Resident Evil Revelations footage: Proper survival horror with Resi 4 monsters? We're in

Could it be?Is a small, plucky handheld about to single-hand(held)edly pluck the Resident Evil franchise from the mire of overblown, bloated action-game identity crisis and make it properly scary and good again? I might be making a huge "2 + 2 = nine million" assumption based off naught but a short clip of gameplay from the upcoming 3DS gameand afew commentspromising old school horror from people trying to sell mesaid game, but goddamnit, after the slog of oversized biceps and underfun bosses that was Resi 5, I'm willing to grab onto anything.

What do we have here then, in this new video from the recent NIntendo World 3DS event? We have footage of Jill in dark, empty corridors. We have taut scenes of non-specific blood spill. We have fake-out jump scares. We have a lot of darkness and some very atmospheric torchlight illumination. And then, just as we're about to deliberately poop ourselvessimplyto relieve the tension, something very similar to Resi 4's Iron Maidens turns up.

The poop, it doth flow over unrestrained

Later in thesame video there'salso a chunk of footagefrom Capcom's why-is-it-a-separate-game-oh-yeah-because-the-proper-one-is-still-way-off-release-and-they-want-a-slice-of-that 3DS-pie-NOWspin-off, Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D. It looks decent enough, but exactly like the Mercenaries you've alreeady played in Resis 4 and 5. But, you know, in 3D.

Re-excited by this new, scarier-looking Resident Evil? Or will you not be happy until it's all static camera angles, slow zombies and three bulletsper hour again?

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.