3DS graphical advances made Resident Evil: Revelations possible

[Mr Khan]

RolStoppable said:

Mr Khan said:
Seeing all the praise for this game makes my wonder if i shouldn't buy in. I've never owned a horror game (though am well aware of the debates over whether RE even qualifies as horror or not), and despite being Nintendo-only, i skipped over RE4 and the REmakes for both GC and Wii

If i were to choose to get into the franchise, would i need to go back to earlier games, get the archives games for Wii and run-through at least 0 and 1 to get an idea of what's going on?

The Resident Evil series hasn't much of a story, so you can start with any game. But, of course, starting with a later entry has the possibility of spoiling events of previous games. It's all just B-movie material anyway though, so I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.

It's all about biological weapons, bioterrorism and a handful of heroes fighting against it. The earlier games (0, 1, 2, 3, Code Veronica, all taking place in 1998 of an alternative universe) deal with the Umbrella Corporation (pharma company that researches biological weapons). A couple of the survivors (Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine) found/join an organisation that is specialized on combating bioterrorism afterwards (BSAA). Umbrella gets shut down sometime between 1999 and 2003, but there's no game specifically dealing with this aside from the Wii spinoff Umbrella Chronicles which barely touches on it.

Resident Evil 4 takes place in 2004 when the Umbrella Corporation is already history and Leon S. Kennedy (survivor of RE2) works for the US government. In story terms, the reboot of the series doesn't have much to do with its predecessors which is probably the main reason why KylieDog doesn't think highly of it. RE5 takes place several years later and features Chris Redfield and BSAA stuff, so it falls much more in line with the previous RE lore than Leon's rescue mission in RE4. Finally, Revelations takes place between RE4 and RE5 with a story that can perfectly stand on its own.

That's Resident Evil in a nutshell. If you ever plan to play the earlier games, RE1 should be played before Zero, not the other way around. Everything else is fine in chronological order.

Thanks. I was aware of most of the basics you pitched me, though not the years they occurred nor that 4 is the franchise story outlier.

Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, Kid Icarus Uprising, Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Last Story are all higher on my priorities list anyway, so it is likely this game won't be purchased for a long time if at all. Though if i find myself unable to find a job this year, who knows? Maybe i'll plow that extra time into gaming...