Resident Evil Revelations 2 for PC is getting co-op, which it should have had to begin with

17.03.2015
I have played through three episodes of Resident Evil Revelations 2 so far, and I have been absolutely miserable. Not because of the story--I think that element is well-executed, and it's what's kept me coming back through this ordeal.

But Revelations 2 is a game clearly designed around co-op play, and it launched without any co-op. I don't know what the hell Capcom was thinking--whether they pushed this out the door thinking it honestly didn't need co-op or whether they rushed it to hit a release date and are patching essential features in. Considering it took a modder less than a week to add co-op, it's hard to believe Capcom just couldn't find the time, but here we are.

Either way, the game launched without both offline and online co-op, which is a shame because the way the developers designed co-op is clearly interesting. Rather than featuring two identically-skilled characters with a palette swap, Revelations 2's co-op is asymmetrical. One section, for instance, features enemies that only one of the characters can see. Playing with a partner, that means one player needs to describe to the other where to shoot.

That's a really intelligent idea! It also illustrates how asinine it is the game shipped without any of this capability. Playing Revelations 2 solo, the game essentially turns into a long, tedious escort mission where you're constantly swapping back and forth between characters and hoping your brain-dead AI partner doesn't screw things up too badly. And I do mean brain-dead--for a "co-op" game, the AI governing your partner is an idiot. Which wouldn't matter so much, except that your AI partner can still take damage.

"Hey, don't wander right into that hallway full of monsters and die...Too late." "Hey partner, maybe you should actually fire those guns at the mass of enemies...Too late." "It would be cool if you...Ugh."

In light of these issues, we don't have a Revelations 2 review yet, even though the final episode is out today. Capcom is currently patching in local co-op for the story mode, and both local and online co-op for the game's Raid mode. Again, why it didn't ship with an integralfeature, I don't know, but I also refuse to play one single iota more of the game solo when I know for a fact it's a crippled, broken experience.

We'll take another look at the game as a whole when co-op play is patched in. For the story mode, local co-op is currently accessible through a beta branch, which you can access by following these instructions. Raid Mode's online co-op is slated for March 31.

(www.pcworld.com)

Hayden Dingman

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