Resident Evil Revelations 2 is an episodic game; new screens and art

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Along with a bundle of new screenshots, Capcom has announced that Resident Evil:Revelations 2 will be a weekly episodic game.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 will initially launch as a series of four weekly episodes, each of which will end on a cliffhanger to make sure you’re excited for the next one. You’ll have three ways to purchase: each episode can be bought individually for $5.99, or you can buy the complete season at once for $24.99, or you can opt for the retail disc release (which will come out after the final episode appears online) for $39.99. Retail more expensive than digital? I’m stunned – although there is a reason.

If you’re pretty good at mental arithmetic, you’ll have noticed that buying the complete season is actually more expensive than just buying each episode individually. The reason for this is that the complete season and the retail disc will both include “additional game content”, which has yet to be announced. I’d guess that the additional content will also be available separately, but probably at a much higher price than the $1 difference between the individual episodes and the complete season. And yes, the reason why the disc is more expensive than the digital season is because the disc version has even more additional content.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 sees the return of Claire Redfield, sister to Resident Evil‘s Chris Redfield and protagonist of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. She’s working with anti-bioterrorism organisation Terra Save alongside Moira Burton (daughter of Resident Evil‘s Barry Burton and good grief but this is starting to sound like a soap opera), but things go a bit awry when Moira’s welcome party is stormed by armed forces, and both Moira and Claire are kidnapped and taken to an abandoned detention facility on a remote island. And, obviously, it’s full of nasty foes called the Afflicted.

There’ll be additional play modes to just the episodic story mode, but Capcom aren’t sharing any details on those just yet. Either way, I’m intrigued to see a title like this go episodic – particularly episodic with a weekly schedule, rather than the usual “every few months.” Will this create continual buzz, or will we all forget after the first couple of episodes? I guess we’ll find out when Resident Evil Revelations 2 launches in early 2015.

The screenshots and artwork – showing Resident Evil Revelations 2‘s grainy, grimy feel – are below.