maybe I'm just used
to RE, but none of the "shocking" parts have actually shocked me, not
even these bats. In this same hallway you'll also find quite a few more
doors but they're all LOCKED, most likely being saved for the full
version of the game which will require a lot of exploring/puzzle
solving.
At the end of the hallway, and down some stairs, you'll end up seeing
what's been making some strange sounds that you've most likely been
hearing in the past few rooms. On the other side of a glass window is
two monsters holding up some random guy. As the guy struggles one of the
monsters throws him against the glass and...... Lets just say it's not
pretty.
Anyway we can now walk into the room and shoot the monsters. End Demo.
Now overall the demo is really nice, but it's really limited compared
to what the full game will be and it seems that they didn't include a
lot of the "small features" we've come to expect in these type of games.
Shooting computer screens wont break the glass, objects cast NO shadows
when the light hits them (could be a limit to the 3DS), the "you are
dead" screen doesn't have a 3D effect, there's no pause button, there's
currently no hub, and apparently you can't shoot the rats/bats that pop
out in the level.
Really NONE of these things are a "problem," but there are just some
things that a lot of people might expect to see only to find that
they're not in the game. Once again this is just a DEMO so a lot of
features have been left out, this doesn't mean the final game will work
the same way.
So what can we expect for the real game? Well apparently the game
will be a LOT like older RE games. It plays a lot like RE4 and 5, but
the gameplay will be horror survival like 1-3, CV, and 0. This would
mean limited ammo, limited saves, and that "I DON'T WANNA DIE AND REDO
EVERYTHING!" feeling.
From what Capcom has shown/told us the game sounds REALLY FUN, and I CAN'T WAIT till I can play the real thing.
"How can you tell the game's going to be fun if it's just a little
demo?" Yeah I'm sure some of you are asking that question, but the
answer is simple. I've played the actual game the demo CAME WITH! Mercs
3D uses the same engine and plays just the same. Although Mercs is a
"mini game," it really lets us see how a RE game would be on the 3DS.
Also since Mercs 3D uses the touch screen for the inventory system, it's
safe to assume that Revelations will do the same.
"Well how about RE M3D? Is the game worth it?" It's not worth 40
bucks but the game is VERY fun and you can easily kill hours playing it.
