First Impressions: Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Episode 2: Contemplation [Claire & Moira] (NS)

Contemplation?  More like "Run the Fuck Away from that Bastard with the Giant-Ass Drill."  Or simply just, "RUN!!"

Sorry, I should have opened with that there will be spoilers here, but seriously?  Contemplation?  Maybe by the end of this article, I will agree that Contemplation is the appropriate title for this episode in the survival-horror game Resident Evil: Revelations from Capcom, released back in 2015.  My article covering Chapter 1: Penal Colony can be found here if you are not yet caught up.  And just a quick word, this article will only cover Claire and Moira since I apparently had a lot more to say about their stage before even getting to Barry and Natalia's chapter.

This was taken after I finished Episode 2 & wasn't filled out this much during
the whole of the episode.

And before we get down into the nitty-gritty of Episode 2, I want to mention some aspects of the game that were new to me, but were brought over from Resident Evil 6, which I have yet to play.  Skills are exactly what they sound like.  Abilities that you either do not start the game with, or augment your already existing skills.  It is interesting in that they allow you to purchase upgrades for various characters, buffing abilities like the amount of damage Moira can do with the crowbar, extending the range you can heal your partner at (or the range the AI can heal you, all depending on who has green herbs), or granting new abilities like being able to sprint and attack with the knife at the same time, and charging a melee attack.  You earn BP currency to purchase skills by finding gems scattered throughout the stages, finishing levels, completing optional Raid Missions, or if you have an amiibo around you can earn between 1,000 - 8,000 (maybe less or more, but that was the range I found out with the amiibo I have) for each one scanned.  I have mixed feelings about skills in a survival-horror game.  First, it means that characters can become arbitrarily better at something through out-of-game events.  It would be one thing to purchase upgraded weapons, but finding a diamond on the ground translating to being able to inflict more damage after switching characters is just a game mechanic that takes away from the game being survival horror.  That being said, you bet your bloody britches I am taking advantage of these skills.  They were programmed into the game and the game was designed with the belief that players would take advantage of them, so why make the game harder for myself?

Well, the gang's mostly back together.

So, let us start with Claire and Moira's chapter for Episode 2 first since that is how the base game plays out.  When you start, I was a little confused as to what was going on because the last time we saw Claire and Moira, they were at the radio tower and now they are running through a forest, unknowingly following three other TerraSave employees, Gabe, Pedro, and  Neil who were also captured during the opening scene of Episode 1.  It really felt a bit jumbled in the storytelling as I felt that a reunion would have had more of an impact or at least could have been more eventful in terms of gameplay and not just through an opening cinematic.  Instead, to me, it came across more like, oh cool, we're here now.  And together.  And that you start out in a shanty-town with an abandoned helicopter was a bit disorienting too.  Just having a way of escaping the island this early in the episode and the game is a recipe for disaster.

But because this is a video game, just finding a helicopter does not mean that it is going to operate, so naturally, you have to find multiple canisters of fuel and a battery scattered throughout the village infested with enemies.  This collection/fetch quest ended up leading to one of the more frustrating sections in the game, and coming as early as it did really made me dislike this chapter of Episode 2.  In one event, the group is trapped in a small bar with a balcony of sorts and is then attacked by the afflicted (RE: R2 version of zombies) with them pouring in through six windows and a set of double doors.  I ended up having to replay this section a handful of times as I kept finding myself getting overwhelmed, both playing as Moira stunning enemies, lobbing fire/explosive bottles, and clubbing afflicted with a crowbar, and as Claire using her handgun and shotgun.  During most of the stage, I would control Moira because I had purchased the skill that doesn't let the AI-controlled character used up ammunition even if they are firing to their electronic hearts content.  There is even a lull in the battle when you finally kill all of the afflicted, characters start talking, then it happens all over again!  Like in Resident Evil: Revelations, this fight seemed to exist to not convey some kind of story, but to drain the player of ammunition and green herbs.  The one story-aspect to this fight is that an event happens that brings in an invincible boss creature that eventually breaks down the front door allowing you to escape, but if you die during this battle, you have to start all over as there are not mid-battle checkpoints.  I seriously considered lowering the difficulty from Normal to Easy here, but I was finally able to make it out, only to have the boss-creature hunt you down until you finally were able to flee the area.

The next series of areas were all directly related to Claire & Moira working their way inland, in an attempt to get to a large oddly shaped tower, believing that the communications being broadcast through their bracelets were coming from the highest point on the island.  During this traverse, the two characters met up with Natalia, this, of course, being before her stand-alone side story Little Miss, and before Barry & Natalia's chapter in Episode 1 all which take place six months later.  When you pick up Natalia, she is not selectable like she is in B&N's chapter, but that makes sense since when you play her in Little Miss, she does not seem to have gained/learned the ability to sense any of the creatures.  And now that I think about it, in C&M's chapter, you do not see any of the strange and lumbering golem-creatures with chainsaws randomly attached to various appendages.  Hmmm. . .

I grabbed this from the Resident Evil fandom page
because I was too busy NOT DYING to grab a
screen capture of this annoying dude.

But anyway, this section of the game is pretty standard fare for Resident Evil and I once again started enjoying the game.  I mean, I did enjoy parts of the shantytown, but that bar fight and Giant-Afflicted-With-A-Drill Bastard really tainted that place for me.  And I probably should have known better than thinking that I would be enjoying the journey to the giant red tower because what the Revelations series does is throw mini-boss after mini-boss at you.  One in the first half, and one to close out the chapter.  With this leading up to the end of the chapter, I should have seen something, but I was not prepared for Vulcan Blubber.  Yes, the official enemy's name is Vulcan Blubber.  Vulcan because it fires balls of flaming fire at you while afflicted stream into the large obvious boss-area, and Blubber because the creature is apparently blubberly overweight.  For a while, I started to believe that you were not supposed to kill him like Mr. Drill-Man, and just avoid him for a while until some kind of help arrived, or you were just supposed to run through the area.  Except the vast number of green herbs and boxes of ammunition lying about leading up to this room hinted otherwise.  So I did read an article about the best way to kill this guy because my death count was about to enter the double digits and again, I was considering lowering the difficulty and the game started (again) to be not fun.  In the end, I loaded up on explosive bottles, found another explosive bottle in the battle arena, and I was able to defeat this tubby bastard.  One other thing that was kind of annoying from the perspective of someone who loves the lore in the Resident Evil series, is that there was no reason for Vulcan Blubber to be there.  There was no information (that I could find anyway) that game an explanation for its existence.  Maybe there will be in the later episodes, but I am really hoping that Vulcan Blubber does not become a regular enemy like the Chainsaw Majini in Resident Evil 5.

Shortly after the encounter with Vulcan Blubber, the episode ended with Natalia going missing, and Claire and Moira at the base of the red tower post helicopter crash (because you knew that that was going to make a reappearance).  I cannot fully express to you the relief I felt upon completing this chapter.  Afterward, I started Barry & Natalia's chapter, but once I reached the shantytown, I had to put the game down, partly from the stress of having to deal with Mr. Drill-Man the first time around, and partly from being a little burnt out from the formula of survival-horror to high powered action boss battle and repeat.  I will talk a little bit more about this in the following article when I cover Barry & Natalia's chapter, so stay tuned for that.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental