As a fan of Resident Evil 4 (RE4), but none of the other games in the series, I was sold on purchasing the Resident Evil Revelations 2-game pack this week by a single statement I’d read on Twitter: the motion controls are on-par with Resident Evil 4. While I played RE4 on GameCube, meaning without motion controls, I had heard great things about the Wii port of the game and those insanely popular motion controls in 2005. Mostly, I dislike motion controls but the Switch has surprised me with it’s implementation of the now 12 year-old technology. Chiefly, my experience aiming a bow in Breath of the Wild was so precise and engaging, I have been seeking a similar experience since. I know it exists elsewhere on the Switch (i.e. Skyrim, Mario Odyssey), but as a fan of shooters, Revelations felt like the perfect next motion control adventure for me.
Since this is an older game, I’m not going to review it here. In fact, I’m only a few chapters into the game so attempting to review the game would be difficult and unfair to our community. I’m here to talk about the motion controls and how they work. The motion controls are disabled by default. If you’re interested in trying them, go into the settings menu and turn them on. You’ll be prompted to detach the Joy-Cons to use the motion controls, which is not necessary. Do note the motion controls are enabled only for the right Joy-Con. Meaning the Pro Controller does not have the ability to inherit the motion controls. The motion controls are only used for aiming weapons. Revelations is a 3rd person shooter with a lot of exploration. I find it a bit disjointed to go from shooting to opening lockers and picking up items after a brief peak into what may be inside the locker, for example. By adding the motion controls to the combat process, I felt more comfortable with the overall gameplay. Not to mention, it’s very accurate. Accuracy is critical for conserving ammunition, which is important in Revelations. Don’t worry about wacky movement with the motion controls - you’ll only experience them while aiming, as I mentioned above. To aim, you need to bring your weapon up from your hips which is achieved by holding the ZL button on the controller (or L if you need to aim the Genesis device).
If you feel like you need an accurate shooter, give Revelations a shot. The bundle is available in both digital and physical SKUs for $39.99. Note Resident Evil Revelations 2 is digital only so if you buy the physical version of Revelations, the sequel will be included in the box in the form of a download code. It occupies more than 25GB of storage on the Switch, making an SD card a requirement. To be clear, Revelations 1 does not require a download.