Missed the previous episode reviews? Here you go: Episode 1 | Episode 2

Capcom’s penultimate episode to Resident Evil: Revelations 2 edges us ever closer to what has so far been a very successful experiment for the series as it tries out an episodic model with four episodes over as many weeks.

Like previous episodes, you’ll control Claire and Moira for the first part and Barry and Natalia for the second. Given the ending of the last episode, you may be desperate to find out what happens to the latter pair, but you’ll just have to wait.

Both parts are very action heavy this week. A little hint, be sure to carry as much ammo as possible for Claire’s section in particular – you’re going to need it for some of the boss fights. For those of you playing in local co-op, the secondary characters feel a bit more involved this time. Moira’s flashlight skill to briefly blind enemies buys vital time for Claire as she reloads or lines up a careful headshot. Laying into enemies with the crowbar should be working better for you now as you’ll no doubt have built up some decent BP currency to upgrade your stats.

Natalia’s ability to spot weak spots on Revenant enemies is wonderfully useful again, but throwing the occasional brick at enemies still feels very feeble, so player two may feel a bit useless at times. It’s not helped that she loses her pet brick all the time, especially when climbing ladders.

If you’re playing solo, you’ll have to manually swap between the characters to use their skillsets. Sadly, everyone’s AI skills seem to have taken a nose-dive this episode. Barry and Claire seem to have forgotten to shoot zombies in your absence and Moira has become a very flammable liability during the mini-boss encounters with the fireball-launching fat nappy-zombies (as gross as they sound).

The number of mini-bosses can be a bit exhausting this episode, there’s the aforementioned fatties and also the bullet sponge steel masked giants with the hammers. Don’t get me started on the exploding zombies too, just be sure to carry lots of disinfectant.

Try to upgrade any dodge abilities you can as the extra distance will really help out later on, especially seeing as the controls can be horribly unresponsive when trying to dodge and manipulate the camera at the same time.

There are a few more puzzles this week, which provide a much-needed respite for the action. The ones in Claire’s section are a bit more tasking than Barry’s crate-carrying session thankfully.

With the action levels ramped up more this time, I found myself dying much more often, but even with these restarts taken into account, this episode lasts twice as long as previous ones, with Claire and Barry getting nearly two hours a piece this week. Add in the Raid modes and the value for money for offered by the complete season pass (£19.99) is fantastic. Whatever happens in next week’s finale, Capcom has done this right.

Pros

• Sheers number of enemies is a real test
• An exciting penultimate episode
• Longer episode than previous ones

Cons

• Claire’s ammo reserves take a beating
• Moira! Why are you on fire, again!
• Horror atmosphere from last week has disappeared

The Short Version: While it’s a shame the excellent horror vibe from Barry’s section last week has taken a backseat, the action here is tense stuff as the numbers of enemies and bosses has increased greatly, with player two having a larger role this time too. We’re hooked in for the final episode next week.

Platforms: PS3 | PS4 (reviewed) | 360 | XO | PC
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom